Iran - a handful of impressions

This is a question I asked as often I could the people I met during my 3 visits to Iran. As I do not speak Persian, the people who gave me their view spoke English (i.e. relatively young and educated). The young 20-35 years olds never seemed to support the actual governement. However, this does not mean that some are not hopeful with Rohani, or that none had gone voting during the recent Parliament and Assembly of Experts' elections.

People have explaiend to me that the current government gets its votes from the rural population.
Intelligent and open-minded people have told me that the current Iranian youth does not have the energy to bring up a new revolution, so soon after the last one. One thing is for sure: a majority of the urban Iranian youth is indeed depressed seriously from the living conditions they get.
This does not mean that open-minded Iranian young women will not want to wear hijab. Quite a few of them (even some currently living abroad for studies) have told me they will continue wearing hijab no matter what. The discourse for the burqa is a different one.

Iranian society and politics is indeed very intrieguing. I always wonder how people with such a history, a culture, an education have ended up in such a situation. But the sotry is different in every country.

Recent election for some parliamentary seats have resulted in the moderates having a majority for the first time. The President, Rouhani, is amongst the moderates. That means that for the first time the country could have some real change. From discussions I had whilst in Iran - Ahmedinajad (the previous president) did an incredible amount of harm and bring things back, but Rouhani in the past couple years has made many positive changes. Don't get me wrong it's still a very conservative country and it's not going to change overnight, but things, at present, are looking positive. We can only hope they continue along this route - though as has been seen in other places, that's not necessarily the case. Here's hoping.
If Iran became an open, liberal country (OK, liberal is probably too much of an ask), it could really be a quite an influential country given that it is full of educated people, I'd even say full of intellectuals and artists. And of course natural resources.
If you look at it's place in the long term history of the world it's been prominent since ancient times.
Of course this is a very optimistic view but I do believe it can happen. It would help if the bigots - both in the West and in Iran - would just disappear.

On public transport, and particularly savaris (shared taxis), some young (male) Iranians may well speak with you in English. And they don't mind saying what they think. Their main complain is the 2 year complusary military service.

What I find, being able of speaking both English and Farsi, that there is certainly a difference between opinions of those who speak English fluently and those who cannot. The English spoken are generally more critical of the government than those who just speak Farsi, those, even the youths are positive about their life in Iran, government and their religion. There is also a big difference if you are approached by someone in the more liberal large cities of Tehran or Shiraz, or in the more rural areas. I tend to think that those who speak English are merely trying to say things which they think we like to here.....What I have noticed is that the people (men and women) who speak only Farsi tend to support hijab and oppose the more liberal approach to relations/religion that we have in the West. Most tourists in Iran do not speak Farsi and will therefore base their view/opinions on that which they have discussed with just one group of society. Hijab is not a big issue, just for Westerners, more important is equal rights for men and women, the bad press Iran always unjustly seems to get abroad and the lack of good jobs for young people.

Thanks all.

margotv #5

Hijab is not a big issue, just for Westerners, more important is equal rights for men and women,

That's where I thought was the problem for both Iranians and visiting Europeans, even though in different ways.
To me, Iran was similar to Pakistan in that respect. Both are islamic states with strict rules and restrictions. Somehow, it felt more natural in Pakistan where women wore hijabs or hiqabs, and men shalwar kameez. In Iran, the contrast between men and women was too striking - slick men wearing tight t-shirts and jeans, while the women were wrapped in hijabs, covered from head to toe.
Somehow, the women got to focus on their faces instead, and put on state of the art make up, to compensate for the imbalance.
We walked several shopping streets and it couldn't escape our attention that almost all fashion shops were for men, and none for women. Maybe we should learn that there are different norms for men and women to those that we are used to, even though it's difficult to accept.

Fieldgate #6, I sometimes wander through streets where they only sell women's clothes, for instance Haft Tir in Tehran. The shops selling certain items are always clustered together, so it might just be finding the right street.
My best friend in Iran (Iranian, a firm believer in Islam), sometimes wears a chador (the black one you see a lot in the streets), merely because she doesn't feel like changing her clothes before going out, or as she said, because it prevents her nice clothes underneath from getting dusty. She always wears a headscarf, and says she would do so when visiting my country in Europe.
There is a dresscode for men as well, they are not allowed to wear short pants. I agree however, that there is a contrast. I would like to see that men, too, would have to cover their heads and arms, that would be equal rights!

Margotv,
A couple of pictures from my trip to compare:
Men's fashion shop
Women's fashion shop

As for women's fashion only jewelry shops and shops selling scarfs and shawls looked more inviting. Also cosmetics/perfume shops, mostly at bazaars, had a good selection of items for women.

"fieldgate",

I feel that your input with photograpies and coment about male vs femlae clothes' shops is unfair. You are a male, and most probably haven't been to women's clothing shops. You have witnessed the very photogenic tchador and hijab-selling shops on the streets, but not the many women's clothes shop often tucked in underground selling spaces (in smaller towns at least). Being a woman, I have had the chance to have gone shopping with Iranian girls and women I randomly met. They do have a choice of clothes. And you do see it when you are inside an Iranian house or better, a party.