Nose Job

In my visti to Iran in October 2004, I happen to speak with an informed Iranian Judge who changed his occupation to being a Lawyer for financial reason. I told him about the three reasons the "West" critisized Iran: Treatment of prisoners, women's rights, and the terrorizm (maily the Israel issue). His response to the issue of women was an eye opener to me. He said the women in Iran are actually more protected than in the west. He believe the marriage in Iran, for example, provides certain rights to women that are not known to others. He got into more details about the customes and process of marriage and proved to me that women are happier there than men. He also said something that made me think. He said in US the divorce system punished the husband unjustly in order to give certain right to the wife. While in Iran, the women are already protected during a divorce. Anyways, I believe what he said to some degree. Thanks for reading, Mahmoud-

Well, I just saw your journal and the photoes inside it. What I want to comment on, is about the photo titled "Iranian Woman". I have to say this photo with its title is sort of mean because those two women with that kind of clothing and the stuff they had, can no way represent Iranian women since they are actually beggers! Yes they are beggers, whose photoes you have taken. Are you trying to say that Iranian women are beggers? or maybe they dress like beggers?! It was absolutly ok if you had titled the photo "Iranian Beggers" or at least "Iranian Women beggers" since this would be showing part of the fact but the title "Iranian women" has got nothing to do with the photo. If you try to look at it objectivley, and of course not subjectvley which seemingly you already have done, you would definitly agree with me that an average Iranian women never dresses like that. After all I have to count on the fact that you have some time been to Iran. So to be perfectly honest I can not accept it that the title has been just a mistake; what you have done seems more like a prejudiced attempt to show Iranian women mean, low and uneducated, THIS IS what a beggers photo most probably show to any visitor of this site on behalf of the general term "Iranian women"! - Hamid

Voltaire said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I have not censored any comments on this site. I guess that I should add my tuppence to some of the Iran stuff, though.... In reply to Hamid: I only have your word that the women in the photo are beggars as they didn't ask for, nor did they receive any money from me. It happened that the photo was the best shot with Iranian women on it. To accuse me of any sort of prejudice or trying to imply that all Iranian women are beggars, low, or uneducated by showing this picture is simply bullshit. Read the text. I am also not misrepresenting all Iranian men as hat-makers in this blog. Applying your reasoning, if I had shown a picture of middle class Iranian women instead, that would also be a misrepresentation since not all Iranians are middle class, but I suspect you would not be so moved as to complain. In fact I can not win against your logic without showing a gallery of photos depicting the whole cross section of Iranian society. But so what if those women are beggars? Let me be frank: neither you nor I or anyone else are any better or worse than a beggar. Before you accuse someone of being prejudiced, re-read what you have written yourself, matey. In reply to comment #1: "women are happier there than men". When I first read this comment, I was reminded of a zookeeper asserting that some of the animals are happier in the zoo than in the wild. Whilst that *may* be true, it is not really the point, is it? By the way, the title "Nose Job" came from the fact that I saw so many young women (and a few men) in Tehran and elsewhere with big plasters on their face because they had just had nasal surgery. I didn't know what to make of it at the time. If I had taken a good picture of that it would have gone on the site. I wonder what the reaction would have been?

great pictures I wouldve loved to see pictures of people walking around with andages on their noses, would be quite the sight! So, iran has no bars, or clubs?Other than shisha clubs? Life must be tough there.

u can suck my iranian cock,fuck england and its ugly people. go fix your ugly ass teeth you slimmu sob;)

Send me your email address when your tiny penis has been surgically enlarged and we can maybe sort something out.

I offer my opinion as a 25 year old Iranian-Canadian (born in Iran, raised in Canada since age 5). I won't insult you or tell you to "suck my cock" like the others (A) because I don't have one & (B) because I have some degree of class. I will tell you though that I understand why people are upset with you, but I don't think it's fair for them to be so hard on a foreigner who's making an attempt to learn about a country & its culture and who just doesn't know any better. It might be useful for you next time to do some research before your travel so you experience the best a country has to offer. I too don't like or appreciate what you've done here & I'll tell you why. If these pictures are the highlights of your trip to Iran, then you've missed out BIG TIME. When I visited Iran, I saw so much beauty everywhere. Especially in Esfahan, Shiraz & a lot of the countryside. There is a negative tone to your posting for sure, and & this is a false portrayal of Iran for people who are seeing its pictures for the first time. You put a picture of a sign poorly written in English and this is rude & wrong. You should be lucky to even see anything in English when you go to another country. I don't see England putting Iranian signs up on their stores for us to criticize. Second, your picture of the "sio-se" bridge is a nightmare. That bridge is magnificent and your picture does a huge injustice to its architectural brilliance. Then you put a picture of women beggers out of all the beautiful pictures you could be taking of people. I mean there's children playing, teenagers shopping, couples reading a book on a park bench, etc etc etc. It's as if I went to the ghetto of England and took pictures of a bunch of homeless people, a grammatically incorrect store sign & a half-ass shot of an architectural delight, and summed up my trip as such. Also, why are you constantly criticizing the tea shops? Drinking tea & tea shops are an important part of Iranian culture. What, you think 600 Starbucks stores is a better idea??? Also, if you can't have a good time and enjoy your vacation & your life without bars and alcohol, then you have a problem. At least people talk, discuss & mingle at tea shops, whereas in bars people just get wasted, pick fights & look for random sexual encounters. You also have to understand that there are bans in Iran so people don't have much choice & freedom when it comes to hanging out and entertainment so they do what they can with what they have. Don't undervalue or belittle their social activities. Anyways, I'm not saying you're intentionally trying to depict a negative image of Iran, but you are - and this is coming from someone who's more Canadian than Iranian. And people, cut out the insults. How can you make your point get across with all that vulgarity?

Anahita, if you want to be angry in defence if Iran, it is probably more instructive to direct your energy at heavily biased media reporting toward Iran and not a few paragraphs of a travel blog plus some photography which doesn't live up to your standards. Your post contains quite a lot of prejudice, which I find ironic.

Those women are gipsy beggars dumbass! Why don't you take a picture of your cock sucker mother and write under it "Queen Elizabeth II"?

You are a clearly a racist snob, Ashkan.