Young, Westernized Iranian women in 1979.
If you weren’t around before 1979, you may think the people of Iran have always been 13th century lunatics.
Not so.
These two photos perfectly demonstrate the difference between the theocratic Iran of today and the Iran of 30 years ago that was the most westernized country in the middle east. (You can see dozens of other photos of surprisingly Westernized, pre-secular Iran here).
Iranian Akhbar Ganji describes the 1979 Iranian revolution as an event that “promised us heaven, but… created a hell on earth.”
Young Iranian women in 2009. Literally a completely different picture.
Not for the peoples at IHateTheMedia.com. We consider this a preview of what our Islamo-Fascist friends have in mind for the rest of the world. Including America.
Source: FunnyToGo.com via Leenks.com
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I know Persians from there..who’ve been here for 25 years or so…….they’re from when that top picture was the norm and are as worried about that bottom pic as we are. WOW. No…we’re MORE worried. ruh roh
A friend of mine is in her early 40s, born, raised in Tehran. She showed me old polaroids her parents took back in the late 60s and you would have thought it was a young couple of hipsters from America with a junky European car somewhere out in the California desert. It was amazing to me to see how things had changed.
If as, Ahmadinejad says, that life in Iran is divine, then so must life be in Sing Sing.
Ummm…you need to rely less on magazine images and read up on some facts.
From 1975 through 1980 Iran’s Human Development Index remained stagnant at 0.569. By 1990 it was up to 0.693, and in 2002 it was 0.732. Life expectancy at birth in 1970-1975 was 55.3 years. For 2000-2005, it was 70.3 years. Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) in 1970 was 191. Today its 42. Today about 90% of the people have access to basic healthcare, and even remote villages have obtained clean water, electricity, schools and roads. Iran produced about one million passenger cars in 2008, compared with the 12,000 manufactured in 1989.
The improvement of social indicators for women in particular were even grudgingly recognized by the Economist magazine as early as 1997:
“Above all, prospects for girls have improved… They are now more likely to go to school and stay there; about 40% of the students in higher education are women, and they are doing better at their studies than men. Iranian women nowadays, despite Islamic customs oppressively enforced by the state, have more chance than they did of getting a job outside the home, competing with men professionally and asserting their rights as individuals in the face of their fathers’, brothers’ or husbands’ prejudices.”
(“The Mullah’s Balance Sheet” – The Economist, January 18 1997)
huck, I don’t think they could ’sing sing’ in an Iranian prison!
I think these photos are an excellent representation of the difference between an open, liberal, secular society versus a closed, conservative, theocratic society.
Oh wait…that wasn’t the point you wanted to make, was it? Woops.
What a bunch of horse$hit. That’s like putting up a picture from Easy Rider and then another one from Bible Camp and saying that the USA of 2007 is not like the USA of 1967. It’s not strictly false but it’s badly distorted. If you want to see pictures of young Iranian women, go here: http://tinyurl.com/nthyt7
Iran is not Saudi Arabia. Persians are not Arabs. And what you are doing, I suspect, is dehumanizing Persians as a prelude to god knows what…
No thanks. (Oh, and also: read what Hass said above.)
Wonderful commment ,differentiating them and not poisoning the minds to the wrong camp,camp Z !!…..
‘prelude to god know what’ .Thank you !
you must go to sleep in iran if u want to be alive…most of iranian people hate their goverment like me and my friends but we can’t shouting it in street anymore when police arrest our brothers and kill them in prisons…i hate islam i wanna be free without any religion in my life..all of us(iranian) hate ahmadinejad dont listening to the media news they lying about our people they dont want tell any body what is really happening in iran they just show you our missile or military guns and then thay say: iranian are terrorist..this is not true..it’s better thay sey iranian goverment not iranian people…we are persian not arab…but ahmadinejad love arabs he is traitor like khameniee(iranian leader)…
you must go to sleep in iran if u want to be alive…most of iranian people hate their goverment like me and my friends but we can’t shouting it in street anymore when police arrest our brothers and kill them in prisons…i hate islam i wanna be free without any religion in my life..all of us(iranian) hate ahmadinejad dont listening to the media news they lying about our people they dont want tell any body what is really happening in iran they just show you our missile or military guns and then thay say: iranian are terrorist..this is not true..it’s better thay sey iranian goverment not iranian people…we are persian not arab…but ahmadinejad love arabs he is traitor like khameniee(iranian leader)…
Leftists think everyone is as stupid as they are.
That’s the only reason I can think for the motivation of the two superfluous comments left by “Pointing out the obvious” (duh) and Strawberry.
People with brains (that would include those of us concerned about Islamic Jihad, and those of us who try to inform our fellow citizens about the dangers) know very well that the 2nd picture doesn’t represent THE ENTIRE NATION OF IRAN. Duh.
We know very well that , generally, the people of Iran loathe their theocractic abusers.
But we also know that if the Govt had its way, the entire population would be like the 2nd picture and thus the 2nd picture is a visual warning about what a threat the regime is to world stablity.
It also alludes to the determination of Persians , that if used and abused for evil purpose, can be quite a formidable threat.
Only racist idiot Leftists would see the 2nd picture and say in thier mind say “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO WARN THE WORLD.. THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF IRAN IS NOT LIKE THAT PICTURE BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THAT IS WHAT I WOULD TRY TO MAKE IT MEAN IF I WAS USING THE PICTURE BECUASE I AM STUPID AND PUT EVERYONE IN A LITTLE BOX AND I CAN ONLY KEEP TRACK OF , AT MOST, 7 BIGOTED STEREOTYPICAL BOXES TO PUT PEOPLE IN”
OMG. A picture does speak louder than words.
I know about Iran’s persecution of Christians, Jews (if they live there) and other group like gays and lesbian in fact the death penalty is freely imparted upon gays and lesbians… This is of course horrible in the context that Ahmidiot actually said that there were no gays in his country. Guess why not? because he and his govt are exterminating them. This is why I want Rosie O’Donnell and her ilk to move over there and try to make it for a month or two. When Ahmigwhatever comes to the US talking his hateful nonsense I dont see Rosie or GLAAD or NOW or whateverfeminist organization nor the media, on protesting him coming to this country or just protesting against him and Iran in general. Like always it is Conservatives, Christians and many Jews who stand up. It seems as if most of the people are blinded to Iran and the serious threat they pose to the entire world.
So okay maybe the US is not a Christian nation anymore, but look at the alternative… Do you really want to live in a Muslim “theocratic” nation?