Free Republic

When I traveled to Iran, I thought I was psychologically prepared to wear the Muslim dress for women- the hijab. I never wore a chador,but, I had to wear a coat-like garment called a manteau and a head scarf. Shortly, I began to feel such resentment and dehumanization. This system is so perverted to my Western sensiblities. It's as if the religious authorities that have imposed this system see women as pornographic and as big, walking, talking genitalia so obscene that she must be covered up to uphold decency standards. It was very difficult for me and as soom as we got on the airplane at the Tehran airport, I pulled off that scarf with such relief. Of course the Islamic Republic abuses women sexually. There entire outlook towards women is undeniably perverted.

I was discussing with my husband the theory that if someone from an Islamic country wants to immigrate to the U.S., if they continue to have the wives wear the hijab, they should not be given any visa extension and forced out of the country. My in-laws visit the U.S. and as soon as they leave Iranian air-space my mother-in-law removes her head scarf and leaves it off the whole time she is here. Immigrants who refuse to adopt Western manners will not be good citizens, I argue. My husband was a little hesitant to make such a blanket statement, but, he has never had to wear one of those get-ups and hide his natural self. Most Iranian immigrants wouldn't dream of covering his wife up here and assimilate far better than say Saudis. The hijab is a dehumanizing, offensive practice which is only a small window into the perverted rot of the mullahocracy.

You are right, I can't imagine the cowardly mullahs taking on the Israelis head-on. They fear and loathe Sharon especially, but there is enormous respect from the average Iranian citizen as to the capabilities of the Jewish state. My fater-in-law lives in Iran and my husband and I visited there a short while ago. There were the ubiquitous signs denouncing the "Zionist Entity" but I found the people to be in awe of the power and capablities of the Israelis. Many had fond memories of a Jewish doctor in my husband's home town that everyone went to because he was the best. Hezbollah toughs threw a Molotov cocktail at his house so he fled the country. They weren't sure if he had gone to Israel or America. My father-in-law likes Sharon because he admires his toughness and courage. Sharon also makes the mullahs pee in their dresses. I believe this Rowhani guy is all bluster and is bluffing with a pair of twos. There is no way the Iranians will take on the vaunted, even mythologically fearsome Israeli war machine. They aren't man enough. They can only terrorize and torture unarmed kids or pay psycho Palestinian terrorists to do their dirty work for them.

What is the deal with that "philosophy" guy? He hasn't a clue about the truth yet, spouts off completely ignorant B.S. The weeks I spent in Iran were very enlightening and I came home full of hope for the future of Iran. The people there have been through hell though and they need our moral support. I know that military invasion is pretty much out of the question but we can apply pressure in other ways. The mullahs are scared right now and are behaving like cornered rats- very dangerous. They will do all they can to undermine our efforts in Iraq and its time we start pushing back hard. The search of Chalabi may be related as the Iranian exile stations have been reporting for months that he is an agent for the mullahs in Iran. And of course Al-Sadr is bought and paid for by Khameini. The fates of Iran and Iraq are inextricably intwined and we must fight this war on both fronts.

You could not be more wrong! I have been to Iran and the people have totally tuned the screeching, hate-monger mullahs out. They believe nothing- I mean nothing the state-run media says. The Persian people are a rebellious lot and the young especially have totally rejected the mullahocracy. They embrace everything Western, even Christianity. The backers of the hard-liners are less than ten percent and are looked down on as loutish, low-class trash. Cab drivers won't even stop to pick up a mullah or one of those product of cousins marrying- hezbollah types. The problem is that there is a culture of fear where the average citizen has no way to defend himself(guns were confiscated) and that small percent run a terror state. After the WTC attack on 911, the youth of Iran were the only middle eastern people to demonstrate their remorse for our loss. You simply know nothing about Iran today or the Persian people. Read the articles by Nicholas Kristoff of the NYT for some insight into the true situation simmering in Iran today. The Iranian people are the most pro-American people in the world today.

I've posted before on other Iran threads that we actually went to Iran a while back and I discovered that there was a huge Christian underground thing going on over there. Converting to Christianity is a capital offense, but, I saw kids wearing crosses openly in huge numbers and talked to people who had recently converted and met in private homes to study the Bible. The message of Christ must seem like radical revolution to young people growing up in post-Khomeini Iran. The mullahs made a huge mistake letting "The Passion" into the country. In their zeal to defame Jews, the mullahs have let the light shine in on their dingy, little terror state- the love and transcendent power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They inadvertently gave the thirsty a little drink. I just pray it becomes a tidal wave that engulfs them.

My husband's cousin is a twenty-something kid who lives in Iran. About a year ago, he was caught with a girl in his car(not his wife). The Pasdaran (religious, torture police) caught him and had him lashed eighty times. They nearly killed the poor boy. He is the sweetest person, he just wanted to spend some time with a girl. He feels such hate now for the religious authorities. He told us that he wished he had a gun so he could kill them.(all guns have been confiscated in Iran).

An interesting side-note: there were reports that "The Passion of the Christ" was being shown in Iran. Undoubtedly the idiot mullahs had heard all the anti-semitic accusations and let it be shown because they thought it would make Jews look bad. My husband and I went to see it and as we were leaving he said that the movie didn't make him angry at Jews at all- but reminded him of those backwards monsters in Iran that are lashing kids like his cousin. Wanna bet that people still living with those monsters in Iran have the same reaction. The irony.

(This is the message I sent CBS)


Dear Traitors,

Since your hatred for President Bush is stronger than your love for America, you are complicit in the murder of a 26 year old American boy. You have handed those animals the knife they used to saw the head off of an innocent kid. General Myers begged you to wait to show those photos but, you were so excited by a chance to embarass the administration, that any considerations for the consequences be damned! I will never forgive you people for this and and I predict that you have finally put the final nail into the coffin that was the fine network of CBS. When are you smug,out-of-touch media elites going to wake up and realize that mainstream America distrusts and rejects you and your bias and agenda. You are finished- you just don't know it yet. Sleep well tonight and let's see how many more will die because of you traitors.

Dear A., no offense taken about the biases of exiles. Maybe I wasn't clear in my post. I have actually been to Iran less than two years ago. Everyone we met were rabidly pro-American. My husband got to talking with a little old man who lived in a mud village that could resemble a village from Biblical times, and he took my husband's hands and looked intensely into his face as he said "tell Aga(Mr.) Bush, we don't mean it." My husband assured him that he would pass on the message(as if he could). Also, you are quite right about the scale and costs of any land war with Iran. I just hope that internal pressures, a little covert activity and support for dissidents will lead to the most beneficial outcome of a new secular pro-U.S. government in Iran. The Iranian people despise Europe for kowtowing to the mullahs. At the very least, we should never cut a deal with the current regime.

When I mentioned my father-in-law in my last post I should have made it clear that he still lives in Iran. He was just visiting last month.

A while back, on the nightly Iran threads, a student dissident from Iran was chatting with us and I asked what, if anything they want from the United States. He said all they want from the American people is the reelection of President Bush. So, its not only exiles that love Bush for the way he has made the mullahs wet their dresses.

A few days ago, there was posted an article that was written by the liberal NYT columnist Nicholas Kristoff, who had recently been in Iran. His report completely confirms what I witnessed while there and he states that he believes that democracy may well take hold in Iran before it does in Iraq. You should check it out. It was very uplifting after weeks of bad news coming out of Iraq.

Regards

Of course. You are right! Believe it or not I do have an education- I just couldn't remember the name last night of the patriot and pamphleteer- Patrick Henry. Best regards.

My husband was born in Iran, he has family that still lives there and we've visited Iran two years ago. He prays that either the U.S. or Israel take out the nuclear facilities in Iran before they get the bomb. The mullahs are so insane and paranoid that it would be a disaster if they had a bomb. Rafsanjani(the real power in Iran today) said recently that a Muslim bomb could completely destroy Israel, but the Muslim world was so large and populous that the Israeli response would only have a limited effect. That's some serious insanity for you.

My father-in-law was just here in the U.S. recently for a short visit and every time President Bush was on T.V. he would get up and kiss the screen. Most Iranians love Bush because the mullahs fear him. Iran must be dealt with and the War on Terror must ultimately include taking down this despotic and despised regime. I know people think that the Persians should do the fighting, but they have no guns. The mullahs seized them all- my father-in-law's house was searched and they found an antique gun so the hauled him off to jail(until they could bribe someone to let him go). We don't need boots on the ground- just bomb their nuke facilities and foment the rebels. Who knows -that professor that the mullahs have condemned to death could be the Persian Nathan Hale- "give me liberty or give me death" (or was it someone else who said that?). Anyway, thanks for the pings.

The average Persian is incredibly proud of their pre-Islamic past. They have stubbornly held on to many ancient traditions like the Persian New Year(Now Ruz) which falls on the Spring Equinox- a Zoroastrian holiday. When my husband took me and our family to Iran Two years ago, he muttered one day when we were out walking in the city streets "those mullah bastards have turned my country into Saudi Arabia". In Tehran, in an upscale part of the city(one of the poorest planned and ugly cities in the world) we saw legions of teenagers wearing the cross. My brother-in-law said lots of people were converting to Christianity even though they are violating the law. I also met a woman who said that their were large and growing Christian groups that meet in secret to study the Bible. She was so sweet and asked me to say yhe Lord's Prayer in English and she said it to me in Farsi. Everywhere you go in Iran there are these huge portraits of Khomeini and he is portrayed as the eyes of God looking down on everyone. Young people who have grown up since the Revolution want nothing to do with a wrathful God like that. Jesus' words must sound revolutionary to kids who've endured lashings and worse just for wanting to be normal kids.

I agree that Zoroastianism will appeal to many after the fall of the mullahs. It will appeal to their national pride and from what I know of it, it seems to be a pretty decent religion- a far cry from the barbarism an intolerance of Islam as enforced in Iran today.

Hi Doctor Zin. I haven't posted for awhile because my Iranian in-laws were here and it was just party, party, party. My father-in-law- bless his heart, would get up and kiss the TV screen every time President Bush was on. He may live in Iran, but he is one of the most patriotic American's I've ever seen. He loves Bush because he knows the mullahs are afraid of him. Somebody needs to tell the President to do some interviews and ads on the Iranian-exile stations. Most of the hosts are fervently pro-Bush and the Iranian-American vote could be critical in a state like California. Thanks for what you are doing and I'll be following this thread daily.

My kids have been hurt worse from falling off their bikes. I thought a purple heart was supposed to mean something. Like walking around with a gimpy hand like Bob Dole or something. John Queery disgusts me. Gigilo liar!

Me and my husband and family were actually in Hamedan, Iran when this man made the speech that the twit judge has condemned him to die for. All he said was that the Iranian people weren't monkeys that needed clerics to rule over every aspect of their lives. He in no way insulted Islam (not that I would have cared much if he had). The day of the speech the town authorities shut the bazaar and all business down. This man had lost a leg in the Iran/Iraq war and the mullahs really fear him. The Iranian regime is inept, corrupt and is in the process of destroying the people's faith in their religion. I predict in a few decades time Iran will no longer be a Moslem country. This may sound like a fantasy but when we were in Iran I met many Christian converts and some that just didn't believe anything anymore. If the mullahs don't go back to the mosques and start performing weddings and such tney will have destroyed everything the purport to hold dear. The mad mullahs are some scared and desperate SOB's right now and executing this man is complete insanity.

Well, it's past my bedtime. I hope we can chat again soon. Stay safe and know that we, Americans, are on your side and praying for you.

My husband's best friend is a Bahai and is also a Republican and supporter of Bush. Poor guy can't even think about visiting Iran. It's too dangerous for Bahais. He can't even visit his Mom's grave, since the regime dug it up and he has no idea what happened to her body. Pretty despicable, don't you think?

Thank you, but you are the smart one - chatting on line in a foreign language with us. My husband and I and our four kids went to Iran in 2002 and it was an awesome experience. I love the Persian people and I pray for your safety and success in your aspiration for freedom. If the mullahs fall, Iran will be an awesome ally for the Americans. What do you think? Could this be it? Are we going to see regime change in Iran soon? I sure hope and pray so. What do the Iranian people need from the U.S. to accomplish this goal?

Dear Dolly, my husband is as conservative Republican as you can get. He's an entrepreneur businessman and has little use for liberal ideology. There are a few Iranian liberals in the US(my brother-in-law is one of them) and I suspect that they were probably communists before the revolution. Alot of those student demonstrators during the revolution were Marxists and Khomeini used them until he got into power and then quickly had them squashed. But, most Iranian-Americans are fairly conservative politically and in the way they live their lives.

I just read an article posted to this site that claims Khomeini, the so-called father of the Islamic Republic, wasn't Persian but was the son of a Kashmiri woman and a British father. Have you heard any rumors to that effect? The article said that Khomeini had invented a fake background for himself and wasn't an authentic Ayatollah. Quite a bomb shell if true. I noticed that alot of Iranians are very resentful of the British and heard more than one say that Khomeini and the revolution were backed by the British. I never really understood their disdain for the British as it seemed to me that they had nothing to gain from the toppling of the Shah.

Dear Khashayar, there are over a million Iranian exiles in the Los Angeles area alone. If the ones eligible to vote backed President Bush, they could win California for him. If he won California, it would be a landslide victory. My husband was born in Iran and President Bush's strong stance on the war on terror and against the mullahs make him the overwhelming choice for our votes. I'm sure most Iranian-Americans feel the same way.

I'm just curious. Do you ever see the Iranian-exile TV broadcasts produced out of California and beamed on sattilite? Do they have any influence in Iran?