{"id":1018,"date":"2007-07-07T12:16:01","date_gmt":"2007-07-07T10:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larshvidberg.dk\/blog\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2007-07-07T12:16:01","modified_gmt":"2007-07-07T10:16:01","slug":"the-poster-children-of-modern-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/?p=1018","title":{"rendered":"The poster-children of modern Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting stuff here. The Economist runs a web-diary from their correspondents around the world. This week it’s from Tehran<\/a> (requires subscription):<\/p>\n

One of the first stories written by every hack to arrive in Iran is about the coquettishly figure-hugging coats and loose headscarves worn by uptown girls to thwart Islamic regulations on public attire. We revel in the salacious details of their nose-jobs, dating habits, drug use, apr\u00e8s-ski parties and weblogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy can\u2019t people in the West see what Iran is really like?\u201d said a young girl in extravagant make up and a vestigial vest top. \u201cWe\u2019re the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is easy to see in these party-goers a rejection of the sterner side of the Iranian regime, embodied in the austere patrician face of Ayatollah Khomeini glowering from murals across Tehran. Reporters look at the statistics (around two-thirds of Iranians are under 30) and think the rebellious kids represent a younger, more open Iran seeking to throw off the strictures of its present leadership in a riot of fashion and fun.<\/p>\n

That seemed to be the case in the late 1990s when a resurgent student movement helped propel a reformist, Muhammad Khatami, to the presidency. But as his movement sank into its political grave, we realised how small a proportion of Mr Khatami\u2019s support came from its stylish middle-class poster-children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wish I’d had more time to write about my own experiences in Iran. Side-note: It’s incredible how much high-quality content you get from a subscription to The Economist!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interesting stuff here. The Economist runs a web-diary from their correspondents around the world. This week it’s from Tehran (requires subscription): One of the first stories written by every hack to arrive in Iran is about the coquettishly figure-hugging coats and loose headscarves worn by uptown girls to thwart Islamic regulations on public attire. We … L\u00e6s mere The poster-children of modern Iran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whiteberg.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}