21–30 of 132 posts
Actually, most of Western opinion about Iran is misguided and plain wrong. Iran is really not as terrible as all the propaganda about it. In fact its quite much like Turkey, except the politicians are better and its not as corrupt.
Turkey by Western standards is not heaven either ;-) While I agree that are a lot of myths and false assumptions about Iran.
Actually, most of Western opinion about Iran is misguided and plain wrong. Iran is really not as terrible as all the propaganda about it. In fact its quite much like Turkey, except the politicians are better and its not as corrupt.
It appears like any other Islamic country, street life is as 'normal' as it maybe in Dubai or Pakistan or Egypt.
Dec 2018: Iran's Got Street Life
Actually, most of Western opinion about Iran is misguided and plain wrong. Iran is really not as terrible as all the propaganda about it. In fact its quite much like Turkey, except the politicians are better and its not as corrupt.
Iran bans females from attending sports events and imposes mandatory hijab (e.g. [0]), Turkey does not. You can oppose Western policy if you like, but lets talk about the country's policies as they really are. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/10/iranian-female...
Turkey is quite connected to Germany even though many don't want to admit that, so I would agree that, superficially at least, it looks more western-ish.
But IIRC a couple of years ago there was a coup attempt in Turkey, lots of journalists, academics, judges, etc. were instantaneously thrown into jail, etc. So I'm unsure how much of that "western-look" that Turkey has is real and how much is just a facade. Is there democracy in Turkey? Is there freedom of opinion? Freedom of press? Religious freedom?
I'm not arguing whether Iran is better or worse, and I'm not suggesting that we should only measure both countries in, e.g., LGBT rights, but while Turkey might not be exactly Iran, I actually put closer to Iran than to its Greek neighbor in the "progressive" scale.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Turkey by Western standards is not heaven either ;-) While I agree that are a lot of myths and false assumptions about Iran.
Well technically they are still in the process of joining the EU...
"Since 2016 accession negotiations have stalled.[7] The EU has accused and criticized Turkey for human rights violations and deficits in rule of law.[8] In 2017, EU officials expressed that planned Turkish policies violate the Copenhagen criteria of eligibility for an EU membership.[9] On 26 June 2018, the EU's General Affairs Council stated that "the Council notes that Turkey has been moving further away from the European Union. Turkey’s accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing and no further work towards the modernisation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union is foreseen."[10][11]"
"20 February 2019 - EU parliament committee votes to suspend accession talks with Turkey."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Turkey_to_the_Eur...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should blog about it and demonstrate how nice it is like this couple. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49670973 "Our biggest motivation... is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap [sic] in the media,"
Flying a drone in Iran as a foreigner is a pretty stupid thing to do. Especially near a military area. An as a foreigner you wouldn't know where that is - so they really shouldn't have done it. I say this as an Australian too - I've travelled a lot as well and you have to use a bit of common sense when in countries like Iran. Saying that I do wish for their safe release of course.
Actually, most of Western opinion about Iran is misguided and plain wrong. Iran is really not as terrible as all the propaganda about it. In fact its quite much like Turkey, except the politicians are better and its not as corrupt.
For Iranian Women it is not allowed to ride a Bicycle in Public. "and its not as corrupt." -- au contraire!
It used to be 70% in STEM, now it's 49% (edited to clarify): https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-ta...
It used to be 70% in STEM, now it's 49% (edited to clarify): https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-ta...
> 70% of of Iran's science and engineering students are women
This article talk about all universities and all fields. Not just science and engineering.
I was in Iran last year so let's give some perspective why this metric alone is useless: 1. Before university boys and girls learn in separate schools. 2. After university women have almost zero chances for career. It is more probably that they will end up being house wives. I doubt that this has changed in a year. I have not checked my facts - that's impression from speaking with open minded Iranian families (and we…
I was born in 1983 in the Netherlands. My mom, and all my friends' moms, were housewives. About half of these moms were university educated or comparably. All their daughters now have proper jobs. Sounds like Iran is roughly in the same place now, which I assume is a big improvement over some decades ago. Just give it another generation. Anecdotally, I've tought some CS classes at the local university, to a highly mi…