“[The fact that young people] were willing to shout down a police officer or flirt during a public Islamic ritual [in the early 2000s] meant mostly that they were concerned with freedom in their immediate 10-foot radius … Beyond that, the risks involved in rebellion swiftly outgrew the rewards. Busy investing in the logistics of emigration — the English proficiency tests, visa applications and language courses — many young people envisioned their futures abroad, and were unwilling to compromise those hopes for the sake of somehow changing Iran, a notion they considered chimerical, costly and best left to a future generation.”
— azadeh moaveni, honeymoon in tehran
(excerpt from michiko kakutani’s new york times review)
April 14, 2009, 2:28am Comments
