A New European

Dies ist für all die Vollidioten die glauben, dass ein Länderspiel mit 200 anwesenden Frauen aufzeigt, wie gut es den Menschen doch geht!

Aus einem sehr lesenswerten Artikel der Los Angeles Times:

“I think the government wants the youth to be on drugs so they keep quiet,” said Mansureh’s sister, a 17-year-old high school student who also gave only her first name, Mona. “They say it’s a problem, but they’re the ones importing it.”

The previous night, they’d [2 Mädchen] been kicked out of a shopping center by a government morality squad. Run-ins with police are common; the two say they use their pocket money to bribe their way out of trouble. Their friends have turned to drugs or even suicide.

A quarter of a century ago, Iran’s fiery youth drove a revolution in the name of Islam and anti-imperialism. But those students grew up, and their zeal faded as they softened into graying bureaucrats. The babies they birthed en masse at the feverish urging of the clergy have inherited a legacy of double-digit unemployment, widespread drug addiction and gnawing religious disillusionment.

But few young people are expected to go to the polls in next spring’s presidential election. There’s the stupor of hopelessness, and the boycott threat by some reformists.

“Our language used to be more courageous,” said Majid Haji Babaei, a 31-year-old doctoral student and a leader at the Student Unity Office. “But we were beaten up and even thrown out of windows, we were suppressed, and many went to jail. Naturally, some students felt disappointed, and the risk of political involvement also got higher.”

“Everybody believes in God, but now there is a big gap between us and God,” said Majid Ghanbari, a 28-year-old film buff, music enthusiast and malcontented entrepreneur with floppy hair and rumpled jeans. “The government tried to force people closer, but instead they sent us further away.”

His brother nodded. “Before the revolution, we had real believers, but not now,” said Hamid Ghanbari, who at 25 is exactly as old as the revolution. “After the Islamic Revolution, we don’t have religion anymore.”

Just the other day, a busload of morality police raided the mall and arrested any women who weren’t wearing “good hijab” — in other words, women who were showing too much hair. People in Tehran haven’t seen that brand of open bullying from the fundamentalists in eight years, Ghanbari fretted. “Those girls were our customers,” he said.

They are dying for change. Wortwörtlich. Aber den Wechsel können sie nicht mehr alleine herbringen! Das wissen sie auch, berichtet Antje Sievers:

Die ist unglaublich, richtige Aufbruchstimmung. Den Iranern hängt dieses Mullahregime zum Hals raus. Sie hoffen so sehr, dass die Amerikaner kommen und ihnen die Freiheit bringen.

Aber wir Europäer wissen ja soviel besser was für alle Völker gut ist: Die Atombombe wird den Lebensstandard der Iraner schicherlich heben.