Persia then, Iran now.

When I was at school, a good friend of mine's (military) father had been posted to Tehran, and my friend spent his school holidays there. He returned each term with tales, and photos, of public hangings, extreme wealth and poverty, and time spent cavorting with the family of The Shah. One of his most bizarre tales was of being driven (by his father's chauffeur, no less!) out into the desert where the wealthy would dump their 'used' cars (there was no second-hand market for cars, for obvious reasons), and he would amuse himself by driving the cars around and even crashing them into each other. The cars all came complete with their keys and petrol; mostly they were big American models, and were never more than two or three years old.

It was a bizarre world, but it seemed to work quite well; even though the Shah's regime was tough on criminals and dissenters.

Now of course it's a very different country. Iran sponsors terrorism wherever they can find it, the Mullahs lead a highly repressive regime, and even the slightest dissent is crushed before it sees the light of day.

Possibly the worst to suffer are the Iranian women. After the brutal murder of Masha Amini in police custody in the winter of 22/23, Iran's women have led a minor revolution. They refused to be ordered to cover themselves 'from head to foot' at the whim of the Mullahs, and they took to the streets en masse. The regime's answer was to arrest over 22,000, of whom about 500 were then brutally murdered. Many others were beaten and tortured. All in the name of being forced (by men) to wear the Hijab.

The repression of women continues, and I cannot imagine what it must be like living with such brutality just around every corner. Some women do now show their hair in public (above), but permanently risk the retribution of the 'morality police'. This repression continues in every country where a large population of Muslims, and their Mosque-masters, exists. However, it does still pay to have the right father, or a hefty bank account.

Meanwhile the Mullahs fund every terrorist group imaginable, and threaten the US, the UK, as well as just about every other democratic non-Muslim country.

p.s. It has just been announced that Safa Aeli, the uncle of murdered Mahsa Amini, has been sentenced to over 5 years in prison for having criticised the Iranian government over the murder of his niece. Such is life in Iran.