What About Iran?
Okay, so what’s the story with Iran, anyway? I’ll admit, pretty much everything I know about Iranian history I learned from watching Persepolis. I didn’t even read Persepolis, I watched Persepolis. Which, now that I think about it, Persepolis is subtitled, so it’s probably actually more work to watch Persepolis than it is to read the graphic novel upon which it’s based. That is a first in the history of movies.
But so I get it, Iran was a totally fun, free country before the hardliners came to power in the 80s. And now it’s awful and scary or whatever. But they have elections? And they’re not just a sham? Everyone seems surprised at the possibility that Ahmadinejad could have stolen the election. But like, if Kim Jong Il won the popular vote in North Korea, I don’t think anyone would bat an eyelash. So what is Iran? A democracy, or a dictatorship? Right, okay, the Ayatollah or whoever is really in charge, and the president’s just a figurehead. So then why did we ever give a shit about Ahmadinejad in the first place? I’m so confused!
In other news, here’s a picture of a cat in a taco outfit.
Tacocat
(Via Buzzfeed.)
It was mostly silly of us to care about Ahmadinejad, but the personality of the President has an effect on the overall politics of Iran... and Ahmadinejad is a nutjob (there's a chance, for example, that he's a member of an Apocalyptic branch of Islam, and he's definitely done things like hosting the Holocaust denier conference. But yeah, regardless of the outcome of the election, the Ayatollah actually runs the place.
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