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Saeed Malekpour is still in prison, that alone for me makes Iran a no-go country. http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/01/19/death-sentence-for-iranian-programmer-accu

by thret 10y ago

Saeed Malekpour is still in prison, that alone for me makes Iran a no-go country. http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/01/19/death-sentence-for-iranian-programmer-accused-of-developing-software-used-by-porn-sites/ http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/01/19/death-sentence-for-irani...

owaislone 10y ago
Iran is horrible. It's a nightmare to live but it's much much better than Saudi
- smnrchrds 10y ago
  As an Iranian, I have to say it's mostly boring. This article, originally written about Malaysia, hits close to home: https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/06/everyday-authoritarianism-is-boring-and-tolerable/ https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/06/everyday-authoritarianism... What you hear in the news about Iran is not its everyday life. Imagine if you lived in a country where the only news you saw in the media about the US was violence and police brutality and just all the bad stuff. How would you have imagined it would be like to do something mundane, for example go down the street to buy some milk? You would have imagined that you would get mugged for sure, maybe shot during mugging, then tased by the police that decided to arrest you when you called 911 for an ambulance, and handed a million dollar bill for the hospital stay, and then you have to spend the next 30 years in a for-profit prison as a slave getting constantly sexually assaulted. The interesting thing is Iranian media portrays the US in the same caricaturistic ‎manner that the US media portrays Iran. My family were legitimately concerned about my safety when I announced my intention to go to Texas for a PhD. Probably as worried as you would be if you had to move to Iran. (I ended up going to Canada instead, so it's all good.)
  - owaislone 10y ago
    I completely understand your point. It is boring and OK for average citizens but when we talk about states like Iran and Saudi, the context is more about your rights if you speak up against the governments, are some kind of activist or are part of a religious/ethnic minority. Life for that subgroup of people is not exactly the same as for the majority in such states. North Korea is an extreme example of this and India/Pakistan are mild examples. Iran and Saudi are somewhere in between.

by thret 10y ago

owaislone 10y ago

Iran is horrible. It's a nightmare to live but it's much much better than Saudi

smnrchrds 10y ago
As an Iranian, I have to say it's mostly boring. This article, originally written about Malaysia, hits close to home: https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/06/everyday-authoritarianism-is-boring-and-tolerable/ https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/06/everyday-authoritarianism... What you hear in the news about Iran is not its everyday life. Imagine if you lived in a country where the only news you saw in the media about the US was violence and police brutality and just all the bad stuff. How would you have imagined it would be like to do something mundane, for example go down the street to buy some milk? You would have imagined that you would get mugged for sure, maybe shot during mugging, then tased by the police that decided to arrest you when you called 911 for an ambulance, and handed a million dollar bill for the hospital stay, and then you have to spend the next 30 years in a for-profit prison as a slave getting constantly sexually assaulted. The interesting thing is Iranian media portrays the US in the same caricaturistic ‎manner that the US media portrays Iran. My family were legitimately concerned about my safety when I announced my intention to go to Texas for a PhD. Probably as worried as you would be if you had to move to Iran. (I ended up going to Canada instead, so it's all good.)
- owaislone 10y ago
  I completely understand your point. It is boring and OK for average citizens but when we talk about states like Iran and Saudi, the context is more about your rights if you speak up against the governments, are some kind of activist or are part of a religious/ethnic minority. Life for that subgroup of people is not exactly the same as for the majority in such states. North Korea is an extreme example of this and India/Pakistan are mild examples. Iran and Saudi are somewhere in between.