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NY Times

had just about convinced myself that Iran is not a police state — and then the authorities detained me for a second time.
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"Are you working for the American government?" I tried to explain that my views make me unemployable by either the Bush or Sharon administrations, but the interrogators were weak on both subtlety and humor.
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That episode crystallized an impression that had been forming during my trip through Iran: if it were an efficient police state, it might survive. But it's not. It cracks down episodically, tossing dissidents in prison and occasionally even murdering them (like a Canadian-Iranian journalist last year). But Iran doesn't control information — partly because satellite television is ubiquitous, if illegal — and people mostly get away with scathing criticism as long as they do not organize against the government.

The embarrassing point for us is that while Iran is no democracy, it has a much freer society than many of our allies in the Middle East. In contrast with Saudi Arabia, for example, Iran has (rigged) elections, and two of its vice presidents are women. The Iranian press is not as free as it was a few years ago, but it is now bolstered by blogs (Web logs) and satellite TV, which offer real scrutiny of government officials.

I was astonished that everywhere I went in Iran, people would immediately tell me their names and agree to be photographed — and then say something like, "There is no freedom here."
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Young people constantly told me how they scolded their parents for backing the Islamic Revolution in 1979. As a young woman, Sogand Tayebi, put it, "Those who backed the revolution are now sorry about that."

In the end, I find Iran a hopeful place. Ordinary people are proving themselves irrepressible, and they will triumph someday and forge a glistening example of a Muslim country that is a pro-American democracy in the Middle East.

I treasure a memory from the airport: after I was detained, a security goon X-rayed my bags for the second time and puzzled over my computer equipment. He snarled at me, "American reporters — bad!" The X-ray operator, who perhaps didn't know quite what was going on, beamed at me and piped up, "Americans — very good!"
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I've developed an interest in Iran over the years because every news story I find has the same theme. Every story seems to be about government hardliners trying to crack down and the defiant people of Iran working through legitimate means to change their system for the better (and suceeding, but very slowly).

That is part of the reason that I bristle everytime I hear the Bush adminstration and their "axis of evil" or right-wing cowboy pundits talking about invading or destroying Iran. The worst thing we could do is alienate Iran with talk of invasion, thereby allowing the hardliners in Iran to gain support with anti-American distractions. So, of course, this is precisely how the Bush Administration handles it. Idiots.

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