The Iranian Labyrinth – Dilip Hiro

Iran is probably the most strategically important country on this planet. Yet it remains an enigma to most Westerners, particularly Americans. Since the hostage crisis of 1979-81 in Tehran, both Republican and Democratic administrations have been hostile to Iran’s clerical regime, with President Bush’s White House paving the way for military strikes on Iran for its alleged secret nuclear weapons
What is true Iran like? Celebrated journalist and historian Dilip Hiro, who has been filing reports on the country since the 1979 revolution, navigates the Iranian labyrinth with an enviable assurance, illuminating its rich history while providing gripping, eye-witness accounts of the contemporary events and institutions.
Hiro finds Iran to be a land of contradictions. On the one hand, chador-clad women are the majority at universities, Iranian films win prizes at international festivals, and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; and on the other, a rising number of journalists, intellectuals, women, and youth are chafing at the sociopolitical restrictions imposed on them by the Islamic regime.
The Iranian Labyrinth – Dilip Hiro