Here is the missing text from the post above this one. The system went out as i was posting that link.
Like I say, people have been posting videos of Iranians screaming and yelling at music events to show that Iranians are "free" and don't need 'liberating' by the u.s. and is not real. Also the Western jeans worn by almost everyone, the dyed hair, the color-streaked hair, all these clips have been intended to reinforce that theme.
But to me, it looks embarrassing. When i was there, women did wear jeans - but under their chadors.
Today's Iranian women look no different than women in any Western city. It gives the impression that they are focused on imitating the West instead of being individuals reflecting a unique Iranian identity.
This is immensely disappointing.
The women look masculine, not feminine.
Whereas, for example, in Russia in the mid-1990s, women wore dresses, skirts, high heels, took care of themselves. The Russian women looked very feminine. Though i was told this changed by the 2000s.
But it's an example to show that Iranian women don't NEED to look like imitations of "Western hip"
I notice in videos, the Iranian women wear the SAME BIZARRE fingernail polish patterns of four fingers with one color with the ring finger on each hand in a different, equally ugly, style !
Wherever in the world I see that fingernail pattern, to me, it says that the woman is mindless, just following current ideas being promoted by the wrong places - and exercising zero discernment to bloc them out.
Obviously, the govt is loath to crack down because of the political situation. But it's a shame that things have come to the low moral state described here. Though it's helpful to know what's going on.
I am SO GLAD i went to Iran soon after the Revolution when society was well-ordered, not rebellious like it sounds like today.
"The current state of the Islamic Republic is quite strange.
From a social restrictions perspective, it is utterly incomparable to when I was young or even 5 years ago.
This goes far beyond people choosing to mass defy hijab laws - the restrictions against things like mixed dancing, concerts, music festivals, rave like atmospheres, drinking, recreational drugs, and all sorts of out of marriage ___ relationships are dissolved to a unrecognizable very low bar compared to the past.
No it's not Turkey or Dubai (yet) and yes people still do get in trouble frequently (particularly businesses who host things - which is why you'll go to high end restaurants where everything is happening and they don't care but they'll immediately stop you if you take a picture out of fear it will go viral).
But the cat is out of the bag. In every corner of the country the rules are flagrantly defied. Not just in cute underground parties at some well connected kid's house or some hippies doing drugs in a desert 3 hours from the city - no very much in the open, often advertised on social media, and not hidden at all (both videos are from the last month - the second video is in Shiraz).
This was unthinkable just a few years ago.
On the other hand the political atmosphere is currently closed at a level I don't remember other than the first few months after the 2009 election. It resembles the Islamic Republic of the late 80s more than what we've seen for most of my life.
And from an international relations perspective all caution & restraint are gone and you see the most extremist elements (who ironically were kept in check by the older Khamenei who mistrusted them just as much as he mistrusted liberals) increasingly running the show, eagerly acting in a way that I struggle to describe in anyway other than delusional insanity.
The economy is shattered to a level in which even the upper middle class are struggling to make ends meet, let alone the poor who are living through unthinkable conditions.
This is a very different Islamic Republic from the "normal" baseline my generation is used to.
Quality of life continues to nosedive at a horrendous level. Uncertainty is everywhere. External attacks are no longer a fear but a near daily reality.
It is increasingly unclear who (if anyone) is in charge and what direction they are trying to steer the country in.
The current situation might last for a bit as a transition state, but it is very difficult to imagine something this unstable, with so many contradictions, and this reckless, being durable.
At some point very soon something will have to give. It can't last forever like this."