reciprocal golden wood

"Is there a place for us on this planet?", Neda asks over at her excellent A Glinting Glimpse from Above The Wall blog, "we who most of us were born after the revolution that destroyed our country, and didn't have anything to do with it?we who are neither islamists, nor terrorists and just want to live our lives? and do anything we can and think would get us a little freedom, but nothing works for us... we vote for the reformists, it doesn't work, we boycott the election, doesn't work, protest, doesn't work, leave our country..."

She reproduces an entry from another Iranian blog, which I think I'm going to reproduce too.

1- Tehran, airport: They remind her again to fix her hejab, and cover all the hair inside the head scarf. The agant who's suppused to stamp her passport for exit says: why do you travel so much to and from Iran? you're a spy! and calls another officer to arrest and take her to custody to question her. It's two hours before the flight.They search her bags and laptop and tell her repeatedly to "tell the truth". She calls every one she knows and asks for help. at last, half an hour before the flight she enters the plane with eyes red and swollen and tears on cheeks.

2- Torento, airport: Everybody is asked from which country they've come. Iranians all mention Amsterdam, the city in which they changed their flight, but "iran" is the words that jumps out of her mouth. The police gives her a different look and takes her towards the red line. They search all her bags, even her books.Then the agent helps her to pack her bags again and says in a comparetively kind voice: Next time we ask, don't say Iran.

from the blog; "dream land" (persian).

*

Today, the US government intimated that it wants to impose travel restrictions on British citizens of Pakistani origin because of terrorism fears:

Among the options that have been put on the table, according to British officials, was the most onerous option to Britain, that of canceling the entire visa waiver program that allows all Britons entry to the United States without a visa. Another option, politically fraught as it is, would be to single out Britons of Pakistani origin, requiring them to make visa applications for the United States.