Those Sexy Iranians

[democratic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/opinion/08KRIS.html?ex=1084593600&en=be91fc06038e4914&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Those Sexy Iranians
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 8, 2004

HIRAZ, Iran — If, as the poet Philip Larkin observed, sex began in 1963, it has finally reached Iran over the last year.

True, girls and women can still be imprisoned for going out without proper Islamic dress. But young people are completely redefining such dress so it heightens sex appeal instead of smothering it.

Women are required to cover their hair and to wear either a chador cloak or an overcoat, called a manteau, every time they go out, and these are meant to be black and shapeless. But the latest fashion here in Shiraz, in central Iran, is light, tight and sensual.

And that's what Iran's baby boomers, a wave of 18 million people 15 to 25 years old, are doing. They will transform their country, just as baby boomers in the West changed America and Europe. I don't think Iran's theocracy can survive them, for I've never been to a country where young people seem more frustrated.

"I don't compare myself with 10 years ago," she said. "I compare myself to what I could have and don't."

Ayatollahs, look out.

[gulfcoastliberal]

1. Not LBN

This is op/ed.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Youthful hormones will save the world!

Or destroy it. In any case, they tend to shatter rigid, old structures.