Iran: Frightening return to 1979 strictures

It's bad enough that the country's President threatens the existence of Israel or is seemingly hell-bent on Iran going nuclear, but the crack-down on the citizenry would suggest that things are are going to go from bad to worse, on many levels, for the country as a whole.

This report by The Washington Post paints a very bleak picture of how events are clearly spinning out of control in Iran:

"Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution.

The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups.

The move has quashed or forced underground many independent civil society groups, silenced protests over issues including women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate, and sparked society-wide fear about several aspects of daily life, the sources said."

One can only puzzzle where all of this will lead. Not to be forgotten is that the Iran's population is largely comprised of people under the age of 30. Will they tolerate, let alone stand idly by, whilst the current crack-down continues? Unlikely!

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