Wings of a Bird

Iran: Back to her roots, but as an outsider - Seattle P-I
... Hamid estimates that half the boys at his school of 400 are drug addicts, using anything they can get their hands on -- most recently a cyanidelike poison used to keep insects out of rice shipments.
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I'm also happy to see slightly looser restrictions on women's attire. Shorter, tighter tunics (or manteaux, the French word for coats), smaller scarves, exposed bangs, eyeliner and nail polish.They used to lock you up for things like that when I was a kid."They still do, sometimes," said one family friend. "If they don't like what you're wearing, they can haul you in and get you to write a letter, confessing to being a prostitute."She was taken in once for wearing what the police officer said was too much eye makeup. She lucked out, she said, and only had to write a letter of apology for wearing mascara."That's still in my file somewhere."
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Drinking alcohol is a serious crime. First offense, 70 to 100 lashes; second offense, same, plus possible prison term; third offense, death. All the same, black-market whiskey smuggled from Pakistan goes for about $25 a bottle; tall boys of Heineken are $5 each. ...While depression isn't a topic of conversation in Iran -- one never sees ads for antidepressants and Dr. Phil would be an oddity here -- it would seem that much of the population in the cities suffers from it. It's especially clear on the faces of the country's young people (about 75 percent of Iranians are younger than 35).
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