Inside Iran

i am writing because i wonder what you think of the film persepolis after the comics by madam satriapi?
in europe everyone is talking about it at the moment, but i read on one blog that the lady who made the books travels with an iranian diplomatic passport and therefore must be in cahoots with them… that she portrays things way to nicely…

Yes, thigs are too nice in this movie but in my opinion this is not problem. Persepolis is based on Marjan Satrapi's autobiography and we can not tell “HEY! why you did'nt have a harsher memories!”
But is Marjan Satrapi defending the Islamic Regime or hiding the truth? I don't think so because she talks about one of most kept secrets in Iran: Mass executions of 1988 (also check the RSFs report: Pour-Mohammadi and the 1988 Prison Massacres). This shows that she is not defending anyone or hiding anything. She is just telling her story which is sad but not a shocking, anti-regime one.
I watched this movie with 4 friend and all of us were telling “wow.. very realistic.”, And it was. It showed many of our concerns during our childhood; the war, the anti-party police, the shortages on imported goods, the death of relatives in war or executions, etc. .
I liked the movie, it was not a detailed report about regime and problems and it did not tried to be one. It was great as a movie and we enjoyed it as a movie Oh! I have to add that our police never wear those hats. I think she was under influence of the French policemen, drawing those hats. And another point is our police is every sensetive about the Neck Tie. You can not wear one in front of the police (specially when they raid parties or stop&check people or cars at the street). We saw Marjan's father times and times with his tie in front of the police and they never told anything to him regarding this

People were speaking about it for a week but it announces just before the valentine day: The Olof Palme Prize for 2007 goes to Parvin Ardalan, who has succeeded in making the demand for equal rights for men and women a central part of the struggle for democracy in Iran. Wow… Olof Palme is importantt. This was given to Kofi Annan in the last year and there are also people like Aung San Suu Kyi, Anna Politkovskaja and organizations like RSF and Independent media in former Yugoslavia.
Parvin is a great person. She is my close friend and she is one of the bravest people whom I know. She used to be active for around 15 years despite of her health problems (she has MS).
We are really glad that she've got this prize and to be honest, we believe her prize belongs to all of the active women and in general all of human rights activists in Iran.
We adoer Parvin's courage as much as we adore other human rights activists just as we adore people like “Rahele Askarzade” and “Nasim Khosravi” whom were arrested yesterday while they were talking with people in a park about unequal rights of the women.
You know, I'm not sure if we are able to do a change by all these efforts or not, but at least I'm sure that I will be proud of these activities in the future. Iranians might not be free of unequal rights, but at least will can say that “we did something”