Sean Penn watches Friday prayers at Tehran University in Iran from the press balcony. The service drew 10,000 worshipers and included chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."
Posted on 08/22/2005 5:47:57 AM PDT by SmithL
DAY ONE
In June, Sean Penn and two friends traveled to Tehran. It was Penn's first trip to the country. What he found was a culture in conflict. Although the nation is ruled by a very conservative, tradition-bound government, Penn talked to many younger Iranians who have a strong interest in Western culture and want their own country to liberalize its policies on individual rights. Beginning today, The Chronicle will publish a five-day series of his reports from Iran:.
It's the week preceding presidential elections. Candidates attack one another's credibility. Activists push to boycott the vote. Traffic and pollution choke the cities. Leftists support a no-win idealist. Preachers guide their flocks toward political starboard. The media have fallen under the grip of standing power, and should they defy it, they're imprisoned. University students promote human rights, while fundamentalists deny them. It is a culture in love with cinema. With Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie. And anything Steven Spielberg. It is a nation of nuclear power, where the lobbies of the religious right effectively blur the lines between church and state. But it is also a country of good and hospitable people. And when the local team wins a big match, there is dancing, kissing, drinking and drugs in the streets. Women are graduating the campuses in higher and higher numbers, occupying government in higher and higher numbers. Sound familiar? But wait. The women. Look at the women. All is not well. I'm thinking about the women. This is Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Sean Penn watches Friday prayers at Tehran University in Iran from the press balcony. The service drew 10,000 worshipers and included chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."
One of these days this moron is going to grovel to the wrong Islamofascist and they are going to behead him.
Can I get THAT Video???
The arrogance of these leftist Hollywood libs never ceases to amaze me...as if they know better than anyone how foreign policy should be dictated...they are an embarrassment to our country and should just STFU.
Who or what, does this butthole think he is.
What I think he is, is an idiot with more money than brains.
. . although the nation is ruled by a very conservative, tradition-bound government . .
LOL ! That's FUNNY AS HELL !
Another "face" of Iran.
Every country he visits we attack........so far he is one for one.
He brings back the 1960s term...."the ugly American".
The only thing that'll save this punk from going down as history's biggest "hollywood" idiot...is if he's some sort of government agent.
What really stands out in this article is the quality of Penn's writing. He manages to combine the pretension usually found in a high school newspaper with the blatant mental retardation of a special education student. Like an eye unattached to a brain.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
The question is...which government
Wow, Sean Penn outs himself as being "half Jewish"...wonder if his muslim buddies are reading that.
Wait - he was in Iraq, and then we attacked Iraq. Now he's in Iran...figure out, people - he's a scout!
good pic for you......
Conservative tradition-bound government? Interesting wording.... I would have called them radical Shiite Islamics, bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and destroying Israel and The Great Satan!
He is a government agent. *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*
This not-so-subtle attempt to equate Iran's socio-political climate with that of the U.S. falls flat when he makes a straw man of the Right. Jailed reporters? Monolithic religion? Fundamentalists denying human rights? In these words we learn more about the writer and his prejudices than we do about Iranian culture.
Mr. Penn, shut up and act take money for getting in front of a Hollywood camera.
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