FoxNews is covering it. Tony Snow just said that this is the least covered world news story.
I agree, I think even FoxNews should cover it more, althought they are making a decent effort at coverage, but I don't see it in papers and other TV stations.
An Iranian Prostitute's Electronic Plea for Help
Commentary, Behrouz Saba,
Pacific News Service, Jun 27, 2003
Editor's Note: In an online diary and radio interview, an Iranian woman selling herself to survive documents her ordeal and the plight of many women in Iran. The student rebellion against Iran's clerical government, the author writes, could change her fate for the better.
Iranian weblogs (Internet diaries), often playful or profane, have become an effective means for the young to vent their anger against the regime. A weblog called Fahesheh (Farsi for prostitute), on which a woman details her descent into prostitution, may at first seem like a sly "blogger's" joke. But it is deadly serious, a shocking testament to the increasingly unbearable living conditions inside Iran.
The prose of the woman who calls herself Sanaz is casual and intimate. At first reading like soft porn, it progresses into finely observed descriptions of young Iranians' sexual practices away from the eyes of the morality police. It then evolves into a stark, frightening picture of a growing number of Iranian women who, just to survive, offer sexual favors for money.
On the Internet, millions pose as people they aren't, but any trace of incredulity vanishes with a click on the link to an audio interview Sanaz gave to the Farsi service of state-owned Radio Sweden.
Her voice is soft, articulate, streetwise and infinitely sad. Sometimes fighting back tears, responding to questions skillfully and sensitively posed by an Iranian woman, she encapsulates into a few minutes the story of an Iran where living is all but unaffordable for most people, officials high and low are irredeemably corrupt, heroin is cheap and widely available and even married women sometimes sell themselves to feed their families.
"If you go to a welfare committee as a single woman," Sanaz says, "they give you 750 (7,500 toomans, about $7.50) a month. With that you can buy two kilos of meat."
When arrested by the police on prostitution charges, the usual outcome in Iran is a night spent in bed with the arresting officer. "I also had to become a girlfriend of the judge who handled my divorce file," Sanaz says. She divorced her husband after he became addicted to heroin.
The police, according to Sanaz, also recruit young women for the wealthy and powerful clergy. Her most harrowing tale is of her friend who went through this process and was tortured by her client. "He had a bucket of ice next to the bed -- how can one describe it? It's shameful. They killed so many of our young and now they do these things. One becomes ashamed of being an Iranian. ... He gave her 50,000 toomans ($50) ... then brandished a gun and said if you don't take it I'll shoot you and bury you right here in the garden."
She ends her interview with a plea, "If you (Iranian women abroad) can end this situation, we will kiss your hands and feet."
Iranian students who staged a week of demonstrations in June are intent on ending "this situation" from within Iran.
Washington may desire "regime change" in Tehran, but if an Iraq model intervention led to prolonged civil war or hit-and-run guerrilla warfare -- precisely what is shaping up in Iraq today -- Iran could become another failed state in the region, a breeding ground and home for Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, young, bright and increasingly emboldened students are planning the downfall of the ayatollahs their own way. If they succeed, they too risk Iran's future if they choose to retaliate brutally and endlessly against their old rulers. But perhaps the day will come when Sanaz will find an answer to her prayers.
"I have a (high school) diploma," Sanaz says, "but I understand a great deal. I wish I didn't." She needs not to feel this way. The whole world is listening.
A native of Iran, PNS contributor Behrouz Saba (
BehrouzSA@aol.com) writes widely on Middle Eastern and American social, political and cultural issues.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f42f9793a2746e014fa78ae2620f6b9f