How many people HAD NOT seen this question before??!?

Question

I found these links provided by one of the answerers.I visited them and found it to be amazingly beautiful.I thought wikipedia is the only website showing nice pics of Iran, but I was wrong! These are indeed so beautiful.what do you think of them?And also I've put a sample of Iranian (Persian) music.Iranian music was chosen as the best pop music in France in 2005.Amazing melody and amazing lyrics.Make sure you try it!
These are the ones that he'd offered:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Tehran-2-1600.jpg
http://www.bigsoccer.com:80/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=4
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=3
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=13
These are just 3 pages out of 350 pages containing thousands of pretty photos!
and these are the ones I've found from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hills_south_west_of_Sanandaj_near_the_village_of_Kilaneh.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jhcfjuhfuvfjhyf.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dariushhotel2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kish-island.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dariushhotel3.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran
And here's the music.you can just right click on the links and choose "save target as" to download them.Moreover the translation for the songs are here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArVk5VUn4faVn.J7yHuSicUAAAAA?qid=20070319045922AAZ0z6Y
1.(The rain: 2007) http://www.sarzaminsong.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/05_%20Baroon.mp3
2.(Farangis "A female name": 2007) http://www.sarzaminsong.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/01_%20Farangis.mp3
3.(The window: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/03_%20Panjereh.mp3
4.(My heart just wants you: 2003) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Mansour/Crazy/Delam%20Faghat%20Toro%20Mikhaad(www.Bia2Music.com).MP3
5.(Stop world: 2004) http://www.sarzaminmusic.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Reza%20Sadeghi%20-%20Vaysa%20Donya/01_%20Vaysa%20Donya.mp3
6.(Hold my hand: 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/09_%20Dastamo%20Begir.mp3
7.(The wind's kiss: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/01_%20Boosaye%20Baad.mp3
8.(Keep me in your memory: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/07_%20Yaade%20Man%20Baash.mp3
9.(Reveal your visage: The original title for this one is "Talab=Praying" 2004) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mohammad%20Esfahani/04_%20Talab.mp3
10.(It's beautiful: 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/02_%20Ghashangeh.mp3

Answer 1

To answer your question: I had not seen the question before.

I agree that Iran and its civilization are not well-known in the West, and that unfortunately their history has been overshadowed by their behavior since overthrowing the Shah. The Shah was a dictator who maintained his rule only through the support of the US and who bled his country dry. Anybody remember when he crowned his 3rd wife as Empress in 1967? What a party that was - and the expense was astronomical. He also did some good things for Iran.

When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, Iran did a 180 turn away from the West. 52 staff people at the US Embassy were held prisoner for 444 days, and things went downhill from there. Now Ayatollah Khamenei is the Supreme Leader and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the guy who advocates "wiping Israel off the map") is the President. They have a rogue nuclear program and are developing long-range missiles. They are friendly with people known to be both hostile to the West and actively involved in terrorist activities against the West. Not easy folks to try to engage in dialogue.

That said, their civilization is at least 6000 years old (one of the oldest in the world), and justifiably famous for its art, poetry, architecture and science. It is well worth getting to know in greater detail. It's unlikely that there will be any kind of meeting of the minds between those who support the Iranian Revolution and those who support the West in my lifetime (I'm almost 60), but that should not prevent us from studying this most remarkable culture in all its many aspects. I encourage you to follow some of the links listed in the question.