There is an elusive quality that sets Iran apart from the gleaming, efficient West in ways both repellent and appealing. It is the essence of the Third World, of richness of culture and poverty of resources, of deprivation and burgeoning growth. It is depressing yet exciting, the unruliness bordering on chaos that prevails here. But it is untamed. Life seems more accessible, less closed off.
Most Westerners see Iran as primitive and backward.
Perhaps that is true, although the truth depends on one's viewpoint. I think of Iran as primitive in a different sense, in the sense of being closer to God, man and nature. Here in Iran, everything is broken pavement, weeds growing in an atmosphere of infinite risk and possibility. Faith and myth are part of the fabric of daily living. Simple people stop in their tracks to pray when the muazzin's call to prayer drifts from the mosques.