The reality of Iran is very different from the media myth.

by Eric Richardson

AFTER FOURTEEN SLEEPLESS HOURS in an airplane, I shuffled tiredly past the duty-free stand with its display cases of perfumes and watches, cigarettes and candies. Its listless cashier watched as the crowd jockeyed for position behind one of the half dozen Customs line-ups that were forming. Her eyes met mine briefly, but it was the piercing gaze of the photographs above the duty-free stand which caught my attention. Images of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and his successor Ayatollah Khamenei, would be omnipresent during my stay in the Islamic Republic of Iran . . . → Read More: Inside the ‘Axis of Evil’