Life Goes On in Tehran

http://www.lifegoesonintehran.com/faq.html

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What inspired you to start Life Goes on in Tehran?

When I was leaving Los Angeles, many of my friends were worried for me. They thought I was jumping into a war zone. Soon after moving to Iran I shared a few photos with them and assured them that all is safe and normal. But I soon realized how little they knew about Iran. Their fears and lack of knowledge about Iran is justified and a result of negative portrayal of this country in the Western media -- as well as sound bites from a certain controversial President. So I decided to start a site to remind them (and the rest of the world) that life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.

Are you afraid of being arrested and or put in prison?

The whole idea behind my site is to show that Iran is not a dangerous country. To show that for the most part it's a beautiful country with kind, loving and hospitable people. If I were to constrain myself and not say everything that needs to be said then I would imply that I am afraid, and being afraid would mean that this is in fact a dangerous country and in doing so I would defeat my whole purpose! That said, if I were to be arrested or in any way reprimanded for this site, I would take back everything I just said. If I get arrested for a site that captures daily life in Tehran, then this country must be in deep trouble and suffering from an extreme case of paranoia. If this happens, I will invite all my visitors to raise hell. Update: A visitor pointed out that I am more likely to be arrested by the US government; be put either in a secret CIA prison and or Guantanamo bay without charge or a right to an attorney!

Do you think there will be a war between the US and Iran?

I certainly hope not. I'm not a politician and any opinions I may have on this matter will be reflective of the type of news I expose myself to. If I were to solely listen to the Iranian media, I would think that there is no war in sight -- a sentiment shared by most Iranians. A foreign visitor might wonder why Iranians are so chill and cool and act as though there are no tensions with the West. But reading the Western news sources and knowing about President Bush's warmongering policies and the neoconservative agenda, you would think that US is just waiting for an excuse to push a big red button that will set off World War 3. I just don't understand why the neocons think they can bring about peace and stability with war and destruction. An attack on Iran would end all struggles for reform and a more just democracy and unite the Iranian people against a common enemy and in the process will kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

What kind of a camera phone do you use?

I use a Motorola RAZR v3i camera phone. It's 1.3 megapixels. Almost every photo is taken into Adobe Photoshop where minor adjustments are made. Adjustments aren't anything more than simple cropping, color correction and saturation control.

Why did you add Google Ads?

I have started getting a lot of hits and soon I will go over my bandwidth limit. So in order to be able to pay for this spike in the total number of visitors, I have added these ads so that I can afford to keep the site up. Specially since I am living in Tehran with no official income. Rest assured that I will not make any profits whatsoever. Unless of course you happen to be liking the ads so much that you keep coming back and clicking on the ones that appeal to you!