The Islamic Revolution of Lebanon

I remember when I was sitting there on the streetcurb, I was somewhat surprised that no one seemed interested in seeing Rafsanjani but me. In fact the only acknowledgement of his presence that I heard was from some Iranians who were muttering in Farsi that "some Iranian" had come and now they had to go outside of the haram.

However, it seems that in Lebanon, EVERYONE knows that he was there. And not just him -- but, unbeknownst to me, Sayyid Nasrollah was also there on that night in those cars.

Sayyid Nasrollah is cool. Although I've only been here two days, he has rapidly risen to the top of my good list. I am still continually touched by the amount of respect many people show towards him and also towards the rahbar in Iran. In fact, I think the people here show more respect to the rahbar than they do IN Iran. I respect the rahbar too, but I have to admit my view of the Islamic Republic has been tainted by the fact that Islamic Republic does not want me in their country. Despite the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, neither Imam Khomeini nor his successor have ever been here, the Islamic Revolution took root a lot deeper here than it did in Iran. Here, I don't see bureaucracy or formality. (For example. While I cannot even enter the border to go to Iran, I was waved by a checkpoint which clearly stated "No foreigners past this point") Just action. And not just religion but schools, organization, and development. Those who wear hijab here wear it MUCH better than you see on the average street in Iran, and yet you don't have to deal with these silly cultural ideas like your hijab is not proper if it is not black. And you don't sense the same resentment towards the Islamic movement that you do in some places in Iran.

Of course as impressed as I have been by the amount of development in South Lebanon, at least economically, there has been a price -- at least half of the families have men who are working outside of the country to support their families. As a result, there are a lot of strong women. But I feel for them because I would not want to live like that.