Iran

I was with friends last night, and one of them brought a video for us to watch and talk about. It was a travelogue on Iran. There was a wonderful glut of information for an information glutton so I thoroughly enjoyed the video. There were three big things that I was struck by during the course of the show.

1) Iranians, in general, are extremely friendly and very hospitable/welcoming.
2) Iranians, in general, appear to respect and value community
3) Iranians, in general, appear to regard much of the religious code with exasperation, but live by them inspite of it.

Ok. So, then I started asking myself why. I noticed many significant differences. The first and most obvious was the form of government. Iran is organized as a theocracy. The next thing follows from the second, but also stands on it's own merit: Iran is a highly gender-segregated society, particularly relative to the western standards that I am accustomed to.

You know, and the interesting thing about it? I never got the sense that it was a matter of equality or validity. Women had the freedoms to walk about and do, and shop, and say, and whatever, just as the men did. They were admitted to university at a higher rate then men were. But in classrooms and quads, they were separated, much as the southrons of the 19th century worshipped in their sanctuaries, women on this side, men on the other. On subways, women are entitled to their own car. It's not that they have this car, and they can't go on the other cars. It's that if a woman is on this car, no men may be.

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I am reading Dante's Inferno again. Dante lived in the 13th century in Italy. His poem about his travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven reflect a stunning grasp of the power of imagery. His guide through the nine circles of Hell is Virgil, the ancient poet. Virgil's place in Hell is Limbo. This is where those born before the light of Christ spend eternity. It is a pleasant meadow just outside the gates of Hell, proper. It is also the residence for eternity of the Jewish Patriarchs, that is until "harrowing of Hell" by Christ on Holy Saturday. It's sort of a pass for those honorable people who didn't have the opportunity to acknowledge Jesus, but almost certainly would have if given the opportunity. Their "hell" is knowing that they will never see the glory of Heaven.

Anyways at one point, Virgil is confronted by the rebellious angels who stand just outside the city gates of Dis, which is the midpoint of Hell. There are 4 circles outside, and 5 more inside. Well, Virgil has been accosted by other monsters of Hell, and has been able to rebuke these monsters unassisted, but at this point he balks. Faced with these demon-angels he knows fear for the first time. Here, at this dark gate, Virgil, the embodiment of "Human Reason" (the Greeks, and their philosophers) is not able to overpower the command of the gate regiment. He begins to fear that he will be stuck here, unable to return to the pleasant limbo. It is given that the only force able to override these rebellious angels is a direct messenger from Heaven's court.

The point Dante is attempting to make is that there is a limit to how far "human reason" can go without the light of faith. This is a standard of Roman Catholic orthodoxy. This standard was cast out by the protestant reformers, who declared that all things must be under the light of scripture, and mocked entirely by the Enlightenment who believed that science could answer every question, and that the light of faith was something that was entirely other, and should not be "mixed" with scientific thought.

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I wonder if we have erred. I wonder if the notion of the "secular" state is well founded. I wonder what our culture would look like if it wasn't trying to make everybody the same. I mean equal.