Ski slopes the last resort from oppression in hardline Iran

The Telegraph:

Maryam swept expertly down the mountainside before swivelling to a halt, sending a spray of snow over her male companion who was waiting for her by the chair lift at the base of the slope.

The 21-year-old lifted her Raybans from her eyes, ran her fingers through her bleached blonde tresses and leant towards him for a congratulatory kiss.

Such coquettish behaviour, although officially banned, has become commonplace on the ski-slopes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The country's middle classes fear that under the hardline fundamentalist presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in June, their freedoms will soon be curtailed - so they are enjoying themselves while they still can. READ MORE

Every weekend, convoys of BMWs and Mercedes carry the young middle classes of Teheran away from the political tensions of the city to three nearby ski areas, high in the Alborz mountains, where they enjoy freedoms similar to that of any ski resort in the West.

Young women leave the regulation scarf and compulsory dark manteau at home and take to the mountains in tightly fitting fluorescent ski suits and bobble hats. Gone are the days when men and women had segregated slopes and separate chair lifts.

Instead, they mingle unchaperoned - showing no inhibition about sipping bootleg brandy from hip flasks - and openly criticise the government as they squeeze into the cable cars or lounge in the restaurant by the piste.

"It's a different world up here," said Maryam, who plans to spend every weekend of the winter on the slopes, as she surveyed fellow skiers at Tochal - more than 12,000ft high and reached by a 45-minute cable-car ride. "There isn't much for young people to do in Teheran. At the moment we are taking advantage of the freedoms we enjoy up here because we may not have them for long now this headbanger is in charge of the country." At the ski resorts, as at the frequent social gatherings within private homes in the wealthy suburbs of northern Teheran, politics is rarely off the agenda even when hedonism seems the principal pastime.

Older Iranians, who lived through the trauma of the 1979 Islamic revolution followed by the hardship of the long, bloody war with Iraq, are also deeply concerned about their country's future.

They have vivid memories of the 1980s and early 1990s when they were routinely harassed on the streets by the Basij, the Islamic militia, who would stop cars and search for illegal music or pictures of uncovered women.

Homes were raided and people arrested for fraternising with members of the opposite sex. Some were whipped for committing "moral" crimes such as kissing or holding hands.

Under the "reformist" rule of the last president, Mohammad Khatami, the structures of the theocratic regime remained but many of its worst excesses were curbed, and such occurrences became rare.

Now, Iranians are bracing themselves for Mr Ahmadinejad, who himself rose through the ranks of the Basij, to usher in a return to the more fearful times.
His victory has led many to worry that what little breathing room Iranians had under Mr Khatami could now disappear. They also foresee the new president turning Iran into a pariah state, making it difficult for Iranians to travel abroad or to have contact with foreigners who visit.

A Teheran lawyer who represents wealthy Iranians said that over the past few months he had been advising them to convert their assets into dollars and invest overseas.

"Those with dual nationalities have put the Iranian side of their business on hold and are investing overseas," he said. "Dubai [in the United Arab Emirates] is a big draw because it is so close and the economy is booming.

"Many wealthy Iranians have bought property over there, primarily as an investment but also because, if the worst happens, it offers a base if they are forced to leave Iran quickly." They fear that with the Iranian stock market steadily falling - it has dropped by 35 per cent since the elections in June - the economy is becoming unstable.

Over coffee in the lobby of the Laleh, Teheran's only five-star hotel, a former official under the Khatami government confided: "It took seven years under Khatami for Iranians to begin to enjoy the individual freedoms they had been denied since before the revolution.

"Iran was beginning to lose its reputation as an international outcast. It was a slow process but people really felt that the country was getting somewhere. Now we can see how easily all the good that was done can be quickly reversed."

Commenting on Iran's controversial nuclear programme, he said: "With one statement alone, the President has undone all Khatami's work to improve international relations with Iran."

He was referring to the international outcry that was provoked in October, when Mr Ahmadinejad publicly called for the state of Israel to be "wiped off the map", and again last week when he dismissed the Holocaust as nothing but a myth.

"It was an explosive outburst and a stupid one to make," the former official said.
"Although there is a lot of anger over the Israeli issue, his sentiment was not a helpful one and not one that is shared by educated Iranians."