ABSTRACT
For those who picture Tehran as another Middle Eastern mudhouse metropolis, let me repaint the picture. Thick-walled mud houses exist; they used to be the coolest thing going before air conditioning. But steel-and-glass office and apartment towers now dominate the city. Snowcapped mountains belie the image of barren desert. Trees and gardens are as plentiful in the city as in its carpet designs. Cars clog Tehran's broad modem avenues just as donkey carts used to clog its dirt roads. Tehranis even joke that the villagers new to the city life drive cars as they did their donkeys, only now they spew smog and they crash. A car is an Iranian man's phallic totem, a symbol of his macho ego. Every red light gives a chance for a Le Mans lunge and ego race. Traffic accidents probably exceed heart disease in Tehran's death statistics.
