azar_nafisi a thimble in time "The chief film censor in Iran, up until 1994, was blind. Well, nearly blind. Before that, he was the censor of the theater. One of my playwright friends once described how he would sit in the theater wearing thick glasses that seemed to hide more than they revealed. An assistant who sat by him would explain the action onstage, and he would dictate the parts that needed to be cut. After 1994, this censor became head of the new television channel. There, he perfected his methods by demanding that the scriptwriters give him their scripts on audiotape; they were forbidden to make them attractive or to dramatize them in any way. He then made his judgments about the scripts based on the tapes. More interesting, however, is the fact that his succesor, who was not blind--not physically, that is--nonetheless followed the same system." From 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' 050122 what's it to you? who go blather from