Although separated by gender there are many opportunities, such as this one, where men and women meet, and then interaction is extremely delicate and sensitive - like anywhere in the world.

There is great pressure on men to lead and to 'be men', for them to retain some kind of order that protects the family from which then flows justice that ensures a harmonious and loving environment.  Many western men have forsaken such a task for the easier option of adopting an unnatural and unrealistic liberal-feminist mindset that does not satisfy natural instincts such as procreation.

Those individuals who are still set on grasping 'freedom' without asking those two basic questions: 1. Freedom from what?, and 2. Freedom for what? will remain as empty as before - and a fleeing into sense-gratification where hedonism and cynicism provide the drive will in time lead to nihilism, and from that negative mindset it is not far to self-destruction because at this point the lived life has become totally futile - a result of the 'anything goes' value system. I always reminded my students - know everything about life, but don't do everything. Only in this way can you retain a value-system that is robust enough to survive the invariable challenges flowing out from an international predatory capitalist system. The ability to resist, physically and mentally is essential for personal survival.

Above in the photo on the left, one of the two gentlemen in his early 20s is married, and somehow he balances his post-graduate research with that of married life - not an easy task.

As any mature man and woman knows, life has a meaning when one sees one's own children grow up; for the unmarried and childless there is the perpetual search for that something - and in the western 'democracies' the much promised consumer-sexual revolution  - men with men, women with women, men-women all in one - did not bring about a solution to the problem either, nor did drug-taking.

Iran is wrestling with these problems publicly and not hiding them as do the western 'democracies' by continually cranking up the consumer market, and by waging war on those countries that are 'no match', in the hope that something will flow back and fix the problems at home - as was clearly demonstrated when Katrina hit New Orleans and revealed to the world that mighty USA is also a third-world country.

Iranian students always welcome their guests with exceptional courtesy and hospitality.

Iran is a self-conscious society and this is heightened by the fact that outright consumerism-hedonism is still restrained, and social things are muted. The excessive voyeurism that the print and electronic media offers the spiritually numbed individual in the so-called 'democratic' west has not yet appeared on the scene. Iranians returning from the west seem to divide into two basic groups - those that cherish the subdued society that is Iran and those that want it all to be overturned and become a total consumer society with all that this entails, especially opening society up to the 'anything goes' mindset.

It is always a pleasure to see how Iranians'  self-reflective powers are heightened to the point where ideals firmly guide their strivings. This does not mean that they blend out the normal and obvious blemishes and inequalities that afflict any society.

Modestly restrained without going overboard seems to be the public norm where a call to 'have fun and enjoy yourself' would ring rather shallow and hollow. This modesty is a natural part of the theocratic Islamic state of Iran.

There is none of the exuberance that becomes a form of  'impertinent familiarity', so often the case in western secular 'democratic' states. The recent controversy, where a Federal Parliament staff member, Canberra, addressed a politician with 'mate', would never arise here in Iran. Teachers are still respected for what they deliver - learning and wisdom, something western teachers lost as the liberalisation and dumbing-down began during the late 1960s.

That Iranian academics/teachers still have this respect indicates they work under tremendous pressure to retain it from their students. Respect obliges! It is much easier to be a teacher in the western world where systems are so refined that hypocrisy rules supreme: If a student does well, the teacher takes credit for it; if a student does badly, then that's because the student does not have the capacity to do well. That's been the survival formula for many a teacher - and parents who see through this dialectic trick will usually be accommodated through molly coddling if they belong to the establishment, and subjected to a subtle rejection process if they are outsiders.

This dumbing down of a population is most noticeable in 'democratic' USA where the average citizen believes everything presented on TV is the truth. No wonder that a country such as the USA has a group of individuals who pulled off the 9/11 scam without ordinary Americans realizing this scam was not perpetrated by so-called 'Muslim terrorists'. Of course it helps if there is the one voice within the print and electronic media that propagates the official conspiracy line, that Muslim terrorists perpetrated 9/11 - and also the Bali bombing and the 7/7 and 7/14 London bombings. A quick succession of court cases them solidifies the official conspiracy theory, and it is then very difficult to undo the verdicts of such court cases.

Without being disrespectful to the Arabic-speaking world, the 9/11 official conspiracy would have had to be a highly sophisticated technical operation and the alleged hijackers were not of that type. In any case, like the 'Holocaust' allegations, the 9/11 event required some high tech know-how that ordinary Americans don't even possess. Even though technically it doesn't make any sense, and in fact is refuted by those who tell the truth when analyzing the event, the Americans' gullibility to swallow the 'Muslim terrorist' conspiracy theory does not surprise. A New York jury awarded Jew Larry Silverstein, the lease of the WTC towers two huge payouts for damages. Australia's supermarket mogul, Jew Frank Lowry, had an agreement to set up a Westfield shopping centre within the complex.

So, the question CUI BONO?  - in whose interest?  offers an answer that focuses on the condemning of the Muslim world. It is only in Israel's interest to do that, to pit Christians against Muslims, rather the other way around - Christians and Muslims against Jews for the sake of the Palestinians.

With ASRA's head, Professor Reza Kaji, Dr Fredrick Töben is here reflecting on matters of common interest, at the same time enjoying fresh Iranian fruit. The emotional and mental stimulation, that challenged individuals may find exhaustive, does not need to be further stimulated through, for example, alcohol. At the end of the day all one wishes to do is sleep, then to face another day with the same emotional intensity ...