I was trawling Iranian radio stations on radio.garden and came across Radio Ranginkaman, based in Tehran:

"Radio Ranginkaman is a 24/7 radio station for the Persian speaking LGBT community inside Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The radio station provides the community with the essential health and life information. Iran is one of the most hostile countries towards LGBTI community."

https://streema.com/radios/Radio_Ranginkaman

According to Robert Baer's excellent book, "The Devil We Know", Iran has one of the highest rates of transgender operations in the world, often paid for by the government. According to Wikipedia:

"Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the issue of trans identity in Iran had never been officially addressed by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, transgender individuals were officially recognized by the government and allowed to undergo sex reassignment surgery. As of 2008, Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except Thailand. The government provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance, and a sex change is recognized on the birth certificate. As of 2017, the government provided transgender persons financial assistance in the form of grants of up to 5 million tomans ($400 USD)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_rights_in_Iran

There has to be a dank meme here.

Santa Nassim of course was Iranian…

>>7756646

You gotta wonder.

>>7756633

If you read the news you need today, for the world you'll live in tomorrow, you'll know they're looking for a lost nuke. Surely there should be a decent cover story, though. How does anyone know that a drone is not hostile? If a swarm of drones flew over DC, there would be real panic.

>>7756741

Just chatter. I'm really interested in the lack of a cover story, though. America has been killing people with drones for a long time, the day has to come when someone tries to turn the tables. So there should be major national policies on drone sightings. If you see something, say something?

>>7756698

My favourite Robert Baer story was how he found Washington DC under President Bill Clinton to be a far bigger snake pit than Afghanistan or Pakistan. Baer exposed some of the worst Clinton corruption, over oil pipelines. He said US foreign policy was a branch of the oil business, in a very real sense.

He said the killing of Soleimani was a big mistake, of course, and he's big on recognizing Iran's imperial ambitions. But he's very interesting to read.

I've never seen him on CNN until now, I just watched him saying in December 2016 that if Russian hacking of the US election is proved, there should be a new election. So, OK, he's an asshole when he talks about other things, but he knows a thing or two about Iran. Did you know Iran has the highest rate of sex change operations after Thailand? Paid for by the government? It was news to me.

Interesting: in that book, he also points out that the Persians are still called "fire-worshippers" i.e. Zoroastrians, by other Arabs. The Persians regarded the Muslim invaders as barbaric and "evil" unquote, and this remains an undercurrent. If a real revolution is brewing in Iran, this may turn out to be a crucial dynamic.