News

WHAT most upset the joyless Iranian regime - people having fun, or citizens organising themselves through a potentially subversive social networking site?

Late last week, when temperatures in Tehran approached 40C, a notice was posted on Facebook inviting all and sundry to a giant water pistol fight in the Ab V Atash (Fire and Water) park in the north of the capital.

Hundreds of men, children and women in black, all-enveloping chadors turned up. They gleefully soaked each other for two or three hours. Pictures showed families enjoying themselves.