In February 2008, I had the opportunity to visit Iran as part of a year-long dispatch in the Middle East. With the attention given to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and often fiery rhetoric, I thought it would be illuminating to see the nation for myself. What I saw was a vibrant and modern Persia that cherishes its heritage. Any strike on Iran, no matter what the political or military reasoning employed, would put those ancient and modern treasures at risk.

Against the din of saber-rattling and sermonizing, the nation's everyday people and timeless culture are often overlooked, and their welfare and preservation deserves consideration by policymakers. I'm not an expert on Iran, but I hope with these pictures I can encapsulate some of the living history I saw in my brief time there and give a face to the everyday people put in harm's way by politics and intolerance.

Lachlyn Soper

Biography

Lachlyn M. Soper is a master's candidate at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She has lived on six countries on four continents and speaks Arabic, Japanese, Indonesian and now some Farsi. Her interests include challenging stereotypes held in Western and Eastern societies. And snowboarding, of course. She seeks to display the humanity of the people she has met across the Islamic world, from Indonesia to Morocco.