These reflections are evolving, and may shift without warning. The winds of changeāDivine or otherwiseādo not move by human forecast.
In the Western imagination, the idea that Iran could somehow be ādealt withā like Iraq is a dangerous illusionāone rooted not just in hubris, but in historical illiteracy.
Yes, Iraq was once the cradle of civilization. From Ur to Babylon, and later Baghdad under the Abbasids, its glories are undeniable. But geopolitically, Iraq is a lowland nationādeeply enmeshed within the Arab Mashreq, itself a corridor between Egypt and the Persianate world, susceptible to invasions, internal fragmentation, and competing powers.
Iran, by contrast, is a fortress civilization.
As a student of ethnomusicology trained in Hindustani classical music, I was intrigued by Fawzia Afzal-Khanās latest book Siren Song: Understanding Pakistan Through Its Women Singers. Afzal-Khan ā a professor of English and Gender Studies in the United States as well as a vocalist trained in the Hindustani tradition ā uses case studies of selected female singers to explore some of the contradictions of Pakistani society. On the one hand, Pakistan is a conservative Muslim-majority state where many people believe that the performing arts in general are contrary to religious injunctions and that women singers are not ārespectableā women. Yet, divas such as āMadamā Noor Jehan (1926-2000) are widely celebrated and have legions of fans. Afzal-Khan thus wanted to provide a more nuanced depiction of Pakistani society at a time when many people in the West have a very stereotypical image of Muslims and particularly of Muslim women, whom they believe lack all personal agency and are completely covered by the burqa. Clearly, the truth is not that simple. In this book, Afzal-Khan explores the ways in which great singers like Malka Pukhraj (1912-2004), Roshan Ara Begum (1917-1982), and Noor Jehan employed their personal agency within the constraints of a conservative Islamic society to fulfill their ambitions to become performing artists. 
