I remember ten years ago being sandwiched between employees from Mitsubishi Corporation's Tehran and Baghdad offices, with staff from the Istanbul and Athens offices also on our table at a dinner for the Global Leadership Programme we were running and feeling worried that rows would break out. The charming and gentle man from the Tehran office reassured me that they all had more in common than they had differences, and said 'you know we like to have friends round for dinner where we drink wine, eat French food and our women wear Western clothing - just like in Europe - so long as it is within the safety of our own houses.' And indeed we had a great time.
There's been plenty of coverage in blogs and official media of the use of text messaging in the Iranian elections. The Reuters article has the edge over AFP one I think, in terms of detail and colour. Obviously with less than 10% of the Iranian population owning a mobile phone, texting is being used among the affluent middle classes, of whom my former colleague was a representative. Anyway, it's a nice reminder, as Britain's funniest Iranian stand-up comedian and actor is good at pointing out to us Brits, that Iranians are by no means all humourless fundamentalists.