Reading Reading Lolita

I was sitting at my coffee shop, my favorite place to read (only because the library doesn't a). have good cell-phone coverage or b). make a nice frappuccino), reading Reading Lolita in Tehran, a book I have long meant to read but am only now getting to, when I realized that if I lived in Tehran I wouldn't be able to

• read Reading Lolita
• read Lolita
• be in a t-shirt and skirt in public
• talk to the man who gave me my frappuccino
• feel the breeze in my hair and sun on my neck when I walked to the coffee shop from my car
• own my own car without permission from a male in my family
• have a car with a UU bumper sticker
• or attend my UU church
• have a car with a rainbow bumper sticker
• be an out lesbian
• with children (without a husband)
• own my own house
• choose advanced education or a professional career without permission
• choose whether I wanted to be a mom at home (in other words, it seems like it's not a choice, it's a given)
• live without fear of official harrassment, physical danger, jail without trial, death by stoning
• live with choice, freedom, safety

It's overwhelming, once I started considering how much I take for granted everyday.