This is -- at the moment -- a mere skeleton of a diary and a request for Kossacks to chip in.
Obviously what's going on in Iran has the makings of a major inflection point in Iranian political life, for good or ill.
The purpose of this diary is serve as a plea for collecting information about secular life and culture in Iran.
This is NOT the place to link information about current events. This is the place to link information to provide information that helps everyone see those events in context, especially everything about Iran that is not about the conservative, fundamentalist revisionist Islamic government.
In other words, most of it.
I'll update and edit to add good links as provided and as I find them...
UPDATE 1: Added links for Iranian cinema, ethnic groups
Life and Culture:
Iranian movies
Urban Regions:
Ethnic Groups:
Council on Foreign Relations - Iranian ethnic groups
Economy:
CIA World Fact book (general)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, CIA, I know. Torturing people is, well, evil, but the CIA's JOB is to provide, you know, intelligence, information, for the use of the US government -- much of which is just this stuff -- compiled, publicly available information.
History and Politics: