The city of Shaft is just like anywhere else in the country.

Opium, yes. You can smell it in the evening.

It was because of the shah. There was no equality between classes. There was a gap between people, and our imam said the reason was the shah, and he asked us to demonstrate against him....

I saw him on television. I didn’t vote for his promises. I just looked at him and saw he was just like us. So I told everybody I knew — for example, my kids —...