Iran: A Welcome for Capitalists

As the most economically successful nation in the Moslem Middle East, Iran is enjoying the pleasures of material progress—and suffering from some of its discomforts. In Teheran, where the population has mushroomed beyond 2,500,000, automobile traffic is both heavy and frightening, more chaotic than it is in Tokyo, Bangkok or Beirut. Middle-aged women gaze disapprovingly at the miniskirted teenagers. Many Iranians can afford to buy the autos and clothes of their choice because the Alaska-size country no longer has an economy based on "the three C's": cotton, carpets and caviar. Under the...