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Non-Muslims like me are asked to enter through a single gate, and I had to visit so many checkpoints before finding the correct one that my Iranian interpreter joked to a guard, "Security here is tighter than at the nuclear facility at Isfahan!" "This shrine," the guard replied, "is more important than the nuclear facility at Isfahan." In this city of 2.5 million, I could visualize what analysts inside and outside the country had been telling me. Understanding Iran requires that Americans confront all the complexities of Iranian life, not just the hot-button issues that concern Washington most directly.