Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter D. Parvaz was born in Iran but hasn't lived there since childhood. In September 2006, she returned to visit for the first time in 22 years. She found a country very different from the one she remembered -- and very different from the one Americans expect.

Part 1: A expatriate rediscovers her homeland -- Iran
"I'm not sure why I still call Iran home. ... I last saw the place as a 12-year-old girl who knew even then it was unsafe for her to express her opinion in public.

Part 2: Back to her roots, but as an outsider
"Iran has become a police state, where the only laws that are enforced are ones that limit personal freedoms. ... " Yet the country also offers beauty, serenity and history.

Part 3: Politics can't crush arts, culture
"Where Ted Koppel saw Iran as a terrorist hot spot eager to harm Americans, I saw a country struggling to be seen as something other than a violent, radical Muslim nation. In the most casual of exchanges, Iranians try to impress upon those they know will be leaving the country that they're not terrorists, that they just want to get on with life, that they don't hate Americans."