Many of Iran's urban, educated youth want the same opportunities offered their Western counterparts.

Days after President Bush located Iran on the international "axis of evil," Tehran's 20-somethings say they feel misunderstood, marginalized and resigned.

Sitting in a Tehran living room just days after Bush told the world her country exports terror, 25-year-old Neda Ghasemi said she wondered if the West would everget the pictureright.

"I have heard that a lot of foreigners think that we go around on camels," she said. "Considering their people think this, it doesn't matter that the American government thinks we are terrorists."

Bright, educated and ambitious, Ghasemi was being flippant, and she knew it. But her comments betrayed Iranians' very real need for the world to simply understand them.

Like her three friends gathered in the apartment, Ghasemi said she was frustrated that the outside world still associated Iran with the images of the Islamic Revolution 23 years ago - angry crowds burning the U.S. flag amid chants of "Death to America," and the faces of the American hostages held for 444 days in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The new generation is not in power. And they're not close to taking power. But there's no revolutionary fervor in Iran today. Instead, dull resignation has seeped in.

According to Shiva, a young actress, when the reformist President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997, her generation was full of hope.

But their optimism was premature, Shiva said. Almost four years after he was elected, Khatami's vision continues to be hampered by the influential Iranian clerics and conservatives who drove the Islamic Revolution decades ago.

Many young Iranians just want to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that they see are offered to their generation in the West. The government does not place any obstacles in their way but getting visas for the United States, Canada or European countries is not easy.

Many young people here resent Bush and Rumsfeld's comments last week. With access to the satellite TV, most Iranians are well informed. They chat with relatives and friends abroad on the Internet. And they readily distinguish between the American people and their government.

Their only disappointment is why Americans don't do the same for them.

Elahe, a theater director who attended one of a few candlelight vigils in Tehran for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, said she felt angry that after risking arrest to take part in these vigils, she heard Bush brand her country a supporter of terror.

"I didn't do this for politicians," she said. "I did this for the people. Therefore that judgment is not important for me."

Notes:
Angst: feeling of anxiety, guilt or remorse, especially about the state of the world
Get the picture: (informal) understand

(Agencies)