I wish I hadn't seen The Circle. I wish I didn't know what it was like to be a woman in Iran, not fifty or twenty years ago, but now. I wish I were still ignorant of the extent to which women there are herded, watched, controlled and devalued. I wish I could pretend that their lives were otherwise. Unlike many Iranians, I did see this film, which was banned in its native country. I saw the despair on the face of the woman whose daughter had just given birth to a girl - "We were told it would be a boy," she wails; "the in-laws will be very angry". I saw the women who, having escaped from prison, struggled to find transport without ID or the presence of a man. I saw the prostitute - found with a man in his car - arrested while the man went free. I recommend this film wholeheartedly, for all my carrying on. It's haunting and understated and piercing; it makes you feel almost as if you are there.