The Muslim world has become a lot more orthodox. My Iranian-Armenian girlfriend at that time had to cover up when she returned to Iran after the 1979 revolution. When I first went to Malaysia in 1981, no women in KL or Melakka or Borneo wore Islamic headgear. When I lived there in 1997-8, most did. A Pakistani friend now aged around 55 says his country was much more liberal in his youth than it is now - ordinary women used to wear bathing costumes!

Thirty years ago or so my friend Anthony was studying Chinese in China - woken every morning by patriotic tunes blaring out of the public address system in a country that had virtually no contact with foreigners. When I visited friends in Berlin, the train through East Germany was inspected by armed troops with fierce dogs.