Consular cards were not designed to be identification and no treaty recognizes them as such. Legal travelers visitors and long-term residents carried passports visas or green cards for that purpose.
One of the consequences of the Iranian revolution has been an explosion of history. A country once known only from British consular reports and intrepid travelogues is now awash with historical documents letters diaries grainy video weblogs and secret police files of questionable authenticity.
The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and by analogy our own experience - more rather than less real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is even that it is what it is rather than to show what it means.