The first astronauts of most nations of the world, including the most capitalist nations, are usually paid by their governments from taxpayers' money.
Paradoxically enough, the first Persian astronaut has paid her trip herself. Anousheh Ansari has also become the first Muslim woman in space and the first female space tourist in the world. Congratulations.
The previous, zeroth Iranian astronaut was Buzz Mustaffa (video).
One of the reasons that the Iranian-born U.S. telecommunications tycoon has decided to pay for her trip was her desire to give Iranians a new hope instead of all the depressive talk about the war and similar issues.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, said that he "respected" the Pope. We have never heard a radical feminist to have said that they "respected" Lawrence Summers. In this sense, the radical Islamists look more reasonable than the feminists in the otherwise isomorphic sequences of events - but it may be just a consequence of selective bias. ;-)
