No I think you're probably right. Not knowing how exactly the DPI is done, I was abstractly thinking that perhaps shoving the SSL handshake through another TCP/UDP connection might defeat it but tbh I have no idea. Hence the question :)
Edit: the reason I mentioned socat was because when I used it to help the guy in China, it was because they were apparently filtering openvpn and we found that when it went via socat the connection was much more stable and faster.
Edit 2: if TCP through a UDP socat wouldn't work, how about something totally off the wall like an ipv6 tunnel over ipv4 (using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teredo_tunneling) and then an ipv4 tunnel within that ipv6 tunnel (through which the tor or openvpn connection would go). Sorry if I'm spouting garbage but it's quite fun thinking about all the random ways one might be able to tunnel one stream of data through another. (although given the Iranians urgent predicament, my mental masturbation is probably best saved for another day...)
Edit: the reason I mentioned socat was because when I used it to help the guy in China, it was because they were apparently filtering openvpn and we found that when it went via socat the connection was much more stable and faster.
Edit 2: if TCP through a UDP socat wouldn't work, how about something totally off the wall like an ipv6 tunnel over ipv4 (using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teredo_tunneling) and then an ipv4 tunnel within that ipv6 tunnel (through which the tor or openvpn connection would go). Sorry if I'm spouting garbage but it's quite fun thinking about all the random ways one might be able to tunnel one stream of data through another. (although given the Iranians urgent predicament, my mental masturbation is probably best saved for another day...)