Iran 2010

Before leaving for Iran people asked why we were going and didn’t we think it was dangerous.  We wanted to learn more about this country: the amazing Persian history going back four thousand years and the political situation that for years has existed between America and Iran.  We were curious how the Iranian people feel about America and toward Americans.  Also, I’ve always had a long-standing love for Persian carpets.

In February of 2010 we met an Australian couple on a riverboat on the Ganges River in India, who had traveled to Iran and they gave us glowing reports of an interesting country with friendly people.  They emailed us the name of their travel agent in Iran and after five weeks of emails to Razie in Shiraz, we got our visas and were on our way.  There was no Iranian embassy in the US so all dealings were through the Pakistani embassy in Washington, DC.

Iranians pronounce the name of their country “E”ran”- Not “I”ran.  It got the name in 1935 when Reza Shah (Mohammad Shah’s father) changed the name from Persia to Iran and asked the western nations to use that new name.  Our guide told us the name Persia was no longer used because Persians only constitute about 50% of the country’s population and they didn’t want the other people to feel excluded.  The name Iran comes from Aryans, the ethnicity of Persians, who originally came from Siberia.  About 25% of the population is Azrai or Turkish who speak a combination of Farsi and Arabic, 10% are Kurdish and only 3% are Arabs who live mostly near the coastal Gulf Region.

Most Iranians speak Farsi which is quite different from Arabic, but the writing is the same.   Iranians, who are Shiite, don’t especially like Sunni Arabs because the Sunnis conquered and almost destroyed their country in the seventh century AD, when the Persians adopted Islam; Mohammad was an Arab.  Most Iranians also learn Arabic in school.

Outside of Tehran there is very little English, other than in the few hotels that serve the small tourist industry.  I picked up the basics such as hello, thank you, etc. - but it’s the numbers that were a problem making it difficult to determine prices. 

Iran is the world’s only Shiite Muslim country.  After the revolution of 1979, when the last shah was ousted and the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, the country renamed itself the Islamic Republic of Iran.  It was then that the clergy essentially “stole” the country and threw out the liberal westernized influences from the reign of the Pahlavi shahs.  The result is a westernized first world country, with an amazing history and energetic population of seventy-five million, reduced to vassals of the clergy forced to obey Sharia laws that dates to the 10th century. 

The president when we visited, Ahmadinijad, was considered a nut case by much of the western world and many Iranians disliked him. They felt he stole the election by promising the people a better life, and that didn’t happen.  Some say the people weren’t organized enough to overthrow the regime and the Revolutionary Guards were too powerful.  Many upper and upper middle class people left the country taking their money, families and businesses with them, much the same as what happened in Cuba when Castro came to power.

Iran has lots of oil and oil money, but the mullahs send the money to Swiss banks, perhaps because they suspect their time is limited and eventually the young Iranian population (75% are under 30) may no longer tolerate their government and revolt. 

Traveling through the country we saw little evidence of military control.  We didn’t see soldiers or police with machine guns, as in some Latin American or Arabic countries, and there were no checkpoints.  We didn’t have a feeling of a police presence in the cities or countryside.  But we did need a driver/guide to get around and I’m sure they knew where you’re not supposed to go.

I’ve never been to a country where there were so few American tourists, and no American ex-pats.  Iranians couldn’t tell we were American; we were foreigners or Westerners. When we spoke, to the few people we encountered who spoke English, they would always ask where we were from.

When we answered with “California” or “San Francisco” we would draw a blank look.  Then we’d say the magical word “America” and their faces would light up and they’d start bombarding us with questions. They were hungry for information about America and Americans perhaps because they are confused.  While their government paints the US as the Great Satan, they see American movies and TV shows which paint an entirely different picture of the US.

I had lots of contact with locals because I liked to get out and walk long distances.  I suspect most tourists who come to Iran stay with their guide in groups.  I’m believe there is nothing to fear from crime in this country; the people are very unthreatening and friendly and, unlike in the US, the government severely punishes criminals.

Our best experiences were when we had dinner at the homes of our guide Darious (four sisters, two brothers, wife, mother and two children) and then another night with Razie, our travel agent (two sisters, two brothers, aunt, mother and father). That was in Shiraz where they live.  Their families were warm and genuinely friendly and bombarded us with questions about America. They told us how much they disliked their existing regime and how they were waiting for it to change.  I felt sorry for them and wasn’t sure what I would do living under those circumstances.  

Islam is the religion practiced by Muslims.  It began roughly in the year 632 when Mohammad died and passed on the Holy Quran, which he allegedly received directly from Allah (God), to his disciples (imams).  There were 12 imams, all of whom died long ago except supposedly for one, Mahddi or the Hidden Imam, who Muslims believe will come back with Jesus Christ as his disciple and bring peace to the world.

Islam is divided into two main sects: Shiite, which is what Iran mostly is, and Sunni which is the larger sect. Iraq is mostly Sunni with a smaller Shiite population.  As I understand it, the division took place after Mohammad died in 632 AD and there was an argument among his successors.  The division was between his son-in-law and cousin (Ali bin Abi Taleb) and his father-in-law (Abu Bakr).  Long story short is that followers of the son-in-law (Ali) became the Shiite sect and followers of the father-in-law became the Sunni sect.  They have been at odds with each other since the seventh century.

Sunnis pray five times a day while Shiites pray three times a day.  Ninety-nine percent of the population in Iran is Muslim. 

All women in Iran must wear a head covering which they call a hijab or scarf.  This must be worn anytime a woman is outside her house including in autos, restaurants, etc.  If there is a man present in the house, other than the husband, then they must also wear the hijab inside their house.  Apparently there are no exceptions although the variety of head coverings runs from the black chador which covers the full body to small, colorful scarves which many women, especially younger ones, wear with much of their hair in front uncovered.  The problem with the hijab is that it’s often blazing hot in Iran and covering your head and neck in this heat makes is very uncomfortable, especially if the hijab is black.  Also, if you are older and have a hearing problem it makes it more difficult to hear.

Women must also wear something that is long sleeved and comes down to cover their butt.  Locals often wear Manitou’s which can be form fitting and stylish; foreign women wear a hodgepodge of clothing including men’s long sleeve shirts, raincoats and long jackets. Vanity and style for women go out the window when you visit Iran. 

We had been told and read about enforcement of the women’s dress code by what you might call the “hijab Nazis” or divisions of the local police, but we never did see an incident of anyone telling a person to cover up.

Sex seems to be something that Allah told Mohammad must be reserved only for special occasions.  It’s amazing their population is so large and continues to grow.  There is absolutely no evidence of sex anywhere: no posters, magazines, movies, TV, night clubs, swim suits.  I asked men why they wanted to cover up their beautiful women, and Iranian women are indeed beautiful, and I told them how much they’re missing.  They were hard pressed to give me an answer because they didn’t seem to have one that made sense.  For Muslims, answers to all or most questions seem to come from one source: the Quran.

We had heard that in the holy city of Qom there is prostitution, but to obey the Quran they’ve found a fix for it which is weird. In Qom women will wear their chador in such a way that it signals men that they are available for sex.  The man goes to a mullah (like a priest) and pays him about ten dollars to give him a paper saying he is marrying the woman he wants to sleep with.  This is called a sigheh, or temporary marriage, and can be for a period of just ten minutes to many months.  This is necessary because the penalties for sex outside of marriage are very severe and for women can include stoning to death,  Go to Google and put in Iran temporary marriage and you’ll get the full story on this strange practice.

There is no drinking of alcoholic beverages in Iran.  Nothing, never, anywhere.  But they did have many brands and varieties of non-alcoholic beer, lemon, pomegranate, etc. and these were quite good, especially served very cold with ice.  They also had wonderful fruit drinks available everywhere for about fifty cents.  I really didn’t miss alcoholic beverages although at times a cold glass of beer with lunch sounded good.

Food, and pretty much everything else, was inexpensive in Iran.  The currency was the rial and the exchange rate was a little over 10,000 rials to one US dollar.  Calculating prices was easy: 20,000 rials was two dollars, 50,000 five dollars, etc.  I kept 20,000 notes in one pocket and 50,000 notes in another. Taxi rides were dirt cheap: whenever we took a taxi I gave the guy a 20,000 note, which is two dollars, regardless of the distance, and said mam noon which means thank you. His face would light up because I probably gave him too much.

In Iran it wasn’t possible for tourists to rent a car and drive around on your own, you had to take a driving test in Farsi, which excludes just about everyone who isn’t Iranian.  Rather, you rent a car and driver, which is inexpensive.  We had a driver/guide who spoke excellent English and, aside from being a great guide, was funny.  He was a history teacher before becoming a guide, and the other guides came to him with questions.  We were a group of two (Misti and me) with a private guide and car; we don’t like guided tours but this worked well and enabled us to see much more than if we were on our own.

Driving here, or I should say being driven around, is quite an experience.  I thought I had seen the worst (or best) driving in places like Saigon, Cairo, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, etc.- but Iran beats them all.  I got so I didn’t mind seeing cars driving straight at us as we sat there unfazed, watching what looked like bumper cars in an amusement park, and we never saw any accidents which was amazing.

The operative word is always insha’allah or “as god wills it.”  No one seemed to get angry when cars drove straight at them and cut them off, that was normal behavior. I guess in Iran might is right, and the bigger you are the more right of way you make for yourself.  There were traffic police but they didn’t seem to care much about giving tickets.

About our trip: We flew into Tehran, and after two days there flew south to Shiraz.  Our driver/guide Darios met us at the Tehran airport and was our guardian angel for all aspects of sightseeing, driving from place to place, etc.  At first I had reservations about spending too much time with him, but he was a super nice, and funny, guy and he made it clear that any time we wanted to be on our own was OK.

We were advised, by our Australian friends, not to drive south to Shiraz and then back to Tehran because the country was mostly desert, and the long drives were tedious and exhausting.  So, taking their advice, we flew to Shiraz and drove about 1,500 miles back to Tehran.  We first spent three nights in Shiraz, an enchanting city with lots of history going back 4,000 years, and then drove about six hours to Yadz, the home of the Zoroastrians who were the dominant religion before Islam.

After two nights in Yazd we drove four hours to Esfashan, the third largest city in Iran and perhaps the loveliest with wonderful gardens and rivers and a population of about two million.  The poet Byron referred to Esfashan as the jewel of the Persian Empire.  From Esfashan we went to Abyaneh, an ancient village in the mountains, where we spent one night and it reminded me of Virginia City in Nevada. We next went to Kashan and then finally to Tehran by way of the holy city of Qom.

The driving (or I should say being driven) was pretty good: the roads were fine but, as in many other third world countries like Iran, there are many old trucks and buses smoking their way down the highway,  We were mostly on multi-lane roads through the desert so the driving was relatively fast and safe.   No air bags in this country but we did have seat belts and the car was a one year old Peugeot with good tires.  In many ways the countryside resembled Mexico with buildings started and never finished and a general feeling of being rundown; this is not a wealthy country.   

The main highway to Efshahan, Route 7, was a new six lane highway with little traffic.  The speed limit was 110 kph (about 65 mph) and the police used radar to stop speeders.  Our driver, Darius, told us the police will always take a bribe and the amount in dollars is determined by the speed you are going over the limit. He also said if you exceed 160 kph, about 100 mph, they take you to jail.

Just before getting to Kashan we passed a nuclear power plant that Iran was building. Darius told us that because of threats by Israel and the US, it was surrounded by missile installations and anti-aircraft guns.  He cautioned us not to take any pictures because the military had a way of detecting photos taken from passing vehicles.  He had a bad experience last year when someone on one of his tours took a picture and the police stopped them and examined everyone’s camera.  Needless to say our cameras stayed on our laps.

Because of the American sanctions on Iran, which have been in effect for years, there is nothing American here.  It’s the only country we’ve ever visited that doesn’t have one American car or one American fast food restaurant.  I miss Starbucks, and if they do have another revolution, whoever opens the first McDonalds will make a fortune; Iranians are hungry for American products.  Our driver told us that before the 1979 revolution, most of the cars were American.  After the revolution, when the shah was driven out of the country and Khomeini came in, and after the hostage situation, there was lots of bad blood between the two countries. Iran severed all ties with the US, and vice versa, and they’ve been at each others throats ever since.

The first shah, Shah Reza who was Shah Mohammed’s father, liberalized the country starting in the 1930’s and continuing into the 1940’s.  The hijab for women was abandoned and there were many other reforms.  Shah Mohammed continued reforms and by the mid 1970’s Iran and the US were good friends.

All that changed in the 1979 revolution when the mullahs gained power and brought the country back to the middle ages. Anything American was considered evil and banned.  As we traveled through the country we saw mosques and palaces where the clergy either defaced the older paintings and statues or painted over the women’s naked breasts.  This is where Iran is now, trapped by laws the people hate but can’t change. 

A young man we met described what he thought was the difference between Iran and America (they never call it the United States, just America).  He said Iran is like a pigeon coop where all the pigeons are flying around trying to escape, and America is like a big chicken coop where the chickens are free to leave but afraid to do so.  Interesting observation.

We did our main Persian carpet shopping in Efshahan, and bought eleven carpets of varying sizes, carrying five back on the plane and having the rest shipped.  We spent four hours in two carpet shops drinking lots of tea and choosing from hundreds of beautiful carpets.  I think we did good with the prices; after recent trips to India and China I’ve gotten pretty good at bargaining, and kind of enjoy it.  

Because of the sanctions it wasn’t possible to use any American credit cards, traveler’s checks, etc. in Iran.  And it wasn’t possible to have money wired from the US to Iran, it has to go through an intermediary country.  When we initially paid for our trip the travel agency instructed us to wire the money to a bank in Germany and the funds were transferred to them from the German bank.

There are limits on the number of carpets you can bring from Iran to the US.  The clever Iranian carpet dealers, of course, have found workarounds for these problems.  They go through carpet dealers in Dubai, so the funds and carpets go first through Dubai and then to the US.  This enabled us to use our Visa card because we were actually making transactions through a Dubai dealer and there are no sanctions on Dubai.  Worked for us.

We’ve were lucky with the weather.  No rain because much of this country is desert, and we missed the really hot weather by a month or so.  Temperatures were in the low to mid 80’s during the day and were down to the mid 70’s at night.  Shiraz and Yadz were the warmest places because they’re further south; Esfashan weather was near perfect.

The food in Iran was good but got a little monotonous.  We’re so spoiled in the US with the great variety of food: Asian, Latin, European, etc., but in Iran there is one choice of food, Iranian. For lunch and dinner we mainly went to restaurants that served the traditional Iranian meal: a fresh and delicious large salad, a bowl of barley soup, good but it always tastesdthe same, a huge plate of rice and a choice of kebabs of lamb, chicken or beef, or a whole fish.  

There were lots of what they call fast food restaurants on the street and we had good meals at several.  They served chicken roasted on a spit, which was delicious, and they called it Kentucky chicken.  They had a dish called dizi (pronounced dee zee and also called abgoosht) which is a stew of lamb and chick peas.  You first eat the broth and then mash the lamb and chick peas using a metal masher that looks like a piston (we bought one) - and eat it with bread, it’s very good.  There was lots of pizza but it looked awful so we never tried any.

Iran’s history is amazing. it goes back 4,000 plus years, and the names and places of all the rulers, events, battles, etc. is staggering.  We spent several hours at Persepolis, which was where Cyrus the Great ruled, and it was filled with relics that go back 2,500 or more years.  Persopolis was conquered, and mostly destroyed, by Alexander the Great when he tore through the country. 

My greatest interest, however, wasn’t Persian history, but rather modern Iranian politics.  When people asked me what I thought of Iran, the people and the government, the first thing I asked was if they wanted the honest truth, and they always said yes.  I told them how people in the United States generally regard Iran, and it’s not pretty.  I told them that many people in the US do not separate the people from the government and are afraid of Iran for many reasons.  I told them that many Americans are terrified that Iran will develop a nuclear bomb. I didn’t pull any punches and asked our driver Darius if he felt it was OK for me to be this honest- and he said to go for it. 

One day we were at a mosque and while waiting outside I struck up a conversation with an elderly man from Iraq, who spoke good English because he had worked as an engineer with the Brits.  Within ten minutes we had an audience of maybe ten or so people, and I was expounding on how Americans feel about Iran and its government.  They all listened, with lots of translation, and were very interested.  They bought us ice cream and we continued to discuss relations between the two countries.  The main reaction from people we spoke to is that the Iranian government is different than the people and the people like Americans, which I believe. 

I was surprised that Iranians, at least the ones we spoke to, seemed so unaware of how people in the US feel about Iran.  They receive western television, including BBC and CNN, but few can understand English so the news they receive is what their government gives them in Farsi.  Same for internet, I heard that much of it is blocked..

Iran is an interesting country to visit, but not as interesting as other Arabic countries like Egypt, Morocco or Turkey which have more to see and a much more developed tourist industry.  I think the main event here is the political situation between the US and Iran, and seeing and trying to understand how the people feel and where relations with the US and world will go. This was a great trip and we learned a lot, but I looked forward to returning to the US. Insha’allah (as god wills it).

Art Faibisch