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TRAVELERS
Luster of the earth

Journey to Samarkand and Bukhara
Keyvan Tabari
>>> 48 Photos

TRAVELERS
The logic of cab fares

Part 12: Smoldering in Tehran
Sima Nahan

One day I rode with a taxi driver of especially dignified bearing. He was about sixty years old, well spoken, with intelligent eyes. I never did find out what he did before or concurrently with driving a taxi. On our long drive from Toupkhaneh to Farmaniyyeh in stop-and-go traffic, it was I who did all the talking. I leaned my elbows on the seats in front and vented in his ear. He listened patiently. I ranted about how bad things are -- about the Islamic Republic, the U.S., war, poverty, the chaos of Tehran. I expressed my disgust at the last election, the whole lot of the presidential candidates, and the fact that election itself has become such fraud.

TRAVELERS
Modified terror

Part 11: Smoldering in Tehran
Sima Nahan

Let’s say, over the years, the reign of terror in Iran has been modified. The main target of harassment in daily life is now young people. This made my trip much more pleasant than in previous years. Gone were the days when my friends and I would be stopped and dragged to komiteh for riding in a car with members of the opposite sex. Now I sailed through checkpoints no matter whom I rode with. The gray in the hair and the offspring in the backseat are now license for relative freedom. (“Time to party... !” as a friend said.)

TRAVELERS
The American's visit

Part 10: Smoldering in Iran
Sima Nahan

While the American husband waited in Istanbul, Roya applied for his visa in person in Tehran. I accompanied her on a couple of her many visits to the Foreign Ministry. In all fairness, getting a visa for an American to visit Iran was much more transparent and less humiliating -- and costly -- than getting a visa for an Iranian to visit the U.S. (This is noteworthy, since it is the president of United States who makes threats against Iran and not vice versa.) Roya’s frequent visits to the Foreign Ministry warmed the officials to her and expedited things. Calls from family members to the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul helped with last minute logistics. It is still sometimes possible to humanize bureaucratic processes in the Iranian system.

TRAVELERS
Hard landing

Excerpt from "A Persian Odyssey: Iran revisited"
Rami Yelda

"A Persian Odyssey" is a story of young man leaving the country of his youth and starting a new life in another land. Forty years later, he builds up the courage to go back for a visit to a country that by now is alien to him. He cannot even convince his American wife to go with him. Yelda's tale of his trip is more poignant because he has no family and personal ties with Iran. His desire to go back for a visit without a planned itinerary is more a personal journey than a travelogue. His observations, contact with people he meets on his journey across Iran gives the reader a refreshing look at the lives of ordinary people and their hope and aspirations. The strong pull of an ancient culture still effects Iranians even the people who left without any plans to return. This book introduces you to this unique land and its amiable citizens.

DISCOVERY
Fish & things

Video clips and photos: A visit to Steinhart Aquarium, San Francisco
Jahanshah Javid

Recent visit to San Francisco's Steinhart Aquarium with friends Kayvan and Maryam, and their delightful little daughter Saman.

TRAVELERS
A slow night at Mehrabad airport

Part 9: Smoldering in Iran
Sima Nahan

“Asghar,” called a driver to another who had just pulled in, “come give this haj agha a ride back to Jeddah.” The haj agha (technically a man who has gone to Mecca, but liberally applied in Iran) was a tall man with a formidable belly in a long white djalaba. He was followed at demure distance by half a dozen black cones whose heavy veils with barely a slit at the eyes identified them as female. Their ease of movement signified their age. As the great patriarch strutted about, a couple of teenage boys in jeans and T-shirts -- sons and brothers of the black cones, presumably -- handled the family luggage. The Iranian cabbies snickered at the sight. “I wonder why they come here,” one said. “Well, for them Tehran is Paris,” said another.

SHORTS
Hearing hello

Iran travel diary
Shadi Bahar

I have become all too familiar with the sounds of the night and the early morning thanks to my insomnia. Just before dawn, a small bird comes to visit. I have never seen her. I only hear her say hello. But once she has finished singing her song, my eyes gladly give up the pointless struggle and we head outside in search of the morning.

TRAVELERS
Uncivil society

Part 8: Smoldering in Iran
Sima Nahan

The government notwithstanding, a major problem of building civic culture in Iran is the widespread absence of civility. People litter with complete ease as they call others heyvan for doing the same thing. Restaurant owners and staff ignore the patrons’ unanimous complaint of deafeningly loud music once the food orders are made. Traffic regulations are for the birds.

LIFE
Park Mellat by night

Death of an addict
Parham

Last year around exactly the same time, I was passing by Park Mellat when I ran into a similar scene. The man was dying in the cold on the sidewalk opposite the park -- in fact at first I thought he was dead -- and people were just passing by. I wished I had my camera so I could tape the scene and send it to you. He was just skin and bones, literally. I stopped to call emergency with my mobile phone, but people advised me not to. They were saying that the police would harass me endlessly if I did. Eventually, some young guys also gathered. They tried to stop police cars that were passing by, one of which didn't stop, the second did but left after a minute saying they'd send for help. They didn't.

SHORTS
The seventh day

I break a rose bud and slip it in my pocket while trying to justify "everything happens for a reason" in my mind
Shadi Bahar

"Salam azizam." She is all smiles and her frail body wraps itself around mine, as we try to restrain the tears that don't know their time or place. She whispers to me, calmly and rationally, trying to pace my sadness and her own. When tragedy strikes, amidst the shock and delirium that follows, someone must keep the troops standing and strong. Someone must push the broken soldiers onward. I recognize the signs of the leader of the wounded in her eyes.

TRAVELERS
The state of civil society

Smoldering in Tehran, Part 7
Sima Nahan

Some time in the 1990s, “civil society” -- jame’e-ye madani -- entered popular and official parlance.  Loosely connected to Khatami’s “dialogue of civilizations,” nongovernmental organizations popped up everywhere and NGO became a familiar word. Over 2000 registered NGOs were listed in a resource publication by the end of the decade. While religious charities and “G-NGOs” -- governmental non-governmental organizations -- comprised a great many of the listed organizations, many impressive grassroots efforts were also made. Having contacts in a number of old and new civic organizations in Iran, I started my own nonprofit in the U.S. to mobilize international support for the terrific work that these organizations did.

TRAVELERS
Reaching India

Photo essay: India is not a country. India is an idea
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi

TRAVELERS
Elementary schools in Kunduz

Photo essay: Village schools in northern Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan
Roozbeh Shirazi

TRAVELERS
Scuba salvation

Confessions (and photo essay) of a scuba fundamentalist
Ahmad Sadri

TRAVELERS
Young people

Smoldering in Tehran, Part 6
Sima Nahan

For an encore at an outdoor concert at Niavaran Palace, the singer sang a popular song: Tehran Nights. The balmy night with a full moon, the majestic old trees of the garden, and the twinkling lights of the elegant old palace of Ahmad Shah reverberated with the song’s lyrics: “Tehran nights, concealing many melodies…” This is an old song whose revival has reached Iran from the exiled Iranian community in Los Angeles. It evokes not just the nostalgia of the exiled community but the lamentation for stolen life that Iranians inside and outside the border share. It is the stealing of their lives that young people now resist with a vengeance. This resistance has given the old “concealed melodies” of Tehran nights an increasingly shrill edge.

CHILDREN
Khane-ye Kudak-e Nasser Khosrow

The hours that I have spent in this school were some of the sweetest I have experienced since I left the country many years ago >>> Photos
Samineh Baghcheban

For many years now I have regretted the fact that you can't see Mount Damavand from the city any more. Pollution is unrelenting. But on this trip I did not waste my time searching for the old Damavand view. I looked for what was there. And I was happy to visit Khane-ye Kudak-e Nasser Khosrow, which was one of the highlights of my trip. Khane-ye Kudak-e Nasser Khosrow is a center run by Society for the Protection of Children's Rights. It provides education and other services for Afghan and Indian immigrant children, and for undocumented Iranian children. The latter group are called bacheha-ye khiyabani who do not have birth certificates (shenasnameh) and cannot enroll in regular schools.

TRAVELERS
The rumor mill

Smoldering in Tehran, Part 5
Sima Nahan

Word of mouth still plays an important role in Tehran. People rely on it for many things -- from finding the best doctors or schools or the way to get something done, to receiving and passing on news that does not make it to the media. A taxi driver, for instance, will carry a first-hand account of the vigil in front of Tehran University for student Mohammadi who is on hunger strike at Evin. The next day you can learn of a women’s demonstration in front of the university. If you ask, you will be informed.

PHOTOGRAPHY
The beautiful city

Photo essay: San Francisco through loving eyes
Salim Madjd

SHORTS
Good morning Iran

Day 3
Shadi Bahar

TRAVELERS
Traffic conversations

Smoldering in Tehran, Part 4
Sima Nahan

There are two kinds of cabs in Tehran, those who take you door to door and those you hail for specific distances as you incrementally approach your destination. The latter you share with other passengers, generally three in the back seat and one or two in the front.I noticed a change in the tenor of conversations in these taxis. In the early days of the revolution and war, conversation was much livelier. Back then, these random assemblies were used by drivers and passengers to vent anger at the way things were. Inevitably someone would find opportunity to hiss the old threat that someday a mullah would hang from every chenar tree on former Pahlavi Avenue. People seemed to get energized by taking strangers into political confidence and to derive solace from the camaraderie.

TRAVELERS
Night train to Tabriz

So I knew as the train whistled past in the dark something of what I was missing, but the darkness engulfed everything from the flat snow to the sharpest mountain peaks.  Who knew what could be lurking within those depths?
Sara Nobari

Public Iranian spaces can be intimidating--crowds of dark-skinned, heavily-bearded men and clusters of veiled women all staring, or seeming to stare--intimidating, at least, to a lone fair-skinned American.  Airports are, to my mind, the worst of these spaces.  Waiting at airports is always a bore but made worse when the bureaucracy is foreign.  In Iran, men and women undergo separate security checks.  On our first conjugal trip to that country (my husband, Farshan’s, birth land), I was whisked away from him and ushered into a curtained-off area, then hand-searched by a group of women who eyed me relentlessly through the black veils of their chadour.   Immigration authorities confiscated my passport on our second visit (later redeemed by my father-in-law after two all-day excursions to a bureaucratic hole-in-the-wall).  On our most recent trip to Iran, complete with two young sons, I had had enough of airports and flying and voted whole-heartedly in favor of taking an overnight train for our annual pilgrimage from Tehran to Tabriz. 

NEW YORK
Times Square

Photo essay: New York's Times Square, 11pm last Thursday
Jahanshah Javid

NEW YORK
Statue of Liberty

Photo essay: A few hours with Lady Liberty
Jahanshah Javid

TRAVELERS
Greater Tehran

Smoldering in Tehran, Part 3
Sima Nahan

Since my last visit in 1992 Tehran had changed almost unrecognizably. Back then the country was still jang-zadeh-war-stricken. The walls were plastered with war propaganda and death-to-America slogans. Food and consumer goods were in short supply. It was long enough after the revolution that cars and buildings had aged, unmaintained. New buildings were scarce and the better buildings tucked away inside old leafy gardens. Apart from the few and far-between billboards advertising rice-cookers and blenders, advertising was refreshingly absent.

NEW YORK
Central Park

Video clips & photo essay: New York on a glorious day
Jahanshah Javid

TRAVELERS
Colorful but unstable

Beneath all the struggles, specially economically, people still strive to push the boundaries
A Friend

The same sub-cultures that exist in the west, like the druggies, the snobs, the intellects, the hippies, the artists, the virgins and the experienced, the gays are also existent in Iran but the difference is that now you can easily set them apart on the streets by their dress-code and their encounter. Iran as a result of all this change has become much more colorful, but yet unstable... and MY GOD so many beautiful girls and guys, of course the ratio of the girls to guys in Iran is now four to one, as you know, so this has created a huge problem for the girls who want a proper relationship...

TRAVELERS
Who voted for Ahmadinejad?

Part 2: Smoldering in Tehran
Sima Nahan

Akram is quite a woman. As a single mother she raised her son with hard work through the very difficult years of revolution and war. She is a strong and athletic woman who has climbed the 18,000-feet Mount Damavand a number of times. Her passion is mountaineering and, as a woman, she is a novelty and quite popular in the predominantly male climbing community. Over the years she has picked her boyfriends by testing their endurance in the mountains first. She tells funny stories of how she wears down lightweight men who can’t keep up with her.

TRAVELERS
Smoldering in Tehran

Part 1 of 12
Sima Nahan

My trip to Iran lsat summer was a personal one. It was short and heavily booked with seeing family and friends I had not seen since my last visit there, thirteen years ago. My contact with people outside my personal circle would be limited to chance encounters and random conversations. I had no plans to interview anyone or engage in political discussions, the way we used to in the early years of the revolution. But one can no sooner get away from politics than avoid the exhaust fumes in Tehran. Politics permeates everything from family life to random encounters. Observations are acute.

TRAVELERS
We can, we will

I want to move to Italy; need to convince the wife
Siamack Salari

Norway was beautiful (this was our second trip) and we spent four wonderful days in excellent company. The boys and I ate Reign deer, Elk and Whale meat. The best was the Reign Deer by far.cReturning home was an anti-climax.cTwo days later V and I had a row. It was one of those, are you with me or without me kind of rows. I needed her unequivocal agreement that we could and we would move to Italy by Christmas. She was all for it right up to the moment when she realised it was really going to happen (I put the house up for rent). Then doubts began to set in.

IRAN
Green, brown, grey and so glorious

Photo essay: Iran's mountains
Fariba Amini

I guess I have fallen in love again, this time with my homeland. I can’t stop thinking or writing about it. Its nature is overwhelming, especially its glorious mountains. Every turn you make, you see a different scene, a unique color, and each mountain looks distinct from the next. Brown, green, grey and glorious they are.

TRAVELERS
Celebration of life

Photo essay: Our adventure to Italy
Nooshin and Aram Basseri

IRAN
Hope for a miracle

Reflections on a recent visit to Iran
Rostam Azadi

The foundation of Iranian culture and identity is under a mounting threat of complete devastation. Iranian society with its many diverse ethnicities, which has endured pounding by various waves of external adversaries in the past several millennia, has now a real chance of collapsing due to its ever shrinking ethical foundation. This danger does not only apply to the dire economic situation which has always existed in Iran, but also to how Iranians view and regard themselves. The predicament must first be fully acknowledged before any remedy can be pursued, otherwise the danger of remaining aloof for much longer may undeniably prove to be very costly.

PEOPLE
Liberal -- to a degree

As a child of the revolution, who remembers little of the years preceding and following 1979, I am stunned by how deep the teeth of theocracy has sunk into the Iranian psyche
Ramtin

While visiting family during a trip to Qom I decided to strike up a serious conversation with two cousins of mine; both of whom are in their mid 30's. My male cousin, Hassan, is an ex-communist who returned from studying in the United States to join the revolutionary fight in 1979. My other cousin, Shiva, is a painter who studies yoga and takes her two teenage children to daily English lessons with the hopes of one day securing them a "Western" education. Needless to say, neither of them would be considered "conservative" or "religious" in any sense. But in a matter of moments I would find out that religiosity and personal philosophy are complicated matters in contemporary Iran.

TRAVELERS
An American in Tehran

“Why did we have a revolution if we can’t ignore traffic lights?”
Jack Oakley

I was disoriented most of the ten days I spent in Tehran this July.  Although I have been with my Iranian wife and her family and friends for nine years, and seen their snapshots from before the revolution (1978), and studied Persian literature, architecture, carpets, and handicrafts, and we have translated the poetry of Omar Khayyam, I was unprepared for the taut, energetic, and yet warmly personal atmosphere. Tehran feels like a war zone, a chaos where rules are suspended, self-interest governs, and decent people carry on their lives as best they can.  My Russian piano teacher has described her childhood during the siege of Leningrad and life under Stalin.  It’s one thing to hear about and another to visit.  The ruling mafia started a war with Iraq just after the revolution and they have found methods for maintaining the atmosphere.  Anxiety and fear serve the purposes of certain governments, like the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Bush War on Terror.

IRAN
Inspirational soul

Photo essay: There is tremendous goodness in Iran that has not gone away even with the daily struggles people face
Fariba Amini

TRAVELERS
Dipped in silky water

Visiting Sareyn hot springs
Sara Nobari

Fereshteh paid the man standing guard the entrance fee and we passed through curtains into the inner sanctum. It was as if I had discovered the secret gathering place of Iranian women. There were about fifteen of them in the small square pool, and they were all naked -- withered grandmothers and plump mothers, shapeless girls and supple teenagers. The imperfect bodies sagged here and there, puckered at the hips and stretched around the stomachs; breasts hung freely. I had never seen so lovely a sight. The women were completely relaxed with each other. There were no covert glances, no snide asides; everyone was at ease. 

SACRIFICE
Qorbani

Photo essay: Sacrificing sheep
Aidin Fathalizadeh

IRAN
Seeing the future in their eyes

Excerpt from "The Soul of Iran: A Nation's Journey to Freedom"
Afshin Molavi

This book is a chronicle of an important moment in Iran’s quest for freedom. In these pages, I tried to remain neutral, dispassionate, and objective, but it wasn’t easy. I’ve met too many bright, young, and democratic-minded Iranians to be pessimistic. In their eyes, I’ve seen the future of Iran. But I’m not naive. I’ve also seen up close the eyes of violence and reaction: hard-liners who want to force the chick back into the egg, government agents who intimidate journalists, judges who sentence writers and professors to death, thugs who beat prodemocracy students. Authoritarian states rarely go quietly, and the Islamic Republic will be no exception.

TRAVELERS
Back to Moorish times

Photo essay: Portugal's Silves festival
Azadeh Azad
Added >>> Castle pix

TRAVELERS
Seeking truth in Egypt

Photo essay
Hooman Tavakolian

KATRINA
New Orleans, 1989

Remembering our short trip to New Orleans back in 1989
Farah Ravon

TRAVELERS
Stranger

The austere atmosphere is periodically interupted by a bizzare electronic melody of someone's cell phone
M.N.

I watched on TV the candidate for the ministry of "Etelaa-aat" (Internal Security) address the parliment and thought "this is not someone who will be rejected". The cleric delivered a concise, self-confident oration promising among other things to preserve the sanctity of peoples homes and "space" from arbitrary initiatives by the state. TV is bizzare and interesting. Of course so is just about everything else. During my first trip back last year things appeared so much as I remembered them. This time however, I find myself more of a stranger, more remvoed in contrast to our friends who think that things have now become normal for me.

HOPE
The plague

Are we a hopeless, hapless nation indeed? I hope and believe not. But I wonder how much longer it will be before our national consciousness awakens from a centuries-old slumber
Moe

Maybe I am being a pessimist after all. Maybe my two months in Iran and the extent of the utter backwardness (I've always cringed at using that word -- but no longer!) I've seen has colored my judegement with new, darker-shade glasses. May be my recent visit to Dubai [photos: Old & new], my first, and the contrast of what is possible and what we have has unduely influenced my opinion. Maybe recent articles have reaffirmed the worst I always feared. Maybe the entangled, devoid character of the Tehrangeles community -- who live in the prime of convenience and liberty -- and yet, by and large, have embraced its basest values, has finally taken its toll.

TRAVELERS
Pale Orange Revolution

Life in Ukraine 9 months after the bloodless revolution
Kia Kashani

Ukraine is a paradise for alcoholics. Good beer and vodka are really cheap here. You can buy beer every 10 meters in streets, and of course you are permitted to drink it in public. There is a law that sipping vodka in public is prohibited but nothing can stop Ukrainians from drinking vodka in parks or similar places. What is interesting to me is how much they drink they do not shout or disturb women in streets (very unlike what is going on in Iran). Women easily can walk late night without any fear. Ukraine is a matriarchal country. The founder of Kiev was a woman and her two brothers. Maybe this is one of the reasons women are more active than men. Women feel more responsible about the economics of family and their children. They think Ukrainian men can not be trusted because most of them drink too much and are lazy.

TRAVELERS
Road to Hamadan

It always happens that I fall in love with a place just as I have to leave it
Sara Nobari

"Where are you from?" she asked.
"America," I answered. "San Diego. Do you live here?" I motioned around me.
"Yes." There was a moment's pause. "I don't like it here," she burst out. "Iran is not good." She motioned to her scarf and coat and then to mine, with a show of repugnance. We burst out laughing.
"I like Iran," I said. "The country is beautiful." I motioned again to the land around us. 
She smiled but motioned again to my coat. "Iran is not good for girls," she said. She shook her head sorrowfully and ran off.

TRAVELERS
Sister cities

Photo essay: Isfahan-Freiburg
Mehrdad

On our visit to the beautiful city of Freiburg this summer, I came across this tiles mosaic on the pavement (see picture 8). Apparently Freiburg has several sister-cities throughout the world and the latest one is Isfahan.

TRAVELERS
Jaja Fortress

Photos essay: Seljuk era remains outside Isfahan
Abbas Soltani

These are photos of the Jaja Fortress which is in the village of Jaja which is also locally known as Chaja. It is located about 100 kms outside of Isfahan past Najababad and Tiran. This fortress, from what I heard, dates back to the Seljuk era (11th to 13th century). It's in pretty bad shape as the roof has collapsed and caved in so you really are walking on the roof.

TRAVELERS
Toudeshk

Photo essay: Between Isfahan and Naeen
Ben Bagheri

I went to Iran late July and spent a couple of weeks, mainly in Tehran and a couple of days in the birthplace of my parents between Isfahan and Naeen. My parents' roots are in and around Toudeshk and Toudeskhachou (little Toudeshk), on the outer edges of Iran's central deserts. These two villages have now expanded and merged into a township named after the bigger of the two, Toudeshk. The newly municipalized Toudeshk has a brand new city hall and a mayor!

PLACES
Last trip

Photos essay: Kashan
Parviz

TRAVELERS
Up & down Iran

Photo essay: While spending this summer in Iran I convinced my cousin Reza that we should take a road trip
Sharven Taghavi

WOMEN
Rules of desire

The interminable question of hijab
Afsaneh Najmabadi

When I arrived in Tehran in early July, it was shortly after the presidential elections. There was a great deal of apprehension about what the election results would translate into, especially as far as cultural space, civil liberties, public norms, and similar issues were concerned. Understandably, among all the women I visited, Islamicly-oriented or secular, how the practical rules of hijab and female-male socializing in public would change were topics of agitated concern and speculation. But what I found most fascinating was the working of the rules of hijab in private homes.

KIDNEY
Brazilian bait

When I woke up I felt a sharp pain in my back and the room was in darkness
Kayvan Mobini unedited

It was some times that I was mesmorised by those beautiful Brazilian girls who paraded their heavenly bodies on the beaches of Rio do Janeiro and being a human I had decided that I must embark on a trip to the city and taste what was on offer in Rio, being married with 3 children I made the excuse of going on a business trip to Brazil for a week and promised to bring back some worthy presents for the family.

SHORTS
Jet lagged
NR is an Iranian-American visiting Iran. This is his email from Tehran:
A breez blows in this early yet still silent morning. What does it bear as chapter 27 of the life of people here approaches? From the balcony the town is still. Damavand on the right is steeper than I remembered.

Yesterday I accompanied five women to a park to observe an exhibition of contemporary sculpture. The children in the playground were older than the ones I was used to seeing around the [San Francisco] Bay Area. We walked past three retired old men, in usnison their gaze turned to me as the women had passed them. I nodded a greeting and all three responded naturally and immedeately "salam". Quenching momentarily that prepetual need I have for an acknowledgement of that brief moment we pass one another.

The irony of contemprary art residing within or on the edge of an ideology that parries challenges to the imperative of redefinition is striking and immediate. A curved and abstract ram makes me think that is what the rough edges have to evolve into. Then some moments later in the tea house the waiter apologetically brings a pair of complimentary socks for one of the ladies and asks to do the same for Bella. Bella pulls down her skirt lower and the socks wearing standoff is averted. The women are covered with so much cloth as if that can restrain their power. I observe this all clad in a a t-shirt sipping a supremely satisfying sharbat-e albaloo in a wine glass.

LIFE
Suitable boy

I realize that present-day Iran and 19th century England have more in common than meets the eye. But at the end of the day, it is only a matter of perspective.
Homa Rastegar

"Now listen to me," she says importantly. "There is a very handsome young man here this evening." I smile politely but make no comment. "Look," she presses, nodding her head to the right. "He’s right over there. His name is Ali. Wouldn’t you like to meet him?" She looks at me expectantly. I mumble an excuse and rush off. She finds me after five minutes and taps me on the shoulder. I turn around. There she is, beaming at me, and with the poor chap in tow! She begins the typical introductions: Ali is "very successful" and "runs his own business" and I am "a fine girl" from "an excellent family" and "did you know, she even speaks German," the last word drawn out like dripping honey.

OBSERVATIONS
Crouching camel, hidden dragon

America should be more wary of China than the Islamic world
Mahinn Bahrami

There was a certain bubbling excitement brewing inside me just waiting to burst. He looked at my face then looked down and with a big thumping sound made his mark on the page. The stamp was in Chinese and I guessed the translation to be "Permit to Enter People's Republic of China". I grabbed my passport and happily passed the customs officer to the other side of the gate. I was in a communist country, for the first time, and it was the most exhilarating experience.

OBSERVATIONS
Crouching camel, hidden dragon

America should be more wary of China than the Islamic world
Mahinn Bahrami

There was a certain bubbling excitement brewing inside me just waiting to burst. He looked at my face then looked down and with a big thumping sound made his mark on the page. The stamp was in Chinese and I guessed the translation to be "Permit to Enter People's Republic of China". I grabbed my passport and happily passed the customs officer to the other side of the gate. I was in a communist country, for the first time, and it was the most exhilarating experience.

TRAVELERS
Catching up, real fast

Photo essay: Antalya, Turkey
Farrokh Khatami
>>> 40 more pix

PILOT
Tars va parvaaz

Struck by lightning on a flight from Tehran to Ahvaz
Amir Kasravi

TRAVELERS
Obrigado Brazil

Brazilians I saw to be a highly sociable and charming people among whom hugging, kissing, and passionately engaging interactions are as normal as breathing air
Ali Akbar Mahdi
Photo essay

HISTORY
Walled city

Photo essay: Izadkhast in Fars Province
Abbas Soltani

Two years ago, as I was driving on my way to Shiraz to see Persepolis and Pasargade, I noticed this fortress that dates back from the Sassanian era (224-651 CE) in the Shahr-Reza area in a small village/town called Izadkhast, which is also known az Yazdekhast. So, I made a point to go there on my next trip. So, two years later, I made it to Izadkhast. The fortress is actually much bigger than I had imagined and going inside it, I can tell you that it's easily a walled city.

 

 

TRAVELERS
Adam o Hava

Photo essay: Attending a wedding in Kauai Island, Hawaii
Faranak & Kourosh

PHOTOGRAPHY
Farrokh meets Martha

Photo essay: Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Farrokh Khatami

LIFE
Azinja moondeh, azoonja roondeh

For all bi-cultural Iranians who feel they don't really belong anywhere
Mahsa Meshki

Sami beckoned to the waiter to bring over an ashtray. He lit a cigarette and took a sip of his cappuccino. He looked at Nousha and said, "I am so confused Noush, azinja moondeh azoonjan roondeh ... Do you ever get the feeling that we don't belong anywhere? When my parents sent me to the West I was a child of 12 years. With my dark features and strange name I became a hermit in a strange land trying to make sense of what had happened. Looking back, I don't know how I got through it. The other day my mom told me to be careful when I cross the street. It made me laugh and cry at the same time. Parents can be such a nuisance."

TRAVELERS
Inja Tehran ast

Sure, streets and traffic lights have changed, but nothing has changed
Shahin Milani

After almost eight years, it was finally happening. I was on the Iran Air flight from Amsterdam to my beloved Tehran. The plane was full, and all the passengers that I saw were Iranian. The dude who was sitting next to me was quite a character.A little after I had started the conversation he was telling me about how his female cousin was divorcing her husband because she was caught watching porn and having sex with her husband's sister! I was shocked, of course. I had heard about the spread of lesbianism, but I didn't think I would hear stories about it before I had entered the Iranian airspace. Talking with that dude was fun, and it heralded a fun time.

TRAVELERS
Unexpected connection

... at a Prague gay bar
Dario Margeli

Prague is not cheap. At night, I was getting a bit bored since after 6pm -- unless you want to have an expensive dinner in a restaurant -- there's little to do in the cold weather. So, being single and still hopeful that I will find my significant other, I decided to go to some of the gay bars in Prague! After some research in an internet café, I wrote down the addresses and started walking. As I walked, I felt weird and scared, because it looked like I had reached a residential neighborhood. It was weird because usually in other countries you expect bars to be in the center of town along with shops and other entertainment establishments.

SHIRAZ
Enduring kindness

What is in this magical word Shiraz that makes everyone sit up and take notice?
Reza Bayegan

Is it the poetry, the wine or the fabulous gardens? Is it Shiraz’s proximity to the ruins of Persepolis or Cyrus’s tomb in Pasargad awakening in us a reverence for the roots of our civilized humanity? What is in Shiraz’s land and water that makes it different from any other place? It has a soil not in any way unique. The oxygen one breathes there is like any other oxygen. The trees and vegetation are not that different from those found in a land of similar climate. And still we know that Shiraz evokes in us feelings and sensations that no other place is able to.

TURKEY
Meeting Baba in Istanbul

Photo essay
T.A.

TRAIL
Arch Rock

Photo essay & video clips: Hiking to the beach with friends in northern California's Bear Valley
Jahanshah Javid

IRAN
First time

Less than a day after arriving in Iran I can already see to what extent my visions of the country are realistic or sheer fantasy
Homa Rastegar

Sitting in the plane now as it taxies on the runway, these visions whirl through my mind, and I suddenly realize there is something more practical at hand: I have no experience in tying a headscarf, or roosari as it’s called in Persian. Hastily I wrap it around my head, stuffing the ends of my long hair under my collar, and exit the plane with dozens of Iranians, all chattering away as if landing in Mehrabad airport were the most normal occurrence, oblivious to my wonder, my trepidation, my excitement. I feel like a child, gaping at everything I see.

MOVE
The peach tree

He is right. California is a good place. It is better than most places, to be precise. But California isn't home.
Roozbeh Shirazi

There are nineteen peaches on our tree this year. They are small and still green, but nonetheless they are still peaches. Nineteen is a number too few to feel proud of, but enough to appreciate and to remember. This was the first year that the tree had borne fruit -- the second actually, but the first time that the squirrels and birds had not dispatched of the peaches prematurely. The squirrels in particular raised the ire of my father, because they had the habit of only eating half the peach and discarding the rest at the base of the tree in a display of their power and our helplessness. Baba called them Hezbollahis.

TRAVELER
Up and Down Under

Photo essay: Sydney & Perth
Shahriar Talebi

TRAVELERS
Portrait of a city

Yes, even in Tehran, even in this crazy, congested, polluted city, beauty abounds
Sara Valafar

DRIVING
Boogh boogh
A Western perspective on traffic in Iran
Martin

IRAN
Damaged
I can't hold on to the glorious past when the present is rotting before my eyes
Lobat Asadi

TRAVELERS
They're everywhere
Central Asian travel diary -- Part 3
Shahriar Zahedi

TRAVELERS
Man ahl-e Tajrisham

Photo essay: North Tehran
Aref Erfani

TRAVELERS
Wet Kabol

Putting my hand outside my bedroom window to feel the rain and decided that tonight is this country's rebirth
Roozbeh Shirazi

TRAVELERS
They're everywhere

Central Asian travel diary -- Part 2
Shahriar Zahedi

TRAVELERS
Jan-e Azarbaijan

Photo essay: Iran's Azarbaijan Province & Astara
Fereydoun Safizadeh

TRAVELERS
They're everywhere
Central Asian travel diary -- Part 1
Shahriar Zahedi

TOURIST
Hall of Mirrors
Photo essay: Golestan Palace, Tehran
Aref Erfani

TRAVELERS
Seems like a dream

Photo essay: Central Asia
Shahriar Zahedi

WELCOME
Choose Canada

Did you know Canada SEEKS new immigrants?
Maryam Manteghi

TRAVEL
All that glitters

Photo essay: Sa'dabad Palace, Tehran
Aref Erfani

IRAN
Suffocating charmer

Am I happy to be landing in Tehran? Or not?
Shahla Azizi

TRAVELERS
Tourist burgers

As an American traveling in Iran, the overall impression I got was that young people want to join our 21st century global community
Diane Fisher

TRAVELERS
My people

Interview with the author of "Searching for Hassan"
Fariba Amini

TRAVELERS
Camel journeys

Desert sojourns
Nahal Toosi

TRAVELERS
True gem
Photo essay: People, pets & places in Cuba
Sina

TRAVELERS
Divided under god
Photo essay: Visiting Lebanon & Syria
Saman

HERE & THERE
Hejab bee Hejab
Photo essay: Women breath a little on Shemshak ski resort
Aref Erfani

HERE & THERE
Traditional mall
Photo essay: Tehran bazaar
Aref Erfani

HERE & THERE
Going for a ride
Photo essay: Tehran metro
Aref Erfani

GEOGRAPHY
Plain of paradise

Origins of Fenderesk
Guive Mirfendereski

DUBAI
Royal Mirage

A holiday to remember
Siamack Salari

DIARY
Zendegi-ye yek khalabaan

Private thoughts of an airline pilot
Amir Kasravi

BAHAI
Thanks to Khomeini

Disrespecting the dead
Cyrus Iranzad

TRAVELERS
Checkpoint

4Shanbeh-Soori party in Iran: anxiety & freedom
Nana

REPORTER
Should I even be here?

What draws me back to Baghdad again and again
Borzou Daragahi

BOOK
Lazy lechers

Excerpt from "Lipstick Jihad"
Azadeh Moaveni

WORK
Dubai's downside

UAE society is completely stratified with every inhabitant categorized
Rachel Cerbone

TRAVELERS
Journey to the Caspian
Part 3: An American's travels in Iran in 1973
Rick Misterly

PARENTS
Babysitting in style
The twins won't let us spend too much time doing anything to really appreciate our expensive holiday
Siamack Salari

REPORTER
Fear and voting in Baghdad

Substantive election issues have become subsumed in the chaos. Voters top concerns are security, security and security
Borzou Daragahi

TRAVELERS
Destination Tehran
An American's travels in Iran in 1973, Part 2
Rick Misterly

VIDEO
Abbassi Hotel
Isfahan
Bahram 9821

TRAVELERS
Port of entry
Finding the upright position and emerging from the truck, the first sight that struck me was that we were in another country
Rick Misterly

FICTION
Mosaafer
Short story
Mohammad Hossainzadeh

TRAVELERS
Charmed
Photo essay: Peru
Nooshin and Aram Basseri

BOOK
Saba in Australia

Individual journey with Hafiz
Farid Parsa

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