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
April 12, 2005
iranian.com

'God protect us from famine, lies and earthquake' opined the inscription on the great Apadama staircase. We were visiting Perspolis, the 2500 year old spring palace of Darius the Great, Grand Emperor of all Persia, nowadays known as Iran and currently part of Bush's 'Axis of Evil'.

In those days, ancient Persia encompassed a vast empire, which is depicted in stunning bas-relief on the staircase: ambassadors of dozens of nations coming to pay homage. There are Parthians in pointy hats, Abyssinians, Greeks from Odysseus's Ionian islands, Bactrians, Arabs (Iranians are not Arabs), Indians and Gandarans from Afghanistan. They all march forward with their gifts, a memory from a time when the whole region was at peace, ruled by a king who was responsible for the first recorded Code of Human Rights, a section which can be found over the portals of our United Nations building in New York City.

But much has changed and continues to change fast, in modern Iran. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to spend a month last summer, with my son, in Iran, as a tourist. Even more fortunately, we were able to stay with a local family whose youngest daughter, a brilliant third year archaeology student on her summer vacation from college, was able to translate (my Farsi is very basic) and accompany us on all our travels. What I found there was astonishing and also very reassuring for anyone who might think that:

... Iran is dangerous
... Iranians don't like Americans
... Iran is a primitive desert kingdom, whose only value to the modern world is in its oil reserves

In today's Iran, the religious leaders still hold the reins of power, but there is new generation coming of age in the country, one born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and impatient for modernisation and freedom. Cities are full of pizza joints, 'tourist burgers', Pepsi (despite having no formal diplomatic relationship with the United States, this spearhead of global capitalism has succeeded in penetrating), internet cafes and horrendous traffic.

Fashionable young women, like the daughters of our host's family, have taken the legal requirement to wear 'hijab' (a covering for hair and bare skin) and made it fashionable, by purchasing the latest Yves St. Laurent, sparkly headscarves and wearing them on the very backs of their heads and by tightly belting the short colourful raincoats, known as 'manteaus', on sale in the many exotic boutiques.

Iranian feminism is alive and well and in some ways is supported even by traditional society. For the middle classes, education of both men and women is a top priority and Iranian women hold more Masters and Doctorate degrees than any other Middle Eastern country.

Although the religious leaders view Western music and dancing as suspect, both are common in private homes and parties and during one car journey, we had a wonderfully insightful discussion about modern feminism in Iran, sparked off by the revolutionary lyrics of John Lennon's 'Woman is the Niger of the World.'

For many older Iranians I spoke with, this move towards a more open society is a welcome return to the modernising agenda of the previous Shah, Reza Pavlavi, who was deposed in 1979 by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Since the end of the disastrous war with Iraq in the mid-eighties, when Iran lost half a generation of young men, the population has really exploded and something like 70% of the population is under 30 years of age.

These young people are often highly educated, unemployed, impatient and dissatisfied. In traditional Iranian society, cultural roles are very sharply defined. It is seen as deeply shameful for your children to have to work at anything other than a professional job.

So I witnessed a situation where aging parents were struggling to support an entire brood of educated but unemployed offspring in their twenties. Economically, as well as being a vast, untapped resource, this situation is also a time bomb waiting to explode and is open to political manipulation by unscrupulous parties of any nationality.

Forward thinking intellectuals and business people I spoke with want to see the country economically modernised and brought up to speed as a 21st century power able to compete with rising eastern superpowers such as China. They want Iran to join the World Bank and develop its capacity for nuclear energy in order to supply the growing electricity demands resulting from a combination of the population explosion and near universal access to information technology.

But what was it like for us, on the ground, as Americans, visiting the tourist attractions and navigating around Shiraz, a city of 2 million and billed as the cultural capital of Iran?

Shiraz nestles in a valley, in southwest Iran, in amongst the stunning Zagros mountain range that continues northwards up into Turkey and provides a natural barrier to Iraq in the west.

Snapshots from our trip range from a mixture of very traditional scenes that would not be out of place in a Biblical narrative to the very latest examples of technology and a very efficient, modern healthcare system.

One memorable day, we were invited to attend a wedding of nomads, out in the desert, because our host's family had relatives, who had relatives who had married into a nomadic tribe. It was straight Old Testament theatre: beautiful, exotically veiled women dancing in colourful sparkling dresses, young men performing a traditional stick dance, a goat tethered and awaiting slaughter and of course the ritualised gun salute at the end, similar to the one that resulted in the terrible slaughter of that Iraqi wedding party last year.

Another, less enjoyable but equally traditional experience, was the gender segregation in evidence everywhere outside of the home. Mosques, schools, airport security, gyms, swimming pools, football matches and buses all have sections for men and
other sections just for women. This was explained to me as necessary in order to 'protect' women. To me this seemed to smack of the same warped logic as the thinking that allows a dominant culture to invade a less powerful one, in order to offer 'help' and 'liberation', without ever seriously consulting the less powerful culture to find out what kind of help, if any, is actually wanted and/or needed.

Both policies, no matter how well meaning, are patronising and show a fundamental lack of respect for the party being 'protected' or 'liberated'. Both are born from an innate, though unintended arrogance. Both predictably result in resentment and disempowerment. And both policies are designed to control the weaker party by manipulation and the dishonest belief that is for 'their own good'.

Back in Shiraz, I needed to go to the dentist. My host made an appointment for the same afternoon. After a very short wait, in a modern, air conditioned waiting room, I was ushered into the dentist's surgery. He and his staff spoke perfect English. The surgery was spotlessly clean (as just about everywhere in Iran was), the equipment was modern. When it came time to get an X-ray, I was sent to another office. I waited about 3 minutes, had it taken and received the completed X-ray 15 minutes later! Treatment, including the X-ray cost me about $17. It was fast, efficient, friendly and effective.

Other snapshots: Going with my friend, Layla, a teacher, to visit a children's art exhibition at the local school. As we entered the colourful foyer, we were served delicious Persian sweets and classical Persian music serenaded us. All along the walls were such happy pictures! Smiling stick figure children, pets, rainbows, sunshine. This is a society that adores its children and if anything, overprotects them. I thanked God that these children had not known the trauma and physical and psychological devastation of war, like some of the children of the 1 million refugees who have flooded Iran in the last 3 years to escape the horrors at home in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I was curious about the fate of these refugees. I also wanted to know what had happened to the survivors of the terrible earthquake in December 2003 that had destroyed the historic mud brick city of Bam and killed some 26,000 people. I headed off to the headquarters of the Iranian Red Crescent (the middle eastern branch of the Red Cross). What I found was surprising.

Apparently, most of the refugees have already been assimilated into the society or gone back to their home countries. What was really astonishing though, was learning that although the survivors of the earthquake had initially been housed in tents, then moved into prefab houses, now only 8 months later, they were all resettled permanently within the 11 provinces of Iran! Apparently, Iran ranks 5th in the world at disaster relief, behind only the USA, China, Japan and Germany.

In between more formal visits to tourist attractions, I was able to take part in family life and accompany my hosts on their personal errands. Everywhere we went, whether it was apartment hunting for our young student host, Zahra or shopping in the bazaar, I met nothing but kindness and interest and enthusiasm for all things American.

Young ladies would chat to me on the bus, in English, about their studies and ask me about life in the west. Everyone wanted to help us or invite us home and feed us delicious, fresh, organic meals until we could barely move! I ate so much of the creamy local ice cream, called 'bastani' and the famed Shiraz delicacy, 'faludeh', which is a sort of lemon sherbet with thin rice noodles in it (delicious!), that I became distinctly tubby by the time I went home! Every night we would watch television, in English, to keep abreast of world events. Iranian young people are very, very interested in the world they live in so we had many interesting discussions!

The overall impression I got was that young people want to join our 21st century global community and reap the benefits and enjoy the technology (Iranian teenagers all have cell phones, love the internet, will discuss endlessly the merits of one mini-disc player over another) but also want to see their history, traditions and culture acknowledged, respected and preserved.

In my relatively short time in Iran, I also came to the conclusion that there is much in this society that we could learn from, enjoy and should commit to protecting so that all humanity may have access to it.

One such place is the stunning Shah-e-Cheragh mausoleum, tomb of the brother of Iman Reza, a great holy man. This superb example of Islamic art and architecture is simply the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life! It was built in the mid 14th century, is a brother to the mosque in the holy city of, Najaf, Iraq and is an important place of pilgrimage for Shiite Muslims. It is a fantastic structure with two egg shaped domes, right in the centre of Shiraz.

I had to wear a black 'chador' (meaning tent) in order to go in, as non-Muslim westerners are normally not admitted. Inside, glittering, shimmering, gleaming and shining was light and space, tiny pastel mirrored mosaic tiles on all surfaces, stained glass and a kaleidoscope of reflected rainbows. A real Aladdin’s cave of gold and silver, light and colour, chandeliers and plush Persian carpets in 1001 tints and hues. One scholar told me that it was meant to affect you subliminally, so that you felt you had entered paradise and were automatically closer to God.

Inside, women prayed, studied holy books, conversed with friends, and in some cases just slept out of the hot August sunshine. Children played hide and seek and tag in amongst the many-mirrored optical illusions. Mosques and mausoleums such as this represent the pinnacle of Islamic art and science and any wanton destruction of such miracles of devotional art truly are crimes against humanity.

One day we visited the Fars History Museum, which is home to a superb collection of waxwork figures, with accompanying information in Farsi and English. This was typical of the consistent standard of scholarship and commitment to public education that I found everywhere I went. As well as public figures and politicians from the 20th century, there were revered figures from the past, such as the great poets Rumi and long bearded, mystic Hafez.

There was also the national poet Saadi, who saved Shiraz from the predations of Genghis Khan and his marauding Mongol hordes, by welcoming them into the city as guests, as befit a city renowned throughout the Persian Empire for its hospitality and generosity. At the entrance to the Museum was a bronze phoenix, symbol of the Iranian people, who have survived periods of great tumult and destruction, to rise again, stronger and more vital, from the ashes.

As I sat waiting for my airplane home, in Shiraz's spotless modern airport, I thought how essential it is for us, as Americans, to just take some time to think, this time, and get all our facts straight, before we make a decision that could destroy a culture that is the birthplace of our civilisation and make our own world a much poorer place. Let us hope that the prayers of Darius the Great are answered and Iran IS protected from 'famine, lies and earthquakes'. And, I determined to do as one young man requested, and 'please, let the world know we are not terrorists.' ,