Blog One: Journey to Understand Iran

Blog 1: May 4, 2016

OUR JOURNEY TO UNDERSTAND IRAN

My feelings about going to Iran are mixed with both curiosity, excitement and uncertainty.  John has had Iran on his travel wish list for a long time and I am ambivalent.  However, after meeting a dynamic woman (former US ambassador) on our Burma trip who was excited to travel to Iran when she was 79 years old I became intrigued and motivated.  I am uninformed and prejudiced by US media about Iran’s history and Iranians. My first thoughts of Iran are about the 1979 hostage affair, terrorists attacks (in Lebanon) and the Iranian war against the US military in George Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s Iraq war.  I am confused about what it means to be a Persian versus an Arabic person, or to be a mujahid vs. mullah, or what the difference is between a Shiite and a Sunni or a Shah and a King? It is curious that when I tell friends we are traveling to Iran they frequently respond with disbelief and ask, “Why would you want to go there? Is it safe?”  Previously I have had similar responses to our Middle East travels in Oman, Jordan and West Bank where I have felt completely safe and welcomed by friendly people.  I am pretty sure that we will have a similar reception by the Iranian people. I believe that our exploration of this ancient civilization, its culture, religions and  our experiences meeting these people will  expand my horizons and change my understanding of Iranian people and what has been going on in regard to Iran-US relations. I find that I am eager for this adventure once I can tear myself away from my work in Seattle, which I am still passionate about and worried about leaving for so long.

Preparing for Iran

First we must get our Iran visas and I decide to go on my Canadian passport rather than on my American. I don’t know where I got this information but I believed I would be able to walk around in Iran without a guide more freely if I was a Canadian.  However, since John is American as well as the friends we are traveling with I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided having a Canadian passport would result in more personal freedom.  Would I take off without John and friends?  Americans and British are required to have a guide with them to travel.  Germans and French can travel independently.   We are excited to be traveling with Zanny Milo and Skip Vonckx who we previously traveled with us to Burma and have the same travel bug we do. After completing extensive questionnaires we all successfully get Iranian visas stamped in our passports.  Zanny and I meet to discuss travel attire that must include being fully clothed from the neck (no cleavage showing) to ankles with loose-fitting tunic tops and pants that don’t allow any body curves to show.  I wonder how I will be able to travel in 80-90 degree weather with our heads covered in a scarf as well as bulky clothes. John and Skip learn they will not be able to wear shorts… alas.  But more than that I wonder how I can go 2 weeks without a glass of wine!   Regarding coffee, another addiction of mine,  the guidebook says the Iranian coffee is terrible so I pack 80 packets of instant Starbucks French Roast both caffeinated and decaffeinated and feel I have my caffeine addiction covered.  In the meantime John takes care of the financial end of things as we must bring US cash (no traveler’s checks) and can only exchange dollars in Iran when we get there.  Visa cards can be used when buying carpets, which are charged through the UAE but otherwise everything is cash, because sanctions have isolated Iran from the international banking system.  We have been told when telling our Visa companies that we are traveling abroad we must not mention that we will be going to Iran.  Finally, we pack toilet paper as apparently Iranian toilets do not provide it.  With my suitcase packed with scarfs, baggy pants, coffee, and toilet paper we leave for our adventure.

Arriving in Tehran

We fly Emirates Airline Seattle to San Francisco, to Dubai, to Tehran. It is over 30 hours door to door, leaving on Monday arriving in Iran on Wednesday at 5 am. I put on my scarf to get off the plane as do all the other women.  I am worried my shirt is not down to just above my knees as I was told to do and I hurriedly put on a longer sweater as we go through immigration. I have no difficulties but John has his passport taken away by a man who takes many notes.  We wait watching 2 security guards (with single stars on their epaulets) as they interact with an Iranian women who is screaming loudly at them because they are trying to take away her medicines.   This draws a lot of attention and results in another more senior guard arriving who has 3 stars and he takes her back to another section of the airport. We wait about 30 minutes with no explanations and then several men go into a booth with John’s passport to someone presumably with even more stars. I have visions of a James Bond spy-movie adventure and ask one of the guards what is wrong with John’s passport. Perhaps I should tell him I’m Canadian and can vouch for him.  The guard does not answer my question although he does tell me he speaks English.  Finally the men come back with Xeroxed copies of John’s passport and we are told we can leave.  What will our next adventure be?