”Just finished my journey in Iran (Persia) and wanted to get my thoughts down while they're fresh in the mind.
tl;dr: Though I had my own reservations before going, media misrepresentation of the country and its people is an understatement and could not be further from the truth.
- Iranians are extremely friendly and hospitable hosts to foreigners (even more so than the Irish, I dare say). Regardless of how much English they spoke, many come up just to say "Welcome to Iran" and hold a conversation, curious about the place from whence you hail.
- One even came up to me to take a photo. Slightly awk but now I know how gwai-los feel in China.
- Religious law means that gender segregation and prohibition are facts of life. Female and males enter and sit in different sections of a bus (Rosa Parks turning over in her grave), and only nonalcoholic beer is sold.
- However, most Iranians are not flag burning fundamentalists or even practising Muslims like how their government tries to enforce. People drink, and read the Quran just to pass classes; nostalgia also runs strongly for pre-revolution life. For example, the hejab head covering is legally required, but women interpret this liberally and are just as fashionable as women elsewhere, sporting heels, makeup and all. In fact, judging from attire alone, secular Turkish Istanbul probably has more strict Muslims given how many women willingly take up the hejab (and more) there.
- I feel safer in Iran I than certain parts of the US (eg Tenderloin SF, Brooklyn NYC).
- Felt a sense of pride running into multiple groups of Japanese and Hong Kong tourists who also gave this country a chance and visited (but then again, Asian countries don't have beef with Iran like the West does). All of them shared the same sense of surprise at their prior misunderstandings of the country.
- There's at least 1000 years of history in Persia before Islam, which produced the first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism, predating even Judaism, and also the first human rights charter (which is, of course, like everything else, kept in the British Museum). This makes it one of the few civilizations comparable to the Chinese in my book.
- Learned that even more words of Turkish were actually "borrowed", and from Farsi (Parsi), rather than Arabic.
- I can live without FB for 5 days but cannot live without Asian food for 5 days - dying of too much kebab.
The Islamic Republic is indeed pretty damn crazy but Iranians are just normal people with normal lives having to deal with its bullshit. Inshallah ~ Hopefully leaders awaken from the dark ages, sanctions get lifted, the world becomes a more peaceful place, and more people get to discover this grand historical place.“
tl;dr: Though I had my own reservations before going, media misrepresentation of the country and its people is an understatement and could not be further from the truth.
- Iranians are extremely friendly and hospitable hosts to foreigners (even more so than the Irish, I dare say). Regardless of how much English they spoke, many come up just to say "Welcome to Iran" and hold a conversation, curious about the place from whence you hail.
- One even came up to me to take a photo. Slightly awk but now I know how gwai-los feel in China.
- Religious law means that gender segregation and prohibition are facts of life. Female and males enter and sit in different sections of a bus (Rosa Parks turning over in her grave), and only nonalcoholic beer is sold.
- However, most Iranians are not flag burning fundamentalists or even practising Muslims like how their government tries to enforce. People drink, and read the Quran just to pass classes; nostalgia also runs strongly for pre-revolution life. For example, the hejab head covering is legally required, but women interpret this liberally and are just as fashionable as women elsewhere, sporting heels, makeup and all. In fact, judging from attire alone, secular Turkish Istanbul probably has more strict Muslims given how many women willingly take up the hejab (and more) there.
- I feel safer in Iran I than certain parts of the US (eg Tenderloin SF, Brooklyn NYC).
- Felt a sense of pride running into multiple groups of Japanese and Hong Kong tourists who also gave this country a chance and visited (but then again, Asian countries don't have beef with Iran like the West does). All of them shared the same sense of surprise at their prior misunderstandings of the country.
- There's at least 1000 years of history in Persia before Islam, which produced the first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism, predating even Judaism, and also the first human rights charter (which is, of course, like everything else, kept in the British Museum). This makes it one of the few civilizations comparable to the Chinese in my book.
- Learned that even more words of Turkish were actually "borrowed", and from Farsi (Parsi), rather than Arabic.
- I can live without FB for 5 days but cannot live without Asian food for 5 days - dying of too much kebab.
The Islamic Republic is indeed pretty damn crazy but Iranians are just normal people with normal lives having to deal with its bullshit. Inshallah ~ Hopefully leaders awaken from the dark ages, sanctions get lifted, the world becomes a more peaceful place, and more people get to discover this grand historical place.“
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