Iran, the slightly Islamic Republic of
After a little over three weeks in the slightly Islamic Republic of Iran I'm burnt out on theocracy and craving a secular dictatorship, so tomorrow I'm off to Turkmenistan. Stan comes from the Persian for province, the Iranians had a pretty big empire back in the day, according to them, whilst the Arabs were burying their daughters alive the Persians had conquered half the world, developed possibly the first monotheistic religion and built grand palaces. Islam is a thin veil over Persian culture, they have there own interpretation, Shia, which is a departure from the strict monotheism and touches into some deep need for idolotary. It is a superbly friendly country for a man and the people fail the fundamentalist test, open and barely religious.
If the forces of God ever gain to much strength in the world we should play a few tricks, led the God's people take the helm of government then the people will flee from supersitition like a Mullah from alcohol. Before the revolution the Mosques were packed, now they can't pay people to attend, the corruption of politics is a gift to the secular. This government is the worst I have ever come across, they enter into peoples lives even if they have no interest in politics, worse than Cuba, Vietnam or China, possibly even worse than America. I started off on a bus from Armenia, or Armenistan for the Iranians, met an agnostic Iranian, arrived in Tehran, a city without positive and was straightout, to the south east and Yazd. With my interest in Islam on the wane I decided to go in search of some Zoroastrians, the ancient Perisan religion who gave us the gift of heaven and hell, the one God represented by fire and a funeral service of vultures. I didn't find any Zoroastrians, got stuck in the best hotel for this trip, eating camel, smoking water pipes and after a week I visited my first Mosque.
With a map and no guide book I decided to head into the desert, there were some villages in the middle and I couldn't figure out what they coudl be doing there. A bus to the next town, a night sleeping next to the Mosque in a pilgrimage dorm and out onto the road to find a bus to the desert. After a few hours in the sun I gave up and headed to Esfhan, this town his some pretty excellet Mosques, the best I have ever seen. At this point I got news the my Uzbekistan letter of invitation had arrived and headed back to Tehran apply for collect my visa and apply for Turkmenistan, here I met this cool Japanese girl, Hitomi, and we headed south to Shiraz. Unfortunately Shiraz has none left but as a consolation prize there is Persepolis, a 2500 year old palace that Alexander the Great burned to the ground, truly spectacular. Another attempt at the desert yielded success and we ended up in Garmeh, a desert oasis of 200 people plus a few camels, salt plains and a truck lift to the holiest of Shiteness, Masshad. This is a big pilgrimage city, full of fantatics and worth a miss. Back to Tehran for more visa games.
Now the boring stuff is over it is time for my thoughts on Iran. Firstly nuclear, they have this amusing government controlled press full of front page stories about Iran's right to nuclear energy, purely for peaceful purposes, to save the environment, as a champion of the third world, the wish to spread the technology to other Islamic countries and the need to keep on par with scientific developments in the rest of the world. Most Iranians I met said this is crap, it is for a bomb, some say this is good, they need it to defend themselves, others that it is a disaster. In Tehran I missed out on the march to destroy Israel, Iranians I met say this is not because they hate Jews, just to defend the Palestinians, one Iranian said Iran should have good relations with Israel, they have somethign in common, they both hate Arabs. To religion, I chose the worst month to come here, Ramadan, restaturants are closed, I can't eat or drink in the street, smoking is banned, but the Iranians dont' seem to bother, they eat, drink and smoke with darting eyes looking for the police. I was walking along the street with an Irani, he said he needed to drink from one of the plentiful teases, public water fountains, he had a drink a cop came over and started hassling him. The people seem less relgious than Turkey, although I kicked out of Hitomi's hotel room by the owner one night. I barely here the Ajan, the call to prayer. There Shite version of Islam, which is slightly different to what nearly all other Muslims follow revers Ali, the son in law of Muhammad, there are posters up of this guy all over the place, plus the 11 Imams that followed him, it is a bit of a personality cult. I wonder how much them setting up there own version of Islam has anythign to do with their disdain for the Arabs? One man said to me "I want beer and no scarves", women covering their hair is mandatory, the young let it slip back to reveal half a head of hair, jeans slightly rolled up to show a bit of ankle and head scarves change fashion every few months.
On the whole the women are covered in the black chador that in the windless Iran makes all women look the same. If God exists he is a misogynist. One Iranian woman ran past me and said "i love you", she kept on runnign away from me, then woudl circle back and past again with the same comment, when I finally stopped her to talk I discovered this was all she could say in English. There are a lot more women on the street than in Bangladesh and I think the men were slightly better behaved than Turkey or Bangladesh. Then Hitomi told me about her first day here, a guy on a motorbike drove up to her on the street, lifted her up onto his bike and drove to his house as she screamed, tried to drag her into his house until her screams got the better of him and he let her go. This country is a disaster for women, although not to the level I imagined, lots of women work, men and women hold hands in the street and sit next to each other on the buses. Its difficult to reconcile the outside worlds image of Iran and my impressions. It is an extremely safe country, for a man, the people are exceptionally friendly, hospitable, polite and very interested in the world, and if they are religious think that it is a personal matter.
The revolution was more about independence from America than the imposition of Islamic rule. Khomeni is revered as uncorruptable and an independence fighter who had some odd ideas. I met one young Iranian guy who said the best option is that Iranians change the government themselves but this has been unsuccesful, the next best option is a worldwide economic embargo against the country to destroy the economy and the government, the third option is for an American invasion and for them to setup a puppet government. He said he would support an American government rather the current. Other Iranians I suggested this to said the guy is a traitor, but they still want to eliminate the current government. The peopel seem to have nothign against the Americans or Isreal. The government exists in a vacum, living off oil money, barely collecting taxes and completley corrupt without popular support. One guy said to me the current president was elected cause he is so stupid that he will either incite a revolution or the Americans to invade. Although there is little fear of an American invasion. The former reformist president is viewed with disdain, encouraging the people to be free but doign nothing when the religious people locked them up. There seesm to be universal pesimism about Irans future. I am too tired to type anymore, this has been a fascinating country.
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