Putting Iran Back On The Map

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It’s time to look past the confusion of Middle-Eastern politics and at the reality of this ancient, dazzling, and misunderstood world.

First, let’s get our history straight. Iranian society today is far more conservative than it was 30 years ago. It’s enforced. In the 60′s and 70′s, idealistic young men and women hitched across Iran en route to mystical India and Nepal, praising the warmth of its welcome. Today, it is an offence for a woman to travel with a man unless married to him, so it’s clear that the country’s politics have changed dramatically.

Cafe in Tehran / Photo by Tom Allen

What happened? Well, the Iranian Revolution of 1978 changed many things. The king of Iran, prior to the revolution, had ruled since World War II, with Allied backing. He followed in his father’s footsteps in his attempts to modernize and secularize Iran and remove the influence of religious institutions on the government of the country.

UK & US orchestrated a coup to safeguard their oil interests

In 1953, the newly-elected Prime Minister was overthrown and arrested by a military coup, following his nationalization of the oil industry. This industry had, until then, been owned and managed by foreigners. It had been called the ‘Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’, then owned by the British government. (It is today known as BP.) What a surprise – the UK and US intelligence services had orchestrated the coup in a joint covert operation to install a pro-Western prime minister and safeguard our oil interests. (There is no conspiracy theory here – it is accepted historical fact.)  Our thirst for oil was more important than the fundamental right of the citizens of a nation to elect their Prime Minister. Wikipedia’s article on the BP corporation provides a brief history. As hippies raved about Persian hospitality, nationalist feelings brewed as a result of meddlings like this. 25 years later, the Iranians threw out their US- and UK-sponsored puppet king. BP’s assets were seized by the new Islamic government without compensation. (One could reasonably argue that they deserved it.)

New Islamic government

But the new government took a harder line on Islam than people had anticipated. Today, Islamic law rules in Iran. Women, even tourists, are obliged to cover their heads and to wear knee-length overcoats. Liberal young Iranian women have learnt to dress within the regulations and still look jaw-droppingly beautiful, while the conservative walk alongside, shrouded in black chadors. There’s a reason that the word for this garment also translates as “tent”.

Western governments have never forgiven Iran for being so petulant as to act against their interests in favour of its own, and have erected trade sanctions, which ironically have channeled the country into a state of rather healthy self-sufficiency. Another form of political blackmail is the routine denial of visas for travel to Western countries for Iranian nationals, leading to expensive clandestine networks of emigration, often to the US, based on fabricated refugee applications.

None of this should deter the traveller from visiting the country, but it does go some way towards explaining our media-influenced preconceptions.

Skewed media representation

Sitting in my girlfriend’s family home in Tehran, I decided to switch on BBC World News to see what was being reported. I found myself watching a report about how ‘Iran executes more young people than any other country in the world’. A straight-faced BBC reporter interviewed a mother whose son was awaiting sentence over the accidental killing of another young man in a fight outside a school. Under Islamic law, the victim’s family can decree that the culprit pay for his misdeeds with his life.

Dinner in Tehran / Photo by Tom Allen

That may be true, under the Iranian constitution as enforced by the clerical leadership of the country. But I found myself thinking, is it any wonder that the citizenship of the West associates the name Iran with negative connotations, if reports like this are all they have to found their opinions on? Our media seem to have it in their heads that Iran is a country to pick holes in. Trawling the BBC website for stories on the country confirms this trend.  Where are the reports on the immense and genuine kindness and hospitality of the Iranian people, the delicious food, the ancient history and culture of this birthplace of civilization, the way in which today’s Iranian government has, on repeated occasion, appealed to the Bush administration for face-to-face dialogues over the so-called ‘Iran nuclear crisis’, for intelligent, diplomatic resolution of differences, to be met by flippant dismissals and silence? The President of Iran has appeared on numerous American talk shows in the last couple of years, but has yet to be granted a diplomatic meeting with the President of the United States!

I want to rant and rave when I hear unfounded opinions on the perceived ‘safety’ of travel in Iran. People who have never been anywhere near the Middle East, let alone Iran, raise their eyebrows and tut and mutter about ‘hostages’ and ‘terrorism’. But there is no terrorist organization originating from Iran. Hostage-taking is so infrequent as to be negligible and has never ended in casualty, having been entirely confined to a small region of Baluchistan. If you look at the numbers, you’re more likely to be blown up on the London Underground. The connotations of ‘Islam’ and the ‘Middle East’ have spawned a real plague of irrational opinion. My good friend Andy cycled across Baluchistan a few months ago, and you can read about his experience in his Blog entry ‘New Lands‘.

First hand experience of Iranian life & hospitality

The depth of my experience in Iran is nothing compared to the 24 years for which my girlfriend Tenny grew up there. She lived through the First Gulf War as a child and described it as “great fun”, sleeping under the kitchen table, having extra time off school and making frequent trips to the seaside in the north of Iran. But for the 7 weeks I spent in Iran, I was welcomed by the Iranians in a way which would put any suspicious mind to shame.

Tom and Tenny with their hosts in Hadi Shahr / Photo by Tom Allen

One memory which will stay with me for ever concerns a man called Sabri. As my Tenny and I cycled along a quiet gorge in North-West Iran during Ramadan last year, a car pulled over in front of us, and our future host got out and came over, wearing a broad smile. “Come and stay in my home”, he offered. The town was 40 kilometres distant, within our range for the afternoon. Upon arriving, we were quite openly given tea and chocolate in the street by curious locals (so much for Ramadan), before Sabri turned up with a friend and his pick-up truck.  We were taken to the small town of Hadi Shahr where Sabri had his home. It was grand – shiny marble walls, a huge living room and fitted kitchen, and a large back yard with vines and apple trees. His wife and daughter sat on the kitchen floor preparing dinner as Tenny chatted to them in Farsi and translated for me. We were treated as guests of honour, and taken out in the evening with by the whole family, whose work as a vet took him to farms all over the surrounding countryside.

The following day, we were taken to visit an old Armenian church in the area and to the site of a mountain spring and water-mill. Relaxed and at home, we were vigorously encouraged to stay a second night, sleeping on a mattress on the living-room floor, before leaving our hosts the next morning, glowing with happiness at having been invited to glimpse briefly into their lives in such an open and uncomplicated way. Over the next three days, Sabri would catch up with us in his car to check that we were doing OK. In his words, “you are like my own children”.  And the thing is that this tale is not particularly unusual. Look at a few blogs and it emerges as a dominant theme. Being amongst Iranians, who are not particularly used to Western tourists, is a wholly positive experience. Nobody will let your request for help or directions – or your mere presence for that matter – be met with anything other than the enthusiastic and non-judgemental attitude and hospitality common to much of Middle Eastern society.

Why is Iran not more popular with Western tourists?

When you add to this the attraction of ancient cultural centres of Esfahan, Shiraz and Masshad, the delightful food, the very low cost of travel and accommodation, and the diversity of culture and environment in this huge country, it’s a surprise Iran isn’t more popular amongst Western tourists. But the majority of visitors still come from other parts of Asia, proving that the Western propaganda machine is doing its job.

Getting there & getting a visa

Getting there is not as simple as a budget airline ticket, but from easily-accessible Turkey it is possible to take the Trans-Asia Express train. You can get off in Tabriz, Tehran or one of the smaller towns, and it costs about $70 for the three-day journey in a sleeper carriage. The trip is beautiful on both sides of the border, and I highly recommend it.

Travelling by bike through Iran / Photo by Andy Welch

The one perceived obstacle to Western tourists in Iran is obtaining a visa. This is not the time or place for discussion of how we take freedom of travel for granted, but it really isn’t that difficult. You pay a small fee to an agency such as Stantours, take the reference number to your nearest Iranian Embassy 3 or 4 weeks later, pay the (admittedly hefty) fee and pick up your visa the following day. (Poor Americans are excluded from this, being unable to obtain tourist visas except on guided tours, but maybe Obama will have the guts to try and defuse this long-standing feud.)

At the moment, this means that you’re likely to find yourself unusually alone in Iran. You won’t meet many other Westerners. But don’t worry; you don’t need to shield yourself from the local population. Their welcome is as warm as it was in the days of the hippie trail.