miham karte internet hemaram (I want to buy an internet card)
Good evening everyone. I hope you're all good. Right now I'm sitting outside the cafe in our hotel in Shiraz called Hotel Pars. Pars was the original name for Persepolis which is an amazing ancient city just outside of Shiraz.
Today we visited an organization run by the city of Iran that gives job training, counseling and classes (including English) to single mothers whose husbands have died or are in jail or are drug addicts. They learn to make rugs and other things that they, as a co-op sell in the local bazaar. They form and manage the co-op themselves, with help from this organization. This structure helps them buy supplies, maintain an income, etc. I bought a beautiful hand embroidered caftan from them for a whopping $15. We also went shopping for manteaus and scarves today. The interesting thing was that both stores we went to were staffed entirely by men. I asked about it and apparently that isn't the norm but there is no concern or problem with it. The whole division of the sexes thing seems talked up in our media way more than is true now. Perhaps it was that way just after the revolution. The only time we have had to be separated is going through security at the airport in case we need to be searched and have to take the manteaus and scarves off. And though the whole manteau/scarf thing is to preserve modesty, the guys certainly look. The only people who seem to wear the chador (black from head to foot but the face is not covered) are very religious women or older women who (perhaps?) don't really want to wear anything more fitted (like our mumus or sweat suits?)
We went to the Iranian Art and Islamic Culture Museum today as well. Some things I learned: when the Arab invaders came in around 600 ad it took the Persians 200 years to convert to Islam from Zoroastrianism. Many Persians moved to India, to Parsis and have become a quite established and powerful presense there. Persians invented forks and spoons 1700 years ago. When a trader brought them to Europe the church forbid people to use them because they were like the devils pitchfork. The museum didn't have a huge amount of stuff. Why? Because most of it was taken by the British (and the French) when they occupied the area and is in Western museums. If they were nice they sent back a replica. We saw a replica of the code of Hamurabi that the Persians stole from Babylon when they took it over in 1160 bc. It was in Iran for a long time but is now in France in a museum.
We flew from Tehran to Shiraz on an airplane leased from Russia to Iran. Apparently Iran has trouble getting airplane parts because of the US embargo on Iran. So, leasing is the best way to do things. I was pretty afraid of the flight before coming over. I pictured fiery crashes on a mountainside. The flight was incredibly smooth and comfortable. Everywhere we go we're given little juice boxes - orange, pineapple, or mango juice. The flight was no exception.
Our hotel is quite Western. There's a big screen flat monitor tv in the lobby. European light switches, compact flourescent bulbs, cool modern couches and a pool table. Before coming down to write the e-mail I was in my hotel room watching a sewing show on tv. The woman on the show wore a chador but was showing us how to sew mini-skirts among other things. You can wear miniskirts over pants and a shirt with a headscarf.
I heard a lot of complaints about the government today. Two sisters, one 26 and one 24 walked up to me and started talking about their frustration with the job situation in the country. One of them trained to be an electrical engineer in the university (university is free here) but cannot get a job in that field because there aren't any. So she makes rugs now. They want to come to the U.S. Most of the population here is under 30 and it looks like the frustration with the current situation is really building.
I've also heard a lot about people's frustration with the U.S. People seem to be very concerned that Westerners might think of them as backward, uneducated, barbarians (more how Persians describe Arabs who they put down). That's one of the main questions we're asked: how do people think of Iran in the U.S. And I realize how off our pictures are. I researched this country quite a bit before coming and I'm having so many things blown out of the water. For example, the quiet submissive women covered in black - not true. Less than 5% of the country attends Friday prayers (Friday is like our Sunday) because it's become politicized. Only government officials and the extremely devout attend. Our tour guide said that, generally, only 12 percent of people attend prayers at other times. Most people pray at home if they pray. People are frustrated at how misunderstood they are and how misunderstood their country is. They have been occupied by foreign invaders for much of their history and, from what I've heard and read, they've never had a good experience with that. There is a huge desire to join the world community, to become the sophisticated, modern country they were under the shah, but on their terms. I hear this over and over. And this is pretty much the subtext in the English translated Iranian papers.
Another interesting thing. People here love western movies. And they get them quickly. It comes out in the theater in Europe and the next week people are watching it in Tehran. Bootleg copies on DVD via Turkey. A lot of the manteaus came from Turkey as well.
Apparently we were on Democracy Now today (someone just told me) in some kind of stream. I can't find it right now but maybe someone can look?
Sahar (my Farsi speaking half Iranian roomate) and I have been having interesting language conversations about the perceptual differences caused by each language's grammar.
Good night. I'll try to post more tomorrow since I've heard people are reading these.
Today we visited an organization run by the city of Iran that gives job training, counseling and classes (including English) to single mothers whose husbands have died or are in jail or are drug addicts. They learn to make rugs and other things that they, as a co-op sell in the local bazaar. They form and manage the co-op themselves, with help from this organization. This structure helps them buy supplies, maintain an income, etc. I bought a beautiful hand embroidered caftan from them for a whopping $15. We also went shopping for manteaus and scarves today. The interesting thing was that both stores we went to were staffed entirely by men. I asked about it and apparently that isn't the norm but there is no concern or problem with it. The whole division of the sexes thing seems talked up in our media way more than is true now. Perhaps it was that way just after the revolution. The only time we have had to be separated is going through security at the airport in case we need to be searched and have to take the manteaus and scarves off. And though the whole manteau/scarf thing is to preserve modesty, the guys certainly look. The only people who seem to wear the chador (black from head to foot but the face is not covered) are very religious women or older women who (perhaps?) don't really want to wear anything more fitted (like our mumus or sweat suits?)
We went to the Iranian Art and Islamic Culture Museum today as well. Some things I learned: when the Arab invaders came in around 600 ad it took the Persians 200 years to convert to Islam from Zoroastrianism. Many Persians moved to India, to Parsis and have become a quite established and powerful presense there. Persians invented forks and spoons 1700 years ago. When a trader brought them to Europe the church forbid people to use them because they were like the devils pitchfork. The museum didn't have a huge amount of stuff. Why? Because most of it was taken by the British (and the French) when they occupied the area and is in Western museums. If they were nice they sent back a replica. We saw a replica of the code of Hamurabi that the Persians stole from Babylon when they took it over in 1160 bc. It was in Iran for a long time but is now in France in a museum.
We flew from Tehran to Shiraz on an airplane leased from Russia to Iran. Apparently Iran has trouble getting airplane parts because of the US embargo on Iran. So, leasing is the best way to do things. I was pretty afraid of the flight before coming over. I pictured fiery crashes on a mountainside. The flight was incredibly smooth and comfortable. Everywhere we go we're given little juice boxes - orange, pineapple, or mango juice. The flight was no exception.
Our hotel is quite Western. There's a big screen flat monitor tv in the lobby. European light switches, compact flourescent bulbs, cool modern couches and a pool table. Before coming down to write the e-mail I was in my hotel room watching a sewing show on tv. The woman on the show wore a chador but was showing us how to sew mini-skirts among other things. You can wear miniskirts over pants and a shirt with a headscarf.
I heard a lot of complaints about the government today. Two sisters, one 26 and one 24 walked up to me and started talking about their frustration with the job situation in the country. One of them trained to be an electrical engineer in the university (university is free here) but cannot get a job in that field because there aren't any. So she makes rugs now. They want to come to the U.S. Most of the population here is under 30 and it looks like the frustration with the current situation is really building.
I've also heard a lot about people's frustration with the U.S. People seem to be very concerned that Westerners might think of them as backward, uneducated, barbarians (more how Persians describe Arabs who they put down). That's one of the main questions we're asked: how do people think of Iran in the U.S. And I realize how off our pictures are. I researched this country quite a bit before coming and I'm having so many things blown out of the water. For example, the quiet submissive women covered in black - not true. Less than 5% of the country attends Friday prayers (Friday is like our Sunday) because it's become politicized. Only government officials and the extremely devout attend. Our tour guide said that, generally, only 12 percent of people attend prayers at other times. Most people pray at home if they pray. People are frustrated at how misunderstood they are and how misunderstood their country is. They have been occupied by foreign invaders for much of their history and, from what I've heard and read, they've never had a good experience with that. There is a huge desire to join the world community, to become the sophisticated, modern country they were under the shah, but on their terms. I hear this over and over. And this is pretty much the subtext in the English translated Iranian papers.
Another interesting thing. People here love western movies. And they get them quickly. It comes out in the theater in Europe and the next week people are watching it in Tehran. Bootleg copies on DVD via Turkey. A lot of the manteaus came from Turkey as well.
Apparently we were on Democracy Now today (someone just told me) in some kind of stream. I can't find it right now but maybe someone can look?
Sahar (my Farsi speaking half Iranian roomate) and I have been having interesting language conversations about the perceptual differences caused by each language's grammar.
Good night. I'll try to post more tomorrow since I've heard people are reading these.
posted by Melissa at 12:34 PM
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