salaam as Iran
Hello from Iran!
We are having a fantastic time and learning a lot. Timothy wrote a little post about our orientation.
We arrived in Tehran Monday night around 9 pm Tehran time (only 7.5 hours ahead of est) It's about 10 pm now and I'm pretty exhausted but I really want to share a bit about our trip so far. I really like it here. The images of a bleak, gray country with women head to toe in black and no one laughing or smiling are completely inaccurate.
Some impressions - much more engagement between people - on the street (families at the airport taking over the pick up and drop off lane for a chatting and hugging area), bright colors and lights all over the place, beautiful murals (mostly of martyrs but very beautiful), incredibly lush and green, snowcapped mountains just north of the city, very interesting architecture and what appears to be a lack of attention to structural and facade concerns, women in a huge range of outfits - no one looking or acting beaten down, oppressed, etc. and holding a very broad range of jobs.
Iranians began to engage us before the plane had even taken off from Paris: 'why are you coming to Iran?' 'We're so glad you're coming to visit, we love Americans, we want to share our culture with you. etc.' We were treated well and handled quickly at customs. Our tour guide (state sanctioned) and helper (our advocate - not state sanctioned) are both really delightful. Very friendly and generous. Boming out of customs, we were greeted by BBC tv cameras and a reporter. No one knows how they knew we'd be there but apparently some in the group were on the BBC. Today reporters from the AP and Reuters interviewed people from the delegation.
My roomate is half Iranian and is an academic in San Francisco. This is her first time in Iran and she was able to meet her mother's family. The reunion was quite emotional and happy for everyone. Her cousin brought a ton of food for our room - Iranians love food. Good chips, cookies and fake beer here (no alcohol).
This morning we woke at 6:30, ate breakfast together in the hotel dining room (nan bread like in India, cucumber and tomato slices, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and a ton of delicious green olives)and were out on the road by 7:45 am. Our first meeting was with the Shahid Behesti University UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy. About 10 people came from the department, we sat in a circle and had an excellent conversation about what the department is doing in Iran, how its work fits in the broader Iranian culture, obstacles, opportunities, misperceptions by the West and by Iran regarding human rights, what democracy means and many other things. It seemed to me that these people talked with candor and I learned a lot. We hope to meet with them again later in the trip to talk more.
After that we went straight to our second meeting with a news bureau that handles Iranian cultural and historic affairs. The conversation was somewhat limited because they wanted to know about our impressions of Iranian historical and cultural sites. Having seen none yet, there wasn't much to say. However, we spoke about the role of historical and cultural sites and other important parts of heritage and how each culture relates to them. I wanted to ask them about freedom and repression in the news media but we were encouraged to save these types of questions for interactions one-on-one and there wasn't an opportunity.
Our final meeting was with an NGO that works with victims of chemical weapons. It was eye opening, moving, inspiring and helped make sense of some of Iran's previously incomprehensible responses to the UN and other organizations. There may be more about this on the FOR post that should be up tomorrow. I was struck again by how little we, as Americans, pay attention to the impact of our actions (or inactions). Peace has no space until we become aware of that.
At each meeting, people expressed their gratitude that we made the trip, that we are interested in their culture and we want to promote peace between both countries. It seems like Iranians want that too very much. We have buttons with a dove on them that says Peace in Farsi. We've been giving them to everyone we meet with.
We just finished dinner and now it's time for bed. Tomorrow we'll buy manteaus (it's hot!)and hit two museums. Sab Bexeir! (good night)
We are having a fantastic time and learning a lot. Timothy wrote a little post about our orientation.
We arrived in Tehran Monday night around 9 pm Tehran time (only 7.5 hours ahead of est) It's about 10 pm now and I'm pretty exhausted but I really want to share a bit about our trip so far. I really like it here. The images of a bleak, gray country with women head to toe in black and no one laughing or smiling are completely inaccurate.
Some impressions - much more engagement between people - on the street (families at the airport taking over the pick up and drop off lane for a chatting and hugging area), bright colors and lights all over the place, beautiful murals (mostly of martyrs but very beautiful), incredibly lush and green, snowcapped mountains just north of the city, very interesting architecture and what appears to be a lack of attention to structural and facade concerns, women in a huge range of outfits - no one looking or acting beaten down, oppressed, etc. and holding a very broad range of jobs.
Iranians began to engage us before the plane had even taken off from Paris: 'why are you coming to Iran?' 'We're so glad you're coming to visit, we love Americans, we want to share our culture with you. etc.' We were treated well and handled quickly at customs. Our tour guide (state sanctioned) and helper (our advocate - not state sanctioned) are both really delightful. Very friendly and generous. Boming out of customs, we were greeted by BBC tv cameras and a reporter. No one knows how they knew we'd be there but apparently some in the group were on the BBC. Today reporters from the AP and Reuters interviewed people from the delegation.
My roomate is half Iranian and is an academic in San Francisco. This is her first time in Iran and she was able to meet her mother's family. The reunion was quite emotional and happy for everyone. Her cousin brought a ton of food for our room - Iranians love food. Good chips, cookies and fake beer here (no alcohol).
This morning we woke at 6:30, ate breakfast together in the hotel dining room (nan bread like in India, cucumber and tomato slices, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and a ton of delicious green olives)and were out on the road by 7:45 am. Our first meeting was with the Shahid Behesti University UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy. About 10 people came from the department, we sat in a circle and had an excellent conversation about what the department is doing in Iran, how its work fits in the broader Iranian culture, obstacles, opportunities, misperceptions by the West and by Iran regarding human rights, what democracy means and many other things. It seemed to me that these people talked with candor and I learned a lot. We hope to meet with them again later in the trip to talk more.
After that we went straight to our second meeting with a news bureau that handles Iranian cultural and historic affairs. The conversation was somewhat limited because they wanted to know about our impressions of Iranian historical and cultural sites. Having seen none yet, there wasn't much to say. However, we spoke about the role of historical and cultural sites and other important parts of heritage and how each culture relates to them. I wanted to ask them about freedom and repression in the news media but we were encouraged to save these types of questions for interactions one-on-one and there wasn't an opportunity.
Our final meeting was with an NGO that works with victims of chemical weapons. It was eye opening, moving, inspiring and helped make sense of some of Iran's previously incomprehensible responses to the UN and other organizations. There may be more about this on the FOR post that should be up tomorrow. I was struck again by how little we, as Americans, pay attention to the impact of our actions (or inactions). Peace has no space until we become aware of that.
At each meeting, people expressed their gratitude that we made the trip, that we are interested in their culture and we want to promote peace between both countries. It seems like Iranians want that too very much. We have buttons with a dove on them that says Peace in Farsi. We've been giving them to everyone we meet with.
We just finished dinner and now it's time for bed. Tomorrow we'll buy manteaus (it's hot!)and hit two museums. Sab Bexeir! (good night)
posted by Melissa at 11:20 AM
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