Women of Iran Photography - M1key - Michal Huniewicz

Why they made a strong impression on me will hopefully become more clear as you look at these photos and read the captions. I will also aim to give you a short introduction into Iran - a country that is not a part of the Arab Middle East and not a part of Central Asia. [3] A country where the Asian, African, and European tectonic plates meet (which results in earthquakes in the south of Iran).
In the photo, Elham - who offered to be our friend and guide in Tehran.

If you have a US/UK/Canadian passport, you must go on an organised tour in Iran - they will not trust you going on your own (at least at the time of my visit). Although one of us was British, he managed to get a free reign visa like the rest of us due to his Iraqi origins. We could therefore go wherever we pleased, which meant we did not have to follow the beaten track.
There are risks associated with that, as a German colleague of one of my travel companions had been arrested in Iran for a couple of months for taking photos of non-tourist locations, for the police thought he was a spy. I was stopped by the police and security several times, but always got away with it, in almost all cases having ordinary Iranians by my side to get me out of trouble.
Elham on the Tabiat Bridge, which is a large pedestrian overpass in Tehran, modern capital of Iran. [4]

But even the beaten track offers sights which are must-see.
In the photo, a woman standing in front of what is likely to be Tomb of Artaxerxes III in Persepolis [11], the Achaemenid capital.

The Achaemenid Empire is referred to as the First Persian Empire (out of five; I guess Parthian and Seleucid Empires don't count as they were not purely Persian, or rather not ruled by Persian dynasties). Founded by Cyrus the Great - whose Cylinder has been popularised as the oldest known declaration of human rights (6th century BC) [1], referred to by the Jewish Bible as messiah (he wasn't even Jewish), the King of Kings - it stretched from the Balkans and Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley.
In the photo, Chinese tourist visiting Persepolis.

[2] They were the ones to invade Greece, feeling the need to colonise the world to offer people the one true religion - Zoroastrianism. Europe would not see another invasion force to rival that one until 1944 - the D-Day. [38]

Below, I'll provide a bit of information on Zoroastrianism. It was the first religion (at least in this part of the world) to move beyond totemism and cult, and to address moral and philosophical problems with theology, from an individualistic standpoint that emphasised personal choice and responsibility. [46] But the First Persian Empire was not a theocracy. [38] Neither did it seek to Persianise like the Roman Empire sought to Romanise.

While all the subjects of the Persian king were slaves, and we perceive the war of ancient Greece and Persia as a battle between freedom and oppression, the historian Tom Holland speculates people at the time might have been better off under Persian rule as opposed to Greek, especially the slaves owned by the Athenians or by the iron-fisted Spartans. [38]

He goes as far as to say that it was an epochal achievement of the Persians to demonstrate to future ages the very possibility of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, world-spanning state. [38] He speculates as well that had the Athenians lost the Battle of Marathon to the Persians, there would have been no Plato, and with no Plato there would have been no Islam.
The Greek Wars exhausted the Greek states, and prepared the way for the hegemony of Macedon. Then, the Persian dream of a united Iran and Greece did eventually become true, but realised by the Macedonian Alexander the Great, who also burnt Persepolis down. [5] And what of Macedonia now? - say smiling Persepolis guides.

But since the Persians (with one exception) did not write anything that would be an account of real events, we are left with ancient Greek sources (Herodotus) to try to understand those events. [38]
In later Zoroastrian writings, Alexander has the title guzastag, or Accursed. [46]

Thus, the problem of writing about Iran becomes clear. There are thousands of years of history, and so many events. Iran always seems to remain a major player, maybe due to its location, bridging Europe, Asia, and Africa, or maybe due to its ambition. I cannot hope to give it justice here, but I will try to give you an idea, and describe a few important moments in Iranian history. One such moment happened in the 7th century, bringing the end of the Second Persian Empire (the Sasanian Empire) and a decline of Zoroastrianism. [6]

The Arabs came! As the Persians and the Byzantines fought endless wars, they exhausted each other, and Iran became all to easy a target for the ambitious Muslims, who conquered it, and changed it forever.
Here, my friend Dorota trying out a chador. She had to wear one for her international driving licence photo, and it is the scariest thing I've seen in a long time.

Although Iranians complained to us about the Arab conquest, apparently historically it wasn't perhaps so bad, as Islam was more egalitarian than the strongly hierarchal aristocratic and priestly arrangements of the previous empire. [46] "Iran was indeed Islamized, but it was not Arabized. Persians remained Persians. And after an interval of silence, Iran reemerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam, eventually adding a new element even to Islam itself." [53]
In the photo, women of Kashan on their way to the female part of the mosque, in the back.

Iran has become an uneasy mix of Islamic culture (they have their own kind - Shiia Islam) and Iranian culture (names, rituals, solar calendar).
In the photo: You can have your chador in any colour, as long as it's black.

To what extent Iranians are aware of their pre-Islamic past, I don't know. They know of the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, but do they know they're invoking a pagan power when they say that word, or when they use expressions that hide within them the sacred name mehraban, meaning kind, which literally means "observant to Mithra" [23], a Zoroastrian angelic divinity? [24]
In the photo, Zoroastrian Tower of Silence in Yazd, where the dead were donated to birds to be devoured, the so called sky burial. [25]

Iran had a pro-Western (and Western-influenced) monarchy for several decades during the twentieth century. Although (or because) the leader, Reza Shah, banned all veils, following the Islamic Revolution (aka Iranian Revolution) Iran became anti-West, and in 1979 it was decreed that all women should observe Islamic dress code, and these days women who refuse to wear the headscarf (rusari) can and have landed themselves in jail for "inciting corruption and prostitution", for which they can get lashes as well as 10 years in jail. [75]
One Iranian woman (not the one in the photo) agreed to pose with me without the rusari in public, but she asked me not to publish the photo until she is able to leave Iran.

The restriction applies to foreigners as well, which is not necessarily appreciated. After boarding the plane to England all women I could see in my part of the plane, Iranian or not, took off their head scarves.

So many women that spoke to us (not the ones in the photo) expressed their anger with the forced veil, and with what they referred to as "arabisation" of the country, with Western rock music [8] and alcohol being banned [10] for Muslim citizens. My guess is that women content with the restrictions did not feel the need to vent with us, so our perception of the majority of women rejecting it might be somewhat skewed.
Photo above: in a modernised caravanserai in Qazvin, Iran. It's here that in 1921 the Persian coup d'état began that eventually resulted in the establishment of the pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty in 1925 with Reza Shah at the helm. [9]

It was an alliance of the disciples of Marx and the disciples of Muhammad that brought down the pro-Western Iranian monarchy in the 1978-1979 Islamic Revolution. After their victory, the latter slaughtered the former. [26] It was the end of 2500 years of continuous monarchy in Iran. [84]

Here in Tabriz, women seemed much less eager to criticise the government for some reason. The city used to be the capital of the Safavid Empire (the third Persian Empire, 1501–1736 [81]). The population is overwhelmingly Azerbaijani, but they do speak Persian.
In the photo, the Blue Mosque, which looks amazing in this painting with all the snow, and is still being reconstructed following an earthquake in 1780 (!). [12]

Couple re-enacting the Titanic scene at the Lake Urmia, a salt lake, once the largest saltwater lake on Earth, now 10% of its original size due to damming. [13] There is a serious risk it might disappear altogether, and Iranian government is not too keen on preserving it.

The Titanic is one thing, but not all Western influence is welcome. The former US Embassy, a "Den of Espionage" was stormed by Iranian students during the 1979 revolution, and 52 diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. [14] Now the museum is full of anti-Western and anti-Semitic propaganda, not too subtle all in all, and it makes it difficult to trust what they tell you. Interesting nevertheless to see how our democracies operate behind the scenes.
This is one of many places in Iran where we were told Iran does not wage wars (or has not in its recent history), but is it really true?

Iran does not get involved militarily on the surface, but it does fight proxy wars, for example filling in the vacuum the Americans have left in Afghanistan. The Americans, in fact, helped Iran by removing Saddam Hussein and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. [15] Then, there are the Hezbollah boys that stopped me in Beirut [20], or the Yemen conflict. [16]

It seemed to me that, in Iran, the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) was still an important part of the national psyche. My British friend of Iraqi origin, Ammar, would tell local people he was from Iraq, but now it was just "love" between the two states (he'd make a gesture of love, and smile reconcilingly ). They would smile back, but then I would add "He's actually come to make more martyrs for you! He loves war!" People would laugh with me (or at me).
There are Iran-Iraq War martyr shrines and memorials everywhere.

Apparently, many Iranians more readily quote their poets than their prophets. [3]
In the photo, a woman visiting the tomb of Hafez to read his poetry. Hafez wrote mystical poetry as well as political satire aimed to expose hypocrisy. [17] I asked her to read a poem to us, and she was happy to do so.

It's called Zayandehrood, and it means life-giving river, but it no longer flows through Isfahan. In fact, we saw many dried out rivers in the country. Some say it's both global warming/less rainfall as well as poor irrigation plans that cause this. Many cities face water-rationing, and villages have been abandoned for the lack of water. [18]

These girls came here - a hill in Isfahan where a Zoroastrian temple was once located - to watch the sunset. Perched on that rock, they invited me to have some tea with them. The Atashgah temple is one of few Zoroastrian temples not destroyed by the invading Arabs. [19]

Even this grumpy-looking woman displayed the legendary Iranian hospitably, even though she wasn't too happy with being photographed. Because of Ashura (featured in one of my next galleries), we were being offered free food and drink everywhere - by the menacing-looking people clad in black.

Qom is the most hardcore Islamic city in Iran, more so than Mashhad, supposedly Iran's spiritual capital. [21] Near Qom, a secret nuclear facility was built, perhaps in hope that an Israeli air attack would rouse Shiia Muslims into defending it. [22]

We did engage in the not so Islamic activity of fortune-telling.

Not too sensibly, we asked this woman if she was enjoying the walk with her father, only to discover that this older man on crutches was her husband. They were from Afghanistan, the same cultural world as Persia, once an Iranian land. [23] They too speak Persian or Farsi - or rather Dari, as that dialect is called. [27] I heard Persian in Iran has French influences, in Afghanistan it has English influences, while in Tajikistan (known as Tajik) it has Russian influences.

Paul Kriwaczek wrote that "[t]o the inhabitants of fertile and hospitable valleys and plains, every river and stream, every wood and forest, every hill and dale has its own, different, spiritual presence. Pure monotheisms, on the other hand, have always burst out of the desert, the mountains, the steppe, the waste places of the earth, where every spot is the same as every other and one God rules over all." [23]

Rhinoplasty, or nose job, is common practice among Iranian women, who can usually only use their face to attract the attention of the opposite sex. See it once, you cannot unsee it in other women who all sport the same Michael Jackson nose. If you cannot afford a proper plastic surgeon, you can go to a dentist with a sideline in crude cosmetic surgery. [61]

Paul Kriwaczek reflects on the familiar feeling - you went abroad, saw brilliant places, had amazing adventures, just to return home to find out no one cares, and hardly anyone has noticed your departure. [23]

He also mentioned the unavoidable anticlimax of travelling: "Some city names are so familiar from newspaper headlines and so resounding with historical associations that one is bound to be disappointed when landing at the airport, only to find the same dirty tarmac, peeling buildings, littered walkways and sullen immigration officers as everywhere else." [23]

Freddie Mercury was of Parsi descent, and the Parsis are a people bridging Iran in India. [82] The Zoroastrian Mithra was, in fact, one of the principal gods of the Aryan tribes - those are Indo-Iranian tribes before they separated into India and Iran. [23] In London, on the other hand, there is the so called London Mithraeum [28], which is a temple dedicated to the god Mithras. Mithraism was practised in the Roman Empire between the 1st and 4th century CE, and was inspired by Persian worship of Mithra. [29] To Iranians, Mithra was to god, Ahura Mazda, what Jesus is to God in the Christian religion - the deity you have a personal relation with. [23]

Even now, despite the much flaunted Muslim piety, the Islamic Republic of Iran still celebrates the Zoroastrian festival of Noruz (Iranian New Year). They tried to ban it following the Islamic Revolution, but it failed. [31]

Many religious concepts we are familiar with originate from Zoroastrianism: life after death, resurrection, eternal reward and punishment, and the existence of heaven (paradise is the Persian word for a garden or park). Those features inspired Judaism, and in turn Christianity and Islam. [23] [30]
In the photo, my friend Dorota during a long bus journey. She brought a Polish guide book, as she expected it to be more complete than an English-language one, since Polish people have fewer restrictions in Iran.
Poland used to have an embassy in Persia, and both Poles and Iranians were looking forward to the downfall of the Ottomans. [83] Iran accepted Polish refugees during World War 2. More recently, Polish companies built factories for various industries in Iran (e.g. in Kermanshah and Mobarakeh).

Many years ago, I was surprised to find out that Persia is Iran and Iran is Persia. Persia is the historical name used in the West until 1935, when the Iranians asked for it to be called Iran (or other variants), which is related the word Aryan. Some said the Iranians asked for this official change of name because people in the West associated the name Persia with corruption or decadence - or even to please Hitler... [32] [33] Whatever the reason was, the British were, as usual, resistant to this change. [34] My British friend laughed at me when he found out the Iranians called Poland "Lahestan", only to find out Britain was called "Englestan" Ha ha! Also, sorry Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland for being lumped together under that name.

It could be that Noruz is not even Zoroastrian in origin but borrowed from Babylon. [23] [35] Paul Kriwaczek speculates Noruz these days is an antidote to the Shiia mood of pessimism and love for self-flagellation and mourning - see Ashura.

It's Zoroastrianism that introduced named angels to us through Judaism. [23] [37]

Iranian Shiia Muslims are surrounded by Sunni-majority countries which has always been breeding tension and violence. Shiias see themselves as ideal Muslims - but the Sunnis accuse them of secret Zoroastrian tendencies. One example is the fact that the Iranian hierarchy of clergy with a Supreme Leader at its head seems reminiscent of the Zoroastrian Mobed-e-mobedan (Priest of Priests). [23] [36]
In the photo, Iranian drama and noise. I have no clue what the deal was.

We were joined by Fatemeh Behboudi, an Iranian World Press Photo Award winner. [39] She helped us out a lot with the Ashura photos, and took care of us for several days. We also got to see a professional photographer at work! Thanks, Fatemeh! She was a bit on the conservative side, so when we all shared an apartment, she visibly freaked out at the sight of my hairy legs.

Two women in Nushabad, an Iranian town famous for underground tunnels seen in the previous photo. The tunnels are 1500 years old, and some of them are 18 metres deep underground. [40] Some rooms and tunnels used to be equipped with traps against invaders. The name of the town means "the city of cold tasty water". [41]

A domestic tourist in the village of Abyaneh, one of the oldest villages, famous for women wearing a peculiar outfit. [42] My friend Luca promised there would be plenty of them and they'd be very photogenic. We saw one, she showed me her middle finger when I lifted my camera, and left, cursing. Nice.

Similarly cold reception in Kandovan, in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran, with famous, still inhabited cliff dwellings. [43] To my surprise, we met people who would claim some sort of double identity: Iranian/Turkish or Iranian/Azeri. My understanding is that they were referring to their nationality and their tribal/ethnic identity. Unsurprisingly, in Azerbaijan there are Iranian Azerbaijanis (the largest minority). [44]

The city of Qazvin is famous for calligraphy. We were invited to this shop, where the master and his students (one pictured here) wrote our names on paper and gave them to us for free. This was the second time I got something for free in the Middle East (and that's including North Africa).

I guess there was a reason why we interacted with women more. Apparently, 60% of university attendees are women, even though 98% (!) of female graduates supposedly end up jobless. What's more, in 2012, Iran wanted to implement a ban for women - they would no longer be allowed to study most sciences and engineering. Nursing was to be made female-only. I believe this has actually been implemented, and has only been partially relaxed under the "liberal" Rouhani. Women at Islamic universities have been beaten by security personnel for not complying with Islamic dress standards. I tried to find a sign of support for Iranian women among Western feminists, but I have not been able to find anything. [45]

It was in Qazvin that someone stopped their car to yell "Death to America!" at us. Well, as President Obama said, Death to America won't create any jobs. [47] Official Iranian translations will turn Marg bar Amrika into a more benevolent "Down with America", and then some people downplay it saying it is not referring to the death of American people, but American imperialism etc. [48] I guess Islamic imperialism is all right...
Not one of us present was American.

If the US is the enemy number one, Israel is number two. The book on Israeli espionage I read [22] mentions Iran 221 times. Iranian anti-aircraft artillery we saw was aimed toward Israel. Iran has threatened Israel with destruction, and cyber warfare between these two states is in full swing. It is very possible that Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated by the Israelis between 2010 and 2012, although Iran has also plenty of Arab enemies... [49]
In the photo, Ashura decoration in Isfahan.

One has to lament the current Iranian-Israeli relationship knowing that it used to be very different in the past. Their relationship is almost as old as Iran itself, and some scholars believe Judaism changed significantly under Mazdaean (so Zoroastrian) influence in the period of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews, from which they were freed by the Persian King Cyrus. It was the Assyrians who caused the destruction of the Jewish temple, and the Persians who allowed them to return. One of the leaders of the return from Babylon, Ezra, is believed to have been the first to write down the books of the Torah, in a new script known as Hebrew script that has been used every since. Post-exile Judaism laid greater emphasis on the Torah than on a geographical place like Jerusalem. [46] And on monotheism - for our good old God Yahweh once had a wife, Asherah! [50]

The originally Zoroastrian battle between good and evil (Ahriman) is now part of our civilisation. And not only in the Bible. Just look at the Lord of the Rings or the Star Wars. This is different from the more Far Eastern approach of yin-yang, so of opposites complementing each other. [51]

Persia had another religion - called Manichaeism - and its prophet, Mani, declared himself to be the "seal of the prophets", just like Muhammad much later.
In the photo, an Ashura procession I actually took part in.

To the Greeks, Persian language sounded like this: "ba ba ba!" This is where we get the word "barbarian" from. Interestingly, the Bulgarian Bogomils is where the English language got the word "bugger" from. [46] [52]

This woman was completely unmoved by all the charm I managed to muster, and agreed to pose decisively joylessly. She's from Shiraz, a city that was not destroyed by the Mongols (and later by Tamerlane) because its ruler submitted to them early. [46] [54] It's in Shiraz that I bought a Persian miniature of two fat birds, and the Chinese influence is clearly visible - that's the Silk Road for you.

Most people will have heard of the Shiraz wine - it used to be made here, but not any more. It's Australia or South Africa now. [55] Shiraz is also where a Jewish pogrom took place in 1910 when the Jews were accused of killing a non-Jewish child in a ritual; same nonsense people used to say in Poland. [56]
The woman in the photo wishes to improve the urban experience in Shiraz. I assumed it was to make the roads easier to cross, but it was to accommodate more people during religious processions... Okay...

The reason why many Iranians have a grudge against the US is the CIA-backed coup of 1953 when Iran's democratically elected leader was deposed, and the Shah took power. And then Bush included them in his Axis of Evil (after the Iranian people and leaders condemned 9/11). [57] Interestingly, the Iranians were so enamoured with the US when the coup happened, they were willing to blame it all on the hated British! [46] On the other hand, the reign of the Shah was a moment of respite for the country's minorities. [58] When in 1986 the US wanted to improve relations between two countries, they brought a kosher cake from Tel Aviv. [59]
I read that an Iranian journalist received a "text message [from] Ershad, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance: WE REMIND ALL JOURNALISTS THAT SPIES ARE IN OUR MIDST, AND THOSE FRATERNIZING WITH THE BRITISH WILL BE CONSIDERED SPIES.". [61]

Because I could speak some Persian (thanks to rather intense lessons with my Persian teacher), I was able to relatively easily interact with the locals. Asking women to pose would sometimes trigger an interesting reaction from their boyfriends, and yes, I was told some harsh words. Here, one of them made sure his fingers were in the photo.

But maybe that was to be expected, given public transport buses in Iran have men and women separated by a barrier... The long-distance coaches we took did not have such separation. It was an orgy! (not)

This girl stretched my language abilities to the maximum, as she talked and talked, and I had to translate it back and forth for my friends, who asked her questions about the local flora and fauna as well as urban and climate-related challenges...

Young girl standing by an adobe wall in the city of Yazd. Once a centre of Zoroastrianism, Yazd still has fire temples. [60] "It is a good and noble city, and has a great amount of trade." -- Marco Polo.

"... perfectly plucked eyebrows - a prerequisite for any respectable Iranian female regardless of attempts at modesty..." [61]

Mobile phone are omnipresent despite the fact that 3G has been condemned by four Ayatollahs. [61] [62] [63] "... What about 4G?" asked one of my friends. During elections, Iran will slow down Internet speeds allegedly to preserve calm. [77]

It was in Nashabad that a girl invited us to attend an English language school. We managed to pop in for about 10 minutes due to a tight schedule. There were only girls attending it. They asked us questions about God, but then one said, "Where would you prefer having been born?" My friend Luca said it did not matter so long as his country did not dictate his religion, clothes, or treat women as second class citizens. Iran has recently banned English from being taught in primary schools. [64]

In her fantastic book the City of Lies, Ramita Navai writes that Shiia shrines are usually "not peaceful havens of reflection and mediation. Each shrine marks the spot on the trail of Arab caliphs, sheiks and horse-backed fighters as they journeyed toward war and death; they are monuments to murder, betrayal and sacrifice. Tragedies to be mourned." [61]

"My husband is addicted to mourning..." says one of the women in the book, "Well, at least it's not opium, like so many of the men in the neighbourhood."
Golden Crescent is what Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran are called when it comes to opium and heroin trade. Iran intercepts the largest amount of opium on its borders, but the authorities admit it's a fraction. According to Wikipedia, the authorities are more serious about booze (local moonshine is called aragh sagi, or dog's sweat, made from raisins [67]) than opium, and in Zahedan, an Iranian town near the Pakistani border, 3 grams of opium can be purchased for 10,000 Iranian rials, equivalent to $1 USD (probably even less now that the currency has crashed), and 1 kg costs the equivalent of $330. [65]
The head of Iranian anti-narcotics unit declared that Iran was the fifth-highest consumer of crystal meth in the world. [61]

Many Iranians are obsessed with virginity, so women supposedly resort to anal sex as well as to... "He would pump vigorously between a girl's clenched thighs". [61] According to one study [66], better educated Iranian women marry later, have fewer children, and are more likely to give oral sex. 6.5% admitted to having extramarital affairs, but I suspect in reality the number might be higher.
Women are supposed to be virgins and bleed after the first night with their husband. There are various tricks to ensure that happens (e.g. a capsule with pigeon blood). It's possible to restore your virginity (well...) through plastic surgery, the price supposedly ranging from $60 to $2300.

"Issued shortly after the [Iranian] revolution, it was a hypothetical scenario raised on television by a cleric called Ayatollah Gilani: If you are a young man sleeping in your bedroom and your aunt is sleeping in the bedroom directly below, and there’s an earthquake and the floor collapses, causing you to fall directly on top of her, and if you should both be naked, and you happen to have an erection, and you happen to land on her so that you unintentionally penetrate her, would the child of such an encounter be legitimate or a bastard?" [61] The answer is so obvious, I'm not even going to give it!

On the subject of gay sex, the rules are complex. "[I]f the sex is consensual and the man playing the active role is not married and a Muslim, he will be flogged 100 times, whereas the man who plays the passive role will be put to death (unless he is a kafir having sex with a Muslim, in which case they will both be killed)." You can (and sometimes have to) legally change your gender - Iran carries out more sex reassignment surgery operations than any country except for Thailand. If you're caught having gay sex they may force you to change your gender. [79]
However, there is a significant amount of literature in Persian that contains explicit same-sex illustrations, and some medieval Persian poems have been interpreted as homo-erotic. Under the rule of the pro-Western Mohammad Reza Shah (so before the Iranian Revolution), homosexuality was tolerated. [80]
There's a pro-LGBT group in Iran called Lezbollah (ha ha). [61]

Prostitution in Iran is illegal, and can result in fines, flogging, jail terms, or even execution. "In 2008, Tehran’s police chief, Reza Zarei, had been caught in a brothel, reportedly with six naked women. Zarei had been in charge of a programme to fight indecent behaviour." The same book mentions the story of an Iranian war veteran who was disabled and abandoned by the state, and was looking after his wife who had to prostitute herself to earn a living. [61] [75] However, the Shiia have something called Nikah mut'ah (or sigheh), which is a temporary marriage, and allows contractual short-term relations between both sexes. This is criticised even by some Muslim scholars. [76]
Running a porn site can get you sentenced to death. [61]

What's it like to be flogged? "The face, head and genitals are out of bounds. Men must be standing, women sitting down. The whipping must be done with a leather-bound whip, one metre long and no thicker than one and a half centimetres. Hands and feet can only be tied if they are going to get in the way and result in the genitals, head or face being accidentally whipped. The flogging must be done in moderate temperature – not too hot or too cold. Lashes must be evenly distributed." [61] If a woman is getting whipped, the person doing it may have to have a Koran wedged under his armpit to ensure he cannot raise his arm above the head, thus limiting the strength of the lash. The book mentions a man who had a contraption by means of which the Koran was attached to his armpit regardless, so he could whip women with all his might. [61]

Not all gambling is illegal in Iran - a few ayatollahs have declared that betting on horses and shooting are not against Sharia. [61] There's a racetrack in Iran (Nowroozabad [78]), and you don't bet - you "make predictions". I think poker is illegal, and so strip poker too.

This was a mosque where we experienced mourning akin to a German techno party - with tonnes of rhythm, beat, bass. Mesmerising. The women were kept in a separate room where the girl is standing. This is after the event when they switched the lights on. I was a bit afraid to go in, but everyone was so nice.

I met Azam in Yazd, and we ended up going on a super romantic date, Persian-style. We met in a garden, at night, with moonlight and fountains and everything. She's an artist, and her work has been exhibited in Iran and abroad. Incidentally, she was working on the Polish cultural influence in Iran when we met, and told me about the Polish exodus from the USSR to Iran.

I also met an actress who told me what it was like to star in Iranian films: "Cut! Your wrist is showing. Cut! Your neck is showing."

Tehran is a harsh place due to excessive traffic and poor quality of air. 80% of the city pollution is due to cars, at least partially because international sanctions have people resorting to use low-quality, poorly refined fuel, and the mountains trap the air. [61] [68] The number one most polluted city in the world is Zabol, Iran. [69] "The harm from 30 minutes of cycling outdoors in Zabol's polluted air would outweigh the benefits of the exercise" (Preventive Medicine). [70]

You won't be able to use your bank account in Iran due to international sanctions. [71] We resorted to carrying all our cash with us like some medieval travellers.
In the photo, men playing didgeridoo in Isfahan. They were asked to leave shortly afterwards.

While some Muslims, especially Sunni or Wahabi, strongly oppose the construction of tombs as they perceive it as idolatry [72], in Iran the Shiia built a giant mausoleum dedicated to Ayatollah Khomeini with airport-like security. In 2009, there was a suicide bomb attack nearby. In 2017, the mausoleum was attacked by three gunmen and a suicide bomber donated a bomb inside the mausoleum. [73] The terrorists were linked to the Wahhabis. Some Iranian officials accused... we know whom, the US and Israel! [74] In general, my perception of Iran is that the country is very safe as far as that sort of activity and crime in general is concerned.

There was something ironic about a little girl wearing a Snow White scarf watching sheep getting slaughtered in the streets...

We spent our last evening in Tehran with Elham, who once again took us to cool places. She even sent the one postcard I forgot to send from Iran, which took months to arrive, probably the last postcard I ever sent due to the effort they take and no appreciation on the receiving side.
Thanks, Elham! See you in Europe, hopefully.

My friend Luca said, following this trip: "Before coming here, I was indifferent to Iran and its people. Now that I've met them and experienced their hospitaly, I feel like I know them, and I would not like them to perish in some nuclear apocalypse. I care for them."

It's a strange country, Iran. 3 weeks was a mighty long time by the standards of my travels, and I had spent a long time preparing for it, too. Having huge expectations, I can't say I fell in love with the place. There was such a wealth of experiences that I still have not been able to talk it all in, and decide how much I liked it. Touched by the hospitality and worn out by monotonous cuisine, I feel overwhelmed by this trip. I enjoyed not being harassed by touts, but then the sight of animals being slaughtered in front of me made an indelible impression. People would turn to me, and ask if I enjoyed the bloody spectacle. "No, it was horrible". On the other hand, people were so patient with me, especially in the evenings, when my Persian was breaking down due to my fatigue, and I was making more and more embarrassing mistakes.
One thesis of Iranian history is that Iran just lurches from chaos to arbitrary autocracy and back again... I loved their profound intellectual heritage only to be embarrassed by the moronic "Death to America" chants. It has been said that Iran is now ruled by merely cunning minds, while the brightest and best emigrate or are imprisoned, or stay mute out of fear.
All of that made Iran seem less exotic than what I had anticipated. It seemed familiar, it seemed like Poland but amplified a thousand times in every direction. Those gloomy celebrations and the cult of death not unlike the morbid Polish Catholicism, both countries united by their love for martyrdom. Dreaming of former glory, bridging civilisations, the wasted potential. Uneasy about Westernisation but with no real answer to it. Lost in today's confusing world. Genuine and made up sense of betrayal. Hysterical religiosity filling the void.
One moment seems to sum up Iran to me. I was grabbed by the arm by a security person, who decided to drag me to a police car. I was scared, but then ordinary Iranians started coming toward us and told the security guard to leave me alone. More and more of them came and demanded my release. The man balked. The people apologised and wished me a nice stay. For me, that was Iran in a nutshell. Motashakeram.