shiraz
persepolis was realy impressive. i wish i could remember more of gilgamesh.
i liked the gardens beause they were so lively and full of people on a friday afternoon. families would get together and picnic on the lawns. people don't do that enough here. i was actually more interested in people watching than tourist stuff, and was a bit upset that shiraz wasn't that great for walking and wandering.
water
a gardener taking a break
a man warding off evil spirits with insence
kids playing
i was really overwhelmed by the architecture in some of these mosques. it's so intricate and colorful. the palaces were amazing too - one was completely covered with mirrors and decorations on the inside.
we weren't allowed in one of the really important mausoleums because we aren't muslims, but another welcomed us with open arms. we did have to wear chadors, though, and take off our shows, which was not the case in the other mosques we visited. the only problem was that it was so hot, the last thing we wanted was to add layers, but it was also SO hot that it hardly made a difference.
taxi drivers
taxi drivers are in my opinion the most reliable source of information when it comes to popular sentiment. yes, they are often the most disgruntled, but they also don't feel indebted to the government in any way, most likely not educated to the point of ignorance, and anonymous enough to speak their minds.
our driver in shiraz was a young, plump fellow who went by the name of omid. he tried ever so hard to give us a good tour of the city - he wasn't lazy at all, and talked animatedly almost the whole time we were in the car. he also had a habit of whistling out of tune to persian pop music, which got annoying for my front-seated, music snob self, but he was extremely adorable. he did not speak much about politics; he was born right when the revolution happened, and knew only what his father told him about the old shiraz. he had no basis of comparison to bitch about the current situation; he was only 27, with a wife and a baby girl.
one of the men who drove us into teheran's center was older - in his fifties, presumably. i was sitting in the front, and could not help but noticing a black skull with a hat and fiery red eyes that lit up every time he put the brakes on the car, sitting where most drivers have a religious figure on the dashboard. i asked my mother to enquire about what it was, and he answered, only half-jokingly "it's khomeini. he's watching us. see his eyes? and headgear?"
"shh, don't tell, or i'll be sent to jail for six months!" he added.
another asked my mother why i did not speak farsi. she answered that i grew up in switzerland, and that she raised me speaking russian. then he asked her why on earth she brought me to a country where i had to cover my head up in such a way.
a third driver stopped on the way to our house to fill up his water bottle from one of the many coolers on the street. he returned, and said "this is the only good thing the islamists have brought the country. clean, cold water at every step. otherwise, they disgust people from religion."
antisemitism/israel
so even switzerland has condemned israel. no comment...
a lot of people in the states are under the impression that iranians hate jews. this is bullshit. they hate israel, not jews. gosh, i've found that they look down on arabs more than jews! i spoke with a very intelligent friend of my mother's (her nickname is "information source") and she said that though people are incredibly anti-israel, there have been no attacks on any jews or jewish businesses in the city. also, she and my mother both say that the current iranian president is no more or less anti-israel than the others have been; the media simply made a big deal of it this time (they've all said similar things to his "wipe israel off the map" comment), in the context of iraq, etc.
tea
the most pleasant thing about iran is teatime. they serve tea with dates and thin sugar slices (not sure how to explain - kind of like wafers, but hard.) in the more liberal places, you can smoke chicha as well, and you usually sit on a big carpeted bench. it's very relaxing and the tea actually cools you down.
i am also in love with the spice and fruit markets.
(fetishising these things makes me feel like such ... a bloody orientalist.)