Iran: The friendliest people in the world

[d0b33]

The metal door to the synagogue swung open and a small boy skipped across the courtyard. He looked puzzled at the three people who stood before him, two of whom were clearly not Iranian. He led us up some steps to the temple, where I slipped a skullcap on to my head. A lady came towards us, smiling. “Are you Jewish?” she asked.

“No,” I replied. “Sorry.”

My friend Annette and I went inside anyway, past a table of food laid out for Passover, and sat at the back as an elderly man read from the Torah in front of eight others.

I'd never have guessed that my first time inside a synagogue would be in Tehran, but Iran is full of surprises. It has a fundamentalist leadership that many in the West believe to be as nutty as a box of pistachios. But it also has a population of 65 million, most born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution (which culminated in the return from exile of Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago this month), and far removed from the dour and menacing stereotype often portrayed on the 10 o'clock news. The ordinary Iranian people are by far the friendliest and most welcoming I've met in more than 20 years of travelling.

Our ten-day trip took us from traffic-snarled Tehran 600km (370 miles) south across the Zagros Mountains to Shiraz and the magnificent ruins at Persepolis, started by Darius I in 515BC and destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330BC. (I have never been to a historical site where the past felt so approachable.)

Then we headed back north to the capital via Esfahan and the holy city of Qom, passing near the controversial nuclear facility at Natanz, which looked more like a car assembly plant. I assume, though, that most car factories aren't protected by banks of anti-aircraft guns.

Our guide for the journey was the ever-smiling Mr Sassan, a font of knowledge and always ready with a new story. At the start of the trip I believed all he told me, but as the week got longer his tales got decidedly taller.

We learnt that it paid to sit down when he started to talk, for with Mr Sassan there was no such thing as a quick skip through 3,000 years of history and the conspiratorial goings-on as empires rose and fell, invaders came and went.

“Now this is a sad one,” he'd say before recounting a tale of humble beginnings, love, jealousy, power, betrayal, exile and death. And when we seemed incredulous he'd look slightly hurt. “No, it's true, I'm telling you,” he'd reply. He was also adept at scooping handfuls of nuts and fruit for us from displays in open-fronted shops, walking away waving his cane shouting “Free samples, they don't mind,” as we scurried off. He was also a Mr Fixit.

In Shiraz, after guiding us to the tombs of the classical poets Sa'di and Hafez - as Shakespeare is to us, so are these to Iranians - he tracked down the best local faludeh, a wonderful frozen dessert flavoured with rose water.

The Mausoleum of Shah-e Cheragh has supposedly been closed to non-Muslims for the past three years, since a mullah objected to the revealing outfits of some Spaniards, so we headed through a winding, covered bazaar to its back entrance for a peek through the gates.

Yet, rather than shooing us away, a young caretaker welcomed us inside on the proviso that Annette put on a chador (an enormous cloth that covered her from top to toe) and that we didn't go inside the main shrine.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/middle_east/article5768065.ece

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[LazyLion]

pointless thread of the day?

 

[marine1]

Couldnt agree more.

 

[d0b33]

pointless thread of the day?

The only thing pointless in this thread is your post.

 

[LazyLion]

hmmm, I beg to differ O pointless one.

Your post is about as useful as a bedtime story.

None of us doubt that there are friendly people in Iran.... or any other Muslim country for that matter. Your post is about as useful as one that says "some coal miners sometimes come to the surface with a bit of smudge on their face"

But what IS more interesting is that you feel the need to point this fact out to us! Are you perhaps labouring under the impression that the majority of people in the world feel that the Iranians need defending or that their image has somehow been besmirched by that clown of a president or the other radical crazy bloodthirsty murderers in his country?

 

[d0b33]

OMW get a clue, the article is about Iran being a good tourist destination for those interested.

 

[marine1]

Yeah I am going to tour a country that is seeking nuclear weapons to destroy another nation and is also being run by a crazed religious fanatic.

 

[LazyLion]

OMW get a clue, the article is about Iran being a good tourist destination for those interested.

Yay! so when are you leaving?

 

[Fudzy]

This should have gone in Offtopic but I'm not surprised by those attacking the thread.

 

[killadoob]

Aqua dude gary and marine are blinded by the Iranian government and all the BS the US speaks and think everyone in Iran are terrorsists who want to destroy the world. It amazes though there is only one country to have ever dropped a nuke yet these 2 carry on like this. Makes me laugh hard at how wrong the human race has gone and these 2 are ambassadors of the human race gone wrong i feel. Gary and marine actually still have their banners left over declaring Iraq has nuclear weapons but they would never admit it.

Kinda sad how the 2 of them turn this in a nuclear BS thread from your post.

Kinda sad to have people like this in the world and they are more than likely why the world is so screwed up because so many of them exist in the world today.

 

[d0b33]

Gary and marine actually still have their banners left over declaring Iraq has nuclear weapons but they would never admit it.

ROFL good one

 

[LazyLion]

um, did you see the part where I said that I don't doubt that there are friendly people in Iran. I actually happen to know some of them. I also never said anything about nuclear weapons... but since you brought it up....

I just thought the OP was pointless... if you think that is an attack, then you are welcome to RBP it.

 

[Frankie]

ROFL

It's about time the monkey-boy leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran stopped the human rights abuse in his country.

SCE SOLUTIONS TO END CHILD EXECUTIONS IN IRAN

Iran Human Rights Voice

Iran Human Rights
Human Rights Concerns

Amnesty International continues to document serious human violations including detention of human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience, unfair trials, torture and mistreatment in detention, deaths in custody and the application of the death penalty. Iran has one of the highest number of recorded executions of any country in the world. Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the execution of children and individuals who were minors when their crimes were alleged to have taken place.

Iran: the last executioner of children

Iran is one of the only countries left in the world today that still executes children and child offenders (those accused of committing an offence when they were under 18 years of age). At least 130 juvenile offenders face execution, but the total number could be much higher as many death penalty cases in Iran are believed to go unreported. At least eight child offenders were executed in 2007. Iran is the only country in the world known to have executed a juvenile offender in 2008. At least seven juvenile offenders have been executed in 2008.

And add the child brides and temporary marriages etc. and yes in the minds of the indoctrinated ones you have a very friendly environment.

Peaceful people

 

[Frankie]

Yeah I am going to tour a country that is seeking nuclear weapons to destroy another nation and is also being run by a crazed religious fanatic.

Or tour with your wife and any young daughters and have them subjected to the gender discrimination being forced to cover themselves up, just in case some crazy bums get aroused.

 

[Sherbang]

I found this really interesting, thanks Aqua_lung. It was actually an eye opener for me, I guess I hadn't really ever thought about travelling to Iran before, precisely because of my incorrect preconceived ideas of what it would be like. Being jewish, I figured I definitely would not be welcome there, so the article surprised me.
(Judging by this article Iranians are far more welcoming than Israelies, who were mostly extremely rude and uptight when I visited there)

I guess people don't like having their stereotypes and preconceptions challenged which is why you got such a negative response...

 

[JK8]

I found this really interesting, thanks Aqua_lung. It was actually an eye opener for me, I guess I hadn't really ever thought about travelling to Iran before, precisely because of my incorrect preconceived ideas of what it would be like. Being jewish, I figured I definitely would not be welcome there, so the article surprised me.
(Judging by this article Iranians are far more welcoming than Israelies, who were mostly extremely rude and uptight when I visited there)

I guess people don't like having their stereotypes and preconceptions challenged which is why you got such a negative response...

Iran has the 4th highest jewish population after Israel, US and SA

 

[JK8]

The current Jewish population of Iran is about 25,000,[3][4][5] though estimates vary. Notable population centers include Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Historically, Jews maintained a presence in many more Iranian cities, and Jews are protected in the Iranian constitution.[3] Iran supports one of the two largest Jewish populations of any Muslim-majority country (the other being Turkey),[6].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews

 

[Frankie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews

Selective trawling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Iran

The Bahá'í Faith, Iran's largest non-Islamic religious minority, is not recognized and is persecuted.[1] Apostasy by a Muslim is punishable by death. There have been reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs.[2]

The continuous presence of the country's pre-Islamic, non-Muslim communities, such as Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians, had accustomed the population to the participation of non-Muslims in society; however, government actions continue to create a threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities.[2]

Not much chance of Iranians converting to other faiths, is there?

 

[Sherbang]

Selective trawling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Iran



Not much chance of Iranians converting to other faiths, is there?

I don't think it was selective trawling. JK8 didn't say anything about freedom of other religions, he was responding to my ignorance about the freedom of jews in Iran. I didn't know I would be welcome there, as a jew, and he pointed out that there is a large jewish population there - which I didn't know. I had incorrectly thought that iranians hated jews - partly because of their fanatical governments anti-israeli stance and partly because of US propoganda - clearly I was wrong.

 

[LazyLion]

I still don't get the point of the thread? and I still don't get why aqua-lung thought it was necessary to state the obvious by making a thread about it. Is he so prejudiced that he thinks there are people on this board who hate all muslims? I have traveled to many countries in the world and visited with people on all continents. The large majority of them were friendly people. I know several people from Iran both before and after the revolution both native Iranians and europeans who lived in Iran. They are all lovely people.

So are we gonna start seeing threads now about how nice some of the Venezuelan people are? Or that there is such a thing as a nice Cuban. How about nice South Africans? Is there such an animal?

I have never ever heard ANYONE on this board say "All Iranians are bad people"... so aqua-lung's post remains pointless to me.