Iran: Bristol resident explores foreign country

The country of Iran was in the news earlier this year for the unrest borne out of a contested presidential election that pitted incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against a vocal opposition candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
However, there is more to Iran than political instability, as Bristol, Va. resident Anne Corley can attest. Corley traveled to Iran on May 4-16 with the United Nations Association (UNUSA), a group dedicated to spreading cultural awareness among member nations.
The application process for joining UNUSA trips is rigorous. Membership in the UNUSA is required, and potential participants must have international experience.
Corley certainly qualifies. An active member of Central Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Va., Corley’s involvement with a missions committee exposed her to the cultures of Latin America. Other travels have taken her to Scotland, France and Germany. In fact, Corley estimates that she has visited 25 countries.
However, the purpose of this most recent journey was unique.
In accordance with the UNUSA’s mission, Corley and her fellow travelers were given the freedom to interact daily with the Iranian people. Corley says this freedom became apparent as soon as she landed in Tehran’s airport. 
“We weren’t even searched!” she said. “I expected to be fingerprinted, but that didn’t happen. We were told it was a courtesy for visiting American friends. I don’t think that would happen in America.”
The openness continued as Corley’s interaction with the Iranian people began with a question-and-answer session at the University of Tehran. The session featured faculty members of the university’s psychology department and included several imams (Islamic clerics).
According to Corley, the questions asked by UNUSA’s members were difficult and covered subjects like HIV/AIDS, gay rights, women’s rights and the treatment of prisoners. “We were allowed to ask anything we wanted to,” she said. “And they did not hesitate to answer.”
The answers were blunt.
On one of the most controversial subjects, gay rights, the faculty members directly contradicted a statement made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In his September 24, 2007 speech at Columbia University, Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran “had no gays.” Corley says the faculty members disagreed.
“They said that Ahmadinejad probably doesn’t walk down the streets and see gay people, but they do exist,” she said. “They were very frank and honest with us.”
The honesty of the Iranian people would prove to be a defining feature of Corley’s trip.
“Groups of people would just come up and talk to us,” she said. “They’d say, ‘We love Americans! Don’t listen to Ahmadinejad, we think he’s crazy too!’ That was one thing we kept hearing, that they really did love Americans. The anti-American slogans on the walls, those are all about 30 years old.”
The unsupervised nature of the trip allowed such free interaction.
“We could go anywhere we wanted. There were no restrictions,” Corley said. “We were welcomed in the shops and on the streets, on the sidewalks and the squares. We’d start conversations with so many people, and they couldn’t have been friendlier.”
Corley says the main topic of conversation during her trip in May was Iran’s then-upcoming election on June 12. (Ahmadinejad was eventually declared the winner of the contested election.)
“Everyone we talked to was for Mousavi, Corley said. “But some of them said they were afraid the election had already been decided.”
A few Iranians expressed a desire to leave Iran for America, but visa troubles prohibited their emigration.
“I think the American government is afraid they’ll decide to stay there permanently,” she said.
“At least now they have a voice, a powerful voice,” she said of the controversial election. “There’s a chance for change.”
The desire for change expressed by so many Iranians leads Corley to believe that most Americans have the wrong impression about Iran and its people.
She blames this misconception on the American media. “I thought that Iranians didn’t like Americans. That’s all we read in the newspapers.”
Corley said that the Iranians are aware of how they are portrayed. “One young man came up to me and told me that he thought Americans believed that all Iranians carried guns.”
She found this stereotype proved to be completely false. “I didn’t see one gun in my time there. Not even the policemen carried guns.”
She adds, “My friends thought I was crazy for going. I thought I was crazy, at first.”
The Iranian people put those fears to rest, and Corley says their friendliness became the most surprising aspect of her trip. “I was definitely surprised by how modern the cities were, but mostly, I was surprised by the people. They were so warm.”
That is what Corley most wants people to know about Iran. Iran’s combination of historical significance and cultural depth is compelling, but it is the Iranian people that make it truly unique.
“They are so brave,” she said. “They’re such an outgoing, open people. And they really do love America.”

SARAH JONES of Bristol, VA is a senior international studies major at Cedarville University in Cedarville, OH.

YOU SHOULD KNOW: THOUGHTS ON VISITING IRAN
Anne Corley’s two-week trip to Iran was led by Abdi Sami, an Iranian born filmmaker and the founder of special effects studio Dream Quest. The members of the UNUSA group were allowed to dress as they normally would with one exception: the women were asked to wear headscarves. This was done out of respect for Iranian culture. The group was not instructed on how to interact with the Iranian people since all group members had some experience with international travel.
The trip provided Corley with opportunities to visit many of Iran’s historical landmarks. The details of her visit are useful for anyone planning to make a similar trip. For information on how to get involved with the UNUSA, visit http://www.unusa.org.

TEHRAN
“The population of Tehran is 14-15 million people. It is a very modern city – as are all the cities we visited – with very good streets and highways. There are many trees in all the cities, and all the new roads are having trees planted by them. If you took all the scarves off the women, you’d think you were in European cities! The super highways around Tehran have grass and flowers on the banks, as well as trees. The flowers were planted in designs and were beautiful. Many of the walls of buildings that back up to the ring roads also have murals of country scenes painted on them. There was a Bell helicopter plant on the outskirts of town. We stayed at the Ferdowsi Hotel.”

SHIRAZ
“Shiraz in southern Iran is a city of 1.5 million – the fifth largest city, with a university of 21,000 students. The bazaar here is 250 years old, but the city is now modern, also with many trees and flowers, and they are building a new metro system.“

ESFAHAN
“Esfahan with a population of two million or more in central Iran is probably the most beautiful city we saw. It was established in the 17th century and has many beautiful bridges, parks and again, flowers and trees everywhere. The Imam Square there is the second largest square in the world, second only to the Tiananmen Square. It must be big enough for six or eight football fields, with a beautiful mosque at either end and bazaars on either side. The group stayed at the Kowsar Hotel here.”

QOM
“Qom, about 1.5 million, a holy city between Esfahan and Tehran, is the home of the Fatima Dome, honoring the sister of the 7th Imam who died there at Qom in 815 A.D. There are a number of seminaries there, including The Islamic Seminary for Women. It was begun after the 1979 revolution and is free to the students. The profits from a soft drink company support it. There are about 1,000 women there from other countries in addition to Iranians, and everyone studies Farsi first. Degrees are available in several areas including teaching and Islamic studies, and women can become clerics.”

PERSEPOLIS
“In museums, we saw artifacts such as pottery, tools, jewelry and carvings from as far back as 5,000 B.C. and out in the countryside, places from about 600 B.C., including the tomb of Cyrus, the Persian king who freed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem from Babylon and even funded the rebuilding of the temple. We went through the Plain of Morghab, where Cyrus and the Persians fought the Medes in the early 500s B.C.”

ABYANEH
“Abyaneh is a small village in the Karkas Mountains. A group of people fled here when the Arabs invaded in the mid-990s A.D., to keep from having to give up their Zorastrian beliefs. Eventually, they did abandon most of those beliefs and become Muslim, but they still wear the same type of clothes they’ve worn for centuries. The village had no roads to it until about 30 years ago, so was largely forgotten. Now there is a paved road up the mountain, and a good hotel, so tourists visit there. We stayed at the Abyaneh Hotel.”
– Anne Corley on her observations about Iran