A nightmare tehran to astara
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2006
1
17
27
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Astara,
Iran
Thursday, January 11, 2007
zahra and fatimeh decided they wanted to see me off to the bus terminal to say goodbye.
we made it there in good time with over an hour to spare. i gave fati a gift and a letter in english about life and the choice to be happy. the girls both had a couple of tears in their eyes with (i think) the sadness of my leaving and, more so, the sadness that in all likelihood they would never be so free and lucky as i. they gave me a pocket sized koran and told me to always keep it near for it will keep me safe.
all of a sudden some uniformed guy appeared and told us to come with him.
we ended up in an office with 3 cops.
the cops started yelling at the girls. zahra took it all on the cheek with a grin and a grain of salt for a while, but when cops started screaming louder and fati started crying, she had to fight off the tears as well. the cops called the girls' mother to see if she knew they were with me. this went on for about 35 minutes till the cops told the bawling girls to sit.
i took this as a cue to present my bus ticket so they would know i had to leave soon.
the fisrt cop started screaming at me and pointing to go stand by the wall. i did so and he came over and screamed some more right in my face. i told him i didn't understand and he screamed some more then puched me in the guts before leading me off to a concrete cell with an 8 inch thick steel door.
thank god he left the door open. i would have broken down as well.
the screaming at the girls continued for a while until the cop came and got me.
they went right through my bags, gave me a good smack on the back of my neck and said, in their first bit of english thoughout the whole ordeal 'goodbye, iranian'.
shaken, made it to the bus with only a few minutes to spare, worried sick about the girls.
u see, its illegal for girls to hang out with foreign men, in iran. they ran the risk of being locked up, hung, or most likely whipped. seppideh, whom i met in eshfahan, had had 35 lashes once for being found at a party with friends. according to islamic law, lashings to females are supposed to be given by a female holding the koran under her arm with the whip. seppideh had been whipped by a big man, not holding the koran.
i got on the bus and we left. then the bus drove around the terminal about 8 times looking for more passengers and the driver had an argument with some chick and then the bus was stopped and some cops dragged the driver away.
a new bus turned up and i had to ask beg some guy if he could give me some rials for $ coz i had no iranian currency left to pay for another bus ticket.
aaargh!!!!
i sweated and fuken worried about the girls all night,
hoping the cops didn't find the gift to fati and more so, the letter.
sleeplessy i sat on the bus waiting to be picked up by some cops in astara or something. and i worried, wondering if the girls were ok.
i rang them in the morning b4 crossing the border.
siad they were fine and the cops were very rude!!!, but they were at home and ok.
phew!!
