Picnic - Iranian style!

  A little town outside of Esfahan, Iran
Friday, May 12, 2006

Gohsan invited me back to his family's house and I jumped at the chance to stay the night. I checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi at the assigned time of 9am on Friday morning. Friday being the muslim holy day is the only day off for Iranians (yip, Sat and Sun are regular work and school days...) and is a chance for everyone to go out and picnic. My family included!

The small town an hour away from Esfahan. After a lot of lost confusion, we eventually found Gohsan's family house - a huge 3 story house hidden behind a huge front gate. The family had already gone to their picnic area and we were following behind.

We jumped into the car and headed 10 min out of town to an orchard area. There, amongst the trees and another huge fence, was the private garden of their aunt. The place was overgrown and lovely - fresh fruit, grapes and all, dripping from the trees. In the middle of the garden was a roofed shelter with carpets. This is where we hung out with the family (and the family friends) - snacking and smoking the water pipe. (Recently made illegal for women to smoke...government is starting to get a little more strict)


After a lovely lunch of rice wrapped in vine leaves (special treat because they had a special guest - me!) I joined the girls out in the garden. Out of sight of the males, the headscarves came off some of them. We asked each other all sorts of questions - my innocent question about whether they found the hijab hot turned into a rather interesting debate between two of the girls. I have found that the question of hijab (headscarf) or not is pretty much split 50:50 between the younger generation. Many see it as their protection against men - they know a man would never dare to touch them while they are wearing it. They don't trust men at all and see it as the only way they can survive peacefully without harassment in society. The other half just want the freedom to do as they want. The older generation on the other hand have lived life without hijab (it came into force after the Islamic Revolution in 1979) and many I met didn't think it necessary if they dressed semi-conservatively.


After a mid afternoon snack the ladies of the household all headed out of the complex, down river to do the washing. Beautiful women in photogenic surroundings! We dipped our feet in the cool stream and enjoyed the late afternoon breeze.


We stayed on at the garden until late at night, drinking tea, snacking, smoking the waterpipe (not me). A lovely day with another lovely Iranian family!


Back at the house the next morning I was most surprised the sister get ready for school. She was dressed the day before most casually in jeans with manteau and a bright headscarf. For school however the uniform was complete chador. A shock! The twins then took care of me for the day, taking me to see the pigeon house (traditionally not only for mail, but also to collect pigeon shxt for fertiliser) before putting me on the bus bound for Shiraz. Another new 'family' I was sad to leave.