Roses and nightingales and sleezy men

  Shiraz (and Persepolis), Iran
Saturday, May 13, 2006

Well, Shiraz was SUPPOSED to be one of the highlights of Iran - the home of not only Shiraz wine (unfortunately shiraz wine grapes are no longer grown here) but also the romantic hometown of two of Iran's greatest poets - Hafez who wrote of nightingales and roses and everything else romantic, and Sa'di.


Unfortunately for me it will eternally be know as the town of the sleezy men. Grrrr...! Details of ALL the harrassment I was subject to is at the bottom of the page - female travellers to Shiraz be warned! Iran is overall an extremely safe country to travel in for a woman and I have loved meeting so many Iranian woman - one of the advantages of the segregation of sexes. Unfortunately Shiraz was the exception. And I don't think it was just me that didn't get good vibes from the city - I have since met several other (male) travellers who all said they didn't enjoy the people at all and that they were constantly ripped off. My advice is... go if you have the time (Persepolis in particular is amazing) - but if you are a woman travelling alone and don't have too much time, its not great loss to miss it.

The first day I checked into a seedy hotel (with a sleezy receptionist) and had a quick look around the town - nothing special compared to the beautiful Esfahan, but still, a lot to see. The town centre is dominated by the huge citadel Arg-e Karim Khan (first 3 pictures below). It is in the process of being restored internally and is being done very tastfully - there were even a few craftswomen using it as a workshop! The town also has a few beautiful parks, and a lovely view over the city from the Quoran Gateway in the north of the town. If it wasn't for the unwanted male attention, I think I may have even liked the city!


My Tehran friend Fahime had again put me in touch with two more of her friends living in Shiraz. I rang the first name on my list, Sadegh, at 4pm on the day I arrived. He asked where I was and 30 min later he appeared in his car ready to show me around the city - what AMAZING hosts the Iranians are! Sadegh has two lovely kids - Amir (7) and Ali (4) who were typical kids - inquisitive and hyperactive. They were absolutley gorgeous and just couldn't understand that I couldn't speak their language and kept talking and talking to me!

We headed off first to the mausoleum of the 14th century great Iranian poet Hafez. Iranians LOVE their poetry. Its a part of them, their identity. One young Iranian man asked an Icelandic friend of mine what he did when he was alone with his girlfriend. "Do you hold hands and read her poetry?" he asked in the very lovely innocent Iranian way. One Iranian website I came across went so far as to say "To this day, Hafiz's Divan (Poetry) is utilized as an Oracle to give guidance to our questions, and direction to realize our wishes."

An excerpt from one of his poems follows (apparantly much more beautiful in Persian, but I think this is great anyway!

OH Cup-bearer, set my glass afire
With the light of wine! oh minstrel, sing:
The world fulfilleth my heart's desire!
Reflected within the goblet's ring
I see the glow of my Love's red cheek,
And scant of wit, ye who fail to seek
The pleasures that wine alone can bring!
The remainder of this poem can be read here.

The mausoleum itself was a big park with a dome covering over the marble coffin. Many Iranians (and the odd tourist) touched the grave, cried, prayed and gave flowers to the memory of Hafez. In the back of the park was a fantastic tea room where we sat and ate icecream as other visitors smoked the waterpipe (recently made illegal for women).


From there we moved onto a similar Sa'di mausoleum and then back to the family house for some homecooked dinner - by Sadegh himself (whoever said Iranian men do not help out around the house are wrong!). A wonderful evening of laughter!


A couple of days later I met up with the second of Fahime's friends - an artist called Maryam who was in the process of setting up her own workshop. She was very busy but found the time to take me to the handicrafts part of the bazaar, before having lunch in the local tea house. Another lovely and intellegent young lady!


And finally, the finale - a trip out to the ancient city of Persepolis. I got a minibus to the site (which the elderly gentleman in front of me paid for without me noticing) and arrived before the sun got too high. Persepolis was founded by Darius I in 518 B.C. and was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It was built on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. It was named Parsa, but later under subsequent Greek influence became known as Persepolis, "The city of the Persians". The splendor of Persepolis however lasted only two centuries. Its majestic audience halls and residential palaces perished in flames when Alexander the Great conquered and looted Persepolis in 330 B.C. and carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. Lots of very cool monuments survived and remain in pretty good condition over a huge area - if it wasn't for the heat I could have happily have spent most of the day plottering amongst the ruins.


And so, not a moment too soon my days in Persepolis came to an end and I headed north, to the city of Yazd where I was DYING to meet some other tourists.

Harassment of Hannah in Shiraz
The first night I arrived I ventured out for food. Iranian people take to the streets at nightime, up until about 10pm as its much cooler than the daytime, and as such it feels much safer to be out at night than in the day when there are not so many people about. Anyway, as I was heading home a man followed me all the way back to my hotel talking at me in Persian (me thinks talking dirty). I completely ignored him hoping he would go away. He didn't.

The hotel receptionist kept trying to touch me (totally inappropriate and rude in Iran) - on the arm, my necklace, trying to grab my hand. gawking at my (scarfless) passport photo.

The next day walking the street up to the park (3pm) I was followed by 2 boys in a car. Again I ignored them, but they followed me for about 20min yelling out the window for me to come and join them. I ignored them completely, crossing the road etc, but still they persisted. In the end I had to go up to them and ask them what the hell they wanted. I got a telephone number thrust at me and they kept gesturing to me to get into their car. And still they followed! Grrr

The next day two men followed me. I ignored them until one tried to grab my arm. I turned around to him. He went to kiss me. I told him to fxxx off. Again he went to kiss me, and this time I raised my arm to punch him (I would have too) and then they finally left.

5 min later a man passing by turned around a grabbed my bum. Later that night another man 'accidently' bumped into my breasts. I was followed by another car. I had other groups of men yelling out (in Persian) to me on the streets. The only word I could catch was 'sex'.

Needless to say it was all very unpleasant and I didn't feel very good about it at all. I started to wear the most conservative clothes possible (black scarf, black manteau and black trousers) but still, they could spot me as a foreigner from 50ft. I even considered going out and buying a chador on one occassion! Basically, as a foreign woman, you ARE going to stand out. Unfortunately it appears that in Shiraz a single foreign female is a target. Saying you are married, have a boyfriend etc isn't going to make one difference to them. Western women = loose! Grrrrr!!!

The good news is that, as I mentioned above, it was only in Shiraz that I had ANY kind of men trouble in Iran, and that the harassment, although annoying, was quite innocent and controllable. If you are a woman thinking of travelling alone in Iran, do it, the rewards are tremendous. Its possibly the country where I have had the MOST contact with local women because of the segregation. You will always be seated next to women on buses, and will always be around women in any type of official place. But, perhaps its best to cross off Shiraz from your itinerary :-)