Honeymoon in Purdah, by Alison Wearing, 2000, ISBN 0-312-26181-0, available through Amazon.com (I bought my copy at Powell's in Portland).
Here are some notes from the book cover:
With an infectious love of travel, Alison Wearing invites us to journey with her to a country that few Westerners have a chance to see. Honeymoon in Purdah is a book of sketches gathered over the course of her journey in Iran.
Traveling with a male friend, in the guise of a couple on their honeymoon. Wearing set out on her own at every available opportunity. She went looking for what lay beneath the media's representation of Iran and found a country made up of welcoming, curious, warmhearted, ambitious men and women. Through her, we meet the ordinary and extraordinary people of Iran -- those whose lives extend beyond Western news stories of kidnappings, terrorism, veiled women, and Islamic fundamentalism. She introduces us to a gregarious young opium dealer who dreams of America, policemen who bring tea, a stranger waving hello in his pajamas, a playful eight-year-old girl only a year away from the possibility of marriage, and an irrepressible, heroic Anglican minister.
They start from Turkey, to Tabriz, to Bandar-e-Azali, to Mashhad, to Zahedan, to Bandar Abbas, to Shiraz, to Esfahan, to Qom, to Tehran, to Turkey! I think I would not enjoy Qom, but the rest of the places all seem very interesting.
1 comments:
Havent read the book, but travel in Iran I can confirm is simply stunning. The history, people and scenery are like none other. And as with virtually all middle eastern countries the people are exceptionally friendly (and honest).
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