Thinking of joining a delegation to Iran? A one-year reflection.

Caroline Chinlund is a psychologist in New York City who has been involved in the Peace movement since the Viet Nam era. Caroline participated in the February-March 2008 civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation as part of her peace activities.

Dr. Chinlund wrote this piece for those who are thinking to take such a trip to Iran. What follows is Caroline’s perspective and experience of travelling to Iran with FOR.

WHAT ABOUT JOINING A DELEGATION TO IRAN??  A ONE-YEAR PERSPECTIVE  FROM CAROLINE CHINLUND

Your eye lights upon the poster: FOR invites you to visit Iran as a civilian diplomat.  The delegation leaves for Iran in May. How do we select ourselves?

What could I, a one-year veteran of an FOR delegation to Iran, say to let you know what to expect? Why would you be someone who chooses to jump on board?

What attracted me was my feeling of helplessness to change the way the U.S. media persist in configuring Iran as a dangerous, terrorist enemy. Yes, they were echoing the rhetoric of President Bush, but now that we have President Obama,  although we haven’t heard as much in some media about “evil,” Iran is linked in the press with the phrase “nuclear threat.” If you’re someone like me, who feels the hypocrisy of that (please, guys, who is the world’s biggest nuclear threat??) you may feel some of that helpless feeling. It starts with soundbites and the next thing you know, you’re un-American if you don’t want to attack the offending nation. Or support another nation that is attacking them.

So I was attracted to go and learn something that I could bring back home to talk about; and I was attracted to go and express my wish for friendship and understanding among our peoples and our governments.

That’s  how it started. My family was worried that I wouldn’t come back.  They seemed to think I might be imprisoned or taken hostage. When I commented on this to one of our leaders beforehand, as we were assembling the materials we needed for our visas, she said very calmly, “that won’t happen.” I wondered how she could be so sure?? She had been on other FOR delegations; I thought maybe that was it. Now I know that it was her clarity about Iranian hospitality to visitors that gave her voice that authoritative certainty.

 

We were going as guests of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We paid our fare and expenses, and then, we understood, our meetings and transport, as well as all food and accommodations for the two weeks of our stay, would be arranged by our hosts.  To me at first that simply meant that we were going to have a very reasonably priced opportunity to experience a very far-off and unfamiliar place.  Later, I realized what Iranian hospitality really is.

If I begin with arriving at the airport in Tehran, I will give you a sense of the most difficult part of the trip. It’s necessary to arrive in the middle of the night, perhaps because that’s the only time the traffic allows people to get from the airport to downtown Tehran in a reasonable amount of time. Before we land, women are advised to cover their heads as per the law in Iran. Very sleepy, we put on our head covering and exit the plane. We stand, women in one line, men in another, waiting to be fingerprinted and to have our passports and visas checked. The process is very slow; there is only one man on duty for men and women. We stand and wait.  I know from our conversations in Iran that this uncomfortable procedure is parallel to the hoops Iranians must go through if they are even admitted to the U.S. Many have their visas denied. Our leader (the same one who said “that won’t happen”) offers to fingerprint us for the official. She speaks Persian, which is wonderful for us. He accepts her offer. The ink from our fingerprints is hard to remove. With purple fingers we form a bedraggled group, catching up with men in the delegation who were able to pass through quite easily.

You have just read about the difficult part of the voyage. Before we were connected to our guide, we were not guests of anyone. We were citizens of another nation, and, in fact, a nation which harasses Iranians on entry.

From the meeting with our guide in the airport to our farewell at the same airport two weeks later, we experienced Iranian hospitality. If you have Iranian friends, you may already know what I’m describing. If not, you could discover a humanist’s treasure this year, in May!

 

Our delegation numbered 14, including our two leaders. We were the guests of the director of the Center for Interreligious Dialogue, a part of the Organization for Islamic Culture and Relations. Dr. Rasoulipour, who organized our meetings and itinerary, shaped our experience around the opportunity for us to share our faith and philosophical perspectives on peacemaking. We were given the opportunity to meet Christian and Jewish leaders, as well as to talk with people of those faiths.  Although not all of our delegation professed religious affiliation, we had no difficulty enjoying the meetings and conversations Dr. Rasoulipour arranged for us. Because Iran’s government is an Islamic Republic, we found our introduction to officials in the government often included some quotation from the Koran. These were verses relating to peace and friendship among peoples, and provided good food for dialogue.

The ritual of being received as a civilian diplomat in Iranis always like this:

You are ushered into a big living room or conference room. You are served tea and nuts or cake. Your host is introduced to you by a colleague of his (if a colleague is present – the  Armenian Archbishop and Chaldean Bishop introduced themselves).  Your leaders introduce themselves and then you introduce yourself. A translator translates the entire meeting. Your host addresses you briefly. Then the dialogue begins. It is wonderful to begiven such attention and respect by people who are officials of their government. As an avid lobbyist for peace here in the U.S. I and my colleagues in the Granny Peace Brigade rarely are received by anyone more senior than a staff-member when we ask for appointments with our legislators. The reception we received in Iran made me feel honored for my mission of seeking peace.

Last fall when President Ahmadinejad was in New York for meetings at the U.N., he invited peace groups to meet with him, and I accepted. President Ahmadinejad  received us in a large ballroom of his hotel, with refreshments provided for his guests, though he and other Muslims were observing the fast of Ramadan. The great number of peace-seeking organizations represented on that occasion made me feel less alone than I had in a long time. Each of the organizations gave a brief written history of itself for Pres. Ahmadinejad. From reading these histories I learned that civilian diplomacy between groups in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had been effective in building bridges during the Cold War. I had already begun to feel the hope that comes from having experienced our welcome by the Iranian government and people. Being in the company of so many others from all over the country was a great feeling. I have President  Ahmadinejad to thank for that.

A few days before he received the members of U.S. peace groups, I had heard that there was going to be a demonstration against the Iranian president outside of the United Nations. With some members of Code Pink and the Grannies, I went to be a presence for respecting the visit of a leader of another nation, one with whom I and so many others seek peace and friendship. I was touched that my stepdaughter heard my voice on the radio the next morning, expressing my belief that the Iranian leader deserved respect, and my hope that we could gain in our ability to bring about diplomacy and friendship among our nations for the sake of our grandchildren.

My grandchildren will be very fortunate if they can be exchange students in Iran. To meet a culture where poetry is king, where family time together is treasured, where hospitality is a fine art, where people are free to engage or not in formal worship, and the observance of Islamic faith and practice balances and sustains the lives of millions of people. 

To learn more about how and why I can make these statements, it would be a good idea to go on the May 2009 delegation to Iran. There were three study groups in our delegation. These focused on religion, politics and culture. I chose culture. I absorbed huge numbers of impressions, and it took me months to sort through them all. My husband and I got hold of every Iranian film we would find and watched them all until we began to realize that you have to be in the mood, because Iranian films are usually quite sad and dark. The amount of culture we could confirm in the watching, though, was tremendous. Religion, though not my area for dialogue, was a surprising discovery for me. I had, with an Egyptian friend, written a book for children in the U.S. about Ramadan, so I knew something about Islam. But I learned much more from meeting people, especially women, in Iran, who spoke to us about their practice and their faith.

Politics was and is the hardest topic for me. After we returned from Iran, I found several books which helped me get a handle on recent Iranian history and the complex relationship between Iran and Israel. From Kinzer’s All the Shah’s Men I got the story of the 1953 CIA coup, in which the U.S. unseated Mossadegh, Iran’s elected prime minister. From Parsi’s Treacherous Alliance I learned about the elaborate undercover power maneuvers of Iran, Israel, and the U.S. since the revolution in Iran 30 years ago. I am still stunned by that information, and feel that I didn’t play enough of the game of Risk when I was a child. The extent of betrayal and broken promises, particularly by people in the U.S., is mind-boggling! Shirin Ebadi’s Iran Awakening gives a wonderful insight into the culture and the politics, and puts in perspective the pain she and other female professionals endured when the government began to discriminate against women after the revolution. I can feel her great love for her country and her sense of loss and outrage at the way the legal system privileges men over women. Fatemeh Keshafarz’ Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran offers an Iranian-American professor’s passionate rejection  of the viewpoint of Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Keshavarz offers an introduction to some modern Iranian fiction and portraits of her beloved uncle and memories of her childhood in Shiraz. Hamid  Dabashi, in Iran, a People Interrupted, is also extremely critical of Reading Lolita, feeling that it supports a neo-conservative attitude that the U.S. focus should be bringing about regime change. Ebadi and certainly former President Khatami  emphasize that U.S. clandestine projects directed towards fomenting unrest inside Iran only retard the progress of greater openness to democracy and acceptance of more modern attitudes towards the equality of women.

Well, if you are the sort of person who likes to read about the place you’re going before you take off, I’ve just offered you a reading list. I hadn’t read any of these books before our trip, and I had a powerful experience of learning, awakening, and, ultimately, rededicating myself to finding a path to friendship with the Iranian nation and people.