Iran: first impressions

Iran is a world apart and a very refreshing one after having spent half a year in China and about a month in Central Asia. Of course, there are lots of interesting historical sights, spanning millenia of human culture. But what makes the country really interesting and welcoming is the people: forget about such terms as "axis of evil" and "cradle of terrorists" - none of that is remotely true. From the moment we entered Iran, people have shown a hospitable, open and curious attitude towards us.

It started with the businessman who offered us to bring us to Mashad, paying for our lunch. Then, there was the Swiss-Iranian lady who showed us a nice hotel. Two young men in the train were very gentlemanlike and helped us finding a taxi. People in taxis share their snacks with us. A man offered us a ride from the bus station to the town of Bandar Abbas. Women and men in the street smile and curiously ask where we're from (sometimes, this gets a bit annoying when there's 10 boys asking that question non stop, but it's all in good spirit). And the list goes on: Iranian people are great!

It is also quite clear that many (most) Iranians don't like their government at all: the list of mock-names for the president is long, and includes such terms as "monkey", "idiot" and "stupid man" (ok, not that impressive cursewords, but Iranians generally aren't that eloquent in English) . We also met quite a few mainly young people who openly share with us that they are no Muslims, and that they don't believe in God. One youngster in Mahan even proclaimed to be an atheist, who wanted to destroy all religions...

What is also very obvious is that the position of women is generally not very encouraging: the headscarf is omnipresent, and many women wear a none-revealing black chador, which is not only horribly hot in this climate, but also very unhandy: they keep it closed with at least one hand, and many older women even take a piece of cloth in their mouth as to cover their face.
In busses, women sit in the back whereas men sit in front. In shared taxis, a woman cannot sit next to a strange man, resulting in the fact that people shuffle around in the car until the mix is right. Women also behave in a very restrained way: they don't make a fuss about themselves and are generally keeping rather quiet.