A Letter from Catherine Thomasson, M.D.

March 7, 2007

Dear friends:

Iran has been more beautiful and different than what I expected. The
time here is 11 and ½ hours ahead of Portland. The land is beautiful
with picturesque mountains to the north that are very close when you
are in north Tehran, a city of 15 million people. The pollution is
light in the spring, so we've seen the mountains daily. The people are
beautiful, with women in a variety of full black robe to fussy
jackets, with scarves tilted back and full make-up on some of the
young women. They are generally curious of us and those who speak
English are open and generous with their time and explanations.

The men dress in casual clothes, so our traveling companions had to
wait for an hour while we shopped at the "monteaux" -- or coat and scarf
store -- for appropriate clothes. It was a crush of people, with mostly
male salespeople in a close quartered store of racks of coats. The
hijab does definitely hinder my hearing, but I've learned to place it
so that my peripheral vision is no longer affected. Every day I am
still tempted to throw it off along with the "coat" as soon as I walk
indoors, but have to remind myself that I would be too provocative.
Women, at least on average, work right alongside men, however, and women
make up to 60-70% of the university population -- which provides a good,
free education to the 6-7,000 students out of 100,000 who sit for the
exam yearly.

We visited a long-term care facility for veterans with spinal cord
injuries from the Iran-Iraq war. We spoke with staff and the veterans,
some of whom have completed studies in varied fields, including
computer science, philosophy, and engineering. This war is still an
immediate presence for the people in Iran, as there were up to one
million people killed and many more wounded. Everyone we spoke with
had a family member affected.

Several of the veterans were also victims of chemical warfare used by
Iraq against Iranian forces and sometimes against civilian population.
The primary gas was mustard gas, which burns on contact and when
inhaled causes severe respiratory burns which are potentially lethal.
It was clear that United Nations teams were sent into the war zone and
documented use of chemical weapons. Amazingly, the U.N. Security
Council did not bring charges or action against Iraq for these crimes,
presumably being pressured by Security Council members, including the
United States, as that would have helped expose the fact that the chemical
weapons were sold to Iraq from Europe and that the United States was
aiding Iraq with military intelligence and other supports. The issue
of crimes against humanity was also not raised at the trial of Saddam
Hussein, another very appropriate time to have done so.

We were also met by journalists at these meetings and others. We were
warmly greeted and advised that the people of Iran love the people of
America. They clearly differentiate between the people and the
government. Several senior physicians and health professionals with
whom I met clearly and emphatically emphasized that sanctions and the
threats of war from the United States strengthen the hand of the hard-liners in Iran -- and that if any military attack were to occur that
military and social repression within the country would create "a
country with more repression than North Korea." It is evident as well
that this action would undoubtedly convince the hard-liners that
nuclear weapons are justified for national security. Hardly the
desired outcome.

We were granted a visit with one of four vice presidents of the
Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaee, a close colleague of
President Ahmedenijad. He invited us to send more Americans to visit
Iran to dispel the myths associated with this country. The
vice president felt that dialogue was needed between our countries to
resolve our conflicts and address issues of security in the Middle East.

Foreign policy in this complex governance is not, however, the role of
the vice president or even the president. It is controlled by the
Supreme Leader, who has recently backed off the hard line presented by
the president and has eased the rhetoric. Indeed public support for
the president and his positions are low here in the country. It is
essential that we encourage our administration to pursue real
negotiations without precondition as the only solution to resolve the
issues of control of the nuclear energy process and support for a
peaceful conclusion to the morass in Iraq.

We continue on to Shiraz, the city of poets.