Second Letter from Catherine Thomasson, M.D.
March 8, 2007
Dear friends:
We are now in Shiraz, the city of poets and namesake of the famous wine! We visited two tombs of famous poets Hafiz and Sa’adi, which is a wonderful change from monuments to "warriors." Beautiful calligraphy of famous poems is fired right into the beautifully tiled panels around the tomb. The sites are an oasis of pine, orange, and cypress trees amid the desert dryness. This city of 1.5 million feels more accessible and warm, with its softer yellowish brick and mud buildings, compared to the gray concrete of Tehran.
At any tourist site or even on the street, we are greeted with giggles and hellos from schoolchildren, and with warmth and love from university students, doctors, computer engineers, and other adults who welcome us to their country. They talk with us and within minutes say they love us and the American people — and invite us to their home or their town to show us what real Iranian hospitality is. This reaction is uniform! Could you imagine walking up to foreigners visiting tourist sites in the United States and inviting them home? The amazing part is they are serious! Some are worried about war and a few ask us to take a message back to President Bush.
Near Shiraz, we are surrounded by the majestic beauty of Persepolis, a huge stone complex built by the kings of the Persian Empire in 500 B.C.E. Incredibly beautiful stone murals and columns of the kings and their courts are still standing. Here, again, many say hello to us and want to talk. A group of veterans of the Iran-Iraq war are touring the site and share their scars of torture, missing limbs, and shrapnel wounds, and say that that is the outcome of war! They tell us that war produces only death and wounds, hence must be circumvented. They feel there is no need for war, that Iran is not a country that has instigated a war for 200 years.
We also met a women’s club of the Red Cross who were visiting the site from Shiraz University. They had spread out carpets on which to have their picnic lunch. Women make up 60% of the university population. Positions are awarded based on performance on an entrance exam. These women model how to wear the chador. It seems to be a polarized preference with some women feeling that wearing the hijab and chador are important statements of their religion and others who feel it is wrong to require it. There is currently a one-million-signature campaign by women activists to educate women of their lack of rights and to bring these signatures to the government to change policies. Given the youthful age of the population — 60-65% under the age of 30 — it makes one feel that change is inevitable.
When we discuss the issue of military threats from the United States, the response is uniform. People feel that it will be devastating and only result in additional success for the hard-liners and worsened repression within the country. Likewise, Iranians are intensely proud of their country and will fight to defend it. There is a very strong sentiment as well that change of the government and its policies can only come from within the society.
Instead there is much to bargain for if direct talks are held: support for Iraqi stability, Afghani stability, intelligence on terrorist groups (not insurgents), and a nuclear-free Middle East. The Iranian government was very cooperative with the United States before the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, indicating that many goals for security and stability are the same for our two nations. In addition, it offered negotiations on these topics in 2003, but the request for negotiations was not replied to by the United States.
We will stay one more day in Shiraz, then travel on to Esfehan and Qom.
