
Trapped in Iran: My Summer as a Guest of the Revolutionary Guards - b0b10101
https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran
======
maverick2007
All these politics and political games are such a shame. The Tehran that the
author describes seems like a really vibrant city that I'd really like to
visit and experience. But I never will for fear or something like this
happening, becoming some tiny pawn in a much bigger game. And I wish that
Iranians could come to the US and visit NYC or SF and see our culture. Then we
might realize that the other side is something more than the strawman that
media or government portrays them as.

~~~
benbreen
I'm an American citizen and visited Iran back 2017 with no problems. I was
nervous about getting questioned but surprisingly, it turned out to be one of
the smoothest border crossings I've ever experienced - when entering Iran and
the US I literally got no questions at all. (Getting an Iranian entry visa as
an American without a government minder was bit trickier, but I was also
pleasantly surprised by how smoothly that went - they even wrote me a check to
reimburse me for a priority processing fee that didn't end up being necessary,
which was a first).

That said - 2017 was, in retrospect, a pretty easy time to visit Iran, and I
wouldn't risk it now given the events of the last few months. But I very much
hope to be able to go back.

I can confirm what several others here are saying - Tehran is a cosmopolitan,
fascinating city, and Iranians are wonderful, on the whole. Some of the
biggest surprises for me were

1) the religious and cultural pluralism on display - I saw Zoroastrian
temples, synagogues, and plenty of churches (with the prominent exception of
Bahá'i, who are forced to live in the shadows). Not to mention that the vast
majority of Iranians I talked to about religion were on the atheist-agnostic
spectrum, although they participate in religious holidays and customs in much
the same way that my lapsed Catholic family did when I was growing up.

2) How much Iranians like American culture, and how connected they are to it
by friends and family who live in the US. I knew this from before, of course,
but it was surreal to be, say, talking to an older couple in a tiny provincial
village and end up discussing their favorite taquerias in Orange County (that
really happened to me). Or the kids in a mall who insisted on taking a bunch
of selfies with me when they found out I was from the US.

Anyway, I found the whole trip to be extraordinary and came away from it
convinced that, on the level of culture and society if not our current
governments, Americans and Iranians are natural allies. I hope for a future
where that can happen.

~~~
m0zg
>> synagogues

Do they still operate or are they remnants of pre-revolutionary times? I don't
see how they can operate in a state whose publicly stated goal is to "wipe
Israel from the face of the Earth".

~~~
Bendingo
Iran's issue with Israel is not related to Judaism. It's important to
distinguish between anti-zionism and anti-semitism. Iran is the former but not
the latter.

------
grecy
I've driven from Alaska to Argentina[0] and right around Africa[1], and I've
met a bunch of people that have explored a lot more of the planet than I have.

Without fail, every single person that has been to Iran rates it their number
one country, and the one they most want to go back to. The people are so
friendly, the culture so rich, the landscape and architecture so stunning.

I absolutely can not wait to go.

[0] theroadchoseme.com/expedition-overview

[1] theroadchoseme.com/africa-expedition-overview

~~~
yodsanklai
> I absolutely can not wait to go.

I would like to go too. Unfortunately, I also travel frequently to the US and
visiting Iran would make further trip to the US potentially problematic.

~~~
arethuza
I sometimes used to get an alarming amount of grief entering the US because I
had quite a few Turkish stamps in my passport as we used to go there a lot on
holiday. I hate to think what would happen with an Iranian stamp!

~~~
nradov
The US government is very concerned about people who use Turkey as an entry
point to nearby conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. When I applied for the
Global Entry program the only interview question they asked me was why I had
visited Turkey.

------
keiferski
Iran has an incredibly rich culture that is (quite literally) thousands of
years old and includes fantastic works in everything from poetry to painted
miniatures to philosophy. The current political situation there is really a
tragedy for world culture. I hope it becomes easier to visit within my
lifetime.

------
dmix
There was a spy TV show produced in Iran and pushed heavily on the state run
TV networks there that they used to help justify detaining reporters, very
clever propaganda:

[https://apnews.com/c5348f244a6b484fa3678f39a12e3ceb](https://apnews.com/c5348f244a6b484fa3678f39a12e3ceb)

I remember seeing a clip of an Iranian leader saying every journalist is a spy
and if they aren't they should be because they "don't get paid enough". Gives
you insight into their thinking, or what happens when you give the hyper-
paranoid intelligence agency people way too much power (which the west isn't
immune too).

~~~
derp_dee_derp
very clever propaganda indeed.

our politicians do the same thing.

Madam Secretary [0] was propaganda for Hillary Clinton

Diary of a Future President [1] is propaganda for Michelle Obama

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Secretary_(TV_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Secretary_\(TV_series\))
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Future_President](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Future_President)

~~~
knodi123
Wow. Without some additional arguments backing that up, this looks really
disgusting and misogynistic.

I look forward to seeing some evidence that Diary of a Future President is a
cynical piece of propaganda designed to aid the fortunes of Michelle Obama, in
order to restore a bit of my faith in humanity.

~~~
Mirioron
How is calling that propaganda misogynistic? Not everything that's against a
woman is misogyny.

~~~
knodi123
No, but saying "Diary of a Future President" must be propaganda for Michelle
Obama does indeed smack of woman-phobia. "yikes, someone's giving girls the
idea that they could be politically powerful. it's probably a secretive social
manipulation cynically run by the most powerful woman I can think of off the
top of my head."

Also, the only two people listed were Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton? All
the powerful people in Washington that you could accuse of shadowy
conspiracies to control the media, and they picked two women, and one of them
is black (ooooh, I get it, the little girl in the TV show is cuban, so also a
person of color?)? Considering the demographics of US politicians, yeah - that
comes off a little prejudiced. But hey, maybe it's a huuuuge coincidence.
/shrug.

------
duxup
The internal political wonkiness where the Guard makes their own policy and
other departments don't want to play along is amusing.

~~~
droithomme
> don't want to play along

As a detainee/possible hostage, he's in the category of a guest who is not
free to leave, and not a prisoner who has been convicted of a crime.

It's very important in Persian culture to treat guests well, better than your
own family members if possible.

What he describes, being put in a decent hotel, having his expenses covered,
and being free to explore the city in a sort of mandatory extended vacation,
is characteristic of Persian culture. I'm pretty sure he is aware of the
protocol and thus was never too concerned for himself.

~~~
duxup
I don't think the start of it fits that description, let alone the danger
hovering over it all considering the outcomes of other folks who were
detained.

------
gumby
If you don’t want to read the whole essay, skim down to the section that
describes daily life in Teheran. It’s really fascinating.

------
alistairSH
Very Kafka-esque. The whole thing is so bizarre.

------
yingw787
Wow, this man sounds like a really good sport and knows how to enjoy the
present :) I wish I could be more like that.

------
auiya
The writer seems to exhibit copious amounts of Stockholm syndrome for his
captors. From that standpoint it was a successful intelligence operation on
their part. Iranian intelligence can likely count on him as an asset to answer
questions over the phone for them in the future for some time.

~~~
calcifer
> The writer seems to exhibit copious amounts of Stockholm syndrome for his
> captors.

Or, perhaps, he knows his own feelings better than random commentators on the
Internet?

~~~
auiya
Drawing empathy from the victim is a common technique in interrogations such
as this. The victim is wholly unaware it's happening. This is clearly the case
here, the author makes no mention of being self-aware of these techniques.

------
aj7
“The synagogues were packed. At 1am Iran’s largest synagogue still teemed with
families. At 2am the congregation swayed in prayer for Israel and its people.”

------
hodder
[https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-
firefox](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox)

[https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-
chrome](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome)

~~~
jaboutboul
seems like The Economist has circumvented bypass-paywalls...

~~~
catalogia
Just disable javascript. The article loads fine without it. Most articles on
most websites load fine without javascript; I find it productive to have
uMatrix block all javascript by default.

------
Symbiote
I don't have an economist.com account, but the byline suggests it's from 1843
Magazine, which doesn't require registration to read:
[https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-
iran](https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran)

~~~
dang
We've changed the URL to that from
[https://www.economist.com/news/2020/01/28/trapped-in-
iran](https://www.economist.com/news/2020/01/28/trapped-in-iran).

------
wnscooke
Serious question: is it only the political or military leaders who wish to see
Israel wiped off the face of the earth?

~~~
adrianN
Given that even in "civilized" western countries there are a few percent of
the population who really don't like Jews, I doubt that only Iran's leaders
want to get rid of Israel.

The data also seems to suggest that antisemitism is more prevalent in Iran
than in a lot of other countries: [https://mpra.ub.uni-
muenchen.de/90093/1/MPRA_paper_90093.pdf](https://mpra.ub.uni-
muenchen.de/90093/1/MPRA_paper_90093.pdf)

 _A final analysis then shows the extent of Antisemitism in different
countries of the world, ranked by denominational groups, and based on the
World Values Survey data. While in our 28 countries with complete data
Protestants in Uruguay, Canada, and Argentina and Roman Catholic regular
Sunday Mass Church attenders in Argentina, Canada and the United States are
the major denominational communities with the lowest global rates of
Antisemitism, Muslims in India, Iran and Iraq are the most antisemitic
religious groupings of the world._

~~~
dmurray
I downvoted for equating anti-Israel sentiment with anti-semitism. There are
lots of other reasons to dislike Israel.

~~~
adrianN
Ah yes, that's something that always annoys me too. Sorry for that. But I
think the implication in the direction anti-semite -> anti-zionist is pretty
strong, so for this particular question I think that surveys about
antisemitism provide a good basis for discussion. I'd assume that anti-
zionists form an almost perfect superset of anti-semites.

edit: or maybe not, you could imagine someone who really doesn't like Jews and
wants to send all of them to Israel.

~~~
anigbrowl
Please reconsider this position.There are large numbers of Jewish anti-
Zionists, whose motivations range from religious to Palestinian solidarity to
just not wanting to be seen or treated as an extension of Israel. As well,
there's a great many people who don't mind the existence of Israel as such but
object strenuously to its expansionist settlement policy, including a large
number of Israelis.

As well as that, there's a phenomenon called Christian Zionism that's popular
among conservative evangelicals, which views the establishment of the state of
Israel and a number of related milestones as a fulfilment of Biblical
eschatological prophecy. Their enthusiastic support for the relocation of the
US embassy (and others) to Jerusalem is rooted in a belief that it signals the
End of Days and forthcoming battle between good and evil on the field of
Armageddon. While a minority position, it's one that's in ascendancy at the
moment and counts the US Secretary of State (by conviction) and the President
(by transaction) among its adherents.

In short, it's complicated. This is _not_ to say that everyone who's anti-
Zionist is good or has valid reasons, many such are indeed anti-Semitic, from
casual to virulent. Neo-Nazis often leverage ambivalence or antipathy towards
Israel to convert people to anti-Semitism and recruit them, a technique known
as _entryism_. And there are anti-Semitic currents on the left too,
particularly among dogmatic types who think Stalin did nothing wrong
(sometimes loosely referred to as 'tankies').

~~~
andrewaylett
I think you may be reading the GP's implication in a different direction to
me. While it's not completely controversial to observe that not all anti-
Zionists are also anti-Semites (although I do hear some who would hold that
view) it's more believable that anti-Semites would pretty much automatically
also be anti-Zionists.

