Honeymoon in Purdah : An Iranian Journey

by Wearing, Alison

• ISBN13: 9780312261818
• ISBN10: 0312261810
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-04
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

With an infectious love of travel, Alison Wearing invites us to journey with her to a country that few Westerners have a chance to see.Honeymoon in Purdah is a book of sketches gathered over the course of her journey in Iran.Travelling with a male friend, in the guise of a couple on their honeymoon, Wearing set out on her own at every available opportunity.She went looking for what lay beneath the media's representation of Iran and found a country made up of welcoming, curious, warm-hearted, ambitious men and women.Through her, we meet the ordinary and extraordinary people of Iran-those whose lives extend beyond Western news stories of kidnappings, terrorism, veiled women, and Islamic fundamentalism.She introduces us to a gregarious young opium dealer who dreams of America, policemen who bring tea, a stranger waving hello in his pajamas, a playful eight year-old girl only a year away from the possibility of marriage, and an irrepressible, heroic Anglican minister. Peppered with accounts of Iran's Islamic Revolution and political analyses of the country, Honeymoon in Purdah is a departure from our conventional perception of Iran.With humor and compassion, Alison Wearing give Iranians the chance to wander beyond headlines and stereotypes, and in so doing, reveals the poetry of their lives.

Author Biography

Alison Wearing is a journalist and travel writer. She lives in Canada, where she has received the National Magazine Award, the Western Canada Magazine Award, and been a finalist for the Journey Prize.

Table of Contents

The Small Speed Bus	1	(18)
Wall Comb Frans	19	(36)
Dinner with the Shah	55	(30)
We Seek the Truth	85	(14)
Confession	99	(22)
Seex-meel-yun-do-lur-men	121	(24)
Mister Canada, We Take Your Wife	145	(24)
The Greatest Tea House in Iran	169	(26)
So Much Ridiculous	195	(36)
An Angel at the Airport	231	(14)
The Colour of Old Blood	245	(22)
I Martyr No Am	267	(18)
The Act of Respiration	285	(18)
Iran Khoob	303	(18)
Acknowledgments	321