Tehran, February 5, 2006
As we taxied bumpily to the terminal on the worn-out tarmac, I saw through the cabin’s windows the sign mehrabad international airport. The terminal’s building looked small, unfit for a nation of seventy million. Since the capture of the U.S. Embassy staff in 1979 and the sanctions imposed on Iran by many countries, there weren’t many incoming flights to Iran. I saw only a few planes of Iran Air, Gulf Air, and Air France.
I walked with Erikka toward the passport-control booths with my heart pounding hard. Erikka walked toward the booths reserved for women. I thought of my instructions. When you arrive, the passport-control officer might ask you questions concerning the purpose of your visit and the length of your stay. Give him the routine tourist answers. Look him in the eye and don’t avoid his. Give short answers, and don’t smile or act as if you’re hiding something. These guys are very experienced in detecting suspicious behavior and maneuvering tactics employed by people who hope to avoid a thorough inspection.
I looked around. A big mural of Ayatollah Khomeini was displayed on the wall. The immigration officer, in a uniform that seemed as if he’d slept in it for a week, gave a very quick glance at my face and keyed a few strokes into his computer. I waited for him to stamp my passport and ease my accelerated heartbeat, but instead two men in plainclothes entered the booth. He gave them my passport, and they exchanged a few sentences in Farsi. The man holding my passport flipped through the pages and returned it to the officer and nodded. The officer stamped my passport without giving me a second look. I wanted to let out a deep breath, but I waited until I was out of his sight.
That’s it? I thought. Were these all the security checks? I guess the Iranians didn’t expect terrorism. I didn’t have to wonder why.
After Erikka and I met again in the customs hall, spent almost an hour waiting for our luggage, and went through customs and currency control, we were finally outside the terminal building-three hours after landing. When we exited the arrival terminal we were hassled by endless numbers of people offering to change money and sell us stuff. Self-appointed tour guides and unauthorized taxi drivers told us that the last bus had already left the terminal and suggested they drive us to town. We ignored them. A courtesy van sent by the hotel was waiting for us and within less than an hour delivered us to the Azadi Grand Hotel, a five-star hotel.
When I exited the van, I looked up at the tall building. To my estimate it had several hundred rooms. But the empty lobby during the early-evening hour signaled that the hotel wasn’t fully occupied. After a quick check-in we were taken to our rooms. Mine was on the third floor and Erikka’s on the fourth.
“I’ll see you in two hours for dinner,” she said before I got off the elevator.
I opened my room’s window curtains to view the Alborz Mountains, to the north of Tehran, and waited. Erikka tapped on the door of my room two hours later dressed in black pants, with a white manteau over them. She wore a black scarf that covered her hair and neck. The black and white combination was dominolike.
“Has anyone seen you coming here?” I asked. I didn’t need unnecessary attention.
“Don’t worry, I was careful,” she said with a smile, sounding like a high school student escaping through her bedroom window to meet a boyfriend. I joined her in the hall, wary that she not enter my room.
“It’s beautiful out there,” I said, nodding back toward the window as I closed the door behind me.
“The view? I agree. Did you know that the name Tehran means ‘warm slopes’ in Farsi? Maybe they meant these slopes.”
“Where are we going to have dinner?” I asked.
“I’d love to have Persian food,” said Erikka. “How about you?”
“Fine with me.” Usually, I blame jet lag for confusing me after a ten-hour flight. When I go to dinner I feel sexy, and when I go to bed I’m hungry. But not now. I was neither. I was too tense and focused.
We went outside and the doorman hailed a cab. “Please ask him to take us to a good restaurant,” I said.
Erikka spoke with the driver in Farsi. The driver’s face lighted up, and they continued with what sounded to me like a friendly conversation.
“He suggests Sofreh Khaneh Aban, a Persian dining room, on Aban Street,” she translated. “He says they have a live band playing traditional Persian music, although the price may be high.”
“How much is high?” I asked thinking about my per diem, forgetting that there are completely different rules in these situations.
“A meal for two might cost as much as 200,000 rials.”
As I made a quick calculation, I smiled. “It’s about $20. What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Half an hour into the ride, the driver said with a smug expression, “This is where we gave the Americans a lesson,” and pointed the building that housed the U.S. Embassy until 1979. Erikka was translating. “This was the den of spies.” I had no reaction. I glanced at Erikka, who held a deadpan expression and gazed at the people on the street. We played the part of tourists to perfection.
The restaurant was packed with families, some with young children, and the noise was almost unbearable. My eyes were burning immediately. Most men were smoking cigarettes; others were using a hookah, a “narghile” in Farsi, with a water-pipe filter that flavors the smoke with cool water. But only the smoker enjoys it. What he exhales to the neighborhood is churning smog mixed with his CO 2, not recommended.
A courteous waiter offered us a table near the string orchestra. Erikka shouted into my ear, “He recognized us as tourists and gave us the best table in the house.”
The noise was excruciating. I smiled at him with a virtual thank-you, and with my eyes tearing from the smoke I said, “Please thank him, and ask him for a table where we can talk without using a PA system or oxygen masks.” We were moved to a corner table near an open window and away from the orchestra.
The waiter gave me a menu in Farsi. I could read most of the Arabic script and even understand some words, but there were additional letters I couldn’t identify. I gave up.
“He says they serve the best chello kebab. Do you want to try it?” suggested Erikka.
“Just order anything good. I put my faith in you,” I said, realizing I could contribute nothing to the meal choice.
“Well…there are these superlong skewers of chicken kebab with fresh chilies-they’re really succulent, and they’re for real kebab lovers. Or the baghali-polo, an oven-baked lamb shank in sauce, served with basmati rice; or sabzi-polo-ba-mahi, a fish grilled on a skewer, served with basmati rice, Persian herbs, dill, broccoli, and almonds.”
“Can’t decide-let’s order a couple and share,” I suggested. Two waiters brought trays with huge amounts of food.
“I don’t think we can eat that much,” I said.
“Let’s take our time, eat slowly, and enjoy the music,” she said. It was clear that Erikka was captivated by memories and was enjoying talking about them and reliving her Iranian experience. My mind was somewhere else. I was curious to know whether there were any responses to our ads in the paper. We’d have to wait until tomorrow when the hotel’s business office opened to find out.
I looked around us. People were having good meals and conversation. There were no alcoholic beverages of any kind on the tables. All waiters, and most male guests, looked unshaven, with two-to three-day beards.
How do they do it? I wondered. For a three-day beard, you must shave every three days. Then how come I don’t see many clean-shaven men? I looked around and saw one clean-shaven man. He was wearing a Western-style suit and an outdated black tie. He was wearing dark sunglasses. But it was nighttime.
Maybe he’s blind, I thought for a second, but then he appeared to read the menu as he spoke with the waiter.
For dessert we had falude, a tasteless dish that looks like white noodles, served with bastani sonnati, a Persian traditional ice cream with rose syrup and cherry and lime juices. When we were done with dinner, it was almost midnight, but the restaurant was still packed, and many more people kept coming in.
So not everyone in Tehran is poor, I thought. We returned to our hotel.
The following morning we went to the hotel’s business center. A surprise was waiting for us. There were forty-two letters responding to the newspaper ads.
“Ian, care to help me sort them out?” Erikka asked. “Sure, I’d be glad to.”
We sat at a desk at the business center and opened the envelopes. After an hour we had a better picture. Twenty-two letters came from alumni of the American School living in Iran. Two letters came from alumni living in the Gulf States. Three letters came from former teachers, who were elated to hear about the reunion and wanted to participate. Fourteen letters were from companies offering us services such as live music or catering for the event, and one letter came from a Shiraz man asking us to find him a suitable American woman to marry. He attached his photo.
Erikka went quickly over the names of the responding alumni. “I think I recognize some names,” she said. “But I’m afraid the group is too small for the Swiss bank to be interested in. I wonder where the others are.”
“Don’t jump to early conclusions,” I said smoothly. “Why don’t you call those who answered and get additional names of their classmates? I’m sure many alumni just missed your ad. If I were you, I’d get on the phone and start networking. Your schmoozing skills will get them all together in no time.”
Erikka smiled. “You already know me,” she said. “What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“I think I’ll take a tour of Tehran, just to get a feel for it. I’ll meet you here to night.” I wanted to leave my room available for the Iranian security services to do anything they wanted. I needed to know whether I had indeed attracted their attention. Who had the man with sunglasses at the restaurant been? A routine counterintelligence mea sure? Evaluating me as a potential recruit? Was I a conduit to lead them to a target? The answer wasn’t likely to change my conduct-I remained Ian Pour Laval, an innocent author. It would help me plan ahead-but plan what? Here my thoughts hit a brick wall. I had no idea. But I had to figure it out.
I went outside through the lobby and asked the dispatcher to find me a cabdriver who spoke some English. He returned a few minutes later. “Sorry, nobody speaks English, but there’s one who speaks a little German.”
“That will do,” I said. When the nightingale is too busy to sing, even a crow will do.
“Take me to see the city,” I told the driver as I got into his Mercedes taxi. “Let’s start with Golestan Palace.” He started the engine and we left the hotel.
I looked at the guidebook. “During the reign of the Safavid Shah Abbas the First, a vast garden called Chahar Bagh (Four Gardens), a governmental residence, and a Chenarestan (a grove) were created on the present site of the Golestan Palace and its surroundings,” it read. I looked through the cab’s side mirror to see if we had company. Not a big surprise. There was a car just behind us at all times, with two men. Why were they so close? It seemed too obvious, rather unprofessional. Maybe they wanted me to know I was being watched. But why? Obviously, they didn’t know who I was, because if they’d had just a shred of suspicion, I would have been in prison with mice and cockroaches as my cellmates. I continued to play along, taking several pictures of the palace with my camera.
“Please take me to the bazaar-I’ve heard so much about it.” Situated in the heart of southern Tehran, built under a roof, the bazaar is a city within the city, at once beautiful and chaotic. When the Shah razed old but precious traditional buildings during the oil boom in the seventies and replaced them with ugly high-rise buildings, the bazaar had been spared.
After getting dropped off, I walked slowly, mindful of the crowds and the slippery pavement. There were unwritten traffic rules, I noticed: people kept to the right to avoid porters of merchandise, who sped through the crowd. I was overwhelmed by the different faces I saw. Iranians and Arabs, Mongols and Azeri, a very colorful and exciting mix of colors, smells, and cultures.
There were two types of people in the bazaar: oglers and hagglers. I crossed the definition line and bought a few pieces of bric-a-brac, and bargained on the prices like a typical tourist, using sign language or the little English a few merchants knew.
“These things are from Abadan,” said one merchant. “My family came from there. Believe me, they’re special.”
A well-built young man in jeans and sunglasses stood next to me watching me haggle with the shop keep er. Not wanting to lose another customer, the merchant interrupted our conversation and asked the man something in Farsi, and he responded in two or three words. I picked up one word, but that was enough. “Adadish,” he said-police.
I took a deep breath, turned my back to the young man, showed particular interest in a backgammon set, and left the store. From the corner of my eye I could see him following me. I was still just an innocent tourist returning to his hotel.
Erikka was standing near the reception desk in the lobby. “Good timing,” she said. “I’m expecting a classmate. Want to join us?”
As a well-dressed man walked into the lobby, Erikka whispered, “Here he is. Farshad Shahab!” she exclaimed and ran toward him with her arms stretched to embrace him.
Visibly uncomfortable, the man stepped back. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “It’s not allowed in public.”
“I’m sorry,” said Erikka. “It’s just that I’m so glad to see you.” I was uneasy. How could she be so heedless?
“Same here,” he said. “But things have changed.”
“Farshad,” said Erikka. “I want you to meet Ian Pour Laval. Ian is an author who is currently writing a novel on a romance between an Iranian Muslim man and an Austrian Catholic woman. I’m helping him with his cultural research.” We sat in the lobby and ordered cherry juice. Erikka excused herself and went to the ladies’ room.
“Difficult subject,” said Farshad, looking at me with interest. “Why?” I asked.
“Because of the cultural gap and the religious clash. Where does the romance take place?” he asked.
“In Tehran,” I answered.
“That makes it particularly complex,” he said. “The love must be very strong and the couple very per sis tent for the relationship to survive.”
“The Iranian society, as a whole, will not accept a European woman marrying an Iranian man?”
“Many will accept, to an extent,” he said. “But the price for the woman will be high. She’ll have to convert and adopt all tenets of our religion and culture. That means she’ll have to give up her past and become a Muslim woman, not only by adopting our traditions and religion, but also in the way she conducts herself and raises her children. She’ll have to forego many of her values, her culture, and-most of all-her beliefs on women’s place in the society.”
“Will there ever be a change?” I asked. “I mean, will Iranian women ever be treated as we treat women in Canada…equally?”
He shook his head. “The Muslim Revolution gave us pride, but it also took us back in time, as far as human rights and women’s rights are concerned. Religions don’t change.”
That was a bold statement, I thought. The little devil in me took notice. “Back in time?”
“Yes. I’m not criticizing it, of course. The so-called ‘modernity’ that the Shah and his corrupt followers brought exposed the Iranian society to Western-style ‘values,’ but the Iranian people much prefer the old style.” He uttered the word values with visible disgust. I sensed it was an overkill gesture, as if he knew somebody was watching.
Erikka returned, and she and Farshad commenced with their conversation reminiscing about old times. I didn’t want to interrupt. I excused myself and returned to my room.
An hour later I went back to the lobby. Farshad and Erikka were still chatting.
“Ian,” said Erikka. “Farshad just started telling me about what it was like to be here during the Islamic Revolution. Why don’t you come listen? Could be interesting background for your book.”
With a serious face Farshad said, “Please don’t mention you’ve met me, and don’t use my name in your book.”
The request was odd, given that they had been chatting publicly in a hotel lobby for more than an hour. I was sure the Iranian security services already knew about his contact with foreigners.
“Of course, you have my word,” I said. “I just need background information to understand the political and social atmosphere at the time. My novel starts about a year after the revolution.”
Farshad relented. “It was exciting and frightening at the same time,” he said. “As a young Iranian I was proud that there was a popular uprising hoping to topple the crooked regime of the Shah, but as a moderate Muslim I was concerned at hatred I saw in the extremists. Instead of promoting a political change, which most Iranians supported, the mullahs took over, and instituted a theocracy intolerant of any other opinion.”
I registered surprise, in my suspicious mind, to hear that. “Where were you when the unrest began?” asked Erikka. “That whole period is so blurred in my memory, but I remember well the beginning. It was on ‘Black Friday,’ September 8, 1978. I was a senior at our high school and had plans to go to the U.S. for college.”
“Yes, I think you told me about that plan at the time,” said Erikka.
“I was in my room at home and heard noises-gunfire and shouting. My parents didn’t allow me to leave the house; I was under a family-imposed curfew. So I climbed to our rooftop and saw flames. Parts of southern Tehran were on fire. The student-led revolution against the Shah had begun, but I didn’t know it then. The Shah had declared martial law, and a citywide curfew was enforced by armed soldiers. Just to make sure he’d maintain control, the Shah also turned off the power every evening to the entire city of Tehran. That made the nights very quiet, except for bursts of gunfire.”
“I remember that,” said Erikka. “I was so frightened.”
“The uprising was spreading,” continued Farshad. “Other citizens joined the students. Most people were staying home and obeying the curfew. But many others climbed on their rooftops chanting and praying. Angry soldiers loyal to the Shah interpreted that as defiance and were shooting anyone seen on the roofs. I heard people chanting ‘Allaahu Akbar’ -‘God is Great.’ Those incidents spread from southern Tehran, which is heavily populated by poor people, to the northern parts, where the rich and powerful live. My father was an ethnic Iranian, but he was fearful for our safety, because my mother is Italian. So two weeks later he sent me with my mother to Rome to stay with my maternal grandparents.”
“That means you weren’t here when the revolution toppled the Shah?” I asked.
“I returned to Tehran six months later when his regime was already doomed.”
“From what I know, the hatred was directed against the U.S.” I said.
Farshad nodded. “But those who captured the U.S. Embassy weren’t the real fanatics.”
You can say that again, I thought. Even he doesn’t believe it. I saw their hatred on TV. If that mob wasn’t fanatic, then I’d like to see who are fanatics, in his opinion.
“They were protesting against the U.S. for agreeing to let the Shah undergo cancer treatment in the U.S.”
“What happened to your plans to go to college in the U.S.? Did they ever materialize?”
“Yes, I was lucky. I went to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.”
I smiled. “Not too many people like to leave that beautiful state, unless they have to. But you returned to Iran.”
I regretted that statement immediately. It was too sarcastic. But he didn’t seem to mind.
“I agree,” he said. “It was difficult, but my family needed me here, so after spending just two more years in Nebraska after my graduation, I returned home.”
“Was it hard? I mean shifting from the Western-style society in Nebraska to a different culture in Iran?” I chose my words carefully to make them as benign as possible.
“Only for a short period. After all, I’m Iranian, and I was returning home.”
“Farshad is a mechanical engineer and works for an oil company,” said Erikka, looking at me. Turning her head toward him, she added, “You’ll prepare the list for me, won’t you?”
“Sure,” he said. “But I know only a handful of graduates who are in Iran. Many who were brought up in a school such as ours couldn’t cope with the changing atmosphere in Iran and left.”
“Where to?” I was really curious.
“Some went to the Gulf States, some to India and Pakistan, and some went to the U.S.” A boxing-ring bell rang in my head. However, I decided not to press the issue at this time. In that kind of subtle questioning, less is more. I hoped that Erikka wouldn’t pose the follow-up question, Who went to the U.S.?
“Who is sponsoring the reunion?” he asked. “Seems that you’re spending money on that project.”
“A Swiss bank,” said Erikka. “They want to be able to sell their services to the alumni and their businesses, and besides, the expenses are really low so far. My trip here was paid for by Ian’s publisher.”
There was a moment of silence, and then he said in a friendly tone of voice, “I’ve always wanted to visit Canada, but never managed to do it, although I lived in Nebraska. Where did you grow up?”
I had my script meticulously rehearsed, so I was able to answer the questions that followed without missing a beat. Still, I had the feeling that I wasn’t being questioned, but rather subtly interrogated. I was becoming even more suspicious. Why was he so openly critical of the regime, daring to talk about it with a complete stranger in public? Hoping to provoke me to jump on the bandwagon and say something negative? And those questions about my background…I would have to remember his name.
I excused myself again to go to my room. I’d be wiser when I saw the list he promised. When I crossed the lobby on my way to the elevator I had that funny feeling that I was being watched. I entered the gift shop and walked around, pretending to look at the merchandise. There was no mistake; a man was standing outside the store looking at me, making no effort to disguise his interest. I had to react contrary to my training, which said, Dry-clean him. But if I did that, I’d expose myself as a trained intelligence officer, rather than remaining Ian Pour Laval, a bona fide author. So I continued with the normal behavior expected of a tourist. I bought a local English-language newspaper and went up to my room.
It was clear that if a follower had been assigned to monitor my movements, there could also be electronic devices planted in my room. The author wouldn’t care less, but the intelligence expert under my skin was on the alert. However, with no countermeasures to discover any hidden microphones or cameras, and with no suspicious activity or material to conceal, I crawled into bed, acting out the “I couldn’t care less” attitude. Good thing they couldn’t read my mind.