Ali, le rambo poseur de bombe irakien

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Hey everyone,

Well it's been a while since I've posted anything. Was just too busy I guess, in my 3 weeks tour of Iran, loving it, hating it too cause of all the restrictions you're faced to especially as a woman, picking up some farsi words, very little, getting to know and love the Persian culture a little bit more each and everyday.
Iranian people don't like to be reminded that Arab language and sometime culture is a bit similar to theirs, Iranian women trying to defy the system by wearing a scarf that doesn't cover their hair at all, and use it as a seductive tool, Iran the land where you can find anything from some wine, or stronger alcohol to hash and grass, very very easily, faster than getting a bottle of water as they say.
I arrive in Isfahan, after visiting crowded but socially interesting Tehran, small and hot Shiraz, beautiful and very hot Yazd.
Isfahan is everything I expected of Iran, the good food, the good people, the beautiful Imam mosks, or should I say Shah's mosks, in signs of rebellion to the present government out of solidarity to my new Iranian friends?
This is also where I got the most distracted, loosing my pair of Dolce sunglasses, just purchased couple of months ago and my precious reflex camera, with ALL the Iran pictures in them, plus Dubai and a bit of Yemen.
Well, that was my fault and of course leaving these unattended even for a couple of seconds is more than enough.
So' I'm very sorry if all I have to offer is partly Isfahan, from a nice but not so powerful and precise digital camera,
Things to remember about Iran?
My encounter in Tehran with the Iranian committee police, who were pretty annoyed by me and my not so appropriate manteau and scarf.
The very interesting and nice Iraki men I met in the hostel in Isfahan, one of whom has lost most of his family's members, and one thumb, in the time of Saddam.
The more we get into the conversation, the more me and my friends around realize he might be a "poseur de bombe" in Irak, as he mimes every moves as if putting a real one.
What is the real reason behind that finger lost, what are they seriously doing in Iran?
All kinds of questions come to our mind and we start imagining many crazy possibilities, none of which are reliable, I go to sleep with my two new French friends, and dream of conspiracy, high crimes and spaying agents in Islamic war.
The next day, I'm invited to an Iranian big family dinner, in a wealthy part of the city, and the contrast between the two days is so evident and striking I can't help but compare those people's lives.
So much apart.

It's not all I'll remember of Iran, I have a lot of good memories in this wonderful place, and I've made good friends there that I'll come back and visit inch'Allah.

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Photos

Imam's mosq
Or Shah's mosk in Isfahan

Remaining of what used to be the american embassy
For american matters now, the Swiss embassy deals with them.

In a typical shaikhouney
Iranian tea house with good Qayloun (chicha)

The iranian man
Shopping in the bazaar with his wife

Iranian beauty
The way the scarf is worn is very subtle, carefully set on top of the head letting the beautiful dark iranian hair come out in a very natural way.

Maryam (25) and Sarah (18)
Two lovely iranian girls, one of them leaving in Paris. We were invited to what was told to us as being a little family dinner, only to see cousins and cousins arriving. We ended up 30 people. Great food, great people, great dancing.

Relaxing in the park
Iranian people love to be out in the numerous parks available for their leisure time. Everyday, after the hot hours, you can spot families, men gathering, women chatting and young couples trying to get some PJ-13 intimacy.

Girl on a motorbike
She is the only girl I saw riding herself a motorbike, and she even surprised iranians as much as me.
Fearless chick riding back and forth on one of the famous bridge 9bridge chubi) in Isfahan, but carelessly as she almost run onto a woman and her baby in a carriage.
The woman screamed at her, and told her she was a woman not supposed to be doing such things...
The nerves of that girl who replied to her to go to hell, she could do whatever she wanted.
And she drove off.

Tehran subway
Looking like a nun.

My new iraki friends
Some frightening stories they told me. One loosing one of his finger at the time of Saddam, plus his entire family, the others being put to jail for many years with bad treatment for not wanting to enter the army, fighting now against American soldiers still in the country, deploring their presence after rejoicing the defeat of Saddam few years back when they first arrived.
Their world is seriously fucked up, sorry for the bad words, but it is.
Ali, Nasser and good looking Ahmed.

A night with iranians
After a couple of drinks, and smoke smokes, yes you can find anything very easily in Iran, under the 'manteau'. We were trying to finish a puzzle of James Dean...at 2am.