Iran--some advice (and photos) on how women should dress

woman in chador

GS dressed for dinner

stylish young women with GS in daytime attire

woman wearing hijab

Iran is a desert country, so dust and sand blow regularly.  Don’t bring your favorite clothes!  In the winter, it’s cold; summer, it’s hot; in between, it’s lovely. You can get laundry done at most hotels.

Iran is a very conservative society.  Women tend to cover themselves completely in garments that do not show their bodies.  Some younger women are breaking out of this mold, wearing fitted, long jackets over pants and bright scarves instead of hijabs.  Look at the photos to see the variety of dress among Iranian woman.  This (and the photos of me) will give you an idea of what to wear when visiting Iran.

women in varied dress at bazaar

While most of the women in Iran wear the chador, the long, flowing black garment that covers them from head to toe, I only saw one woman actually wearing a veil.  Almost every woman wears pants, even tight pants, under her chador or covered by a tunic or long coat that comes to or below mid-thigh.  In villages, women may wear tribal clothing which is also body-covering and, always, a headscarf.

Every woman, by law, must cover her head outside her home or hotel room.  That can be uncomfortable when it’s hot, so I used long, loosely-woven, linen scarves.  If they have some texture, like linen or cotton provide, they will stay on your head better than if they are slick like silk or polyester.  You can throw the ends over your shoulder or, if it’s hot, just let them hang down.  If it's chilly, they'll keep your neck warm.

Iranian Kurdish family on cold day in Kandovan

Some Iranian women have ponytails and rest their scarves on their ponytails, letting the front part of their hair shine for all to see.  Most, however, wear a hijab that covers their heads, hair and necks.

Women—and men—should dress modestly.  This, of course, has different meanings for women and men.  Men should wear long pants, but can wear short-sleeved shirts and T-shirts.  Women must wear long-sleeved shirts, though I saw a few women with ¾ length sleeves.

I wore hiking pants, somewhat baggy, and hiking shirts hanging out over my pants.  This worked fine and wasn’t too hot. 

my 2 lightweight tunic-length sweaters

I also bought 2 lightweight cotton tunic shirts, one at Target (one of their “man-shirts”) and one at J.Jill, which has lots of tunic-length tops (I looked online for tunics and found they had many).  Both of these came down below my fanny (preferred).  When I wore more fitted pants, I wore my longer shirts or a lightweight sweater over my shirts (also J.Jill tunics).  These came down to my mid-thigh.

I bought shirts and sweaters that buttoned up the front for ease of use.  I found that, on warm days, the looser shirts were very comfortable.  You do not have to wear them over another shirt or T-shirt.  You're fine with just a loose shirt. The day we hiked up a mountain to a medieval castle, it was quite warm, so our guide even suggested I take off my headscarf when we were by ourselves.  I also took off my scarf when we were in our van driving because the van had dark windows, though I was careful to put it back on when I saw a police stop (common).  I did not want to put myself or our driver and guide at risk.  Iranian women do not take off their hijabs or scarves when they are driving.

nomad selling colorful chador to Tabriz woman

You can wear sandals if you wish.  I took 2 pairs of running shoes since they are most comfortable for me when I’m walking a lot.  Nothing else.

The key caveat is that your head must be covered, wholly or partly, at all times.  The rest of it is good judgment and consideration for the culture and mores of Iran.

students from the University of Shiraz

schoolgirls wearing coats and hijabs

women outside Friday Mosque

more styles of dress among young Iranian women

Yazd--Iran's Zoroastrian center

Tower of Silence, Yazd

Zoroastrianism was the pre-Islamic religion of Iran.  While several thousand Zoroastrians still live in Iran, mostly in Yazd, the majority live in India, where they are called Parsees. 

platform for dead bodies

When Zoroastrians die, their bodies are placed on a high platform for the vultures to pick to the bones, after which the bones are shoved to a central pit and covered with lime.  The belief is that a dead body decays, so is unclean and should not be put into the earth which produces food.  The Tower of Silence in Yazd used to be the burial platform for the Iranian Zoroastrians, but now they must bury their dead.

mountains north of Yazd

Because Yazd is a desert city surrounded by mountains, procuring and conserving water is critical.  Water comes from the mountains through underground canals called qanats.  These must be dug by small men who can work in extremely cramped (and claustrophobic) spaces.  The Water Museum in Yazd shows how the qanats were dug, an intricate process particularly when it came time to open the last barrier and start the rush of water to the city.

wind tower and summer palace

Yazd is very hot in the summer, so those who could afford it built wind towers that permitted the flow of cool air down into the summer rooms and pushed the hot air up and out the top of the tower.  The large palaces had both summer and winter spaces with beautiful gardens in between.
Part of the old city of Yazd has been preserved, a maze of narrow alleys between mud-brick buildings.  It is charming, but when I asked our guide if people liked to live there, he said, "Look at this doorway.  You have a large sofa, a car. . .where will it all go?"  There is no place to park and no way to get anything larger than a small chair or table into the dark (but cool in the summer) homes.

Jameh (Friday) Mosque, Yazd

The Friday Mosque in Yazd, another beautifully-tiled structure, was built in the 13th century and mostly rebuilt in the 14th century.  It is one of the exceptional 14th century buildings remaining in earthquake-prone Iran. 
A constant in Iran is tea.  When we were driving, we stopped several times during the journey for tea.  Roadside shops have enormous urns of tea outside where travelers stop to fill their carafes, sit on a couch (usually an old bedstead covered with an older carpet) and munch cookies or dates.

Our guide, Majid, setting up tea along the road

our California ranch--triplets, a first

I had to share this photo.  We have triplet calves from this remarkably calm cow at our ranch in Central California, where I grew up.  My 101 year-old cattle rancher father has never seen triplets in his lifetime on the ranch.  I've seen rare twin calves, but never triplets on any ranch anywhere.  I travel to our ranch every 3 to 4 weeks to visit my father, so can't wait to see these beautiful babies next week.

Isfahan--one of Iran's most beautiful cities

tiled courtyard of Jame Abbasi Mosque in Isfahan

Isfahan is one of Iran’s most beautiful cities.  Its Jame Abbasi Mosque rivals Uzbekistan’s gorgeous Registan and Timur’s Tomb with its brilliant tile work, also from Timur’s time.  The mosque is an interesting one, as it has an entry that is at an angle to the mosque itself.  It stands at one end of the enormous Imam Square, the second largest square in the world after Tiananmen Square in China.  When it was time to build the mosque, the direction of the preexisting square was not towards Mecca, which is essential for a mosque.  So, the architect made a jog in the entry to the mosque so that it could face Mecca.  You don't realize that unless someone points it out because you walk through a dark, tiled corridor to the mosque's main entrance, making the jog without really thinking about it.  Clever.

mihrab of Jame Abbasi mosque

interior dome of Jame Abbasi mosque

Inside the mosque is gorgeous tile and plaster work.  The dome is huge, and is also an interesting architectural feature.  The tiled dome inside the mosque has another dome above it on the outside, which it supports.  At the highest point of both domes, the difference is 56 feet.

dates and coconuts in the bazaar

All along the outside of the Imam Square is Isfahan's bazaar, which extends way beyond the square, meandering in alleyways in all directions.  You can buy just about anything in the bazaar, from chadors to men's suits to spices to food and cooking utensils and carpets.  It is a busy place with women in black chadors shopping, men pushing carts of goods through the crowds and hawkers trying to get you into their shops.

On one side of the mosque is a medrassa, a religious school.  While most imams preach moderation and peace, the government prefers to have radicals teach in the medrassas.  Given all the kind people we've met, that message appears to be reaching a narrow audience.

mihrab in the Jame Abbasi medrassa

About halfway down the rectangular square is the most beautiful mosque, called the Women's Mosque, which is for everyone, not just women.  I could have sat there for a long time just enjoying the mosaics of tiles and the peacefulness.  It is smaller than the Jame Abbasi Mosque, but perfect in all its details.  I'll add some photos below.

Across from the Women's Mosque is one of the royal palaces.  On one side, it looks like it is 3 stories high; on the other, 4 stories, and it is actually 6 stories.  There are unusual frescoes of European women in flowing, low-cut dresses, which is a bit surprising in a Muslim palace.

Armenian Orthodox Cathedral

One of the highlights of Isfahan is the Armenian Orthodox Cathedral, a small building completely covered on the inside with paintings from the Old and New Testaments.  Next door is a museum dedicated to the Turkish genocide of the Armenian population in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. a genocide that Turkey refuses to recognize.  Among the many documents, photos and films about the genocide is an order from the Ottoman Sultan to kill all the Armenians in one city, without sparing anyone, old, sick, women, children--kill them all.

Shah's palace 

Amidst all the beauty of this part of the world, there remains the terrible history of conquest and slaughter, as waves of invaders swept across Central Asia and the Middle East over and over and as empires fought one another for gain and glory.  There was not much mercy during these wars.  But, the killing wasn't done in the name of Islam, which preached peace in these parts, but with the goal of conquest and power.  After all the destruction was done, many of the conquerors then built incredible monuments to themselves, many still standing today for us to admire.

Women's Mosque tiled alcove

tile detail in Women's Mosque

Kashan, Iran--tea and conversation in a mosque

Tabatabei house, Kashan

We spent last night at a charming guest house in Kashan, about halfway between Esfahan and Tehran.  It was the childhood home of the owner, who has renovated the mansion into an 18 room guest house.  The rooms are cramped, but the courtyard is beautiful.

pool and courtyard of Tabatabei house

After breakfast, we went to visit one of Kashan's other old mansions, this one, a huge villa, the Tabatabei House.  It's stained glass windows and carved plaster walls are stunning.  In fact, a film crew was setting up to use the house for an Iranian movie.  Kashan was a major crossroads during the Silk Road days when merchants from across Asia and the Middle East exchanged goods over very long distances traversed by camel caravans.  The Kashan merchants would invite their business partners to stay with them after the dealing was done--or perhaps even before if they wanted to improve their deal for the goods they wanted.

stained glass windows in reception room of Tabatabei house

These houses had public and private areas, with the public areas being quite gorgeous and the private ones, rather plain.  Men used the public areas; women, the private ones.  Both areas had courtyards with trees, pools and flowers, but the area where the owner sealed his agreement with the traveling merchant was much more elegant.

tea and conversation at a mosque

Nearby, we visited a small mosque with the shrine of an important imam.  The caretaker invited us to have tea.  Soon several other men wandered in and we all sat on the floor drinking tea, munching cookies, and talking about the world.  They wanted to know if we thought Iran is powerful and if Trump would start a war with N. Korea.  They hoped that Iran and the US would someday be friends--a sentiment everyone we've talked to has expressed.  It just continued the warmth with which we've been welcomed in Iran.  And another wonderful opportunity to have a conversation with Iranians who are curious about Americans, eager to understand our point of view and have us know theirs, and to make sure we feel welcomed in their country.

7-year-old's waving goodbye

In the beautiful Fin Garden, built originally about 600 years ago, there were 2 groups of schoolgirls visiting.  While the 7-year-old's played in the water and learned about conservation, the 11-year-olds lined up to take selfies with me, a strange apparition with gray hair poking out from a scarf in sharp contrast to the chadors most women wear here and to their school uniforms and hijabs (head scarves).
The garden has a hamam (bathhouse) where one of the country's most important leaders was murdered by slitting his wrists.  According to the story, he knew he was about to be murdered and did not resist, so became a martyr.  Not that he hadn't done his own assassinations of his rivals and foes.

hamam in the Fin Garden

Continuing on to Tehran, we stopped in Qom, the center of Shi'a learning and theology in  the world.  Teachers, scholars and students come here from all over the globe to study and teach.  We visited the
Fatima Masumeh Shrine, a holy spot for Shi'as.  A lovely woman came to meet us to guide us through the shrine, draping me in a chador before we could enter the first courtyard.  She explained the importance of Fatima and some of the key points of Shi'a Islam.

Fatima Masumeh Shrine, Qom

Now, we are at the airport hotel awaiting our flight to Frankfurt and on home to Colorado.  An incredible trip where we saw and learned so much.  We'll be putting together an itinerary for bringing groups here in the next 2 years, assuming relations between our 2 countries don't get worse.  And, I'll add a couple of blogs about what to wear (particularly for women), pointers about traveling in Iran, and the Iranian economy.

Persepolis--the ruins of ancient Persia

Procession of the royal family

When the last Shah of Iran wanted to celebrate the 2500-year anniversary of the empire of Iran, he chose Persepolis as the site of his extraordinarily opulent event.  The Shah spent $2.5 billion honoring Iran and himself, though his family had only come to power in 1925.  The empire of Iran had had many ups and downs over the millennia he was celebrating, including having their own grand empires at times and, at others, being overrun by conquerors.

Lions' Gate

The Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, and Mongols warred with Persians.  Alexander the Great conquered Darius III in 321 BC.  The Persian empire later stretched from India to Greece.  The Mongols slaughtered everyone in their path who wouldn’t submit and even many who did, including Persians.  Russia, Europe and the U.S. all have had their hands in Iran when it suited their interests.  But, the Shah did have good reason to celebrate Persian civilization, which has thrived throughout all the turmoil for thousands of years.

view of Persepolis from above

Persepolis is the ruined city started by Darius the Great (the first Darius) in 518 B.C. and later expanded by Xerxes.  Alexander the Great eventually destroyed the city by burning it to the ground, leaving only those columns, friezes (thankfully) and walls that could withstand the inferno.  Today, the ancient city is fascinating to explore.  The beautifully carved friezes on its remaining walls show the peak of ancient Persian power.  Men from all its conquered lands bring tribute to the king. There are lions and other wild animals that the royal family hunted.  Processions of servants setting up for a lavish feast are followed by members of the royal family talking to one another as they line up for the big event. 

the Necropolis near Persepolis

Archaeologists continue to study the friezes at Persepolis to understand ancient Persian history and culture.  It is full of treasures and information on the ancient glory of Persia.

frieze on tomb of Darius the Great

Nearby is the Necropolis, where 4 kings are buried inside the mountain, including Darius the Great and the first Xerxes.  To carve the beautiful friezes on the high cliffs, the Persians built walls of mud bricks and slowly removed them layer by layer as they completed each part of the masterpieces they were carving to honor the dead.

Iran's gorgeous Bam Citadel

Bam Citadel at sunset

Bam’s citadel is stunning.  Badly damaged in the earthquake of 2003 that destroyed virtually the entire city, it is nonetheless another “must see” site in Iran.  It is the largest mud brick structure in the world and is another of Iran’s gorgeous UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  In fact, after the earthquake, UNESCO designated the whole city as a World Heritage Site.

earthquake damage at Bam Citadel

The citadel is being partially restored and stabilized, so parts of it are not open to tourists.  The sheer size and magnificence of the structure make it well worth a visit to Bam, particularly as the sun gets low in the evening and it glows as only a mud brick structure can.  Thinking the citadel was destroyed completely, few tourists visit Bam now, but they are making a big mistake.  They visit Royen Citadel, instead, which we did today as well, but it doesn’t compare to the Bam Citadel.

Royen is about 10% the size of Bam, so that alone makes it much less interesting.  Both citadels had houses for common people, government and royal areas and housing, soldiers’ quarters, wells and water storage and shops inside the thick walls.  The entire population could see protection within both citadels when the towns came under attack. 

the soldier's and government quarters from below

The area of the Bam Citadel has been occupied since 4000 BC.  The oldest parts of the current structure date back 1600 years, but most of the construction happened from the 16^th to 19^th centuries.

In 2003, the area was devastated by a 6.6 level earthquake that toppled the mud brick buildings of the city.  28,000 people died and 30,000 were injured, equaling about half the population. 

Rayen Citadel

Countries from all over the world, including the US, came to help the rescue and recovery effort.  I remember that, for a brief time, relations between the Iranian government, which has asked the world for help, and the U.S. government thawed slightly, but, unfortunately, that did not last.  Today, the city is mostly rebuilt, but this photo shows one building still standing at it’s earthquake day angle.  While the building didn’t collapse, the ceilings inside did, probably killing most of the residents since the quake hit at 5 a.m. when people were still sleeping.
If you are coming to Iran and Bam is not yet on your itinerary, I strongly suggest adding it.  You will be happy you did.

soldiers' quarrters and government palace at sunset

mountains near Bam

Meymand, Iran--a night in a cave

cave homes in the village of Meymand

I wasn’t looking forward to Meymand.  It’s a small, remote village of cave homes with only one place to stay, the Meymand Guest House.  Meymand is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which will preserve the buildings and fast-fading culture they represent.  The Guest House met my lowest expectations, but was an experience to be remembered—and enjoyed—nonetheless.

our cave room in Meymand

We spent the morning at Persepolis, the ancient city built by Darius III over 2500 years ago (more on that in another blog), so we were late getting started on our long drive to Meymand.  Most of the route is over craggy desert mountains and through wide valleys planted with corn, wheat, pistachios, tomatoes, kohlrabi and other crops.  It’s beautiful and stark.

We arrived at Meymand after dark and too late to see the town.  An old man,  probably no more than 55 but already bent over, showed us to our room, a former cave home that is now a guest room, complete with blackened walls from centuries of cooking and uneven stone floor covered with dusty Persian carpets. 

dinner on the kitchen floor in Meymand

There were 3 platforms made out of tree trunks and planks with stuffed cotton mattresses about 3 inches thick and covered with a rough cotton sheet.  These, we found later, squished down about ½ inch when you climbed into bed.

There were other colorful cotton sheets in plastic bags and folded fluffy wool blankets and cotton-stuffed pillows on the beds.  Our first job was to make our beds.  I’d already found the bathroom, down the dusty hill about 100 yards.  Happily, this contained a functioning toilet as well as the squat variety, placed one behind the other, and a sink with a mirror.  Next door was the shower.  It took about an hour to scare up a towel, but after dinner I tried out the shower.  It had plenty of hot water, thankfully.  The only deficit was having the shower head right over an old toilet that was stored inside the shower, making for rather cramped quarters.  Nonetheless, after a dusty, hot day at Persepolis, I was grateful to be clean.

our hostesses in Meymand

Our hosts served us dinner on their kitchen floor.  The wife of the man who’d greeted us and a widowed neighbor sat on the floor with us and gossiped with our guide and driver.  The widowed neighbor, who has to have a really hard life as a widow, did all the work.  She is only 55, but looks 75.  A German couple joined us for the night.  Dinner was rice cooked with a few vegetables, very coarse, but fresh, flat bread, yoghurt and tea.  I know this is what the family eats for most of its meals, so I was happy to share their way of life for a few moments.  Every day, I know how lucky I am to live in America!

mountains between Meymand and Mahan in the early morning

Back in our cave room, I didn’t sleep very well, but got to listen to the wild jackals howl while I planned our Iran tour in my head.  We left early the next morning, just as the sun was rising over Meymand, and ate some raisins and nuts for breakfast as there was none to be had at the guest house.

Last night, we were in Mahan, having stopped in Kerman on our way.  The highlight here is the Shahazade Garden, one of the most beautiful Persian gardens in Iran.  The water for the garden comes from a gushing spring on the side of the mountains above the garden.  The garden itself slopes down to the valley, with views across to the rugged desert mountains beyond.

GS and new friends in Shahazade Garden

As we enjoyed tea in the Garden, a group of young women asked us where we were from and wanted photos with me.  Across a narrow pool from us stood a group of young men, very interested in the pretty girls, and in getting a selfie with Don.  One of them came up to me to speak English and have his friend do a video of our conversation for his English class.  These were all students, just 18, and getting close to going into the army for their mandatory 21-month military service.  They are so filled with excitement about life.  I can only hope their time of military service is peaceful.

taking selfies with Don