After meeting Hamed at Perspolis, we pretty much had to accept his invitation to come and visit in his home town of Rasht (in the North West). Not usually a stop for tourists, Rasht is the capital of Gilan province and was completely different to the towns visited so far. The Gilan province is seen as being different from the rest of the country, has it’s own dialect which isn’t understood (or even taken seriously) by the rest or Iranians, and the locals feel that central government has neglected the province -and it’s people - for years.
Our first impression when going with Hamed and his mate Farid was that we had stepped into a cell of the resistance. Hamed’s bedroom was totally custom built and soundproofed - all walls, doors and ceiling covered in 5cm of polystyrene and 3 layers of cardboard egg-tray - with “subversive” posters of Al Pacino (Scarface) and Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) lit by the dim yellow-tone bare light bulb.
But these measures had not been taken to prevent radio surveillance by government forces trying to seek out rebel forces - there were merely because Hamed’s one love - rock music - is forbidden in the country where he lives. He has been playing the drums for 15 years, and along with Farid has recorded a number of demo tracks, but can’t play outside of his bedroom for fear of being arrested. And it’s not like his music is freakishly offensive - strong influence is drawn from Western chart-topping bands such as Pink Floyd and Radiohead.
The two days spent with Hamed and Farid were filled with boundless generosity and disarming frankness, contrasted with a very strong measure of bitterness and resentment towards government and traditional Iranian culture. Every time we walked past a poster of a government minister (about every 100m on the street), we would hear that the minister is a puppet of religious extremism. Every time someone displayed Ta ‘arof (essentially an Iranian tradition where assistance, money, or food is offered even if it cannot be afforded, in the knowledge that it will be turned down at least 3 times before acceptance, allowing people to retain social standing even if they are not wealthy), we heard that it was “stupid think” and flase. And every time we saw the police, they were reffered to as “gangsters”.
Never having encountered this sort of world-view outside of literature and films, I found it a little hard to empathise fully, and at first wondered whether it was justified. Then we watched videos of riots taken from the cellphones of locals where peaceful political protests were being broken up by Basij (pro-government militia) taking to the crowds on motorbikes with batons, while more videos showed assault rifles firing live rounds into the crowds. We spoke to a friend of Hamed’s who showed us which teeth he had had knocked out and how many stitches in his head he had needed after trying to protect his girlfriend from police who had attached her in the street. And we wondered why his girlfriend ducked behind a tree and followed us at a distance when she saw police in town - although it is uncommon, friends have been arrested for being in public together in the past (it is illegal for single males/females to be in each other’s company: holding hands is an arrest able offence - if the officer feels like enforcing it).
This was a real wake-up for me, as up until now we had heard plenty of thought provoking dissent against the government, but nothing that truly struck home at an emotional level, making me feel “it’s not right to have to live like this”.
But true to Iranian form, Hamed and Farid made us feel like family - we stayed with both families, and Farid’s Mum cooked an incredible feast for us and his brothers and friends, before we went and had a boys night listening to music (not the legal kind), drinking homemade raisin wine (also not the legal kind), and having some great conversations (yep, you guessed it).
Like everywhere we had been, we did not want to leave our new friends and family in Rasht. They had opened our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to something we didn’t know before.
Picture: Brad and I with Hamed and Farid - sorry for the average photoshop job guys - am working on the road and just wanted to make that I didn't get you in trouble!
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