Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey

The idea of a honeymoon in Iran sounds like a concept cooked up for a sitcom or an easy joke on late-night TV: it's where you go to wear a veil after the ceremony (not to mention for the rest of your life). But Alison Wearing's five-month journey through Iran was not born of dark humour or a "try to top this" approach to adventure. Rather, she chose Iran "because it frightens me; because it frightens the world... and because I don't believe in giving [fear] such power. I refused to believe that such a place of unalloyed evil truly existed, that that was the end of the story." Wearing's journey becomes a story of expectations met head-on, altered and exceeded. Travelling into territory unknown to or stereotyped by most Westerners, she presents a collection of portraits of a complex, multi-faceted, and humane people who live and struggle daily with the legacy of revolution. Wearing's entertaining, compassionate, and insightful journal reveals a country of great faith and great contradictions, where religious fundamentalism means freedom to some and enduring oppression to others. The author's experience of this chafing of beliefs and values is perhaps best embodied by her struggle with the chaador--the heavy, body- and face-obscuring manteaus and veils required for females over the age of nine. Unlike her travelling companion, who is free to dress appropriately for the scorching desert weather, she struggles and suffers under layers of stifling black clothing that require constant attention to keep in place. The chaador--uncomfortable, restricting, yet at times oddly liberating--comes to symbolize a great deal about contemporary Iran. Though Wearing's travels are peppered with frustrations, she is treated with exceptional generosity and kindness wherever she goes, finding herself welcomed into the homes of strangers, fed, entertained, and put in the path of adventure. Honeymoon in Purdah becomes an eloquent and humorous statement about the spirit of a people--irrepressible and full of heart. --Svenja Soldovieri

Author: Alison Wearing

Publisher: Knopf Canada

Year: 2000