I visited Iran during spring this year with my girlfriend. The first weeks of may, a good time to visit the country because of the sunny and warm, but not too hot weather. The most important thing I want to remember are the people that we got to know. As can be expected, Iran has its share of wonderful nature, culture, architecture, history,… but the people we met amazed us the most. I guess I want to write it down because I am afraid of slowly forgetting them, and also: I probably will have difficulties to contact them again, see them and talk to them again since they live, well..., they live in Iran. I remember the name of some of them and some I don’t. Sometimes I never knew their name. And then there are the people of which I guess it’s better not to mention their names or at least not show pictures of them. I don’t want to get them into any trouble.
This story is about one of the second but also of the last category.
The communist
We end up in a more touristy village in the north of Iran, closer to the Caspian Sea. Touristy in the sense of ‘persian tourists come here for the weekend’, because like any other place I’ve seen in Iran international tourists are too scarce to make a place ‘touristy’. When we check in at the small hotel, the guy at the reception helps us out since he speaks some English. Some words… Just enough to explain to us where the room is, how the boiler works, where the towels are… you know: the practical things. Still, in some way – and I am taking a small leap in time here – it doesn’t take much time for him to be explaining to us how exactly the international communist movement - Che Guevara, Soviet union,… - is linked to the history of Gilan, this small and rainy region up the north. Waving his hands and using every word he knows in English 34 times he tells us about a small group of communists that arose in the mountains during the early 20’s, the one year independence of this region, the deal between the Soviet Union and the Shah that ended the revolt, and finally the oppression. Honestly, it’s not always clear what he is saying, but I guess that’s why we have Wikipedia. Hm… It’s quiet special to meet someone who is passionate about communism in a country where you know that having a picture of Che Guevara on your phone might get you into prison. And yes: he had an old Nokia, the foldable one, with a red background showing Che, his hero and inspiration, maybe his idle hope. I might admit that he is a person we didn't expect to meet before we came to this country.