Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey [Paperback]

Alison Wearing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2001

With a love of travel, Alison Wearing invites us to journey with her to Iran--a country that few Westerners have a chance to see. Traveling with a male friend, in the guise of a couple on their honeymoon, Wearing set out on her own at every available opportunity. She went looking for what lay beneath the media's representation of Iran and found a country made up of welcoming, curious, warmhearted, ambitious men and women. With humor and compassion, Wearing gives Iranians the chance to wander beyond headlines and stereotypes, and in doing so, reveals the poetry of their lives--those whose lives extend beyond Western news stories of kidnapping, terrorism, veiled women, and Islamic fundamentalism.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Twenty years after the Iranian revolution, most westerners still imagine Iran to be a warren of anti-American rhetoric, terrorism, and fanatical repression, especially of women. Not surprisingly, only an unusual woman would choose to travel there, and Alison Wearing is certainly that. "I refused to believe that such a place of unalloyed evil truly existed," she writes. "I like to look for saints where there are said to be demons." Since it is the only country the world traveler could not imagine going to alone, she takes her fussy, gay roommate Ian, along with a fake wedding certificate and a story that they're on their honeymoon. Then she dons a black cloak, scarf, and chador (the full body covering required by Shiite Islam) for a five-month journey from the Caspian Sea (breaking into the Shah's ramshackle summer palace) to the holy city of Qom (and Khomeini's shrine) to a hidden Zoroastrian prayer site (where she faints from heat stroke). From the moment she steps into the country, she's surrounded by Iranians touched by her eagerness to learn about their country. There is the housewife who challenges her to a game of Ping-Pong in her long robe and scarf, offering food to her guests in between killer serves, and the Anglican minister who is "wholly enthralled by the art of living." There is the couple who spirit her away to a mountain oasis when she complains of the heat (leaving a message for Ian, "Mister Canada, we take your wife. We make her cold"), and the mother who tries to marry off her doctor son, joking that Wearing can't leave "not without my doctor" (a reference to the American film Not Without My Daughter).

Wearing has a gift for connecting with others and the humility to let them tell their own stories. She also sees the hilarity in the most absurd situations. As it turns out, so do the Iranians, which makes for some wonderful laughs. Wearing is also a poet, and she unveils the Iranians with innocence and grace--their hospitality, their quick acceptance and easy intimacy, and the real life of women beneath the veil. And while there are strict defenders of the revolution, most are philosophical: "Friends, please forgive us, but our country is not perfect.... it will make us very happy if you enjoy. Keep your hearts in our people, my friends. We are strangers, but we try to be kind." This is a gem of a debut. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

To blend in on their recent visit to Iran, journalist Wearing and her gay roommate pose as a married couple, complete with wedding rings and a forged marriage certificate. Wearing also purchases a chaador (literally "tent"), made of heavy black polyester, which she wears throughout her journeyD110-degree heat notwithstanding. From that point forward, the friends can't go anywhere without receiving copious offers of gifts, dinners, invitations into people's homes, free taxi rides and fruit from Iranians who are delighted by the Westerners' attempt to understand and appreciate their customs. The characters Wearing meets are extraordinary in their ordinariness, and the author deftly shows that our opinion of the Middle East is really our opinion of Middle Eastern government. She seeks out the most intriguing of the people around her, then steps back and lets them take center stage. Tip, for instance, spent 12 years in California. Now in his early 20s, he's been stuck in Iran doing odd jobs for three dollars a day, so to save money he started a side business selling opium. Another Iranian they meet, deeply religious, explains to them why Iran is superior to the West, while other Iranians apologize profusely for the conditions of their country since the fall of the Shah 20 years ago. Wearing lets readers glimpse the anti-Americanism, oppression and miserably inefficient bureaucracy portrayed in the American news, but again and again she demonstrates the generosity of the Iranians. With this engrossing account, Wearing casts a sympathetic eye on the real people of Iran, so often invisible to the West. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (December 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312263449
• ISBN-13: 978-0312263447
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Iran from inside a chador, October 20, 2000

By 

DAVID ONEAL - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey (Hardcover)

Iran is such a closed society that any glimpse inside it is especially fascintating. Alison Wearing has done a great service by allowing us to meet the real people of Iran, whose kindess, hospitality, craziness, and so forth show them to be as human as one would suspect. Especially interesting are individual Iranians' feelings, pro and con, about the Islamic revolution, and the author's experience of their culture and observations about it: After months of wearing the restrictive and horribly uncomfortable clothing required of Iranian women, she finds she is not immediately ready to remove it after leaving. The book is also enourmously entertaining. Includes one of the funniest ping-pong matches ever.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An accurate representation of a misunderstood people, March 27, 2001

By 

Elaheh (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey (Hardcover)

As an Iranian growing up in Canada, I seldom found accurate representations of the people of Iran. It seems that those who make the most noise are the only ones heard, so it was often painful to see the only portrayals of Iranians to be of ignorant, Western-hating, backward militants. The book and movie "Not Without My Daughter" presented Betty Mahmoody's tragic experience with a close-minded family, and the movie showed scenes of villages that were meant to represent major cities in Iran. It is no wonder that I've always had to work hard to prove myself against these stereotypes. It's a shame that many westerners believe Ms. Mahmoody's story to be representative of every Persian family. This book is such a refreshing change. I could relate to every thougth and action that she wrote of, and I found myself laughing out loud at parts, and crying at others because of their familiarity. I hope that westerners read this book without the cynicism of some of those who have reviewed it here, and believe that a people can be that hospitable, that kind, and that misunderstood. I pity those who have such a jaded view on humanity and on Iran, that they attribute Wearing's accounts as fictitious attempts at humour, instead of what they actually are: A true portrayal of most Iranians' warmth toward their guest.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Iran, in the eyes of a true observer, November 30, 2000

By 

Maziar Raz (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey (Hardcover)

Being an Iranian, I have never thought that describing the Iranian people would be an easy job. Alison Wearing has done an absolutely amazing, an accurate job in introducing this almost forgotten nation to the world. The book is extremely entertaining and funny. Makes all of us want to go on the same journey as she did.