Diary Entry
We are lucky to findthe city covered in the golden color of sunset. The old town is fantastic; palaces show the wealth of old tradesmen and give the impressions of little paradises in the middle of the desert. A huge madrassa, a Quran school impresses us with its beauty. In this moment, a young lady approaches us and starts a conversation with us. She shows us around the mosques and one of the most amazing bazars, too, and introduces herself as Fatima.
She is a tourist guide, but does not want our money for this little tour, but offers a trip to the desert with a 4×4 car to us. This is what we wanted to do anyways, but we did not look for options, yet.
Her offer comes handy. We will soon notice that she made by far the best offer in comparison to other options.
We agree to Fatima that we will book a trip and overnight stay in the desert. Because we want to avoid to reveal the place, where we stay, we make an appointment on a crossing fifteen minutes away from our place. There an old 4×4 Toyota is waiting for us. The young driver’s name is Moein, which sounds like “moin” and this name is very funny for us, because in northern German language this means “hello”. It turns out, though he is shy to admit that, that he is Fatima’s boyfriend.
Dating is hard
We can only assume how much pressure society puts on everyone that all young people we meet in Iran have such a hard time to get to know and date each other. They live in two worlds that they cannot mix. There is the world of public, where the families and their tradition, the conservative Islamic people and the government, that has its civil police everywhere, watch you. The rules are strict and any “crime”, like dancing in public or wearing a shirt that is too short, pants that do not cover your ankles or any kind of kissing, holding hands or anything like that is punished with prison and even torture.
