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Inspired by green_maia, who was wishing more people would post photos of themselves at different ages. I was aiming for one photo per year, but even raiding my parents' albums that didn't quite work out, so there are a couple of missing years, and, to make up for that, and because I couldn't decide which photos to post, a few years with two photos.
( 38 years in photos )
( 38 years in photos )
What was Iran like?
Hard to say. It was only a two week guided tour with a group, mostly sightseeing, my parents invited me, because at the time I was still hoping to write my diss about greco-persian art, so I'm afraid I can't offer any profound insights. The country is beautiful, impressive nature, gorgeous architecture, the achaemenid monuments and Persepolis especially are wonderful. Other than that... We didn't really have much of a chance to explore on our own, and I don't speak Persian, so there wasn't a lot of contact with the people. It was at the time when everyone was hoping for reforms in Iran, so generally the atmosphere didn't feel oppressive, but that's obviously a very superficial tourist-y impression. Lots of school girls who wanted to try out their English and wanted us to write something in their notebooks.
Ghom was strange. It's a holy city and religious centre, and the atmosphere was a bit frightening; the only time in the whole two weeks I felt something like that. A couple of students stopped me and asked me something or the other (I can't quite remember, either about the impending religious festival, or about Ali, the son in law of the prophet), but when I could answer them, they were nice. One of them gave me a picture he'd drawn; I don't know why, really, or why he was carrying it around.
Having to be covered from head to foot the moment you step out of your hotel room took some getting used to, obviously. And what do you do, if someone knocks on the door? I head presence of mind enough to throw on the head-scarf, but was still in my t-shirt, which was probably just as illegal...
Plus, this may sound stupid, but I really felt unfashionable. I didn't have a long summer coat, so my mother and I went to a Turkish store in Vienna and we bought the type of coat the older, more conservative Turkish women wear, which has a wide, flowing cut. As I said above, that was the time before the conservative backlash in Iran, and especially in Teheran the women were clearly pushing the boundaries of what was allowed - shorter, elegant coats that showed off the figure as much as possible, headscarves pushed back with as much hair visible as possible, and all very, very stylish... I felt like the awkward cousin from some remote village.
And the strangest thing was... It was only two weeks, but after never even having seen how the women from our group looked like except the one I shared a hotel room with, coming back was something of a culture shock. It took me a couple of days to adjust again to all the bare flesh I suddenly saw everywhere on the streets...
My photo from the visa application:
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