Travel Writer: Politics Undermine Iran's Image

— -- Just a week after Rick Steves' return from a ten-day shoot in Iran, the Daily Traveler's Julia Bainbridge chatted with the travel guidebook writer and television host about what he calls "the most poorly understood yet fascinating land" he's ever visited. His upcoming hour-long public television special will air in January 2009.

CNT: So, why Iran?

Rick Steves: The whole mission of a travel writer is to help his countrymen better understand the world. Our understanding of Iran is miserable; [it's] stuck in 1978. We can learn a lot by going there.

When I teach about Iran, I'm not saying we're right and they're wrong or we're wrong and they're right or anything like that. We have to deal with Iran; it's a powerful, rich culture that's been a leader in its corner of the world for years. We have to learn more about it. I went in there with all sorts of misperceptions and had a fascinating ten days.

CNT: You mentioned earlier that you found the country full of paradoxes. Can you describe some of the more striking ones?

RS: You go to church and they're praising God, and then you walk outside to find a big poster that says "Death to Israel"--that sort of contradiction, that angry defensiveness. "Death to Israel" is a defense mechanism. In 1978, they had a revolution of values, driven by the silent countryside equivalent of our Midwest people who wanted prayer in school--didn't want Britney Spears or drugs or sex, but wanted people with faith. We find it scary and horrible; it's not our value . . . well, it is our value, but on Muslim terms. They willingly trade away democracy for theocracy. They don't have freedom, but they have a government that dictates a certain modesty and morality they like. They've got legislative morality.

You would expect people to be super religious, but I felt a thin spirituality in the country. It was hard to even see people praying. There are posters everywhere, and the government is run by clerics, but, oddly, I didn't feel it. But the people are Muslim--as Muslim as the Irish and Italians are Catholic.