Day 117 (Iran): Tehran (the former US embassy today …)

Let’s say that this was an interesting day. I pass the guy in front of a Scandinavian embassy … and every time I did pass him so far, he didn’t seem to be the most awake.

I had been told by various people about murals around the city and at the former US embassy which were off-limits for picture taking. Note that some you might find these paintings offensive and I am not condoning any of the statements that they contain, but that should be a given.

But first things first. I headed downtown and found this …

Needless to say with a regime like the one here things like this are to be expected. I can’t say for sure when this was done and in what context, but the regime certainly had no problem with it and was most likely behind its coming into being to start with. I should note that the large majority (by which I mean greater than 99%, granted that there is a selection bias in that I don’t speak Farsi and have trouble talking to people in smaller places and most people in southern Tehran) of the people I talk to are rather sympathetic towards the US. This stance has been somewhat altered by the Iraq war and the rhetoric of the current US government (it is kind of obvious that external threats rally a great deal of people behind even a government for which I have heard only scant support here; this is exacerbated by the fact that there is limited information available as independent newspapers are virtually non-existent), but generally people still look towards the US as an idol.

Having said this, here are some pictures of the former US embassy, the official name here is the US Den of Espionage. I will not recount the different narratives of the events that unfolded between 1979 and 1981 and which lead to the detention of US embassy personnel over the course of more than 400 days. I intend to merely convey what I have seen here. This was ghastly enough (as a note: I had been given a heads-up about the possibility that my memory card may be confiscated by the police, hence I backed up everything before heading out and must say that I was a bit nervous, especially when I snapped the first picture here, with the uniformed person pretty much looking straight into the camera; on the other hand, other people had said that they snapped away happily at the same place; nothing happened to me, so I was either lucky or nothing ever really happens and I couldn’t resist once I had seen the murals though I did not want to be too much out there and so don’t have pictures of all of them; it’s all pretty basic propaganda at any rate).

The contempt and indeed hatred of the regime is not limited to the US as you can see here …

And here is the seal of the US embassy that has been hacked out, but is still clearly visible.

I then moved on to what is called the Martyr’s Museum and which happens to be just across the street. It is quite visible as you can see …

The inside is filled with memorabilia of individuals who either are considered fundamental for the “success” of the revolution or the Iran/Iraq war or any other issue which the regime can come up with. The third floor however was the most upsetting part for me and I believe it is quite obvious why that is. The heroic depiction of the suicide bombers is something I have my problems with.

On a lighter note, I met up with Alex and Jan again who brought Maryam along, another Couchsurfer from Tehran. We gawked at the very impressive Jewel Museum, including a globe with more than 200 stones on which I could retrace my route so far. The glitter in the basement of the National Bank was hurting our eyes after some time (and no cameras allowed) and we ended up in a cafe chatting about our travels and about our experiences in Iran so far.