Shortly before the war broke out between Israel and Iran, I had the opportunity to visit Iran and get to know some of the people there. My visit there confirmed what I had long suspected—you can’t believe everything reported in the media.
Iranian people are often portrayed in the news as fanatically anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Semitic. I wondered if that’s really the case. After all, Iran is a huge country of over 90 million people. Could this be an accurate depiction of the entire country? After all, when you read about a violent incident in New York or Chicago, does this mean that everyone in America is violent? Of course not! I felt that the same might be true of Iran.
I also believed that the government’s hostility to Israel and the Western world probably does not represent the average citizen, and my experiences during my visit seemed to prove that.
Later, I would discover a US-based poll by Terror Free Tomorrow that confirmed it statistically: Nearly 90% of Iranians said improving the economy should be their government’s top priority, not ideology. More than 70% wanted a democratic system, and a staggering 80% said they would accept full nuclear inspections and give up nuclear weapons in exchange for foreign aid. Those numbers echoed what I saw and heard every day.
My wife and I are world travelers. Our goal is to eventually visit every country in the world, and we have already made quite a bit of headway toward that goal. Usually, it’s pretty simple to get a visa to visit a country. Most of the time, we can apply for a visa while we are traveling and have it within a short time. Therefore, we normally do not make plans much in advance. Once we are traveling, we decide which country to visit next while we’re on the go.
However, we did know that Iran would be different. We had heard that it isn’t easy for Americans to get visas, and that we would have to apply months in advance with a full list of the dates we want to be there, where we want to go, etc. Even then, we were told that we might be denied. There was no way of knowing in advance if we would end be granted entry into the country.
We submitted our application for a visa during the winter. Our hope was to visit Iran before Shavuos and then go from there to Israel for Yom Tov.
We spent Pesach in Thailand and then visited several other countries in that region, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. While we were abroad, we received an email from the embassy informing us that we had been approved to enter Iran.
We arrived in Tehran Airport, where my wife and I were questioned separately by Iranian security officials for a little over an hour. It seems like this is the standard procedure for visitors from America.
They asked us why we wanted to visit Iran, and we explained that we’re world travelers who are interested in seeing this beautiful country. They asked me if I’m Jewish, and I replied that I am, adding that I’m an American citizen.
According to protocol, every American or Canadian tourist who enters Iran must hire a tour guide who is licensed by the government to take them around. They must give him an itinerary of exactly where they want to go and when. This itinerary is approved by the government, and the tour guide must remain with the tourist throughout his stay to ensure that he sticks to it.
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