Khoda Hafez Iran

Iran, seen from the inside.
From the moment we entered Iran, we`ve been hosted. By friends of friends of friends.
In Tehran we saw for the first time those eyes, those sad eyes.
As if they were already longing to go back to the country they want to leave. Eyes we would meet in the whole of Iran.
In Tehran we experienced what it really means to `be guest`.
In Tehran we`ve been guided, fed, looked after.
Elsewhere in Iran it wouldn`t be different.
In Tehran I received the message `Life is very little maybe just like this`. From an Iranian editor. Who has a dream. The general Iranian dream : go abroad.
In Tehran we drank selfbrewed wine en blackmarketwhiskey.
In Tehran Mahbube entered my heart. She won`t leave it soon.
In Iran we became grateful for our own belgian country.
In Iran we`ve seen the power of a woman. What repression can do to a person. It makes defensible, militant, flexible, mildly powerful.
In Iran the youth stays young and confused for a long time. She`s caught between two systems, two visions of life. She wants a lot, but can`t do much.
Iran is surrounded by mountains and desert. We`ve seen buildings, mosques, learned about important dates and facts. It`s the people who teached me more than the most beautiful mosque.
In Iran I long for nature, but that will come that will come.
In Esfahan, at 7am, there`s a bridge. In every inlet someone is reading, learning, feeding birds, flirting, standing. In the cold wintermorningsun.
In Iran the hospitality doesn`t expect anything in return.
Iran is like one home. Strangers talk with eachother as if they`re old friends.
In Iran I felt the desert. The wider the surroundings, the less important the proper thoughts. They humbly stay in the background.
In Iran people sit more often than not on the ground.
In Iran, I heard the silence, on a tower in Yazd.
In Iran I lost that silence several times. Being zen is a constant battle.
The beautiful women Mahbube, Shirine, Arta, Mahsume. It`s them who showed me the inside of Iran.
Kheyli Mamnun.