Lebanese-Iranian Friendship Week

I've returned again to Lebanon. The trip in was entirely more fun than usual and it's because I got to sit in Business class from Chennai to Dubai. I was flying on Emirates which has an excellent reputation for service, and then got to sit business class. WOO!

On the flight I was seated next to an Iranian woman who is in fact my age and a medical doctor. I was surprised when she told me she lives in Iran because she wasn't wearing the Hijab. I asked her about covering her hair and she says in Iran she must. However, the moment she leaves Iran, she takes off the cover. Apparently she doesn't believe in Islam, but her family are all muslims and Iran has peculiar restriction about the dress of women and the religion of their people so she decided rather than to get in trouble at home to just put up with covering up. She hates it and made it clear to me. I told her I appreciated her honesty on the matter and it made me re-examine my thoughts on Iran as such. In Lebanon, I don't know if the feeling is wide-spread, but it's non-negligible that people feel Iran and Israel are fighting on Lebanese soil and so the Lebanese people are slightly soured on Iran in a similar way to Israel.

As soon as I was riding through the Hezbollah neighborhood next to Beirut's airport I started seeing signs for Lebanese-Iranian friendship week. I think in my own small way I contributed to this as did my Iranian doctor friend. I can't accept though that Lebanon and Iran are friends per se, but I understand the Lebanese not wanting to piss off Iran. As it turns out, Iran is a slightly scary political entity, because they are extreme and wealthy. I would go so far as to say Iran is more than slightly scary. But traveling changes the way I see things, and talking to a practicing doctor (who'd come to Chennai to look at medical equipment and work in an operating room in Chennai) really softened my stance on Iran. She believes that the majority of Iranians (especially the well educated) don't agree with the current regime and truly want change. I suspect Iran's "democracy" is a version of what Hezbollah (<---- not a fan) wants in Lebanon. A "we select the candidates and those who get to vote" style election.

So while I haven't softened my stance on Iran's political agenda and its consequences in Lebanon, I have been forced to revalue the way I see Iranian people, and indeed people from Muslim countries once again. I estimate that if I were able to sit down with each of them one-on-one for the amount of time I got to sit with this young female doctor from a strongly Islamic state, I'd find most of them as charming and intelligent and truly moderate as this young doctor. I'd be willing to bet a(n) (Indian) month's salary on it. Perhaps while traveling through the middle east I should take more time to speak with Saudis and Pakistanis and Iranians and all those coming from states I tend to deem politically unacceptable.