David Cortright

 January 2008, by David Cortright

In late December 2007 I had the privilege of traveling to Iran as part of a study tour organized by the Mennonite Central Committee. One of the delights of such a tour was the opportunity to travel with an extraordinary group of dedicated peacemakers. Of the 12-person delegation, I only knew previously Doug Hostetter, with whom I traveled on a similar peace and humanitarian mission in 1979 to Vietnam and Cambodia, and Bertha Beachy, a member of our church in Goshen, Indiana who lived for more than 20 years in Somalia and has spent much of her life advancing Christian-Muslim understanding.

Among the other delegation members were Goshen College students Rebecca Fast and Paul Shetler, who are engaged to be married, and recent Eastern Mennonite University graduate Rachel Spory. The group also included Gwen Gustafson-Zook, a pastor and staff person for MCC and a wonderful vocalist and musician (she and her husband perform together). Throughout the journey she was our constant voice of inquiry and conscience on the important questions of gender equality and the role of women in Iran. Also on the tour was James Cooper, a student at Indiana University, where he is studying Arabic, and a member of an Old Order Brethren Church. His long untrimmed beard was the center of attention everywhere we went in Iran, in a culture where the length of a man’s beard is sometimes considered a sign of wisdom. We were joined as well by Richard Kauffman, an editor at The Christian Century in Chicago, a pastor, and an astute observer of people and places who also graced us with his magnificent vocal abilities. Also, Dan Wessner, a professor of peace studies at Eastern Mennonite University, an international educator who has traveled widely (including six years in Vietnam), an ordained minister and a lawyer with a gift for framing complicated issues in clear and understandable terms. Our tour leaders were Wally and Evie Shellenberger, retired psychiatrist and nurse practitioner respectively, who lived and worked for MCC in Qom for three years. They worked skillfully with our Iranian host, the Muslim cleric A. Haghani, to arrange a very busy schedule. As our group traveled together through 14 and 16 hour days, with devotions in the mornings and meetings at night, we bonded intensely and developed a deep appreciation for one another.

Our arrival into Tehran began inauspiciously with a difficult encounter at airport customs. We were groggy from the two-day trip and the early hour (1:30 a.m.) and were hoping they would let us enter without incident. The customs man dutifully stamped our passports but then he told us to wait and soon directed us to a desk-where we were finger printed!  We wondered if this was pay back for the new U.S. policy of finger printing foreign visitors. It was a humiliating and degrading experience that made us feel like criminals. Afterward the Iranian officials let us go to the washrooms to try to wash off some of the ink. Then we waited, and waited some more, and began to wonder whether they were going to let us in at all. The custom officials were not hostile, just bureaucratic and incommunicative.

Then came an ugly episode of apparent anti-Semitism. The lead official wanted to see James Cooper and pointing to his beard asked if he was Jewish. The same official also asked about Richard Kauffman, perhaps thinking that his name might be Jewish. We could not make out what was being said but we clearly heard the word ‘deport.’ As our worries mounted Evie managed to get the attention of our Iranian leader, Mr. Haghani, who was down below in the waiting area. Dressed in his clerical robe and turban Haghani was able to reassure the officials, and we finally exited the airport around 4 a.m. for the long drive to downtown Tehran, arriving at our hotel at 5.

We were awakened after too little sleep to begin our first day of activity. Tehran is a gigantic metropolis, choked with traffic and horrendous air pollution. Travel around the city is a constant challenge and consumed a large amount of our time. The city is relatively prosperous, especially in its northern areas, with no evidence of hard core urban poverty. In three days of driving around Tehran, mostly in the center, we saw no shanties or slums of the type that are so common in South Asia. The northern part of the city is the most desirable area, built on a rising plateau that abuts the beautiful Elborz mountains, with cooler temperatures and cleaner air. The northern area is much more developed than center city, with taller and more modern office and apartment buildings and many elegant homes. The streets are relatively clean and free of litter and trash. We were told to watch out for pick-pockets, but we saw no evidence of crime and found the atmosphere on the streets friendly and relatively relaxed. The people were very friendly toward us and without exception were pleased to welcome Americans to their country. We encountered no hint of hostility toward us.

Our first stop was the National Museum of Iran. On display are remarkable artifacts from the country’s ancient history: shaped rock objects from 800,000 years ago, 200,000 year-old stone tools, artifacts from the earliest settlements dating back 12,000 years, and potteries and painted objects that are more than 7000 years old. Also on display are relics from the early Persian empires, especially the extraordinary Achemenian kings Darius and Xerxes, who ruled over a dominion stretching from Egypt to Hindustan and who in their capital city of Persepolis created glorious columned palaces and gateways. The museum is a vivid testament to Iran’s rich and illustrious past. It is also an invitation for greater humility by a nation like the United States (so young by comparison), which presumes to dictate to Iran but might instead pause to learn something from its ancient and distinguished culture.

Next we visited the nearby glass and ceramics museum and saw further evidence of Iran’s ancient culture, including its more recent elaboration in the Muslim era and up to the 19th century. Of the many beautiful works of art that caught my eye was a 4,000-year-old figurine of a woman playing a musical instrument that looks like a lute. I thought of our 16-year-old son, James, who plays acoustical, electric, and base guitar, who generally is not fond of museums but might find this particular display very intriguing.

Sometimes a tour guide can teach as much about contemporary life as about ancient culture. Our guide at the National Museum carried a cell phone and constantly checked text messages as she led us through the exhibits, never missing a beat as she seamlessly described the displays and answered our questions. When I commented on her skilled texting and the prevalence of cell phones, she smiled and said she was communicating with her five-year old daughter. “She is always online and watching cable television,” she reported. “The children know about the world. They ask questions: why do we have to cover when we go out, why are our schools so different? It is not easy to explain.”

It is indeed difficult to understand the hijab and the gender inequalities of contemporary Iran. All women in Iran must be covered in public.  Some Iranian women gladly wear the hijab as a sign of national and cultural pride against Western materialism, but many seem decidedly unenthusiastic. When our plane was on its final descent into Tehran, most of the female passengers did not don their scarves until the very last minute, as we were about to land. I felt awkward and slightly guilty just sitting there, the recipient of some undeserved male privilege. Men can go about dressed as they like, while women are required to cover. Some wear the chador and are cloaked head to foot in black-an eerie reminder of the nuns from my Catholic grade school days.

The covering of women’s bodies corresponds to the subordination of their social status. Political power in Iran rests overwhelmingly with the all-male, arch-conservative clerical establishment. The last shah for all of his faults had tried to remove some traditional Islamic limitations on the role of women. The clerics who took power after the revolution abandoned the shah’s reforms and re-established rigid restrictions. Among the changes imposed by the new rulers was a reduction in the age at which a woman (a girl) could be legally married, from 15 to 9-although, according to Robin Wright, very few child marriages actually take place in contemporary Iran. The controversial practice of so-called temporary marriages was also re-instituted. Professional women such as judge Shirin Ebadi (later Nobel peace prize winner) were dismissed from positions of leadership and encouraged to return to the household. On the other hand, educational opportunities have expanded for both women and men, resulting in a significant increase in the number of university-trained women. During our tour we met many educated and gifted women-at the Red Crescent Society, the Institute for International Studies at the Foreign Ministry, the Organization for Islamic Guidance, Shiraz University and the religious institutes in Qom-but they were almost always in a subservient role.

Our hotel in Tehran was located next to the former U.S. embassy, also known and described on a nearby sign as the “den of spying.” The building is shuttered now, a forlorn reminder of America’s failed policies in Iran in the decades before and since the revolution. The site is best known for the traumatic hostage crisis of 1979-81, when Iranian militants illegally seized the embassy and held American diplomatic workers captive for 444 days, contributing to the downfall of the presidency of Jimmy Carter. The walls of the embassy are emblazoned with faded anti-American images and slogans. “We will make America face a severe defeat,” one slogan thunders. Another says, “Under God’s grace we shall give in against the dictatorship of no government, even the United States and other superpowers.” As we passed along the street in front of the abandoned building I yearned for the day when the United States and Iran can overcome the bitter differences of the past and forge a new relationship of mutuality and respect.

The Red Crescent Society of Iran is headquartered in a large and impressive modern office building in northern Tehran, with its own rehabilitation hospital next door. The Mennonite Central Committee has delivered continuous support for the Society since early 1990, when it provided relief to the victims of a severe earthquake. As we toured the rehabilitation center we were shown hydrotherapy machines from France that were purchased with MCC funds. I asked a doctor if U.S. sanctions have impeded the ability to obtain needed equipment. “We have no problems,” he assured me, “and can buy whatever we need from other countries.”

Our next meeting in Tehran was with Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, primate of the Armenian Orthodox Church, where we gained a glimpse into the life of the tiny Christian community in Iran. The Armenian Orthodox church is the largest Christian denomination in the country, with membership of about 100,000, although the numbers are declining due to emigration. When we asked about religious freedom, the bishop demurred. “It depends on your definition,” he said. “We enjoy freedom to practice our faith without restriction, but the government and the mosques work to spread Islam while we do not have the right to evangelize.” Later in Esfahan our group visited the Armenian quarter of that city and toured another beautiful Armenian Church on the eve of Orthodox Christmas, where we were greeted with a Santa Claus character and a tacky sound system that broadcast American Christmas carols sung in Armenian and Farsi.

During our stay in Tehran we visited the Institute for Philosophy, where we heard an erudite lecture on the meaning of jihad from Shahram Pazouki, head of the Institute’s department of religious studies. Islam is not a religion of the sword, as some mistakenly assume. The concept of holy war came more from the Crusades than Islamic teaching, Pazouki said. Jihad does not mean war but moral struggle within each person to submit completely to God’s will, to overcome bodily temptations to achieve spiritual fulfillment. The main goal of Islam is to reach peace, to realize community with others. God most favors those who forgive, who do good even to those who persecute them. This core teaching within Islam is identical to that of Christianity, Pazouki argued.

While in northern Tehran we visited the modest two-room apartment where Ayatollah Khomeini lived after his return to Iran in 1979. Next door is a nondescript mosque where he held frequent public meetings. The location also features a small museum that recounts some of the highlights of the life and thinking of the stern cleric who ended the Persian monarchy and founded the Islamic republic. From Khomeini’s home we traveled a short distance to the palace of the former Shahs, an opulent contrast. The palace is surrounded by magnificent wooded grounds at the foot of the mountains. A snow storm on the day of our visit created a beautiful winter wonderland, fit for a king.

On our last day in Tehran we held an extraordinary meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As we entered the conference room we were surprised to see more than 50 people seated around the table-ambassadors, professors, researchers, and graduate students.  The meeting was hosted by the Institute for Political and International Studies and the School of International Relations, both of which are located in and supported by the Ministry.

Our Iranian hosts clearly had an agenda and immediately got down to business. The head of the Institute, Dr. Seyed Rasoul Mousavi, began by quoting Iranian President Ahmedinejad’s recent statement at the UN General Assembly on the need for a ‘religious front for peace.’ This would be a good place to focus, Mousavi said. “We are prepared to host roundtables on this subject. We would like to bring Christians and Muslims together, Jews as well, to discuss how religious people can establish peace in the world.” Peace is impossible without justice, he argued, and a dialogue on peace must address ways of overcoming injustice. “We are prepared to work with you to arrange an exact program for such a dialogue” with the full participation of both the Institute and the School of International Relations. 

The next speakers were Dr. Bahador Aminian, rector of the School, and Dr. Sajjadpour, former director of the Institute and Iranian ambassador to the UN in Vienna. They offered an additional suggestion for cooperation. Sajjadpour began by commenting on the sorry state of relations between the United States and Iran. Better understanding and analysis are needed in both countries, he said. “The West has misperceptions about us, and Iranians do not analyze the West very well.” The two sides need to overcome dehumanized images and find common ground to bridge differences. Both countries have a strong emphasis on religion, he observed, which might provide a basis for focusing on justice and peace. “We should pick a few practical projects to begin,” he said. “We propose a workshop on peace studies at the School of International Relations.” We have extensive experience in security studies, he explained, but there is no accredited peace studies program in all of Iran. The proposed workshop would help to build academic cooperation with the West and introduce peace studies to Iran. He specifically mentioned John Paul Lederach, a pioneer in the field of conflict transformation, as possible leader of such a workshop.

Our side responded positively to the suggestions. We pledged to follow up on the proposals and to develop concrete steps for moving forward. I mentioned that Lederach’s office is next to mine at the Kroc Institute, and that he has been affiliated with Eastern Mennonite University where Dan Wessner currently teaches. Dan and Doug Hostetter also expressed enthusiasm for the proposals and met subsequently with officials in Tehran to begin arranging details.

Toward the end of the Foreign Ministry meeting Mousavi offered an extraordinary comment: “During the recent Christmas season I watched a film about prophet Jesus that I’ve seen many times. I watch it every year, and each time I learn something new and realize the many similarities between Islam and Christianity. Jesus did not ask governments to change the world. He went directly to the people. If we develop relations between our peoples, the governments will follow. We want to work with you to build bridges between our societies.”

As we left the session we could hardly believe what we had heard. The advisory institute and training school for the Iranian Foreign Ministry were offering to host sessions with American religious leaders and academics to improve understanding and cooperation between our peoples. Such an offer could not have happened without the approval of the Foreign Ministry and highest levels of government. We had just been given a huge opportunity to play a role in building the foundations of peace.

The opportunities for cooperation were reinforced in subsequent meetings. Our last session in Tehran was with the Center for Inter-Religious Dialogue within the government’s Organization for Islamic Guidance and Communication. Here again we heard interest in developing programs of dialogue between Muslims and Christians. Especially eloquent in advocating such dialogue was Professor Rasoul Rasoulipour, who has been to the United States and recently visited both Eastern Mennonite University and Notre Dame. Rasoulipour shared his vision of the common roots of all religion. The Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all share a belief in one God, he said, although we follow different paths toward that ultimate reality. According to the Qur’an, anyone who submits to the will of God is a Muslim. If there is indeed only one God (‘no god but God’), said Rasoulipour, then ultimately there is one religion, one tradition of following God’s will.

The next day we met in Qom with Professor Mohammed Legenhausen, an American from New York who converted to Islam and has been teaching at the prestigious Imam Khomeini Institute in Qom for many years. Legenhausen reported that his students have proposed the creation of an Islamic peace studies program at the Institute. He asked for our help in providing syllabi and other materials. He was pleased to hear about the proposals offered at the Foreign Ministry meeting and said he would welcome the opportunity to participate.

We learned from Legenhausen about the incredible difficulties Iranians encounter in attempting to travel to the United States. To get a visa to the U.S. requires going to Istanbul or Dubai, paying a substantial deposit, going through an elaborate process to gain an appointment at a designated time in the future, going home and then traveling back to the city for the appointment (often paying for a consultant to learn how to handle the appointment), paying an additional fee, and then perhaps after all of that obtaining the visa. The process is so laborious and demeaning that few Iranians are willing to submit to it.

The next morning in Qom we were greeted by a rare snow fall, but the wet snow melted quickly and we were on the road again, crammed into the same decrepit bus we have been using since our arrival. We traveled first to Kashan, where we visited tourist sites and an archeological dig (4,000-year-old artifacts have been discovered there) and then were on the road again for the ride to Esfahan. As the bus laboriously struggled up and through the mountains, the engine started to make a growling noise and then gave out altogether. There we were, broken down and stranded in the middle of nowhere. It was late afternoon, with the temperature falling and dusk approaching, but we tried to make the best of the situation by telling stories among ourselves about previous experiences of breaking down on the highway. Mr. Haghani made several calls on his cell phone (I was amazed he had signal in such a remote location) and arranged for another bus to pick us up and take us on to Esfahan. To relieve the boredom during the long wait, some of our group walked in the scrub brush desert near the road, where they noticed a shepherd with his flock. They went over to talk with him and learned that he is an Afghan refugee trying to scratch out a meager existence tending sheep and goats in these rugged and barren hills. Meanwhile back on the bus we kept up our spirits singing songs and hymns, led in four-part harmony by accomplished vocalists Gwen Gustafson-Zook and Richard Kauffman.

Esfahan is one of the jewels of Iran. It is an ancient city beautifully graced by the Zayandeh River, one of the very few waterways in this arid country. At the heart of Esfahan’s grandeur is Imam Square, an immense open square containing some of the most beautiful buildings in the Muslim world. Developed in the 1600s by Shah Abbas the Great, the square is flanked on three sides by Imam mosque, one of the most magnificent in the world; Sheik Lotfallah mosque, a slightly smaller but still exquisite mosque originally intended for the use of women in the Shah’s harem; and Ali Qapu palace, built at the end of the 16^th century as a residence for the Shah.

While we toured through the glorious Imam mosque our guide explained the ingenious acoustical design that allowed imams to speak and be heard by thousands of worshippers in the centuries before electricity and public address systems. The marble floors and high curved ceilings of the central dome create a marvelous echo effect. With a single clap of his hands our guide created a sharp sound that reverberated clearly throughout the central area. Would it be appropriate to test the acoustics with a Christian hymn, we asked our guide? By all means, he replied, so Gwen and Richard led us again in four-part harmony. There in the center of one of Islam’s grandest mosques our little band of Christians offered musical praise, the beautiful harmonies echoing sweetly through the domed chamber. It was a deeply emotional and spiritual experience.

During our visit to Esfahan, and at every stop along the way, we were warmly greeted by Iranians and were able to talk openly about U.S.-Iranian relations. A surprising number of Iranians speak passable English. At the Armenian quarter in Esfahan we met a group of telecom technicians from Azerbaijan province. They work for the national telecom company which produces and manages cell phone service for the country. When we introduced ourselves as Americans they said, “You are welcome to Iran and we hope you have a good time here.” We heard the same refrain throughout our trip. Everywhere people were warm and friendly toward us. When we explained that our purpose was to help build American-Iranian friendship, they thanked us. “Iranians like Americans,” a 30-year old engineer said, “but our governments have problems. Your president and our president are both extreme and like to have enemies,” he continued. “Hopefully our peoples can become friends and make the governments change.”

I asked the engineer how U.S. sanctions are affecting his company and the Iranian economy in general. “Our leaders are not hurt by the embargo,” he said, “only the ordinary people.” Cell phones are everywhere, and service is freely available and generally of good quality. The embargo is having an effect, though. His company previously bought equipment from Siemens in Germany, but now they are turning to Chinese suppliers. “The quality is good,” he said, “but Siemens was better.” As is so often the case with U.S. policy, our sanctions measures are affecting the wrong target and are having a perverse effect, in this case channeling business to Chinese companies.

Throughout our journey we encountered nothing but friendship and kindness from the Iranian people. We talked freely with dozens of ordinary people in the streets, in the bazaars, and in restaurants. All conveyed the same welcoming message and said without prompting that the Iranian people love America and want friendship with the American people. Many also expressed regret at the actions of the Iranian and U.S. governments, often comparing Bush and Ahmedinejad and describing them as extremists. All wanted to see improved relations between Iran and the U.S. and more Americans visiting their country.

Opinions vary, though. I met one young man in Esfahan who said he likes George Bush and would be a Republican in America. When I asked his opinion of sanctions and military threats he said “without pressure this government will never change in a hundred years.” The Afghan refugees we met in the Shiraz bazaar also considered Bush their hero. These were exceptions, however. The majority of those who ventured a political opinion about the U.S. were anti-Bush.

The long drive from Esfahan to Shiraz took us high into the mountains, past snow-capped peaks along a stretch of winding road and steep passes. After a few hours we descended into a magnificent valley. Suddenly the scrub brush landscape gave way to rich agricultural fields adorned with green shoots of winter wheat and refreshed by streams and a rushing river. The valley continued for 40 kilometers before opening out on a wide plain. Here is the site of Persepolis, former capital of the ancient Persian empire.

We had only an hour and a half to tour the ruins of this magnificent ceremonial capital of the great Achemenian kings. The site was once filled with temples, meeting rooms, 60-foot stone columns, statues and walls with sculptured reliefs. Begun by Darius I, who reigned from 521 to 486 B.C., the capital was gradually expanded over the next two centuries by his descendents, before it was sacked and burned to the ground by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. The well preserved reliefs chronicle the annual pilgrimages to Persepolis made by Egyptians, Babylonians, Armenians, Syrians, Ethiopians, Indians and many other ancient peoples who brought tribute to the Persian kings. It was a breathtaking experience to see the extraordinary detail of the reliefs and to contemplate the grandeur and sophistication of that ancient civilization.

Shiraz is home to Iran’s greatest poets. During our two-day stay we visited the mausoleums of Saadi and Hafez, poets of the 12th and 13th centuries respectively, whose work is widely admired in Iran  and beyond (a verse from Saadi is also inscribed at UN headquarters in New York). Hundreds of Iranians visit these sites everyday, a remarkable tribute to the depth and importance of culture in this country.

During our visit to the city we had a meeting with Ayatollah Shirazi, one of the country’s leading clerics and an advisor to the Supreme Leader. It was obvious from the attention accorded the Ayatollah, the many aides scurrying about his residence and office, and the press coverage given to our meeting that he is the real center of power in the city. The same is true throughout Iran, where what Robin Wright termed the “turbaned class” wields ultimate political authority. The ayatollahs are the real leaders of Iran and seem to have more clout than elected political officials.

The Ayatollah regaled us with an hour-long sermon and commentary on the relations between Islam and Christianity. He began with a platonic analysis emphasizing the spiritual presence of God as true reality and depicting our bodies and the physical features of life as merely forms or instruments of that ultimate reality. Only when we connect with God, he intoned, can we find true meaning.

Muslims study the New and Old Testament, he said. “The Qur’an instructs us to read these two great books. If you believe in the Qur’an you also believe in the Bible.” Muslims believe in Jesus as in Mohammed, the Ayatollah explained, and also believe in Moses and Abraham. The Abrahamic faiths are all branches of a single tree. Muslims believe that there is no difference between Jesus and God, he said. “We cannot separate God from Jesus. If I reject Jesus,” he said, “I have rejected God. He who follows Mohammed follows Jesus.”

At the end of the sermon the Ayatollah commented specifically on the peace mission of the Mennonite Church: “I congratulate you in your holy work of peace.  You are prophets because you are trying for peace. Jesus said that his true followers are those who work for peace. You are true Christians and all true Christians are honored in Islam.” He finished by saying that there is no place for war in the divine kingdom. The true followers of God are those who try for peace. “Those who pursue war will go to hell,” he proclaimed, “while those who seek peace will reach paradise.”

It was an appropriate and hopeful message for our final day of meetings. It is obvious from what we have seen that Iran is not an enemy of the United States, and that a more peaceful approach to the country is both possible and necessary. The current U.S. policies of hostility and sanctions are counterproductive. Iran has serious problems and internal contradictions, to be sure, but these in no way threaten the United States. Our government’s efforts to threaten and isolate Iran only make matters worse. It would be better if the United States would instead offer a hand of friendship and work to build greater understanding and cooperation between the Iranian and American people. It makes no sense to punish ordinary Iranian people who love America and want to be our friends. If the United States is genuinely interested in spreading democracy and peace in the Gulf region, we should engage with Iran, not threaten or attempt to isolate it.

Iranians want greater interaction with Americans. Greater cooperation and dialogue between our peoples would do more to create an open society in Iran than any amount of sanctions and military pressure. Hostility from the United States allows the ruling clerics to focus on the external enemy, ‘the great satan,’ rather than on improving the lives of ordinary Iranians. If the United States were to deprive the mullahs of that external distraction, they would be forced to focus more on social and economic development at home, and would have no excuse for militarization. An American policy of engagement would ease political tensions, create new opportunities for mutual understanding and cooperation, and open up space for the Iranian people to shape their future without fear of war and foreign interference.