Secret Notes From Iran: Diary Of An Undercover Journalist

INTRODUCTION

TOUCHDOWN IN TEHRAN

Iran is a highly independent nation

and surely not a proxy of any other country.

Noam Chomsky, Political Scientist, Author & Activist

Emirates flight EK971 made a snarling touchdown at the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. I gripped the armrests of my window seat. The Boeing 777-300ER screeched as it slowed down and finally came to a halt.

Terra firma. I was on Iranian soil!

Two hours after boarding the flight in Dubai, I had reached Tehran, my destination. What would turn out to be an epic Persian adventure was well and truly underway.

As the plane taxied towards the airport terminal, the pilot’s jarring, metallic voice crackled over the public address system: Ladies and gentlemen! We have landed at Imam Khomeini International Airport. The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes you to Tehran. It is 10.25am, which means we have arrived on time. The temperature outside is 21 degrees Centigrade…

My fellow passengers were mostly Iranians, Emiratis and West Asia-based expatriates. As I prepared to get off the plane, I noticed that all the women whipped headscarves out of their bags and put them on. For women, public display of tresses is banned in Iran. The men, meanwhile, were hurriedly fishing for their belongings in the overhead lockers. It was the customary post-landing rat race to get ready for the dash!

Over the next few hours, having exited the airport, I waded through Tehran’s bustling and chaotic traffic in a ramshackle taxi; was charmed by the spectacular sight of the snow-clad Alborz mountain range that perpetually overlooks the city; received a big, wet peck on the cheek from the friendly cabbie who was over the moon to have met an Indian in flesh and blood; and checked into a hotel near a buzzing marketplace in central Tehran.

The stage was set for my ‘mission’. Posing as a casual backpacker from India, and strictly keeping under wraps my real identity as a professional journalist, I spent the next three weeks hopping from town to town, minutely observing the life and lifestyle of the historic civilization that now stands on the threshold of a US-led invasion.

I spent those three weeks during the summer of 2017, trying to mingle with local Iranians, looking to collect their insightful first-hand take on the geopolitics surrounding their country. The mission was to understand Iran not from the outside (the globally accepted viewpoint), but from within. The plan was to feel the pulse on the streets; to eventually collate my observations and findings into a ground report in the form of a book.

That is how Secret Notes from Iran was born.

I was constantly on the move throughout the tour, trying to cover as much ground as I possibly could. Iran is a massive country and it is impossible to travel to every corner of it in one lifetime. I followed a zigzag journey which saw me drop anchor at a number of historically important places like Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Persepolis, Qeshm and Bandar Abbas. These places, along with numerous rural and suburban stopovers, gave me a clear picture of modern Persian society.

At every place I visited I tried to make friends with the locals. More often than not, they candidly laid their cards down on the table, freely sharing with me what they felt about Iranian culture, lifestyle, domestic politics and government policies. In fact, the boldness of the average Iranian when it came to taking pot shots at their own government, did come as a pleasant surprise.

This was the same Iran that Western propagandists often branded as a highly mystical and suppressed society, where people apparently never dared to speak up against the powers-that-be. I respected the locals’ fervent requests to keep their identities anonymous even as they aired stinging opinions on controversial matters. To keep them away from trouble I have altered the names of the common people whom I have quoted in the book, in order to protect their identity. But the essence of their descriptions, the situations in which the discussions took place and their comments have been kept intact.

Having spent close to a decade in West Asia, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Iran, absolutely unlike its Arab counterparts in the Gulf region, has the look-and-feel of an independent society. Barring the sight of women sporting the mandatory headscarves, and the fact that the country is ruled by a Shia orthodoxy, most things do not appear to be very conservative.

When you enter Iran, the first thing to strike you is the welcome sight of indigenous brands dominating the public sphere. Take a walk down any busy marketplace or drive along any high street, and you will notice that there is almost no presence of any foreign brands. No KFCs. No Domino’s Pizzas. No McDonalds. No Apple stores. Hardly any Samsung showrooms. No Starbucks. No Wal-Marts. No Carrefours. No H&M outlets. No Ikea stores. No Coca-Cola billboards. No Pepsi vending machines. No signboards boasting of Western apparel giants like Levi’s, Nike, Gucci, Adidas, Dior, GAP, Ralph Lauren and the likes. Even the cars purring down the streets are largely local makes; their lovely retro-shapes teleporting you back to the 1960s and 1970s.

It is not that there is absolutely no presence of foreign companies on Iranian soil. Of course, there is. The chances are that you will stumble upon Chinese equipment at construction sites and hear of the fast-growing Russian and Chinese investments in Iran’s energy and defence sectors. But largely, Iranian society gives you a clear indication that the country is still robustly self-sufficient and least dependent on imported goods and services from North America, Europe and East Asia. This is in complete contrast to Iran’s neighbouring Gulf kingdoms that are gigantic magnets for foreign products.

Keeping globally-influential Western corporate brands at bay for years on end and manufacturing those goods indigenously, is perhaps one of the reasons the Iranian government keeps getting bad press in the West. One can only guess.

As far as bad press goes, I was particularly curious to discover for myself whether Iran was really not a great place to live, as you often heard in the Western media. Fed on lopsided information (read: disinformation), dished out by the Western media and the highly-penetrative international English news agencies, I took it upon myself to figure out the truth. Well, here are the experiences I came back with.

The wonderfully laidback life and courteous people.

The Iranian government’s robust social security net for all its citizens.

The remarkably high level of women’s safety.

The charming flower gardens and the well-maintained public squares.

The bazaars (market places) with their old-world charm.

The spectacular sites of high art and culture.

The mouth-watering Persian food.

The countless little shops selling saffron and dry fruits.

The generally high tolerance towards all religions other than Islam, especially towards self-declared atheists like me, as I discovered.

The celebration of indigenous industry.

The lack of petty crime.

The picturesque teahouses…

There were countless takeaways from the trip. Of course, there were some negatives as well; some glaring ones. The rigid dress code for women tops that list, followed by several other ridiculously patriarchal laws. Then there is the chaotic Tehran traffic, and the citizens’ inability to criticise the Supreme Leader in public.

One of the core issues that I have shed light on in this book is the petrodollar story. Hardly talked about in the Western media or by popular political commentators, the petrodollar system turns out to be the root cause of all disquiet in West Asia. We live in a world where a lot of ‘information’ is disseminated about why so many oil wars are fought in the Persian Gulf, but the actual goings-on are hardly discussed or debated. We are somehow loath to go beyond the war-for-oil perspective. We do not question why the US-led West is perpetually hankering after the West Asian energy resources. Probing this angle opens up a whole new ball game, an entirely new horizon – the petrodollar system – the American quest to keep the dollar flying high. In this book I have attempted to trace the origin of this highly debatable petrodollar system and the hurdles it faces in a world where American unipolarity is steadily losing its appeal and hold.

There is also one chapter dedicated to Iran’s relationship with India. I have looked back at the cultural linkage between the two civilizations, before disseminating the two governments’ business dealings at a time when Iran is having to deal with a crushing sanctions regime and New Delhi is being pressured to delink itself from Tehran.

The contentious issue of women’s rights – rather, the lack of it – is among the top things that come to mind whenever we talk about Iran. That is why I have dedicated a chapter to understanding the nuances and dynamics of Iran’s regressive dress code and gender biases. The highlight is the ongoing revolutionary movement among Iranian women to contest the law that makes headscarves mandatory.

Everybody loves a spy story, especially when the story is told from the espionage base. That is precisely why I visited the former US embassy complex in Tehran. The CIA used to clandestinely run a full-fledged spy facility from the embassy building. It was eventually busted by the Iranian government forces following the 1979 revolution, and was closed down for good. I visited the place and witnessed with my own eyes the elaborate equipment, surveillance gadgets and wiretapping devices the CIA had used during the 1960s and 1970s to keep a close watch on the Shah of Iran and his countrymen. I have written a separate chapter on that visit, along with photographs of the CIA ‘exhibits’.

Vital components of this book are the three Iran-centric interviews woven into the narrative, of Noam Chomsky, the most celebrated political scientist of our times; Vijay Prashad, a prominent foreign affairs commentator and writer; and Masih Alinejad, an anti-headscarf Iranian activist, who lives in exile in New York. Chomsky talked about the petrodollar system and the various probabilities that can unfold in a fast-complicating multilateral geopolitical game involving Iran, US, Israel, Syria and Russia. Prashad aired his thoughts on the opportunistic role of Beijing and Moscow, and Iran’s dogged move to defend Syria. Masih gave insights into which way the wind blows as Iranian women become more emboldened by the day in their bid to challenge regressive laws thrust upon them by their government.

In two other chapters, one focuses on the 1979 Iranian Revolution, its origin and the aftermath, while the other redirects the spotlight on the Iranian Supreme Leader’s sprawling business empire that very few people are aware of, including ordinary Iranians.

Every time I now hear talk of the ‘retribution’ Iran is set to face for taking on the might of the US, I get butterflies in my stomach. The talk of war and invasion takes my mind back to the magical experiences I had in Iran. To the bustling labyrinthine Grand Bazaar in Tehran; the colourful lights bursting out of the fresco art inside the Pink Mosque in Shiraz; the enormous and awe-inspiring Naqsh-e-Jahan Square in Isfahan; the fascinating golden ruins of Persepolis; the calm waters of the Strait of Hormuz, and the quaint stopover villages that pepper the meandering roads through rural Iran.

You can love Iran or you can hate it, but you certainly cannot ignore it. In a world dominated by Trumpland and an escalating conflict of interests between the Anglo-American bloc and a rising Sino-Russian front, Iran as a society, as a culture, and as a phenomenon, deservedly takes up its own space under the geopolitical spotlight.

1

OIL, DOLLAR AND A TICKING TIME BOMB

Control oil and you control nations...

Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of State, United States of America

EYE OF THE STORM

BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN: A stiff breeze was blowing in from the sea, almost knocking my hat off as I somehow managed to wriggle my way into the crowd waiting to get on board the oncoming ferry. I looked down at the crumpled passenger ticket in my hand. It read: Port of Boarding: Bandar Abbas; Port of Destination: Qeshm Island.

The long wait, to journey across the much-storied Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, was about to end. Within moments of the rickety government-run ferry docking at the jetty in Bandar Abbas, I jostled my way on board. Without exception, my fellow passengers were Iranian locals. Most belonged to the port town of Bandar Abbas, while the others hailed from the little islands dotting the Strait of Hormuz. I stood out in the crowd of daily commuters, a solo traveller. Little did they know that this casual tourist from India was, in fact, an undercover journalist on a mission – to rummage insights, information and interviews about the life and times of modern-day Persia.

On boarding the boat, the locals expertly darted around and filled up the lower-deck seats in no time. I had other plans though. I gestured to the small crew that I wanted to sit on the upper-deck (usually closed to passengers), to enjoy the view from the top during the hour-long ride to Qeshm Island. The crew responded with a firm ‘no’. They would have none of it.

I was crestfallen, but not for long. A young Iranian man, possibly in his thirties, witnessed my failed bid to get access to the upper-deck and instantly came to my rescue. After warmly exchanging pleasantries with me, he approached the crew with my