I am often drawn to books about other places since working as a full-time social worker, my opportunities to travel abroad are far and few between. Honeymoon in Purdah by Allison Wearing offers a glimpse into Iran, which is a place where people do not usually pick freely as a tourist destination. She writes, often with humor, about many of the friendly, welcoming people that she meant and her struggles to fit in and understand a culture so different from her own.
Allison and her friend Ian travel for five months through Iran visiting friends friends and staying where they can, telling people that they are on their honeymoon. Men and women are not allowed to travel together unless they are married so this is a guise they use to explore a country that they feel is misunderstood.
She tells about the people that she meets and how eager everyone is to learn about her and her country just as she is eager to learn about them. People cook meals at midnight to show their welcome, strangers drive her hours to meet their families and have a break from the heat, they help her to find clothing to help her dress more modestly and appropriately. In one of the most memorable scenes she tells of a full out ping pong match with a woman dressed in a manteau and headscarf who solidly whoops everyone. Throughout the book she writes clearly about the good hearts of the people she meets. Their love of their families and the way they open their homes to a stranger.
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