Let’s start with the subtitle of this essay. What do I mean by Iran “looking much bigger from the inside”? Despite what Hollywood, the Bush administration, and the neo-cons would lead us to believe, Iran is a very complicated place. Of the nearly dozen countries I’ve visited so far, it is probably the hardest to describe in a word (or a few articles, for that matter). It is run by an Islamic government based on the principles of Ruhollah Khomeini (the charismatic cleric who led the Islamic Revolution in 1979), but Christian minorities are allowed to produce and consume their own alcoholic beverages and their own meat products (Islam forbids imbibing alcohol and eating pork). Furthermore, non-Muslim minorities are guaranteed representation in the national legislature.

As for women, they are indeed forced to wear the veil (hijab) and a thin overcoat even during the hot summer months, but many use a lot of make-up, which makes them as attractive as their barely-clad counterparts in beach resorts around the world.

On that note, from the outside, one would think that Iranian women are categorically oppressed and marginalized by the Islamic regime, but two-thirds of university students in Iran are female. Iran also has a very vibrant feminist movement that struggles as hard as its Western equivalents to realize women’s equality with men. (At any rate, when you visit an Iranian home, you actually realize that women are running the show – all they need is to translate that to the public realm.)

Obviously, the mass media is not free in Iran. But foreign (especially Western) audiences would be surprised to learn that, unlike the Soviet Union and its clients during the Cold War, the government in Tehran does not bombard its people with propaganda. Ayatollah Khomeini’s pictures (unlike the cult of Lenin and Stalin in the former Communist bloc) are not ubiquitous at all. In Tehran, the only posters that are (very sporadically) scattered around town are those that show the faces of soldiers who died during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Even then, the content is not belligerent but merely revering.

As for religious beliefs, although many Iranians are devout Shia Muslims, they are not fanatically observant – you actually see a lot of people in the streets during prayer time. The subway and buses continue to operate at the said time. (It goes without saying that nobody clubs you into a mosque.) Quite possibly, Iran has fewer mosques than secular Turkey because, unless you’re very close to a mosque, the call to prayer (ezan/edhan) is barely audible during the day.

Another striking feature about the mosques in Iran is that nobody minds people napping in them. Quite a few homeless frequent mosques and sleep there because they have nowhere else to go.

Why is that very strange? According to Islamic tradition, sleeping invalidates one’s ablution (a ritual cleansing that Muslims are supposed to do before praying or even going into a mosque). But here I am in the Islamic Republic of Iran where folks are allowed to use mosques as homeless shelters. (Something I never heard of or saw in my country, the Republic of Turkey.)

Things get even more complicated when one visits Ayatollah Khomeini’s tomb. You would think that the only way to survival at such a place passes through adherence to the very rigid rules. Think again: When you walk into the Haram-e Motahar, the predictable sight of people touching and kissing the chamber housing Imam Khomeini’s grave welcomes you. That sight is flanked by more interesting ones: children playing around, adults chatting on the floor (some having a picnic), and a few people facing Mecca and carrying out the Islamic ritual prayer. (Don’t forget the homeless and the poor sleeping on the floor!) Apparently, Mr. Khomeini had wanted his final resting ground not to be a holy shrine but a humble spot where people could relax while remembering him.

Going back to the people not being fanatical, Iranians are extremely friendly and kind toward foreigners. Despite Tehran’s tiring megalopolis-hassle, on the bus or on the street, people are likely to start a conversation with you. If your Farsi or their English is not adequate, Iranians still make an effort to say a few kind words. Then again, many Iranians know English and/or Turkish (which is not surprising, given that about a quarter of them are ethnically Azeri).

The kindness must have impressed quite a few foreign women too. Despite the grossly misleading Not Without My Daughter (a 1991 movie about an American woman married to an Iranian man, who does not let her leave Iran with her daughter), which not only helped Sally Field with her Hollywood career but also hurt Iran’s image abroad, a lot of non-Iranian women from around the world marry Iranian men and settle in Iran (three of my classmates – of Colombian, Japanese, and Russian background – are cases in point).

These are but some of the many countless examples that demonstrate how Iran does not fit the neat categories of “evil,” “radical,” or “fundamentalist.” The point that I’m trying to make is that the international community in general and the United States in particular are dealing with a nation that cannot be dismissed easily. Whether Senator Barack Obama (who has commendably stated that he would engage Iran more positively than President George W. Bush) or Senator John McCain (whose position on Iran resembles that of the Bush administration, a worrisome idea) is elected to the White House in November, they are well-advised to keep that point in mind.

If this essay sounds like a mouthpiece, let me clarify myself: I have no illusions about the problematic aspects of the Iranian government (especially its failure to distinguish between Israel’s excesses against the people of Palestine and anti-Semitism), or Iran’s poor economic performance despite its oil wealth, or the needless tug-of-war between Tehran and the rest of the world over Iran’s nuclear program.

People have to move beyond the sound-bites and the theatrical (and misleading) images of a country that is as complex and hard-to-fathom as a Picasso painting. I hope that more foreigners can visit Iran to appreciate its riches or at least understand what this beautiful country is made of. A more receptive global audience would help the Iranian people and their government to feel more secure vis-à-vis the world.

That’s not a bad thing.

Barın Kayaoğlu is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia and a regular contributor to the Journal of Turkish Weekly.

E-mail: kayaoglu@virginia.edu