VZCZCXRO6339
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DE RUEHAH #0577/01 1271202
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061202Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0755
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3738
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 1556
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 1423
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 1992
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 2494
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000577 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI SCUL TX IR
SUBJECT: FROM ASHGABAT TO MASHHAD: WESTERN DIPLOMATS GET A 
TASTE OF IRANIAN CULTURE ON ROAD TRIP 
 
¶1.  (U)  Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:  Two female Western diplomats made a 
visit recently to Mashhad, Iran, and got a feel for the city 
and its residents.  Although the city was historically and 
culturally interesting, the visitors increasingly felt the 
effects of Iran's closed and conservative society. 
Nevertheless, its citizens do not seem to harbor deep 
resentments against those from the West.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  During a recent lunch meeting with PolOffs, the 
OSCE Center in Ashgabat's Security Dimension Officer, Anna 
Suotola, described her recent tourist adventure to Iran with 
a female friend.  On a lark, Suotola, a Finnish citizen, and 
her friend decided to embark on an unplanned, unscheduled 
road trip to Mashhad, having decided that Iran was too close 
to Ashgabat and too interesting to pass up.  The trip had 
been so spontaneous that the two women did not even have 
hotel reservations. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Having somehow procured Iranian visas at the 
embassy in Ashgabat, Suotola and her friend packed their 
scarves and procured road transportation to the Bajgiran 
border crossing point some 40 kilometers south of Ashgabat. 
They walked across the border, then hired a taxi to take them 
on to Mashhad, at least 200 kilometers south and east of the 
border crossing.  The two women befriended the taxi driver, 
who helped them make contact with a little tourist agency in 
town and find a hotel.  (NOTE:  According to information 
available on the Internet, most foreign visitors are required 
to provide information on their itinerary and hotel 
arrangements as part of the visa application process.  We are 
not sure how the women circumvented this requirement.  END 
NOTE.) 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Finding an available hotel was difficult, since 
Mashhad is a major Shi'a pilgrimage destination, but the 
agency found them a room on the outskirts of town.  Their 
tourist agency contact was also very helpful, and offered to 
help them gain access to the most sacred Shi'a site, the 
Shrine of Imam Reza.  (NOTE:  Imam Reza was the eighth imam 
of Shi'ite tradition, martyred in the 9th century.  Some 20 
million Shi'a are thought to visit the site each year, a 
pilgrimage considered by Shi'a to be second to that of Mecca. 
 END NOTE.)  The shrine is exceptionally sacred, and only 
Shi'ite believers are permitted to enter its grounds. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The tour guide acquired appropriate chadors for 
the two women, and instructed them on how to wear them.  He 
instructed them to cover all but their eyes, and said they 
should say they were "Turkmen" if anyone were to ask.  (NOTE: 
 Suotola is a tall, ultra-blond Finn with blue eyes.  END 
NOTE.)  The women were permitted to enter the shrine.  Anna 
said that there were women officials on the grounds of the 
shrine who monitored security and assured the appropriate 
dress of women visitors.  If a veil was being worn 
inappropriately or a woman was not otherwise properly 
covered, they were authorized to tap the violator with a five 
foot-long, rainbow-colored duster, and demand immediate 
correction of the infraction. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Anna reported that the trip was an amazing 
opportunity to see things that few international tourists are 
able to see, but that the constant requirement to cover up 
with long jackets and veils in the warm spring weather was a 
stifling experience for modern Europeans.  She said the city 
was vibrant with commercial and tourist activity, although of 
a domestic, rather than foreign nature.  The primary reminder 
that they were in a unique location, she noted, was a 
solitary sign in English that she saw:  "Down with America." 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Another sign emerged when the two women ordered 
food for delivery to their hotel room.  When the young 
delivery man knocked on their door, Suotola said she forgot 
 
ASHGABAT 00000577  002 OF 002 
 
 
to don her veil, and quickly answered the door.  The delivery 
man was visibly shocked, and backed away from the door and 
averted his eyes.  Suotola said she had to pay the man while 
concealed by the door.  The next day, another delivery person 
brought food to them, but had apparently been briefed by his 
colleague about the foreign women in the hotel and stood with 
back turned away from the door and eyes on the floor. 
Overall, however, she said she found the city's residents to 
be friendly and openly interested in all things Western. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  Although we are uncertain how the women 
were able to acquire visas so easily, their spontaneous road 
trip underscores the reality of how close Iran is to post. 
However, it is not surprising that Western visitors would 
note the effects of Iran's self-imposed isolation and 
religious conservatism before almost anything else.  END 
COMMENT. 
CURRAN