Jane Harries's blog

It was a wet Friday morning as we set out from our hotel for Friday prayers, so we had some problems keeping our “chadors” in place – an extra layer of black cloth which we was draped around us, but required careful clutching to keep it in place and out of the puddles. We felt that this immediately marked us out as Westerners, as the local women seemed to wear their chadors with ease and dignity.

As a new mosque is being constructed which is large enough to hold the number of people who attend Friday prayers, they are at the moment being help in Tehran university. Once off the bus the women were ushered in a separate direction to the men. We were shown into a small booth warmed by a kerosene stove to await security clearance. The lady guarding the booth was in the middle of her tea break, but offered to share with us the cake and tea she had – and then engaged us in conversations, curious to know where we were from.

For those of us taking part in FOR’s 5th Civilian Diplomacy Visit to Iran in December 2007, the aim was clear. We embarked on the trip with the clear message that we are against the warmongering of the Bush administration and wish to make positive contact with ordinary people in Iran, thus broadening and deepening the peace-building networks that already exist between individuals and groups in our respective countries.