Everyone who knows me and with whom I have discussed my visits to Iran will understand how passionate I am about the state of driving in Iran. From experience it is simply AWFUL! I quake in my boots every time I get in a car and try not to look immediately in front of me, preferring to gaze out of the side windows pretending to be cool.
Most Iranians look at me blankly when I rave on about their driving exploits clearly thinking I am a hyper-sensitive neurotic woman who knows nothing about driving. However, I seem to have found an ally in Maziar Bahari, whose book I am reading this week whilst on Jury Service. In his book ” Then they came for me”, he describes Iranian driving as follows;
” The effect of years of chaos and insecurity, war and revolution, can easily be seen in the way Iranians drive; these generally courteous people turn into monsters behind the wheel. They rarely allow another car the right of way and honk their horns as soon as a pedestrian steps into the street. Road rage-even using machetes against other drivers-is not unheard of in Iran. As a friend of mine once put it, “The disgraceful way we drive is like crapping on more than twenty-five hundred years of Persian history, arts, and culture.”
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who thinks that Iranian driving could be improved! I was beginning to think I am a hyper-sensitive neurotic woman who knows nothing about driving.
