History is a very important characteristic when it comes to reading a travel memoir like Honeymoon in Purdah. The reason for this is that the explanation for a wide array of behaviors that might seem strange to us are rooted into the past of the people that practice it. In Iran, one could argue that the iranian revolution itself and all the religious customs that were reintroduced into society are the consequence of a growing popular ressentment with the Shah and his policies. That example is the principal manifestation of the crucial importance of history to our understanding of other customs. Also, history has a double meaning that is interesting to explore in the context of Honeymoon in Purdah. As I’ve mentionned before, the History (with a capital H) of Iran as a country, their collective experiences and events, has shaped their values and behaviors into what they are. Nevertheless, there is another side to the coin if we take into account that each of the many characters that the author meets is imbedded with his/her own history. What I mean by this is that the individual experiences of any given character influence him as much or even more than the collective iranian history. For example, we see very different opinions of the Shah if we consider the views of the ‘old man’ from the mosque (pages 89-98) versus the one of Mohammed and Abba. This is because every character is influenced by his own personal history.

Hence the double meaning and importance of history in this book. A travel memoir cannot be properly understood before exploring the historical context of the country or region being visited.