Next stop: Tabriz, Iran.

Friends! I’m at the start of the 24-hour journey halfway around the planet to Iran. When I get there, I won’t have access to Facebook, either my personal or Author page (waahh), but I’m pretty sure I’ll have access to this blog, and plan to post frequently. I’m also told I’ll have access to Twitter (@monicabyrne13) and Instagram (also @monicabyrne13), where I plan to post daily. So come stay in touch there!

I’ve been practicing hijab-wearing with Berber headscarves I bought in Morocco, way back in 2002. I really love how they look. They make me think of all the women I knew at Wellesley who chose to wear headscarves and patiently explained to the rest of us why it wasn’t “antifeminist” to do so. That it was a choice they embraced and celebrated. That it was a means of personal identity and aesthetic expression. That they, and only they, were the ones who got to decide what it “meant.”

It’s for them that I happily wear mine.