Photo by Jim Laurel

Making new friends is one of the great pleasures of visiting Iran. In all our travels the Iranians stood head and shoulders above all as the most hospitable people we met.

Meeting these girls in Tabriz was the first of many encounters in which Karin and Kirsten were approached by friendly Iranians, who were thrilled to meet someone from outside the country - especially an American woman!

Although women are required to wear a head covering, known as a "hejab", women in Iran enjoy a growing number of rights and freedoms. President Khatami's program of cultural and political reform is constantly under attack by Iran's hard line religious conservatives, but Iranian society is changing, nonetheless.