Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn provides glimpses of life in Iran from the viewpoint of a young British backpacker as he is showered with hospitality from nearly all he meets during his journey in and around the country in 2007. Travelling mostly by bus and train, Maslin's journey is an on-the-ground account of the changing attitudes of people within the country towards those in control and one which has resulted in him being banned from visiting Iran again.
Maslin had originally planned to hitchhike from England to China by following Marco Polo's Silk Route. Having partly funded his travels through taking part in human medical trials, he needs just one more trial to scrape up the last of funds when he fails the requisite test for inclusion. Having spent two months acquiring his Iranian Visa in advance and not wishing to waste it and potentially never receiving one again, Maslin decides to rejig his plans and instead hitchhike to the border of Iran and then properly explore one of the countries that make up the Axis of Evil.
Despite numerous warnings from well meaning friends and documentaries that he watches that displays the inherent dangers of visiting Iran, Maslin finally decides to take the leap due to one irrefutable fact - his loathing of his office dead-end job, that is also helping him scrape together enough money to travel.
Little time is wasted on the hitchhiking journey to Iran. Two paragraphs gets him from Calais to Eastern Turkey, a journey of some two and a half weeks and sixteen pages later we're taken across the border. From here Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn describes his travels in what is mostly the north west and central part of the country, where he visits well and lesser known locations such as St Thaddeus Church, the Assassins' Castles, Ali Sadr Caves, Esfahan and the jewel in the crown, Persopolis.
Maslin utilises a light-hearted approach to describing his time in Iran whilst also infusing this travelogue with a good smattering of history. His outgoing nature and openness is such that he is hosted on numerous occasions by Iranians in their homes and finds himself mingling with mostly younger Iranians at "illegal parties", where both males and females intermingle, getting drunk on surgical spirit and having a few awkward moments when his host puts on a special porn movie.
Whilst the book is entertaining and there are flashes of the quality of writing that made the Long Hitch Home so good, in general it remains relatively unpolished. For someone specifically interested in Iran or looking for a different take on Iranian attitudes, however, this is worth a look.
3 stars out of 5
Credit: Banner photo by Paul Keller