Sean Penn Writes Accounts of Iran Travels
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Sean Penn (search) is trading screenplays for a reporter's notebook yet again.
The Oscar-winning actor traveled to Tehran, Iran, in June. The San Francisco Chronicle (search), which has published previous accounts of his travels, is running a five-part series on his experiences this week.
In the first installment, Penn wrote about the difficulties of obtaining a visa to travel to Iran, how women are instructed to cover their faces before landing in the country and some tense moments when he was fingerprinted entering Iran.
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The actor compared the bustle of Tehran to Baghdad or Mexico City, saying the city was filled with "Jousting, yelling, horn honking and warm thickly polluted air, mud-splattered motorcycles, winding through human traffic at death-bound speeds."
Penn landed in Tehran the week before the Iranian elections.
Given a press credential by Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, Penn visited Iraq in late November 2003, shortly before Saddam Hussein was captured.