Outside In: The Slow Road to Tehran - Rebecca Lowe

About

Outside In invites adventure cyclist Rebecca Lowe to recount in person her amazing story, The Slow Road to Tehran.

At the height of the Syrian War, as the refugee crisis reached its peak, Rebecca Lowe set off on her bicycle across the Middle East. Driven by a desire to learn more about this troubled region and its relationship with the West, Lowe's 11,000-kilometre journey took her through Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and Iran. It was an odyssey that captured her heart, but also a deeply challenging cycle across mountains, deserts and repressive police states that nearly defeated her. Plagued by punctures and battling temperatures ranging from -6 to 48C, Lowe relied heavily on the kindness of locals to complete this living portrait of the modern Middle East.

Rebecca Lowe is a freelance journalist who specialises in human rights and the Middle East. She has written for the Guardian, BBC, Evening Standard, Independent, Huffington Post, Economist, Sunday Times Magazine, Daily Mail, and IranWire, plus numerous travel and sports publications. Her first book, The Slow Road to Tehran, was published in 2022 by September Books in the UK and Riva Verlag in Germany, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year. She was previously the lead reporter at the International Bar Association, where she focused on human rights and the rule of law, and is a Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society. She holds a BA in English from Cambridge University and an MA in Journalism from Stanford University.

Venue Information:
We will be hosting the event at Cultplex, Manchester's independent cinema, run by the talented team at GRUB. The bar will be open from 17:00 on the day, offering a range of local and independent drinks. The venue also hosts a rotating array of street food traders in their hidden gem of a beer garden, so come down early for some food.

The venue is wheelchair accessible via an external ramp to a rear entrance, GRUB have kindly requested those with accessibility requirements get in touch prior to the event so they can provide extra staffing to assist. Further information can be found at https://www.grubmcr.com/accessibility