Iran!

Tehran looked really big from the airplane’s window. The first thing you can notice is the huge highways crowded with cars. There are millions of cars in Tehran alone, most of them are made or at least assembled in Iran. The city has a real problem because of air pollution; the first couple of days were really smoggy that the government decided to ask students not to go to school. This looks like a regular procedure for reducing the smoke of cars and protecting children from polluted air. The governmental effort for solving the problem is really serious. Tehran (or Tehroon as the Iranians call it), according to the UN, is among the best cities in the world in dealing with the environmental problems. Only unleaded fuel is available for really cheap prices, and there are thousands of new trees planted all over the city in a project called the greenbelt. Niki and I went to the environment department of Tehran; they have a huge park called Tehran’s paradises that is open to public. Tehran is really full of cool parks, full of people.

The city is huge; more than 15 million people live in it. It is surrounded by a high series of mountains that causes the smog problem. Most of Tehroonis live in flats in high-rise buildings. The highest building is under construction now; they reached to the 56th floor I think. There is an enormous tower in the north if the city, it is really high and big, still under construction.

People look really interesting. There is a big ratio, especially in the poor south of the city, of men and women that are religious. Religious men have beards that are usually not very long, and religious women wear the “chador”; the black long cover. Nevertheless, the impression that I had from watching people in the last week is that the majority do not look religious. Women wear very much makeup, very colorful and stylish outfits. It is true that al women are asked to cover their hair and wear long coats that covers their thighs, yet the majority of women are with “bad-hijab”, showing most of their hair.

From what I understand, the government is reducing its social pressure gradually. I didn’t see a single “Basiji” since I reached to Iran. Basijis are supposed to be the volunteers supporting the government and watching the society, they are the ones that “correct” the people with wrong attitude or “improper” outfit. Niki and I were expecting loads of Basijis in the streets running after us.

Most of the people that I met have mobile phones, internet connection, and a satellite TV. The city is full of advertisements and publications, and you can find most of the international brands wherever you go. It doesn’t seem like an isolated country at all. The level of development is really impressive here.

I want to spend more time with people, to have a better image about the social behavior. Niki’s cousin might take us to a party in the next couple of days, where people celebrate heavily and have fog machines in their houses.

An Afghan merchant in the friday bazar. Even though afghanistan has been "liberated" and the Iranian government has been trying to force Afghans to go back to their homeland for the past two years, most afghans do whatever they can to avoid going back to "democratic" afghanistan and prefer to stay in "evil" iran.

The bazar

Snow in Tehroon. It snows every now and then, but the snow hasnt stuck around for long since we've been here.

Tehran has a really cool system for softwater drainage, it is called the "joob Aab". Open canals of various lengths and dephs run throughout the city. Pedestrian bridges sometimes connect the street to the sidewalks, and huge trees grow out of the wider canals.

When they are not driving like lunatics, taxi drivers take the time spent in tehran's notorious traffic to catch up on reading their favorite newspapers. In tehran, you can either have your own private taxi or share cabs with people going in the same direction, which is much cheaper and is our preferred method for getting around town. This particular taxi driver even had his hot cup of tea on his dashboard, like he was at his breakfast table or something. The woman sitting next to him is wearing a chador, the long cloth preferred by religious women. But as you can see, physical contact between strangers is not a problem.

even after many publications were banned, there are still dozens of cool newspapers and magazines in tehran, some of them are in different languages like arabic and english. There are hundreds of newspaper stands all around the city, and people consume the publications like crazy! everyone reads at least a newspaper or two!

at the gate of one of the Shah's palaces in the north of tehran. The area of the palace is huge, and everything looks like the shah left yesterday! the furniture, dishes, clothes, art work and even personal items. It is really beautiful inside, but it made me feel how big the gap was between the life of the shah and the population of that time

This is the building were we are staying. Most of the buildings in the northern part of the city are high rises, the highest residential building is under construction now with 56 floors. We have a great view of the snowy mountains

niki and I in the cinema, we were going to see the Iranian film "Turtles Can Fly". There are a bunch of cinemas in tehran and people go there all the time. You pay less than one dollar for the ticket, and most of the movies are Irani. I got this afghan hat from the Afghani Bazar in the south of tehran

niki and I in a small resturant in tehran, we went to many small public "parties" with music and singers, the thing I was really impressed by!

the Azadi Square, near the main airport of Tehran