I visited Tehran, the capital of Islamic republic of Iran for few days in September 2009. It was an exciting experience. Iran is an official Shia state. It is evident from the billboards showing slogans about Ali RA, Fatima RA & family. Talking about billboards, there were very few of them and none had any woman on them.
Today’s Iran is situated in the middle of three M’s namely Mediterranean, Middle East and Middle (central) Asia. Known as Persia in past, Iran has one of the oldest civilisation dating as back as 4000 BC. Persian empire was once the superpower of the world. Iran is a land of beautiful civilised people, sweet poetic language, rich of art be it poetry, architecture, music or lovely food, you won’t be disappointed.
Iran’s population is about 72 million which includes Persians (51%), Azeris (24%), Mazandarani and Gilaki (8%), Kurds (7%) and remaining mix of Turks, Balochis and Arabs. Official language is Persian (Farsi). 90% people are Shia religion, 9% Sunni and rest are a mix of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrian (old religion of Iran).
It’s political structure is complex. At the top is the Supreme Leader, selected by the Assembly of Experts, who is Commander-in-Chief of the military and oversees the civilian government. Next is the elected President of Iran, who serves for a maximum of two 4-year terms. Candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council.
Before coming to Iran I had the impression that it is a deeply religious society. The image is shattered now after spending few days here. Most people seem to be uninterested in Islam. Respect for Ramzan (month of fasting) wasn’t there. Many people were eating in public (referring to Tehran, situation would be different in rural areas I guess). Restaurants were closed during day but fast food type places were selling food almost openly right in the middle of city.
There are only few mosques in Tehran city. You don’t hear azaan, it is probably banned on speaker. I was looking for masjid for jumma prayer and ended up in Valli Asar maidaan, the town centre. The masjd there was locked. But I saw many people going in one direction, mostly in traditional shia black dress. There were extra ordinary security arrangements with police, fire brigade, ambulances present. It can not be an ordinary jumma prayer, I thought. So I didn’t dare going any close. Next day I found out through media that it was the supreme leader Kohmenei addressing in juma prayer at Tehran University campus with the whole government present including Ahmede Nejad.
Youth is quite modernized. Boys fashion like west. All girls wear jeans with a tight coat on top, & a symbolic scarf at the back of head, hair dyed in Golden. Islam appears to be enforced by authorities. Society seem superficial, a bit similar to Pakistan. Actually there are a lot of similarities with Pakistan, for example, laungaue (40% similar) food (kebabs, roti, chai, sweets, etc), living and the habits (I mean the bad ones at least!).
Besides, people are polite & good looking, especially women. Very few could speak English, and that was broken too. Young like to talk to foreigners. Not me though because they considered my Irani. When I said I am not, they said oh Indian! No I am Pakistani I would notify.
Tehran city has old and new parts. Old is like Rawalpindi, narrow, crowded, and new one is green, nicely built & similar to Islamabad. It is surrounded by dry hills. There is good road infrastructure with many flyovers & bridges. But traffic is heavily congested and driving is dangerously dangerous. No one buzzes horn, except an occasional small touch of button. Atmosphere is dry hot during day and cold at night.
No foreign credit card (& SIM card) works here except the Iranian. Currency is Riyal, a bus ride cost 2000 Riyals and a few mile taxi journey will set you back by 50,000 Riyals. 1 dollar gets 10,000 Riyals.
PLACES VISITED:
Sa’d Abad Museum Complex
Sa’d-Abad palace complex in the north of Tehran is a huge area of peaceful green gardens with 18 palaces most of them housing museums now, previously used by Kings. I visited the Reza Shah (former King) palace there. Wow man, it is a real palace. I have visited palaces in UK, France, Germany etc, but none like this one. It is magnificent (see photos). Reza Shah ruled the country like an owner but left this world miserably. He was backed by Amreeka but when bad days arrive, he escaped from Iran and sought refuge. No one was willing to give him asylum. He tried many countries including Amreeka, & Britain. No one accepted him and eventually he died in exile.
Grand Bazaar
I visited this old bazaar. It has 10 km of covered shops with several entrances. Bazaar has more than a dozen mosques, several guesthouses, a handful of banks, one church and even a fire station. It is an ideal and cheap place to stock up on almost anything you need. I bought lots of dates, dry nuts & saffron from here.
FOOD:
Iranian Food is just excellent. Chelo (rice) kebab is like their national dish. Kebab has many varieties, all very delicious. Dry fruits and nuts is also used commonly. Iran is famous for nuts, dates & of course Saffron (zaafran) commonly used in their diet. Fast is broken with date, soup & tea. Nan breads are similar to Pakistan.
In short it was a wonderful experience to visit Iran, I will surely come back…one day.
Click Here to Read Story of My Second Visit to Tehran
Also, Read Funny Iran Here