Iran - Andrew Burke [26]
So when you’re inevitably asked what you think about Iran, remember it’s a genuine question and you’re expected to give a genuine answer. Quite often it leads to further conversation, particularly among young people who speak (and want to practise) English. These conversations are a great way to get a little further inside the Iranian way of thinking, and way of life, and for Iranians to better understand your way of life.
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The gap between rich and poor is huge, with the middle class shrinking. Teachers, earning not much more than US$200 a month, are the sort of state employee hardest hit by inflation rates running at between 13% and 25% per annum, depending on which arm of government you believe (Click here); unofficial figures are higher. On the other hand, a fortunate minority, some of whom have made a fortune from land and property speculation, continue to build lavish villas with swimming pools behind high walls in Tehran’s breezy northern suburbs. Or they live in one of the many glistening new apartment towers punctuating the hilly north of Tehran, in marble-and-glass apartments filled with cappuccino machines, Le Corbusier chairs and home gyms. The women of such families tend not to work but instead lead lives revolving around their children, visiting parents and friends and working out with personal trainers.
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Dara and Sara are dolls developed by a government agency to promote traditional values and rival Barbie (though so far Barbie is winning hands down!).
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In contrast a middle-class couple may leave their modest apartment together in the morning after the typical Persian breakfast of bread, cheese, jam and tea. Their children, if small, will mostly be looked after by grandparents while the couple go to work. One or the other may make it back for lunch, unless living in Tehran where distances are greater and traffic hideous. In the evening the family meal will be taken together, often with the wider family and friends. Iranians are social creatures and many visits take place after dinner.
In poorer or more traditional families it is likely that the woman will stay at home, in which case her whole day revolves around housework, providing meals for her family and shopping (in ultraconservative families the men may do the shopping).
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Jafar Panahi directs a Kiarostami script in Crimson Gold. This Cannes award-winning film is a dark tale of the ruin of a young pizza delivery boy and the madness of modern life in Tehran.
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Iranian meals can take time to prepare and though supermarkets exist and some pre-packaged ingredients are available, mostly there is no convenience food. Just buying, cleaning and chopping the herbs served with every meal can take a good chunk of the afternoon. Working women generally see to these tasks in the evenings, when they may prepare the next day’s lunch. Perhaps in more enlightened families men help with the cooking and housework, but as both the mother and grown sons of one Iranian family we know told us: ‘men who cook are not real men’. Mostly it is safe to say that men’s role in the home is largely confined to appreciating the quality of the cooking. Which they do well, Iranians being true gourmands.
Family life is still of supreme importance although there is ongoing talk of the erosion of family values. Often families include children, parents, grandparents and other elderly relatives. As a result Iranian society is more multigenerational than Western society, something that’s most obvious on holidays and weekends when you’ll see multigenerational families walking, laughing and picnicking together.
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Estimates suggest Iran has more than one million drug addicts, even though drug dealing and even drug use can be punishable by death. However, Iran has enlightened policies for treating addiction, including methadone programmes and clean needles for addicted prisoners.
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It’s extremely unusual to live alone and unmarried children only leave home to attend university in another