Iran. Tehran and Qom. Smiling at Iranian girls? How Baazar!

Iran. Tehran and Qom. Smiling at Iranian girls? How Baazar!

I have always found Tehran fascinating.

It's such a dark horse of a city. The belly of the anti west beast. Having spent the last two years in NYC, I was keen to visit the city on the other end of the ideological spectrum.

Tehran is a city of 14 million and has the third largest stadium in the world. Would anyone know that? No, because it's one of the world's largest metropolis ignored by the western media. The city itself is amazing. Crazy traffic, overly friendly Iranians and ridiculously cheap food. Apart from one of those cities in western China, I reckon that Tehran is the largest city in the world where western faces are gawked at. Other highlights included the abandoned US Embassy and a huge bazaar that contained countless string and metal pot shops.

Walking the bustling streets I was asked by some eager teenagers to come with them to a restaurant for a great meal and maybe beer. Although the prospect of being a western novelty was appealing, thoughts of the Istanbul mugging made me decline.

The bus progressed to Qom and the town was dead (it was a Sunday afternoon). Having hours to kill we sat in the main roundabout and smiled at the gawking locals.

It was there I found my new favourite pastime: making eye contact with Iranian women and smiling. In such a sexually suppressed society just the act of smiling at a girl seems taboo. So having an Iranian girl return a smile, gives you a thrilling sense of rebellion.

It's funny how Iranian women are dressed differently. Traditional girls are dressed in a full black burka while more rebellious girls are dressed in black western clothes with a headscarf showing a glimpse of hair. Yet all different types of girls can muster a smile.

What a hobby!