City life in Iran
When I was a child, I remember one of my mother's relatives who lived in the US visited us, and her young daughter was saying that in their schools they teach them that Iranians have no car, no modern homes, or a modern life, and all they can afford is riding donkeys! 😂 She was kinda shocked when she saw the reality! The same kind of shocked happened to many of my classmates at Fredericksburg Toastmasters club in Copenhagen, when I showed them a few photos of my past, during my "ice-breaking" speech.
This seems to be quite common among the Westerners (Ane-Khas) who have been brainwashed for decades! Even though in the past 8 years, I have seen that the majority of Europeans are pretty old-fashioned religious-minded, and are not even open to come out of their dreams and see the reality. In this article, I have shared some photos of Iran and a few photos of my past (from the times that Iran used to be more religiously strict, compared to now).
Here are a few photos of life in Tehran, the capital of Iran:
I am not a fan of photography, but these are a few photos from my time in Tehran (15-25 years ago):
And a few more photos that I took 10-15 years ago from the time I used to live in Tehran:
In the first one is an example of the modern arts you can see all around the city, a stray cat who thinks he owns
the bench (and he does!), and of course food!
In this photo, you see two stray cats, which are pretty common to see on the streets of Tehran (similar to some
other West Asian cities like Istanbul).
And the last one, me at a music concert (Young Pooyan++, when I was a positive gentleman 😄), having lunch with my
colleagues (Tehran, many years ago), a photo that I took from the window of an airplane above the mountains of Iran,
and a small part of one of the bird parks in Tehran.
Based on the quality of photos, you see how bad I am at photography! 😂
The diverse nature
Most of the Danes I have met so far, were telling me "oh Denmark should be really cold for you, right?" or "Oh, is this the first time you see snow?!". And I was like, mmmm... these illusional nomadics seem not to have ever even left their small village/country/tribe! 😂
A few photos of the diverse nature we have in Iran:
And a bit of 5-10 meters snow? (read it with pursed lips to feel it's not much 😉):
Compare that with 1 centimeter of snow in Denmark, which lasts no more than a few hours! 🙃
This was my Indian colleague at Gemalto who was working at our HQ in Dubai, and had never seen snow in his life! He asked me if I could bring him to the mountains to see the snow. This was still the beginning of winter, and yet we didn't have snow in the city, so we had to go to the mountains right above Tehran. It took us first a few hours to buy him a pair of proper winter hiking shoe and some warm cloths, as he had no idea what level of cold he was going to face! 😂 I also gave him a good pair of gloves. Then, we took the Telecabin to the Tochal mountain peak (not the highest peak we have in the country, but the one that is already a part of the city and we could go there in less than an hour).
This was his reaction 20 minutes after we got there, and when we walked a bit toward the mountain peak:
And of course we cannot forget the mighty Damavand:
The highest peak of Iran, an impressive stratovolcano that reaches 5,670 meters (18,598 ft) in elevation! 🤩
And of course, we have magnificent deserts in the country too:
For example, the Lut Desert, is located in southeastern Iran. This desert is known for its extreme heat and holds the reputation as the hottest place on earth. With temperatures that can soar up to 159 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius).
How is that possible?!
Size-wise, Iran is 1.6 million km², and and if we could move it to Europe on the map, this would be how it looks
like this:
If you also value mathematics and numbers, as you see, Iran is ~38 tims bigger than Denmark, and ~5 times
larger than Germany!
Population-wise, also, unlike the majority of Europeans who only fake it, culturally, we care about nature, and so we have kept the population within an acceptable level. As you see, traditional-minded religious countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Denmark have a very high population density compared to Iran, Sweden, and Norway.
Speaking of elevation, we can also compare with a few numbers:
Source of this information:
The diverse culture
Farsi or Persian is the official language of Iran, and is the first official/spoken language in all regions. But, we have people from different backgrounds, and so many different languages and dialects are spoken in the country, especially a bit outside the central parts.
Here is a map of the languages spoken in Iran:
In Iran, also, we have people from different religions, and if the US and Western-backed fundamentalist and t3rrorists allow, everyone is and have always been living together in peace.
Here is a survey done by an independent organization named GAMMAN, showing the percentage of Iranians with different
beliefs:
Previously, in another article, I explained a bit about freedom of religions in Iran. If you have been exposed too much to the Western media, you might think, for example, in Iran Jews do not have a normal life, right? Because of the lies that Izrael keeps saying. Some Iranians (mostly the lazy a$$ ones or criminals who seek ways for "easy immigration") also lie about this and say crazy stories to get their fake asylum cases approved!
But the reality is that for example, Jews in Iran have their own dedicated representative in the parliament. In Iran, we have places where mosque, church, and synagogue are next to each other, and people from different religions live together in peace. We love our Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and other brothers and sisters, unlike what you hear on the Western propaganda. Some of us are atheists, some agnostics, and some are religious, but the majority of us respect each other, except the minority of extremists who are supported either by the Western or the Eastern superpowers.
List of minority MPs in recent Iranian parliament
Also Christians, similar to Muslims and Jews, have their place of worship. For example, this one is in Abadan, a small city (with amazing people, but unfortunately still poor) near the border we had war with Iraq (many people died in that war and the city became poor), and as you see a church even shares wall with a mosque! They are not only next to each other, but also share the same wall!
Iran, church & mosque Source
You can find more churches all around the country, for example, this one is the Saint Mary Church in Tehran:
Tehran: Saint Mary Church Source
Gender diversity
Previously, I wrote an article and compared Gender diversity at work in Denmark vs. Iran.
I remember when I moved to Denmark, I thought to myself, okay, I am moving from a what is known as "a 3rd world country" with a lot of stupid religious restrictions, to "the happiest country in the world" known to be perfect! Right?
Back in Iran, wherever I was working, I had quite a lot of female colleagues/managers, and working with them was easier than men who were usually much more stressed and aggressive. Also, as a young introverted "programmer" single man, I felt like a king! It was pretty easy to open up the conversation with colleagues, meet with them after works in groups, or even date if they were interested.
I was dreaming if that's the kind of life I have in Iran, how perfect would it be in Denmark! Right?! More girls, more open-mindedness, more dates, a better life! That's probably why they are called the happiest people in the world!
Then, I moved to Copenhagen based on a kind of "talent visa" back then which is not available anymore. It took me a few months to find a tech job at a Danish startup with a lower-than-norm salary in a smaller city, (thanks to all these unequal opportunities for foreigners in here) even though I was well experienced and have worked even in famous international companies like MTN and Gemalto.
Finally, the first day at work, and I was excited to see my new colleagues! I entered the room, found a chair, sat at my desk, and opened the laptop that I was given. I said hellow to a few people, but got no response from anyone. I thought, okay, maybe they are busy, or that's their culture... While I was configuring my laptop, I started to think, mmmm... why are we all men in this room?! Is this a boy's club?!
A few years passed since then, and I have worked in a lot of companies, either as a full-time employee or as a consultant, being sent to different companies to work on temporary projects. Some of these projects were for Danish companies, some for Swedish, and some for German companies. Interestingly, so far, I have only seen one Danish female programmer (junior)!!! And two female second-generation foreigner/Danish women in IT operations! Apart from that one Danish college, the only female programmers that I could see in all these Danish, Swedish, etc. companies were either from Iran, India, or Poland.
My conclusion so far is that gender diversity wise, Europe sucks compared to Iran!
Hijab and women's life
On Western media, Iran looks more like an Arabic county, but so far the kind of Hijab that I have seen in Denmark among Arabic foreigners is in a level that I have never seen in my life in Iran! And I have lived in Iran for more than three decades! Even during the "more restricted" times than what it is now!
This is, for example, a modern art exhibition in Tehran called "the artist's masks":
Your browser does not support the video tag.
Or how people go for skiing during the winter:
Or how girls and boys together have fun in a ski resort:
PS: I wish Denmark also had snow and mountains + more smiling and open-minded people. (Denmark is more like a big psychiatric hospital! I'm wondering who called it the happiest in the world!)
Party life
Yes, in Iran, almost everything is illegal, but at the same time people have their normal life. In Iran, drinking alcohol is illegal, and there is no official club, casino, or bar, but you can find underground clubs and casinos. Also, people throw parties themselves at their homes or villas, and in there you can drink whatever you want, dance, and have fun.
Here is an example video I could find online (and of course, I myself have been to many when I was living in my beautiful country):
Even though the title of the video is "luxury blah blah" this is quite common for everyone living in Tehran and all the big cities. Yes, similar to many other countries (US, Canada, etc.), we have poor people too, who think this is "luxury". ;))
Knowledge and technology
You might think, okay after decades of sanctions, Iran probably looks like Afghanistan or Iraq, right? Some even go further and think that Iran is a desert with camels or Iranians ride donkeys! 😂 This has happened due to this Western hate-based attempt to erase Iran from the world and the history, which I wrote a bit about the feeling as an Iranian civilian citizen in another article: It feels illegal to be Iranian! ❤️🤍💚.
As a person who have worked in telecom and IT of various industries, and have seen Iran, Denmark, and companies in a few other European countries (as a consultant who worked for Accenture, Adesso, etc.), I can now confidently say that IT-wise, Iran is much more advanced in technology than the Nordics! It might not be as advanced as the US, China, or the Netherlands, but it's definitely much more advanced than Denmark, Norway, and to some extent Sweden.
I remember last year, at the TechBBQ 2024 event in Copenhagen, at the talk about "Democracy in the Digital Age", while Ben Rhodes, senior advisor in the Obama Foundation, was targeting China/Iran and making everyone afraid of these new rising powers, I asked him this simple question:
How can we assure Europe will not become the "Next China"? With all these new regulations and restrictions.
And the answer was interesting. He said, don't worry, Europe is "just a consumer of technology", unlike the US and China. He was basically laughing and making fun of the fact that while the US and China are building tech, Europe is just regulating things! 😉
Recent snows
Some said okay these snows that you showed should be from the past! Here are a few more videos of recent snow falls in different parts of Iran:
The fist one is Qom, one of the most religious and conservative cities in Iran:
2025, Qom, Iran — Source
The second one is ~2 meters of snow in Khasil Dasht, Gilan province, north of Iran:
2025, Khasil Dasht, Iran — Source
The third one is a winter day in Tehran, Iran, 2025:
(credit: 📷 Masoud Shahrestani)
2025, Tehran, Iran — Source
The forth one is winter snow 🌨️ in a few other parts of Iran, in 2025:
(credit: 📷 Alireza Khatibi)
Snow in Iran, 2025 — Source
And another one, Snowy Darband, Tehran:
Darband, Tehran, 2025 — Source
Remember...
While Western politicians have invested billions of dollars on spreading hatred about Iran, China, and Palestine, and have funded this new hate-based "project" of the state of Izrael, countries like China and Iran have invested in technology, knowledge, and their people.
You can either continue drowning in your hatred, or you can be kind, like us, open your eyes and see the reality. Wishing you a more open-minded life. ❤️🤍💚
