Amin Aghajalal (left) has been a tour guide for close to seven years but even in his free time, relishes bringing visitors around major attractions such as Golestan Palace in Teheran. “I love to share my experiences with other people. It is part of my personality and who I am,” said the 30-year-old, who does so free-of-charge.
26-year-old Jennifer Dhanaraj describes her two-week trip to Iran as the“best travel decision” despite some friends being shocked by her decision to backpack solo. She said, “Everyone was very surprised that I wanted to go to Iran because they think it is dangerous. When I told them I was going alone, they think I’m crazy.”
Ali is a final-year engineering undergraduate by trade but also a proud tourism ambassador for his country. The 22-year-old answers to travelers’ queries on the Facebook Page “See You In Iran” on a regular basis and responds to “public” trips posted on the Couchsurfing website. “I don’t know when I can visit Singapore or Germany for example but now I can meet people from those countries here so it’s cool,” he said.
Tourism in Iran is booming, with an estimated 5.2 million having visited the country in 2015. At historic attractions such as Persepolis, busloads of tourists — both foreign and domestic, are a common sight. Persepolis was declared a World Heritage Site in 1979.
Iranian hospitality is fabled and heaped on visitors as they visit the often misunderstood country. Here, a friendly carpet owner poses for a photo after greeting a traveler in the desert city of Yazd.
Wrestlers such as 16-year-old Ali Abdollahi aim not just to be champions but pahlavan (heroes) who display values such as sportsmanship and chivalry. National beach wrestling coach Fardin Mussomi (not pictured) said, “For Iranians, even if you have ten Olympic medals and you don’t have the behaviour of a pahlevan, it has zero value.”
One of the heroes permanently etched into Iranian folklore is Gholamreza Takhti, one of Iran’s most popular sporting legends. Takhti is beloved for his exploits in both wrestling and the sport of Varzesh-e-Bastani (colloquially called Zurkhaneh, also referring to the name of traditional gyms where the sport is practised in). Portraits of Takhti (poster in black-and-white), a gold medalist in wrestling at the 1956 Olympics, are a common sight at wrestling and zurkhanehs alike.
Close to 100 wrestlers train at the Nategh Nouri gym in Tehran under the supervision of coaches such as Taghi Akbarnejad (not pictured). Mr Akbarnejad, a former Asian Championships gold medalist, volunteers at the gym in his free time,. He said: “I live wrestling, breathe wrestling and when I go to sleep, I am still thinking about wrestling.”
In traditional gyms called zurkhanehs, practitioners perform a series of exercises using clubs, push-up boards and shields among others — a mix of strength training and religious meditation. Members of zurkhaneh Ghaem in Tehran meet thrice weekly to train.
The club-bell (meel) is one of the trademark instruments used in zurkhanehs. It is used as a tool for weight exercises and these exercises are performed rhythmically with practitioners using and rotating the entire body.
The zurkhaneh set up at the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science was the brainchild of Dr Ali Akbarnejad, a former wrestler turned lecturer. Five years on, students and professors alike meet, train and mingle here.
