Iran Travel Guide

The majority of Iran's urban dwellers live in flats, and more and more houses in Tehran and the major cities are being razed, with apartment blocks taking their place. Land in Tehran is very expensive and the cost of living increasingly prohibitive, particularly for young couples who can rarely afford their own place. Many newly married couples will live with in-laws for years before they can move into a place of their own. With the monthly rent for a two-bedroom property in Tehran coming in at around US$420, and the salary of a mid-ranking civil servant US$120 a month, the struggle to make ends meet dominates many people's lives. Hence, many ordinary Iranians hold down more than one job and in the case of the middle classes, both men and women work.

The gap between rich and poor is huge, with the middle class shrinking.

Teachers, earning around US$180 a month, are the sort of state employee hardest hit by inflation rates running at around 16% per annum (the unofficial figure is 25%). 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 lavishly in one of the glistening new skyscrapers 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.

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 couples 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 providing meals for her family and shopping (in ultraconservative families the men may do the shopping), as well as looking after the home and preparing meals.

Iranian meals can take time to prepare and though supermarkets exist and some pre-packaged ingredients are available, mostly there is no convenience food and just buying, cleaning and chopping the requisite bunch of herbs served with every meal can take the best part of an 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 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 much talk of the erosion of family values since the Iran-Iraq War. Children tend to live with their parents until - and sometimes after - they are married and often families include grandparents and other elderly relatives. As a result Iranian society is more multigenerational than Western society. It is extremely unusual to live alone and children only leave home to attend university in another town or for work. Although the young people of Iran long for independence and their own space, just like their Western counterparts, there is not much cultural precedence for this. Those who do live alone - men as a rule - are pitied and women living alone are regarded with extreme suspicion, the presumption being that they are of dubious moral character. Being married and having a family is regarded as the happiest - not to mention the most natural - state of being.

For the most part, though, the average Iranian family is a robust unit and, despite economic and social differences, most operate in broadly the same way. They provide an essential support unit in a country with no state benefit system. On public holidays and weekends, you will see many examples of the typical, multigenerational Iranian family out together, walking, laughing and picnicking in the countryside and parks.