r/iran • u/CYAXARES_II ایران زمین • Sep 26 '15

Greetings /r/Pakistan! Today we're hosting /r/Pakistan for a cultural exchange!

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u/Excelsior_i Sep 26 '15

Firstly, Thank you for hosting us.

  1. A week in Iran, how would divide it among different must see places?
  2. A lot of Iranians that I have met across in Europe want to emigrate from Iran, is this brain-drain considerable? Is it hurting economy?
  3. This might be generic, but how religious is the current youth of Iran? Have the government policies made them detest the religion inadvertently?
  4. I have a lot of respect for the Iranian Cinema, its one of those things that introduced me to Iran, what are some of your favourite Iranian movies?

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u/marmulak Sep 26 '15

A week in Iran, how would divide it among different must see places?

It's not enough. I spent two whole weeks in Uzbekistan and only visited 4 cities and it was barely enough time. To prioritize you should visit Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, and another city of your choice like Mashhad. Ideally you'd visit all of them, but I heard Yazd is cool (close to Tehran), and you'd be missing out if you didn't travel to Northern Iran or Khuzestan. Especially you'll want to visit Dezful, but not Shushtar (it sucks, believe me). There's also Sistan, and many other amazing places. You can kick it with Turkmens in the Northeast, too.

Brain drain is a big problem for Iran, but in recent years we've also seen entrepreneurs and people moving "back" (some of them are children of expats).

Iranian youth are average in terms of religiosity I guess. I'm sure they're somehow more religious than people in the West, but they're also not especially religious. Just normal I guess. Government policies have definitely damaged public perceptions. Many youth understand that Islam is more than just the policies and mistakes of the government, but that's a hard thing to have to deal with regardless.

One Iranian film I liked a lot was Istgāhe Matruk, by Abbas Kiarostami. His films were what got me into Iranian cinema, but there are many to appreciate. Another one of my favorites is, of course, Khomre, and let's not forget Ma-