RECENTLY I visited Tehran to explore business opportunities as UN sanctions have been eased out. This was my first visit to Iran. I was surprised to see the city and the people. It looked as if I was walking in any developed country and a city with a well-managed infrastructure, clean, and green. People are well-dressed and follow the Islamic tradition especially Hijab for women.

This is the nation which has faced a revolution, a 10-year-long bloody war, a troubled neighbourhood and a decade of international sanctions. Yet you will see a network of roads with flyovers and underpasses in the city, a well-managed underground railway system, huge parks, metro buses, beautiful buildings, big shopping malls and women working in huge numbers. The Iranians are art lovers and you can see that on roads and streets. They have paintings and artwork everywhere. These days, their hotels are packed by a lot of foreigners, especially Chinese, coming to take advantage of the lifting of sanctions.

The crime rate is extremely low or non-existent. This is what everybody in Tehran is so proud of. That is why they have a shared taxi system, where three to four people including women share taxi. You don’t find many beggars on the roads.

One thing that made us proud in front of our Iranian friends was when we visited the famous Iqbal Lahori Street in the heart of Tehran, people say that during revolution, Iqbal’s Persian revolutionary poetry played an important role in the awakening the people. We could see a number of shops in that street after the name of Iqbal like Iqbal Mobile, and Iqbal Glasses. My Iranian friends said they read Iqbal in their schools. It reminded me of our government’s decision not to recognise Iqbal Day as a national holiday. Amazing!

Syed Ali Akbar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2016