As serious as the news about Iran has been in recent times, we’d like to leaven it with just a bit of Iranian humor.

Our very first stop on the tour was at the Azadi Tower, probably Tehran’s most iconic monument. Built originally in the 1970s by Shah Reza Pahlavi and called the Shah’s Tower, it was renamed Azadi [Freedom] Tower after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Despite this serious history, at one end of the plaza where the tower is located we saw a larger than life-sized statue of a visitor taking a selfie. This struck all of us as quite funny.

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Another example came from, of all places, signs in the restrooms at Zeinodin Caravanserai in Yazd Province:

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OK, so clearly the signs are intended for foreigners, but the fact that they are there at all says something about the sense of humor of the Iranian people.

Finally, there is Tarof. Perhaps the best thing to do is to look at the video below first, and then go to the article linked above (which has its own humorous-yet-instructive video). You’ll now be able to re-watch this little video with a new understanding 😀

The above link to Tarof, by the way, comes from a website with the wonderful name Persians are not Arabs. A really good thing to know and remember!