Rheumatologe: The Young Generation in Iran

The young generation meets in public,

but then? Where to go?

Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, an Iranian-American journalist living in New York City, has written: “Meanwhile, most of the population is suffering from unemployment, inflation and rising living costs. Young people, especially, are suffering.”

Navtej Dhillon and Daniel Egel pointed out: “The lack of decent jobs have forced young adults to delay marriage. Unmarried men and women between the ages of 25 and 29 have more than doubled over the last two decades. The cultural and religious restrictions on intimate relationships outside of marriage increasingly exacerbate a sense of exclusion and frustration.”

At least the young men were hanging out at the tea houses, which were closed during the Ahmadinejad administration. There had been a ban on water pipes.

Where does the young generation meet? They hardly have meeting places. If you’re in public, you can’t have mixed groups as easily as in the Western world.

I’ve seen only one place, where only a few young males were hanging out. It has been in a city near a subway station. Sterile, stone, stagnant, stupid – the place, where these guys end up getting ideas to spray graffiti.

I’ve seen another place, quite open, but that’s another story concerning the Maidān-e Naqsh-e Jahān (میدان نقش جهان‎), also known as Meidan Emam or Khomeini Square in Isfahan.