POV: African in Tehran, Iran 🇮🇷 I Was NOT Expecting This 😳🇮🇷 #iran #trending #iran🇮🇷 #tehran #travel African in Tehran, Iran 🇮🇷 I Walked the Streets Alone… Did I Feel Safe? 😳 What is it really like walking through Tehran, Iran as an African tourist? 🇮🇷🌍 Before travelling to Iran, I had my own expectations about what the country would be like. But actually walking through the streets of central Tehran and experiencing everyday life for myself gave me a completely different perspective. I walked around the city, explored the streets, met local people and filmed what I saw. And personally? I felt safe during my time there. What stood out to me even more was how people treated me. Many Iranians stopped to speak with me simply because they were curious about where I came from. People asked me which part of Africa I was from, welcomed me to their country and even recommended places they thought I should visit. Those little conversations meant a lot. As an African traveller, I was treated with kindness, love and respect, and that became one of the things I remembered most about my time in Tehran. ❤️ Something else I discovered while learning more about Iran was the history of Afro-Iranians. Black Iranian communities have existed for generations, particularly in southern Iran, including areas such as Hormozgan, Bushehr and Sistan and Baluchestan. Their history is connected to centuries of movement across the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, including migration, maritime trade and, historically, the forced movement of Africans through slavery. Researchers have documented Afro-Iranian communities around places including Bandar Abbas, Minab and Qeshm. That was something I knew very little about before travelling and researching Iran. My experience doesn’t mean every traveller will have exactly the same experience, and it doesn’t answer every question about travelling in Iran. But this was my experience: walking through Tehran, talking to ordinary people and seeing a side of everyday life that I hadn’t understood before visiting. Travel has a way of challenging the picture you have of a place before you actually get there. Iran certainly did that for me. 🇮🇷❤️ Would you ever visit Iran? 🇮🇷 And if you’ve already been to Tehran, what was your experience like? 👇 - @thenomadicnick