TEHERAN

Resumé

In this article it is argued that Tehran itself

as well as the Iranians’ conception of

Tehran is changing. The size of Tehran,

the capital of Iran, has within a few

decades risen explosively from no more

than 300.000 inhabitants in the 1930s to

more than 9 million people today. At the

same time the city has experienced a

radical demographic divide between the

lower, warmer, poorer and more traditional

South and the richer, more modern

North close to the cooler mountains. The

conception of Tehran today is that of “a

modern part” of Iran; i.e. North Tehran.

While everybody agrees that Tehran is

modern, the significance of this modernity

is vehemently debated. The technological

and financial aspect of Tehran’s modernity

is unanimously seen as a positive feature,

whereas the individualistic aspect of this

modernity to some Iranians is seen as a

moral threat to society, while others see it

as a liberalising and positive force in

society. In other words Tehran has become

the battlefield of morality where “true

Islam” meets “modern corruption”, “true

Iranianism” meets “Western decadence”

etc. And nowhere is this seen more

explicitly than in the parks of Tehran. The

urban parks have within the last decade

developed into semi-private spaces partly

free of government control, neighbours’

gossip and family restrictions. The culture

of the private space (the home) has thus

been moved into the public space, and at

the same time this transformation causes

the emergence of the modern, secularised

urban individual, which to some extent

demands separation of religion and state.

This urban individual can no longer be

controlled by the local priest and cannot

be restricted from receiving news and

viewpoints from outside of the national

state-controlled media. Tehran has in this

way become a physical and symbolical

battlefield, where the dialectical and often

contradicting moral consequences of

modernity are being negotiated, restricted

and craved.