Islam is the dominant religion in Iran. It governs political, social, legal and economic aspects of the country. Because of the religious stipulation that Muslims must pray five times a day, the newspaper lists specific times at which people are to pray. These times coincide with specific times of day: morning, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening. Friday is considered the holy day so everything is closed. Many businesses will also close on Thursday. This closely resembles our weekend structure but just on different days.
During Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, business slows down. This is because they are open at strange times, and for shorter hours. Muslims must not only fast from dusk until dawn, but are also only able to work for six hours a day. These limited and strange business hours are good to be aware of if you are a businessperson trying to conduct trade during this time or a tourist in the area. It not only allows you to forsee possible complications, but also cater to the cultural needs of Iranians. The fast is broken every night after the sun goes down as family and friends celebrate together (again family being a very central part of Iranian culture).
Another important aspect of Iranian culture is "taarof" or politness. This is a general term that encompases certain acceptable polite behaviors or verbal responses to situations. Taarof stipulates things like: protesting compliments in an attmept to seem vulnerable in public, appearing humble by diminishing the importance of one's own accomplishments, and declining an offered item at least once, or unitl the other person's insistence becomes greater.
Finally, the most surprising aspect of Iranian culture that I have found so far is this idea of a double identity. The two identities are a public identity (zaher) and a private identity (batin). In public people are expected to conform to social and cultural norms so the "zaher" aspect of themselves manifests, but in private the "batin" aspect prevails. It may be difficult to distinguish the line between these two for us though. For example, whereas we may think that a business realtionship or setting might merit the "zaher" or public aspect of someone, actually the "batin" or private aspect may prevail. This is because of the family centric nature of businesses in Iran. While we do have certain personality shifts in the United States based on a public or private setting, I do not think people would go as far as to say that they view themselves as having two separate identities.
I will continue to post on business relationships and interactions in later posts.
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