Iran’s Millennials See Windows to the Outside World Closing
With U.S. sanctions piling up and the nuclear deal under threat, their windows to the outside world may be closing.
Ashkan Gomrokian in the Tehran skate park where he trains most days.
Photographer: Alireza Goudarzi/Bloomberg
Ashkan Gomrokian is a young man who’s easy to find. Most afternoons he’s in the skate park in downtown Tehran, perfecting his crooked kickflip and lipslide. The commonplace scene would’ve been considered deviant in Iran a few years ago. Gomrokian, 26, recalls once getting dragged off to a police station and accused of being a satanist. He says authorities still don’t like his skater tribe much—“the oversized clothes, the hair, the tattoos”—but the Tehran municipality has built multiple dedicated skateboard spaces in the past few years, part of an effort to beautify the city and make it more livable.
People in Tehran celebrated the 2015 multinational nuclear agreement the way another city might mark a major sports victory. Thousands of young Iranians took to the capital’s streets, some dancing to electronic house music, an unthinkable scene a couple decades ago. In their lifestyles and aspirations, Iran’s youth likely have more in common with their global peer group than any generation of Iranians since the revolution.