Vali Asr – The Longest Street In Teheran

Stretching over approx. 20 kilometres from the poor south to the rich north, the Vali Asr in Teheran is the longest inner-city street in the Near East. It connects people from all walks of life – from mullahs to taxi drivers, street kids to shoe cleaners, prostitutes to the dealers illegally selling foreign films and fake designer goods, all the way to the super-rich living in sprawling villas, who are chauffeured along the Vali Asr in their expensive cars. Along with the Great Bazaar of Teheran, the street forms the business centre of the city and is lined with countless shops, restaurants, parks, cinemas, mosques and cultural centres. Reza Schah Pahlavi built it originally to connect his two great palaces. 30 years after the Islamic Revolution, things are not going so well for the people at the lower end of Vali Asr. It is the poor who are hardest hit in the current economic climate. Meanwhile at the upper end of the street, life is totally different for the rich - parties are still a very normal part of life, as are the glittering shopping centres full of sinfully expensive goods. We witness a society which though often split between private life and public domain under the Islamic regime has not lost its love of homeland nor its pride in its traditions.

Download synopsis (24,97 kb)