I was sitting in a hotel lounge, in downtown Ottawa, with a table-round of companions some of whom I was meeting for the first time. The only reason that would bond us together was being Iranian in an Iranian get-together party. On any other occasions, I couldn't care less about the range in our drink order. But this time, the range from ice tea to Johnny Walker on the rock gave me some foods for thought. As it turned out later, choice of the drinks had to do with lifestyle and religious beliefs rather than concern about driving back home, being allergic to a particular drink, or anything else.

There is a lot said on the cultural differences between Iranians and westerners. You cannot get enough of instances such as Iranians cook a meal in two hours and eat it in half an hour, whereas westerners make a meal in half an hour or so and could spend hours over it. Having said all that, at the hotel lounge, I could not help thinking of one similarity: diversity, at least among Tehranis and North Americans that I can talk about more confidently.

One would think that North Americans, coming from different backgrounds, are very diverse. In fact they are. However, Tehranis are very much so too. Like many cosmopolitan North American cities, Tehran serves as a big melting pot for new job seekers from around the country. It is a melting pot in a sense that regardless of people's ethnic and cultural backgrounds, second generation Tehranis conform into "Tehrani" culture and upbringing. Like all of its North American counterparts, Tehran also reflects different lifestyles, preferences, and mentalities. It is not hard to find neighbourhoods with totally different and sometimes conflicting cultures. Driving in northern Tehran leaves you with a totally different impression than driving in southern Tehran. Women dress differently to begin with and it is not a question of wealth. Black chadors in the south and colourful scarves wrapped loosely around heads in the north are just more than different tastes of fashion. Mind you, there are many affluent neighbourhoods in southern Tehran. There are families, residents of certain southerly neighbourhoods, who manage a noticeable portion of the economy in the market, locally known as "the Bazaar." We also tend to forget there are families who perceive watching TV, as is in the Islamic country, religiously forbidden, and yet there are people who won't miss any opportunity to go on a religion bashing spree. There are also people in between, people who don't see any conflict between their religious beliefs and modernity or westernization. Consequently, there are a vast variety of family cultures developed, based on personal interpretations. They range from people who break their fast with a glass of wine to people who refuse to wear foreign made leather jackets or shoes, because of the probable un-Islamic killing of the calf whereby the leather comes from. The extreme cases described here make up an insignificant part of the society in terms of perhaps numbers, but they show a wide spectrum developed in Tehran.

Diversities are less obvious in Tehran to an insider partly because we were not supposed to be displayed lifestyle-wise diverse in the media, and partly because of the nature of our friendships. Like any other nationalities, we hang out with people of the same genre. So it is natural of us to ignore the existence of the people with whom we don't have common ground.

The reality of diversity among Tehranis struck me as I progressed in my relationship with the locals. It seems to me the stereotypes of diverse Canadians and homogeneous Tehranis are just urban legend. At least when I hang out with local friends, with English, Welsh, German, and Dutch heritage, all melted into the Canadian mould, our drink orders never take me aback.

About the author:
Hooman Moradmand lives in Ottawa, Canada. He is a 34 year old telecom engineer whose hobbies are reading, discussing, and writing about what ticks different cultures and societies.