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Know the Compliments in Iranian culture

Chelgard-Iran
Shirdal Airya Iranian Tour & Travel Company

Tour Guide, Yazd, Iran

| 2 mins read

Compliments in Iranian culture are an example of mutual respect, which includes special behaviours in the community. It is very common even among those who have no particular relationship with each other, such as a customer and a shopkeeper, two neighbours and persons who have no previous friendship. For example, opening the door for a woman by a man or standing in front of the entrance door for colleagues to come in (as welcoming). 


Another example of this culture is showing the price of the goods as worthless by the shopkeeper against the buyer and negotiating salary between the workers and the employers. 


When you travel to Iran, you will encounter a lot of of the following sentences. For example, when you are getting off a taxi and you want to pay the driver, the first sentence that the taxi driver might say is that , "I didn't do anything important for you and no need to pay". The important thing to understand here is that this is just a compliment and you should not take it seriously. In Iranian compliments, a person does not consider himself or herself. For example, if we would like to praise anyone's dress, maybe we say "Wow, your hat is very nice", but an English man says," I like your hat".


Compliments and socialization in Iranian culture are exaggerated. In Iran, compliments are wider, more complex, and more comprehensive than the English is. In other words, the personal privacy in Iran is more flexible than other countries. Compliments in Iran are oral, emotional, and necessary. The lack of attention to it is accompanied by social punishment . This means that Iranian compliments are more religious and  significant than other countries. This kind of sentences rarely transmits the true sense of the speaker, and the audience clearly knows that it never comes into action.