The "Not So Rich" Kids of Tehran

Bottles of Johnny Walker and Chivas Regal line the pool while young women in colorful bikinis and tanned hipster guys cavort and compete for the camera. The caption on the Instagram page reads “Tehran, Pool Party” and is tagged as “RichKidsofTehran”. It is unknown whether the page’s administrator, who has kept his identity secret, simply wanted to have fun in setting it up or show the world a different, more glamorous side to Iran.

The Instagram page that purports to reveal the lives of Tehran’s gilded young elite appeared online about four weeks ago, featuring an array of beautiful young people at pool parties and mansions in posh settings that look more like the set of a hip-hop video than a photo album of what passes for fun in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The page quickly swept the Internet, drawing global attention to the flashy world of Iran’s wealthy young people living it up behind the staid façade of their government with as much money and style as young elite kids living anywhere else. But what first appeared as a voyeuristic peek into underground Iran is now emerging, in part, to be a clever public diplomacy ploy, designed by both rich and middle-class young Iranians to project a glamorous image of their nation, and indeed their generation, to the world.

The mysterious admin who created the page took it offline last week, but a close inspection of the photos, alongside an investigation into the social media profiles of many of the young people featured, reveals that a number of them are far from the children of tycoons and businessmen. One young woman, who appears in a cocktail dress at a party and features in over 30 of the photos, writes on her personal Instagram page that she is a model and loves fashion. In Iran, it is aspiring young middle and urban working class women who dominate the modeling scene and who hope to break the country’s rigid class and professional barriers; society still looks upon the profession with hostility and with only marginally more respect than for the sex trade.

Another photo shows a young man driving a red Corvette with an Iranian number plate. However on his personal page he says that although he loves the models he poses with, he does not own any of them. There are over ten pictures of him behind the wheels of a Maserati, a Ferrari, a Porsche and the iconic Corvette. But as a reporter for a magazine specializing in automobiles published in Tehran, his monthly salary would not even cover the cost of a single service.

Bikinis and beaches, but on what shores?

Another page focuses heavily on girls in bikinis, sunbathing next to pools, beaches and on sun loungers. One young woman writes on her personal page, “I love life, fashion and health.” She clearly owns numerous bikinis, but while the captions refer to Tehran or Iran, it is noteworthy that nothing in the photos looks distinctly Iranian.

Can it really be possible that all of these photos were taken inside Iran, and that all these young people uploaded the images onto a public page without worrying about possible repercussions? The Islamic Republic’s powerful security apparatus can track down an individual from a photo or crowd shoot, typically, in less than a day.

A week after the Instagram page went online, one of the admins wrote: “those who are young, have money and have fun can upload their photos. They can tag the page name under the picture or send us a private message.” Many photos were uploaded and the page erupted into comment wars and arguments, with most people cursing the wealth so deliberately projected and others sighing in envy.

 “We Iranians are better than anybody else,” wrote a page administrator several days ago, answering why the page had been set up. “We wanted to show that Iran is not just bad things and misery. I hope everybody makes money and has fun.”

The motivation sounds strikingly similar to what the young woman in the Iranian dance video to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” told IranWire before she and several others in the video were arrested. “We wanted something to present to the world,” to show them that Iran’s young people “have moments of joy and happiness even though they live in often difficult circumstances.”

The Tehran Rich Kids page has garnered quick global attention, with news website Al-Monitor picking up on the creators’ objective: “You would probably assume you’re looking at a collection of photos belonging to the wealthy in a Gulf country in the Middle East — the United Arab Emirates, perhaps? You’ve got the region right, but ethnically, you’re not even close. Far to the east and across the Persian Gulf it lies: the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica covered the page under the headline “La Dolce Vita in the Heart of the Middle East,” asking why the “Happy” dancers were sentenced to lashes for a dance video, while Iran’s wealthy can indulge in such a lifestyle with total freedom.

At last count, the page had close to a 100,000 followers, and the administrator wrote a post backpedalling on its purpose and aim:  “The page has gone global and our audience has changed. We did not expect such a big event. We set up the page for fun and to entertain young people who are interested in a life of luxury.”

 “Please understand us,” implores the admin. “In every country there are rich and poor people. We did not want to play with the feelings of people who cannot have such a life. They do not have to follow us. We love Tehran and we were just trying to show the world that the Middle East is not just the things you see in the movies or in propaganda. This is not a political page. Please don’t take everything so seriously.”

IranWire’s request for an interview with the page’s admin was not answered. The page now has 202 pictures, but most of them feature a distinct, small set of people in varying outfits and locales. Perhaps what it tells us more than anything is that Iran is home to a thriving party scene, where the children of the business and regime elite often mix with the demi-monde of aspiring models and middle-class luxury lifestyle aficionados, from professional photographers who document their mansions and cars to Tehran party girls who actually go home to decidedly more modest neighborhoods.

Tehran, ultimately, is a city where publically displaying wealth is a great social priority within a wide spectrum of society regardless of personal fortune. Social media has provided a place where car geeks and models can graft their aspirations into glamorous selfies of the truly wealthy, in an Instagram mishmash that evokes more the Great Gatsby than Argo.

It is telling that the page’s admin revealed his or her real ambition, to show another side of Iran to the world. For the children of the elite, studying in London, visiting relatives in Paris and partying in Dubai, this has never been a priority. The admin, taken aback by the power of the response, chides us not to take the page “too seriously.” But the volume of the response shows that it has been taken very seriously indeed.