Dress codes

In Iran, the following dress codes should be respected in public areas: Men wear full-length trousers. Usual T-shirts with half sleeves are decent. Women should cover their hair (wearing a headscarf would be enough). Moreover, the whole body should be covered by loose-fitting dresses. Trousers/skirts must be full-length. A rather long tunic with three-quarter sleeves is decent.

Culture

In Iran, based on the domestic Persian culture, men shake hands with men only, and women shake hands with women only. More precisely, a man and a woman that are outside an immediate family do not shake hands with each other. Please note that offering a handshake out of this rule may be rejected by the second party. Moreover, the import, sale, manufacture, and consumption of alcoholic drinks in Iran are strictly forbidden. Penalties can be severe. Homosexual action, adultery, and sex outside of marriage are illegal.

Currency

Please note that using international credit cards is not straightforward in Iran. Therefore, tourists visiting Iran need to have some cash with them. It is highly recommended to take your cash as USD/EUR banknotes and change them in local exchange offices in Iran since they offer better rates than those abroad. For a rough estimate of the cash amount one might need, please note that during workshop days, food and accommodation are provided by the organizers. Moreover, one does not need transportation inside the workshop site. Therefore, excluding expensive souvenirs or traveling a lot, having a few hundred USD/EUR will be enough for managing the whole trip as well as visiting the city.

The national currency in Iran is the Iranian Rial. Currently, in local exchange offices, 1 USD/EUR is changed to about 350.000 Rials. While all Iranian bank notes state Rial, the local people very often use a conventional currency called Toman (1 Toman = 10 Rials). Please feel free to ask sellers/drivers about the currency they are operating based on.

AC power sockets

In Iran, the standard AC power is available in 230 V, 50 Hz. The standard power sockets are of type Schuko (code "CEE 7/3" sockets) (see the picture at right). Please provide yourself with proper adapters if needed.