Did you know that Iran has over a dozen ski areas?
Or that the country used to insist that male and female
skiers used different slopes?
Note
that 'used to' - the BBC have recently reported couples
being seen 'wearing the latest fashions and using
the slopes together'. Women have even been seen
snowboarding!
Decadence
indeed, particularly when signs at the base of the
lifts request that males and females queue separately
for tickets and that men do not look at female skiers
to whom they were not related.
If
this wasn't true it would be amusing, but imagine
if you will, how you would react if your favourite
resort adopted such a policy. Then imagine not
being allowed to ski at all: following the 1979 revolution
the ski slopes of Iran were closed completely for
a five year period, with winter sports seen as unacceptably
decadent by the hard line regime at the time.
Today
major foreign investment is improving existing ski
resorts and building new ones, with the country's
new government, in power since 1997, looking for foreign
skiers to visit and bring in hard currency.
