Once Upon a Time in Tehran

Photos of a swinging Iran when the skirts were short, the dance was the twist, and America wasn't Enemy No. 1.

BY CARA PARKS | FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Above, Tehran's Hilton hotel in 1961. Now called the Esteghlal International Hotel, the building stands in Tehran to this day. In the 1960s, Farrokh remembers it as a place to congregate with friends. When he visited the city in 2001, he found the building surrounded by various industrial structures, crowded by people. When it was built, the building sat alongside a nearly deserted highway on the outskirts of Tehran.

Courtesy of Kaveh Farrokh

 

Cara Parks is the deputy managing editor of Foreign Policy.