IRAN: Country's second largest ski resort, Shemshak, attracts visitors from Tehran and beyond every weekend

Record ID: 313320

  • Title: IRAN: Country's second largest ski resort, Shemshak, attracts visitors from Tehran and beyond every weekend
  • Date: 14th February 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF SNOWBOARD SLALOM COMPETITION FEMALE SKIER WALKING UP SLOPE (SOUNDBITE) (Farsi) SHARAREH TEHRANI, FEMALE SKIER, SAYING: "I hope that the situation will become better." SKIERS QUEUING MAN ADJUSTING HIS SNOWBOARD SNOWBOARDER AND SKIERS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING (SOUNDBITE) (Farsi) ZAHRA JAAFARI, FEMALE SKIER, SAYING: "No, no, nobody says anythin
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAU7VM4JX8S3BJH904Y50AFISE
  • Story Text: The snow-covered slopes of Shemshak seem untouched by developments in Iran over the past 30 years. Today, as in pre-revolution Iran, boys and girls zip down in ski suits side by side, almost oblivious to their government's strict policies of sexual segregation and religious conservatism.
    The dress code imposed after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution requires women to cover all their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise the shape of their bodies.
    But Zahra Jaafari, for one, is sporting a tight-fitting ski suit no different from those worn by Western women.
    "No, no, nobody says anything since we cannot wear more than this and then go skiing," Jaafari said.
    Shemshak is Iran's second largest ski resort, after Dizin, and was first inaugurated in 1958 under the rule of the Shah.
    In Dizin, Revolutionary Guards make men and women ski on separate slopes, but not here. Shemshak has only one main piste and it has to be shared.
    "It is easy. People come and go and nobody disturbs them, nobody divides the queues of ladies and gentlemen," one male skier said.
    Families and groups of friends dot the slopes on the weekends, many taking a break from the bustle of Tehran, only one hour's drive away.
    "It is good. It is not possible to ski and not feel good,"
    says skier Maryam Shemshaki.
    Before the Islamic Revolution the Alborz Mountains, with its peaks as high as the Alps, were renowned for their exciting pistes and a popular international ski destination.
    Nowadays, the skiers mounting the 12,000 foot distance on Swiss and Italian built chair lifts are mainly Iranian, but no less excited about the long and wide runs, interconnected with no trees.
    While most people spend the day and then drive back home around sunset, others spend a night or more at local hotels, chalets or privately-owned apartments at the bottom of the mountain.
    But Shemshak remains relatively expensive for ordinary Iranians, drawing its clientele from the Western ex-patriat community, the urban upper classes and holidaying Iranians living abroad.
    "Iran is pretty good, you know, I like it. I have good time,"
    said Mohammed Reza Khleqi, a student living in the United States.
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