The Persian Way (Travel+Leisure)

When Homa Rastegar moved to Munich, Germany, the driver of her taxi from the airport happened to be a fellow Iranian. At the end of the ride, she offered to pay but the driver refused to accept the fare saying that he cannot charge her as Rastegar belonged to his country and that she had just arrived at the new city.

Even if Rastegar had moved to Tehran, Iran, she would have most certainly encountered a similar episode. However, if Rastegar was aware of her culture’s particular aspect at play here, she would have recognized that the taxi-driver was merely practising tarof.

(Read remaining article in October issue of Travel+Leisure (India & South Asia) magazine!)