Why can’t Iranians get through doors?

In our second episode, we answer a question submitted by James — who we imagine knows exactly how the door stand-off goes between Iranians.

James is referring to the Iranian social protocol known as "tarof". Listen to this episode to learn more about this complex Iranian form of politeness and to learn about Iranian "tarof", in general.

In this episode we also tackle the following questions

• How many times should you offer an Iranian to pass through the door?
• What physical contact should and shouldn't be used between genders while going through doors in Iran?
• Do women or men go first through doors in Iran?
• Why do Iranians go through the door, starting from the right side?
• What you should do if you reach for the salad tongs at the same time as another wedding guest in Iran?
• How should I respond to old Shirazi men when they jump the queue?

If you have any additional questions about this matter, please feel free to add them in the comments section on our site and we'll do our best to try and find answers for them. If however, you're an Iranian and feel we've not correctly explained the Iranian "door dance" phenomena, then great, be sure to let our audience know below.

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