Tehran the secret party town | World news | The Guardian: Most of the time, however, they are simple gatherings where friends and acquaintances gather in search of release from daily pressures. Nastaran, a 33-year-old translator, says throwing regular parties in her two-bedroom central Tehran apartment gives her something to look forward to as she goes through the weekday grind. "I get up after 6, splash some water on my face and head out into the traffic. In the evenings, if I'm lucky, I make it home by 8, eat dinner and go to bed. If I didn't have this" - she says, raising up her glass of bootleg liquor - "what kind of life would I have?"
Amtin, 35, a regular user of party drugs and hallucinogenics, puts it another way.
After engaging his listener in a 15-minute lecture on the guidelines of LSD use, he suddenly stops short. "You know how it is here," he says, his tone turning apologetic. "With so much pressure from the outside, sometimes you need to find a way to immigrate, at least internally."