"Iran is not just Tehran" (
Persian: ایران فقط تهران نیست) is a
slogan coined by the
Tudeh Party of Iran in the early 1940s, originally used to convey importance of
the provinces and voice "regional grievance against the
capital".[1]
Later notable uses
The phrase is used by
Lonely Planet and other travel guiding sources to point that by local standards Tehran is a "virtually new" city and tourist attractions located elsewhere in Iran are more interesting.[2]
Iran's
culture ministerAbbas Salehi used the phrase in his 2017 speech to emphasize capabilities and skills existing in cities other than Tehran: "We should see the provinces in the light of a more extended outlook and the motto, "Iran is not just Tehran" is a fact, because there are ingenuities in the provinces that should be noticed".[5]