Getting Exercise in City Parks

One morning as we were passing a park in our bus, I saw women in black chador, the big pieces of black cloth which cover a woman from head to toe, working out on brightly colored exercise equipment. Too fast for a photo but the picture is perfectly imprinted in my mind.

Apparently the mayor of Tehran a while back got very interested in putting exercise equipment in parks so that anyone—kids and grown-ups of all ages—could use it. He was also interested in getting more green spaces into the city and more public art. Now doesn’t that sound like a good idea? Because the mayor of Tehran has influence around the country, other mayors followed suit.

Another morning later in the trip, I saw a group of people in a park in Shiraz, Bagh-e Eram Garden, doing calisthenics.








Given the deliciousness of Persian cuisine, it is a very good idea to get people out and moving around. We could use a little bit more of that here in the US—that’s for sure.