Guide

First date ideas with a little Persian in them

A first date should be short, public and easy to leave. These keep all three and add something you both grew up with.

Easy, public, under two hours

1. Chai and sweets at a Persian bakery: zoolbia, bamieh, a cream puff. Low pressure, always open.
2. Ice cream with saffron and rosewater, bastani sonnati, and a walk.
3. A Persian grocer on a weekend morning: argue about the best barberries.
4. Backgammon (takhteh) in a café. Competitive, funny, and you learn how someone loses.
5. A museum's Islamic or Persian art room: something to talk about and somewhere to look when you run out.

If it is going well

6. Dinner at a Persian restaurant, and an honest debate about whose mother makes better ghormeh sabzi.
7. A Persian concert or a classical night, if one is on in your city.
8. An Iranian film, then a coffee to decide whether the ending was hopeful.
9. Poetry: open a book of Hafez and read each other a fal.
10. Cook together, later, once you have met a few times: tahdig is a test of patience.

Seasonal

11. Chaharshanbe Suri bonfire events in March.
12. Nowruz markets and parties: see Nowruz dating.
13. Sizdah Bedar picnics in a park.
14. Yalda night in December: pomegranates and poems. See a Yalda date.
15. A summer evening drive, a little dor dor, once you know each other.

Keep it safe

Meet somewhere public, tell a friend where you are, get yourself there and back, and keep the chat in the app until you trust the person. More in safe dating.

Keep reading

• Persian food date ideas
• Taarof and dating
• Conversation starters in Farsi
• Persian dating, wherever you live