Tijuana on The Caspian: Where Iranians Go For Sin

Filed in archive Modern World on November 27, 2009

© teuchterlad


Just inside the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the city of Astara has developed a reputation in recent years as something like the Tijuana of the Caspian. The Atlantic published a short expose' on the city recently, detailing how Iranians cross the border for "sex and schnapps and heroin."

This makes the mullahs in Tehran very nervous. Books, DVDs, fashions, and—most important—ideas that are inaccessible in Iran are ubiquitous in Azerbaijan. Iranians line up daily to cross the Astara River to buy and sell jeans, chickens, bras, laptops—and often sex and schnapps and heroin. This commerce, combined with cultural curiosity and shared Azeri bloodlines, has transformed Astara into the Tijuana of the Caspian.

It's a fascinating article.