6 MIDDLE EAST REPORT 277 ■ WINTER 2015 6 MIDDLE EAST REPORT 277 ■ WINTER 2015 Talking Class in Tehroon Rasmus Christian Elling and Khodadad Rezakhani Persian, like any other language, is laced with references to class, both blatant and subtle. With idioms and metaphors, Iranians can identify and situate others, and thus themselves, within hierarchies of social status and privilege, both real and imagined. Some class-related terms can be traced back to medieval times, whereas others are of modern vintage, the linguistic legacy of television shows, pop songs, social media memes or street vernacular. Every day, it seems, an infectious set of phrases appears that make yesterday’s seem embarrassingly antiquated. Some phrases refer directly to occupation or rank, but many operate through gendered, geographic, ethnic or racialized codes or invoke lifestyle, physical appearance, patterns of consumption and behavior in public space. Some terms are self-evident in meaning and others idiosyncratic. A class-related vocabulary, furthermore, was developed in the oppositional discourses of the 1960s and 1970s, adapted to the rhetoric of the 1979 revolution and then partially transferred into official language under the Islamic Republic. The post-revolutionary reconfiguration of social relations continues to play out in everyday speech. In today’s Iran, as anywhere else, sarcasm and wordplay can be ways to express social critique or ways to reinforce inequality and domination. Every word opens a window for the study of power. The handful of examples below illuminate the complexities at play. The list is by no means comprehensive and it tilts toward Tehran, or Tehroon, as the name of the capital (and, often, the long a sound in other words) is rendered in collo- quial Persian. More research is needed to uncover the context-dependent roles of language in perpetuating class structures in Iranian society, but perhaps this brief glossary is a start.