Moslem Ghomashlouyan: Contraband Commerce across the Iranian Border (EN)

It’s a blazing hot afternoon in late 2021. Moslem Ghomashlouyan is standing in a crisply air-conditioned sports apparel store in an upscale mall, looking at rows upon rows of Nikes, Adidas, and New Balances. Nothing unusual – except for one detail: 
The mall was in Northern Tehran – And Iran has been under strict US-led sanctions for decades.

Martin Ritzmann sat down with the social anthropologist to learn more about the remarkable journey Western brand-name apparel undertake across the Iraqi-Iranian border.

NOTE: This episode was recorded on 27 March, 2026 – 4 weeks after the onset of the 2026 Iran war.

Links:

• Moslem Ghomashlouyan's profile on UniBE

Further Reading:

• Erami, Narges, and Arang Keshavarzian. 2015. “When Ties Don’t Bind: Smuggling Effects, Bazaars and Regulatory Regimes in Postrevolutionary Iran.” Economy and Society 44 (1): 110–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2014.909986
  
  
• Yıldız, Emrah. 2024a. “Guaranteed Contraband’: A Cultural Biography of Kaçak Tea in Gaziantep’s Iranian Bazaar.” Journal of Cultural Economy 17 (2): 178–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2024.2323691
  
  
• Zinati, Peyman. 2024. “Escaping isn’t for everyone”: Kurdish smugglers’ navigational tactics at checkpoints in Iran. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
  
  
• Bozçalı, Fırat. 2025. Smuggling Law: Unsettled Sovereignties in Turkey’s Kurdish Borderlands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

New episodes of WBKollektion on the first monday of each month!

What is WBKollektion?

Wer sind die Menschen hinter den Forschungsergebnissen? Der neue Podcast des Walter Benjamin Kollegs an der Uni Bern öffnet die Türen zu den Geisteswissenschaften. In rund 15 Minuten erzählen uns Forschende, was sie antreibt, wie ihr Arbeitsalltag aussieht und welche neuen Erkenntnisse sie gewinnen. Verständlich, zugänglich und spannend – für alle!

Neue Folgen jeweils am ersten Montag des Monats.

Produziert von: Lea Hagmann und Martin Ritzmann

Sprachen: CH / DE / EN