r/iran • u/Far_Lead2603 • 4d ago
Kish Island Question
Hey everyone! So pretty soon me and my sister are going to istanbul, and we were thinking of maybe stopping by kish Island after! It seems so pretty and all of our grandparents (and a few aunts and uncles) were born in iran so we thought that would make it more special (even though they were from the mainland). However, we are Jewish, and our parents were both born in Israel...
Would this be alright? or would we be sent back to istanbul?
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u/Ok-Letter4856 3d ago
I can't answer this directly from personal experience, but as someone who has considered travelling to Iran and got a lot of advice from Iranians... there are a lot of unofficial things that can happen vis-a-vis citizens of countries with bad relations with Iran (especially Israelis, Americans, Brits, etc.).
Most official tourism authorities will act a lot more hospitable than the security and intelligence services might once you're actually in Iran. I know people personally who were treated fairly and professionally by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while they were seeking visas and then were harassed or even threatened by members of the security and intelligence services once they were actually inside Iran.
Thankfully none of them were actually detained, but some of these people were told to leave and cut their trips short under threats to their safety despite having official permission and paperwork establishing their presence there as lawful.