Britons warned not to visit Iran ‘because it looks cool on Instagram’

33 comments

1. Is Iran advertising it’s tourism board on Instagram now then?

2. The gov travel website has advised against all travel to Iran for years, maybe people should sign a waiver before going acknowledging the UK aren’t coming to their rescue

3. Lots of stupid YT “influencers” heading to dangerous countries for clicks and likes. Idiots.

4. 2 boring, middle aged, middle class people travel through a hostile country as part of some sort of mid life crisis, to show people on instagram ‘how interesting’ they are.

5. Once again, some people who thought they knew better have found out after a short, but highly productive period of fucking around.

   Edit: the gov.uk travel advice for Iran *literally fucking says* that the Government won’t be able to help you if you get arrested in the country, and that you’re effectively on your own…

   “UK government support is extremely limited in Iran. Assume that no face-to-face consular assistance will be possible in an emergency and the UK government will not be able to help you if you get into difficulty in Iran.”

   If you don’t want to pay heed to that advice or are too pig ignorant to feel that it doesn’t apply to you, then in the wise words of Joaquim Phoenix’s Joker, “you get what you fucking deserve”.

6. Don’t warn people.let those go that want to and let natural selection work

7. It used to be ok to visit but since Iran has become isolated diplomatically they just arrest westerners and detain them to use as leverage. You have to be a fucking idiot to go there. Same for North Korea. 

8. Iran looked great back in the 70’s.

   It was a very nice place to visit as I did as a kid.

   I would not recommend visiting it these days sadly..

9. They should have waited to get home before spamming social media.

10. The anti intellectual “I know better than the state and authorities” bollocks you see online is to blame for this.

    Some nutters have been comparing states like Iran and the UK online, instagram is full of them. And saying things like

    “Hahaha if you think Iran is unfree wait till you find out the UK puts you in jail for protest too lol”

    This idiotic line of thinking, where all states are just as bad combined with the narrative emerging that the west is somehow always to blame makes fucking idiots like this do what they do.

    Iran is a shithole. Ran by a cunt government who can and will arrest you at their pleasure to use you as a pawn in geopolitics. You have no business going there. It is fundamentally worse than the west and no amount of anti western sentiment online changes it.

    The FCDO are ALWAYS correct

11. Need to update the travel agencies on unsuitable destinations…

12. Iran is right down with North Korea on my “Never go there” travel list.

    Its not worth the risk if something goes wrong.

13. Getting jailed in authoritarian countries is the new “falling to your death during a selfie”

14. How much taxpayer money will be spent
    a) during the allocation of public resources to try and get these idiots out of the mess they got themselves into by ignoring official travel advice and making a fully conscious decision that the risks they knew about and fear was outweighed by their thinking “most people are kind”
    b) in any payments/ransoms paid for their release
    c) increasing the threat to all of us by any possible release of Iranian terrorists in exchange?

    When Lindsay and Craig Foreman made their calculated choice, fully knowing the risks, what preparations did they make if those risks came true?

    How are the Foremans going to compensate the British public for all the burdens we have to bear because of their idiocy?

15. I feel like there’s cooler places to visit than Iran. Antarctica for example in more ways than one.

16. Nah, if you’re dumb enough to travel there, then you’re dumb enough to deserve the consequences

17. What about Iran looks cool on Instagram? Genuinely curious why someone would override a Government warning?

18. It is so sad that it is this way though. Everyone I’ve talked to who has been there says the Iranian people are lovely and don’t like the reputation they have. It’s also a beautiful country.

    I hope one day it’s possible to go there without fear of detention. Of course I won’t go there at the moment.

    Plus the first class night trains are really cheap and look amazing!

19. It looks cool on Instagram? Get me there. I’m an Influencer!

20. Please let the people who live their lives following instagram trends go.

21. Britons should visit Iran, just don’t be spying as a tourist and you should be fine.

22. I’d have thought the weird totalitarian government was a bigger reason not to visit.

23. Tell the Irish, Sinn Fein TD Hickey got personally invited to get an award at an awards ceremony in Iran. He thinks it’s a beautiful culture.

24. I have friends who have been there but they were German. One even motorcycled through on his way to India overland. All my friends commented that the people were friendly and that it is a beautiful country but most felt “monitored” in the city.

    I have a German passport now but was born in the UK. I would not take a chance. I have been to Central Asia and part of the Caucasus. I enjoyed it. I was inadvertently in a war zone once, I do not want to repeat that or be anywhere where the security situation is extremely difficult.

25. ‘no this is lies, come visit iran and see for yourself!’

26. Can we focus on the real issue here? The guy behind and to the right of Ms Kearns looks like the dictionary definition of “liquid lunch”.

    Also,

    > she caveated that the UK do not truly know why the couple have been taken

    I believe that counts as “not good”.

27. Volcanoes look cool on Instagram as well, but I’m not about to hurl myself into one.

28. Or, alternative hot take. We should **encourage** as many of these professional “influencers” on “instagram” to go to Iran. It looks so cool!

29. Ms Kearns dismissed Iran’s accusations of espionage “almost completely implausible”.

    Interesting that she covered herself by using ‘almost’.

30. It does look really nice on Instagram, and apparently the locals are very friendly. Shame about the terrifying oppresive government!

31. I subscribed to many big travel vloggers on Youtube over the years, and whilst I don’t watch them any more, I’ve noticed an uptick in videos from Iran recently. A few weeks back I remember the popular motorbike vlogger ‘Itchy Boots’ posting videos from Iran.

32. I’m sure they were already aware of the risk and chose to take it. The odds are that something bad wouldn’t happen, but they got unlucky. I think the comments here are a bit harsh; they were obviously adventurous and probably had more great experiences on that trip before getting detained, than most people ridiculing them do in their entire lives.

33. oh yeah, looks such a cool country to visit.

    what?

Comments are closed.