By Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism

Rural heritage, global meaning: Iran’s villages as beacons of cultural sustainability

Today, as the UN Tourism Organization inscribed the three Iranian villages of Shafi’ Abad in Kerman, Kandolus in Mazandaran, and Sohaili on Qeshm Island among the Best Tourism Villages of the World 2025, a new chapter opened in the cultural diplomacy of our nation — a chapter in which rural life itself becomes a message to the world.