Zarrin Shahr - People

People

Zarrin Shahr has a population of about 55,000. Expatriate Zohreh Bayatrizi describes the city as multi-cultural. The two main groups are Persians, who have lived in the area at least since 12th century AD, and Azeri Turks, who were forcibly settled in Riz in the 17th century by the Safavid rulers.

In the past 30 years people, from various parts of Iran have moved to Zarrin Shahr to work in the nearby steel mill factory (zobe ahan). The single largest immigrant group are the Bakhtiaris from the nearby province of Chahar Mahal Va Bakhtiari. The second largest group are from Khuzestan after the onset of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. Most of the latter were placed in camps just outside the city and most have returned home after the ceasefire.

Zarrinshahr has Greco-Roman wrestling and martial arts teams that are competitive nationally.

In 1991 Zohreh Bayatrizi ranked number one in the national university entrance exams (the Concour), competing against 200,000 other high-school-level entrants from across Iran. She was the first woman from a small town in Iran to achieve this distinction. Zohreh went on to obtain a doctorate degree in Sociology. A few years later Maryam Verdian, another high school student, ranked one rationally in the Mathematics Olympiad and then went on to rank number two in the International Olympiad of Mathematics.