How deep will an Iranian uncle’s love go?

Ask An Iranian - remastered poster of the Iranian movie "Amoo Sabzi Foroosh" - Iranian aunts and uncles hugging

You might have uncles, and you might have aunties. Iranians, however, have uncles, and they have uncles, and they have non-uncle uncles. This is because the titles given, differ, depending on the relation. Although this is not unique to Iran, there are many uniquely Iranian things that the world needs to know about Iranian aunts and uncles. What are they? Like any good Iranian uncle, we attempt to get deep into things.

In this episode, we discuss the Persian words for aunts and uncles — yes, all 14* varieties! We also let you know why Iranians have different feelings towards their aunts and uncles, depending on if they are your mother or father’s sibling. As if that wasn’t enough, we get into the good, the bad and the ugly Persian terms that involve Iranian aunts and uncles.

A word of warning before you listen

We believe that comedy can help highlight disturbing topics by helping bring about awareness, and subsequent change for the better. In this episode we tackle one of the more disturbing ones: that of child abuse. We’ve heard anecdotal evidence of such happenings, and elude to this during our conversation. We conclude the conversations about this with a warning to those that might fall prey to such horrors. It goes without saying that we find such crimes against children abhorrent.

*Listen to learn where the extra 4 come from.

Questions we also get answers to in this episode

What is the Persian (Farsi) word for uncle?
Why are some Iranian aunts and uncles more important?
What is the Persian (Farsi) word for aunt
How many words are there for aunt and uncle in Persian (Farsi)?
Why do Iranian uncles and aunts answer you with their own title?
How do you say aunt and uncle in Persian (Farsi)?
Why is a Dāi better than an Amoo?
What Persian (Farsi) phrases, idioms or terms use aunt or uncle?
Why is a Khāleh better than an Ammeh?
What are the gender neutral terms for aunt and uncle?
Who is Amoo Sabzi Foroosh?
What Persian (Farsi) phrases use aunt or uncle?
Are there gender neutral terms for the words aunt and uncle?

List of the different types and titles for Iranian aunts and uncles

Relation	English	Pingilish	Persian (Farsi)
Mother’s sister	Aunt	Khāleh	خاله
Mother’s brother	Uncle	Dāi	دایی
Father’s sister	Aunt	Am.meh	عمه
Father’s brother	Uncle	Amoo	عمو
Mother’s brother’s wife	Aunt	Zan Dāi	زن دایی
Mother’s sister’s husband	Uncle	Shohar Khāleh	شوهر خاله
Father’s brother’s wife	Aunt	Zan Amoo	زن عمو
Father’s sister’s husband	Uncle	Shohar Am.meh	شوهر عمه
Honourary aunt	Aunt	Khāleh	خاله
Honourary uncle	Uncle	Amoo	عمه

“ā” appearing like this, is pronounced as a long-a, as used in the word “water”

List of Persian (Farsi) terms or phrases with the words aunt or uncle in

Like with any language, there are many Persian (Farsi) phrases, idioms and terms with the words uncle or aunt in. We’ve listed a few of these below. If you know of any more, we’d love to hear them. Please add your additions in the comments below.

“(Mage injā) khuneh-ye khālast” — “(like this is) your aunt’s home”, a response to somebody being too relaxed in a person’s home
“Ammateh!” — “your auntie!”, like the American “Your mamma!”
“Doosti-ye khāleh kherseh” — when someone does harm with good intention
“Āsh kashk-eh khālat-eh, bokhori pāt-eh, nakhori pāt-eh” — “This is the āsh your aunt has prepared, it’s yours whether you eat it or not”, when you have no choice but to do or go through something, whether you want to or not
“Beh dard e Ammat mikhoreh” — “it’s worthy of your aunt”, meaning useless or of low quality
“Khāleh zanak” — a term implying gossip
“Khāleh khāye dār” — “auntie with testicles”, a man who is hanging-out with women, gossiping

List of famous Iranian uncles

We’ve listed a few famous Iranian uncles, below. Let us know in the comments, who we’ve missed.

Amoo Ganād — A kids’ TV show host on IRIB
Amoo Hooshang — a famous restauranteur in Tehran
Ammeh Katty — A fictional character from a Mehran Modiri TV show, Pā-varchin
Amoo Sabzi Foroosh — named in the song (see below)
Amoo Yādegar — A folk story and an Iranian TV show in the 60s
Amoo Zanjirbāf — An Iranian kids’ game and a character from an Ahmad Shamlou poem
Ali Dāi — Iranian footballer and coach
Dāi Jān Nāpel’one — the main character from the TV series, My Uncle Napoleon

Watch one of Iran’s most famous uncles, Dāi Jān Napolone.

List of famous Iranian aunts

We’ve listed a few famous Iranian aunts, below. Let us know in the comments, who we’ve missed.

Khāleh kherseh — A bear, in a Persian folk story that, kills a fly, sitting on her human friend’s face with a huge rock, killing him while he’s sleeping
Khāleh Shādooneh — An IRIB kids’ show host
Khāleh Sooskeh — A Persian folk story

English translation of the song lyrics for Amoo Sabzi Foroosh (Uncle Vegetable Seller)

Film poster for “Uncle Vegetable Seller”.

According to Wikipedia, Uncle Vegetable Seller is the name of a play that was performed in a folk and non-professional way in women’s homes and gatherings. The original song is featured in a play, and is set in a vegetable shop. During the song, two characters tell the story of a woman’s love and secret and need for a vegetable seller.

This song, or poem, has been performed by Jalal Hemmati (listen to our podcast episode about his amazing song, Mahvash, Parivash) and Parivash Sotoudeh and parts of it have been performed by Hamed Hakan.

Amoo Sabzi Foroosh song structure

The song relies on audience participation. The singer will do the hard part and the audience will simply respond with “yes”. The general structure of the song is outlined below and will repeat, but with different innuendos. Follow the table below to learn parts 5 to 7.

Singer: “Amoo Sabzi Foroosh?” — “Uncle Vegetable Seller?”
Audience: “Baleh “— “Yes”
Singer: “Sabzi kam foroosh” — “You’re not selling many vegetables”
Audience: “Baleh “— “Yes”
Singer: Set-up — please see the table below for variations
Audience: “Baleh “— “Yes”
Singer: Innuendo — please see the table below for variations
Audience: “Baleh “— “Yes”
Occasionally loop back to step 5

Table of selected English translations of the Amoo Sabzi Foroosh song innuendos

The set-up	Does Amoo have this?	The innuendo	Does Amoo also have this?
Do the vegetables have mud on them?	Yes	Does their heart ache?	Yes
Do you have turnips?	Yes	Do you have quarter of an hour (for me)?	Yes
Do you have the vegetables used to make āsh?	Yes	Are you winking at me?	Yes
Do you have basil?	Yes	…Do you love me?	Yes
Do you have garden cress?	Yes	…Are you dancing for me?	Yes

Amoo’s vegetable availability was correct at the time of writing this.

Persian (Farsi) lyrics for Amoo Sabzi Foorosh

The original Persian (Farsi) lyrics for the Amoo Sabzi Foroosh (Uncle Vegetable Seller) can be found on Wikipedia here. We’ve added a version of the song lyrics, by Morteza Ahmadi, below. Listen to his version of this song here.