Peyman Zinati

Peyman Zinati is a doctoral researcher in Ethno-Political Studies at the University of Exeter. His research looks at smuggling and state power in Iran. He studies how goods, people, and information move across Iran's western borders despite the law. His work is based on ethnographic and archival research, and it explores how informal trade operates alongside official systems rather than outside them. He is interested in how these local trade practices connect Iranian markets to global logistics.

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Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in Iran

Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in Iran

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In one of the oldest streets in Tehran’s city centre, an informal pharmaceutical marketplace unfolds amidst a crowded street, where ‘dalals’[1] (brokers) stand on the pavements, hands brimming with packages of pharmaceuticals, whispering various medication names to pedestrians. Here Maryam, seeking Bisoprolol for her mother’s heart condition, engages in conversation with Davood, a dalal in […]