Mohammad works at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, which is in the town of Zanjan, a few hours by train NW of Tehran. Mohammad spends four days a week at the institute, and lives in Tehran the rest of the time (which is what most people at the institute do).
Here's a street scene from Zanjan, which is in many ways a typical small Iranian city. Notice the orange-striped taxis---almost all of the cars on the road are taxis (and even ones that aren't officially taxis can often be hired). Here we see some people crossing in the crosswalk, but people will cross anywhere, and the crosswalks aren't respected anyway. The taxi just entering the intersection may well have gunned it and crossed ahead of the man and woman trying to cross. Thanks to the low speeds, the traffic doesn't really seem life-threatening...but it's certainly risky and chaotic, and there is so little respect for law and order that the effect is truly comical. I literally started laughing at some of the maneuvers.
Note that the bank sign is in English (in spite of the near absence of foreign tourists and the scarcity of English-speaking Iranians). The car on the platform in front of the bank is being raffled...in spite of the fact that gambling is highly illegal in Iran (even owning playing cards is illegal). Iranians wryly comment that when it comes to big corporations, "gambling", "interest" (also illegal), and many other things are a matter of definition.