Covering about 12,000 hectares (46 square miles), District 22 is a fast-growing expansion to the Iranian capital. Already home to a large population, this northwestern Tehran district is being established as a major tourist and business district. Geographically, it is situated below Kan River, facing the tall Alborz Mountains to its north, and the hand-planted Vardavard Forest to its west. This unique locality is what initially led Tehran Municipality to hire contractors to develop the area.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a District 22 municipal official told Al-Monitor: “In the 1980s, half of the district was owned by the armed forces. In 2000, the bill for development of the district was adopted. The actual expansion, however, started in 2006 under Dr. [Mohammad Bagher] Qalibaf’s mayoralty."

Of note, Qalibaf, who remains Tehran’s mayor, is a former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force (IRGC AF) and the Iranian Police Forces. After losing his bid for office in the 2005 presidential elections, he was elected mayor by the Tehran City Council.

Extensive construction projects dot the landscape, with long and wide roads and newly constructed high-rises finished. The density and scale of high-rises cannot be seen in any other district of Tehran. The sky is covered with huge tower cranes, bulldozers are everywhere, and heavy-duty machines are operating 24 hours a day. Ali Rafiei, a taxi driver living in Negin town, told Al-Monitor, "It's always like this. It's like American movies. They don't stop even for an hour. We don't have a bit of silence."