Hovering over the toilet bowl I watched them contemplate whether or not to empty the last of their cocaine into the water below. Obviously deciding against it, they chopped it up for a last couple of snorts before they got on the plane to take them back to their homeland.
Waste not want not; work hard; play hard, that’s the motto. And never more so than for the rich young Arabs who might have been gifted with a heaving bank account - but have fewer cultural and social freedoms than almost anyone else in the world.
Earlier this month Instagram account Rich Kids Of Tehran went viral (and has since been shut down and restarted with some very tame images and a disclaimer purporting to the fact that the previous images were not taken in Iran), showing the affluent lifestyles of young men and women in Iran’s capital. The account came complete with an abundance of alcohol, drugs and bikini shots - all of which is illegal in Iran’s conservative society. (Last month agroup of young Iranians who created a tribute video to Pharrell’s ‘Happy’ were given a suspended sentence of 91 lashes and a year in jail).
The Instagram account was controversial because it’s so odds with the rest of the world’s idea of the Middle East. The one where women are covered from head to toe and mute, that alcohol and drugs are completely and utterly illegal, that sex only occurs in marriage, men are basically all suicide bombers and everyone prays five times a day and is cowering in fear of even almost stepping out of line.
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But, as often is the case, the reality of the situation is far more complicated. I was born in Egypt before moving to London aged 13, where I quickly proceeded to make friends with people from London's massive (and generally pretty wealthy) Arab community. And I've seen, time and time again, what happens when you give a 20-something a bulging bank account and then proceed to tell them they can't spend it on any of the things they want to.
‘In London if you have money you can go clubbing, you can go gambling, you can do whatever you want, in countries like Iran your choices are limited,' explains Abdullah, a 27-year-old Iranian who lives in London most of the time, but was still reluctant to be identified in this piece. ‘If I got quoted they wouldn’t let me back into the country, and that is the problem. As soon as [the partying and drinking is] brought into the public domain where it’s at odds with the “morality” of the country’s Islamic laws – like with the Rich Kids Of Tehran Instagram account – they [the Iranian government] react to it.’
It's not just Iranians, either. I have another friend from Saudi Arabia who has grown up and lives in London who I've had to scoop off club floors at the end of the night, and she’ll be leading the charge doing shot after shot of tequila in a night club. But when she get’s home? She’s not even allowed her own set of house keys - all the better for her parents to monitor her movements.
She's not alone. Even if your family is relatively liberal and has lived in the West for years, society pressures and expectations from the Arab world - especially countries like Iran are huge. And the response classic response from most teenagers and young people is to kick against it in anyway they can.
It's even more prevalent in wealthy young Arabs who don't live in London full time. Frequent trips to the capital are the perfect way to fuel that desire for excess. Sammy, a Knightsbridge, London based drug dealer mostly caters to this audience and knows just how much some can spend: 'I had a client who was here last week, he bought £200 worth of hash, £200 worth of coke, three grams of MDMA and 10 Xanax pills' (to aide the comedown, he explains), 'and then he called me again three days later because he had finished his stash.'
And what if you can't get away? If you’ve got the cash and you know where to look, you don’t have to travel quite that far from home - even if your home happens to be one of the most conservative countries in the Middle East. ‘A night out in Tehran is better than any club in the South of France… and the chicks are banging!’ explains Abdullah. ‘People have parties on their helipads, in their country estates and while skiing – because the Islamic police can’t ski.’ he adds, laughing. ‘It’s like Space in Ibiza with bootleg Russian vodka and Moroccan hash.’ And if they do get caught? ‘It’s as simple as paying off the police or getting in touch with one of your parents many connections.’ Just as long as your exploits don’t end up on YouTube, of course…
Sex and plenty of it goes hand in hand with drugs and alcohol - especially for those visiting London from conservative Arab countries. 'I lost an expensive jacket while out clubbing,' said Ahmed, a friend who was visiting London from Egypt a few months ago. 'I got so pissed off I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went home and called three prostitutes for myself and my two friends to make myself feel better.'
In a twisted way it makes sense. In both Iran and Egypt female virginity is still prized, meaning oral sex (in the backs of cars, apartment stairways and anywhere else they can find) is popular. Some women I know even enforce an anal-sex only rule, so they’ll still pass the test on their wedding night, when their new husband will wave a blood stained sheet around to prove he’s ‘deflowered’ his new bride.
‘It’s to fill a void,’ says Shafik, a 26-year-old Egyptian. ‘We are so bored and so fed up that this is the only avenue available to us to still have fun.’
Of course, young people all over the world are probably drinking more, taking more drugs and having more sex than my Arab friends. But when you’re only doing something because you’re not really meant to, or because it’s your last opportunity to do it in God know’s how long, breeds a certain kind of desperation. Which is how my friends found themselves snorting the last inch of their cocaine in a London toilet, mere hours before getting on a flight home.
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Follow Alya on Twitter @moorizZLA)
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.