Turkmen Sahra
Turkmen Sahra () is a region in the northeast of Iran near the Caspian Sea, bordering Turkmenistan, the majority of whose inhabitants are ethnic Turkmen. The most important cities of Turkmen Sahra are Gonbad-e Kavus, Aqqala, Kalaleh, Maraveh Tappeh, Gomishan and Bandar Torkaman. There are, according to Ethnologue, roughly 719,000 Turkmens in Turkmen Sahra today. Society Turkmens today in Turkmensahra live fairly modern lifestyles, although the effects of religion and the Muslim way of life are visible. The economy is based on industry, even if agriculture still plays a great role in some Turkmens' life, like in other places of Iran. The professions among Turkmens show the pattern of a modern economy even if there are still some shortcomings due to lack of funding from the central authorities. The economic potential of Turkmensahra is large since a vast amount of oil was discovered early in the 1930s. But since there was a deal with the Soviet Union that there would be no oil extraction from Turkmen Sahra, there is not an oil industry at the moment. Before the revolution of 1979, Turkmens had a richer life economically than the people of other regions of Iran. Although there was poverty in small parts, most people lived a prosperous life and could afford to provide material goods at home. This was unusual for some regions of Iran. Before the revolution, due to the lack of facilities and infrastructure, there was a big difference between villages and cities, so that when they went from a city like Bandar Turkmen to a neighboring village, The differences were so great that the tourists felt that they had traveled back in time. There were few welfare services in the villages and people used horses and donkeys to travel. Buses, taxis, and private cars were only found in larger cities.These differences caused the people in the villages to have little literacy. This is despite the fact that after the revolution and the development of the country's infrastructure, the level of literacy in this region has increased significantly, but unfortunately, the level of welfare and livelihood of the people has decreased to the same extent and maybe more. Other cultural traits can be seen as in the weddings where Turkmens still practice several day weddings. An ancient tradition hailing back to the Göktürks or even the Hsiung-nu, Asian Huns. Today's Turkmens have a bride fee: the bridegroom gives away a fee for taking the girl's hand. In tradition the girl's family provides even greater economic starting capital to the newlyweds' life. For example the bridegroom buys gold for the bride to wear; in return the bride's family buys daily life equipment for the new household. The wedding itself, in times before the revolution, lasted several days where often all the relatives, clan members, and in some cases the whole village would turn up to celebrate. Common activities were to have races where the winner would receive a prize, contests in göresh traditional Turkmen wrestling, horse races and more.