Mashhad, the hub of cosmetic surgery for tourists, is a goldmine for brokers.
Neighboring and Arab-speaking countries choose Mashhad as their first destination for medical procedures, especially cosmetic surgeries.
A guide discusses his income, saying it greatly varies depending on the type of procedure and where it’s done. I can’t provide an exact number, but on average, it’s about 15 to 20 percent of the surgery cost.
Just five minutes in the large parking lot in front of the premises is enough to encounter a notable number of men with bandaged heads and women with plastered noses. This parking lot sees one high-end car after another stopping, with people getting out and conversing in Arabic. Here, you feel like you’re not in Iran but in one of the Arab-speaking countries. However, this is the parking lot of one of the cosmetic clinics in Mashhad that specializes in working with Arab-speaking tourists. As you enter, it feels like stepping into a hotel. A woman fluent in Arabic is waiting at the entrance to guide the tourists, although no one comes here alone; each has a guide accompanying them, keeping a vigilant eye on their client like an eagle.