文章对比了美国军队在阿拉伯半岛的“战地”与伊朗波斯湾岛屿的“休闲”场景：2003年美军抵达巴格达后，一些82空降师官兵曾在萨达姆宫泳池休息，而文中设想他们若在伊朗海岛空隙战事下到访，会比那时的环境更丰富。文中还点出近期油轮燃烧事件与岛上长期以来的旅游娱乐功能并存，形成鲜明对照。
伊朗-伊拉克战争后，伊斯兰共和国把原本属于沙皇专属的基什岛改造成自由贸易区，并以商场对标迪拜；与此同时，内地音乐基本禁播、女性被以口红遭羞辱式惩处，岛上却容许更自由的着装与行为。数据显示，该体系吸引了德黑兰富人冬季迁移：他们从滑雪场改去海滩，从严管生活转向假日放松。
文中进一步把岛屿分工地理化：霍尔木兹常被称作“伊朗的巴厘岛”，盖什（Qeshm）被比作“米科诺斯”，基什则像“圣特罗佩”。基什去年12月举办过5000人马拉松，酒精和毒品助兴；更安静者则去霍尔木兹或更小的亨加姆做瑜伽静修，并在红黑火山砂滩、红树林、盐洞间活动。历史上荷兰与英国都曾被逐，英国在1930s被最后一位沙皇之父赶出；如今热门海湾地貌也被传闻与导弹、地雷和无人机相关联。
The piece contrasts battlefield imagery with leisure tourism in Iran’s Gulf islands: in 2003, U.S. troops (including elements of the 82nd Airborne) were pictured cooling off at Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad palace pool, and the hypothetical suggests that if deployed to Iran’s islands they would encounter much more varied diversions than wartime scenes. It explicitly contrasts recent oil-tanker fire plumes with the islands’ long function as a pleasure corridor.
After the Iran-Iraq war, the Islamic Republic expanded what had been the shah’s exclusive islands by turning Kish into a free zone with malls positioned against Dubai, even as mainstream Iran banned almost all music and punished women for lipstick. The islands offered a sharp social counterpoint—shorts for men, women without veils—and attracted Tehran elites in winter as a seasonal substitute for ski slopes, with beaches replacing alpine tourism.
The travel narrative assigns reputational tags by island—Hormuz as Iran’s “Bali,” Qeshm as “Mykonos,” Kish as a local “Saint-Tropez”—with alcohol and drugs fueling festivals and a December Kish marathon drawing 5,000 participants. Quieter tourism included yoga retreats on Hormuz and Hengam, mangrove paddling, salt caves, and red-and-black volcanic beaches, and the Aga Khan prize recognized an alternative tourism project there, while historical caution remains: Dutch and British influence ended in expulsions, including the British in the 1930s, and island coves and caves are rumored to hide missiles, mines, and drones.
Source: Iran’s permissive party islands contain hidden dangers
Subtitle: If American troops turn up, they should not expect a package holiday
Dateline: 4月 01, 2026 05:05 上午