What it means
سلفی (selfi) is a direct borrowing from English “selfie,” a self-portrait photograph taken with a smartphone camera, typically held at arm’s length or using the front-facing camera. The English word entered widespread global use around 2012 and was named Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2013. In Persian, the word arrived without modification and is used identically in both colloquial speech and social media captions. No native Persian equivalent has taken hold; سلفی is the universal term. A related phrase is سلفی گرفتن (selfi gereftan), “to take a selfie.”
How to use it
- بیا یه سلفی بگیریم. (Biâ ye selfi begirim.) “Come on, let’s take a selfie.”
- سلفیم خوب نشد. (Selfiyam khoob nashod.) “My selfie didn’t come out well.”
- با دوربین جلو سلفی گرفت. (Bâ durbin-e jelo selfi gereft.) “She took a selfie with the front camera.”
- این اینستا پر از سلفیه. (In Instâ por az selfiye.) “This Instagram is full of selfies.”
Cultural note
Selfie culture in Iran has its own social texture: Iranian women, who must wear hijab in public, have developed a distinct aesthetic around indoor selfies where dress norms are different, and many Iranian beauty and makeup influencers built their audiences primarily through selfie-driven content. The selfie stick (مونوپاد, monopâd, borrowed from the English “monopod”) became popular in tourist spots such as the Golestan Palace and Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Some conservative public figures in Iran have criticized excessive selfie-taking as morally problematic, which has only reinforced the selfie’s association with youth rebellion and self-expression.