What it means
آنفرند کردن (anfrend kardan) means “to unfriend” someone on a social media platform, most commonly Facebook or Snapchat, removing them from your friends list so they can no longer see your private content. The word آنفرند (anfrend) is borrowed directly from English “unfriend” and combined with the Persian light verb کردن (kardan, to do). It is distinct from بلاک کردن (block kardan), which blocks the person entirely and prevents them from finding your profile, and from آنفالو کردن (unfollow kardan), which simply stops following someone’s posts without removing a friendship connection. In practice, Iranian users on Instagram more often talk about آنفالو because Instagram uses a follower model rather than a mutual-friend model.
How to use it
- آنفرندم کرد بدون اینکه چیزی بگه. (anfrend-am kard bedoone inke chizi bege.) “She unfriended me without saying anything.”
- فکر کنم باید آنفرندش کنم. (fekr konam bâyad anfrend-ash konam.) “I think I should unfriend him.”
- آنفرند کردم یا بلاکم کرده؟ (anfrend kardam yâ block-am karde?) “Did I unfriend them or did they block me?”
- اگه آنفرندم کنه ناراحت میشم. (age anfrend-am kone nârâhat misham.) “If she unfriends me I will be upset.”
Cultural note
آنفرند شدن on Facebook carries a social sting in Iranian digital culture because Facebook friend connections are seen as mutual and intentional, unlike the asymmetric follower model of Instagram. Among older millennial Iranians who still use Facebook, an unexpected unfriend is often noticed and sometimes confronted directly. Younger users have largely moved to Instagram and Telegram where the vocabulary shifts to آنفالو کردن and بلاک کردن, making آنفرند کردن feel slightly dated but still widely understood.