Statement

William is a regular participant at Iranian parties. In Persian, a party is called mehmooni and is quite different from normal parties: it is usually thrown in a private house, where the host (the owner of the house) will invite N guests and try to stuff them with tahdig and kabab. It's no wonder some people say that "a mehmooni is the fastest way to end up in a hospital or gain 10kg". What makes a mehmooni different than other parties, though, is a custom that is typical of the (overly polite?) Iranian culture: every time some new guest arrives at the party, he or she will go to shake hands and say salam ("hello") to the host and to every other guest who is present at that time, one by one. The same goes for when a guest leaves the party: they will again go shake hands and say khodahafez ("goodbye") to the host and to every guest present at that time. Note that the guests who are present at those two different moments could be different...