Tehran: By the way, the name of this hotel is 'Cell 16' but on social media it is popularly known as 'Jail Restaurant'.
Its spirits are 31-year-old Benjamin Nakhat and Arman Alizada, who also spent two years in prison after suffering the worst damage to their business.
"Not everyone in prison is a habitual offender," Benjamin told AFP. There was no money for that. "
The same thing happened to Benjamin himself: when he was unable to repay the money he had borrowed from his creditors after suffering heavy losses in business, he was arrested for default under Iranian law.
After the trial, when he was found guilty of non-payment, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
While in prison, Benjamin met many people whose stories were very similar. Arman Ali Zada was one such prisoner.
Seeing the prison conditions, the two decided that as soon as they were released, they would do something to help the inmates who are incarcerated only because they do not have the money to pay the fine.
In 2016, he started a new restaurant in East Tehran called "Cell 16" which has a prison-like atmosphere.
At the same time, they started posting about their restaurant on social media and started attracting people to it.
Soon his efforts paid off and a large number of people started coming to 'Cell 16' while on social media it became known as 'Jail Restaurant'.
With its delicious fast food, this restaurant reminds its customers that many people are behind bars for some trivial reason; Who also need respectable financial support.
Over the past five years, Benjamin and Ali Zada have not only helped dozens of prisoners financially, but last year they opened a new branch of their restaurant in the Iranian city of Isfahan.
According to the prison department, there are currently more than 11,000 inmates in Iranian prisons who have bounced checks or have not been able to repay their loans.
