Persian Farsi Interpreter in Dubai and the UAE

In the UAE

Who you are speaking to.

Spoken by the long-established Iranian community in Dubai and across the UAE, and by many Afghan residents, who speak Dari. Persian is heard in trade, business, healthcare and community life.

Common pairs at events

English ↔ Persian
Arabic ↔ Persian
Persian → English

Dialects and varieties

Iranian Persian (Farsi): The standard spoken in Iran, and the form used for the Persian channel and captions.
Dari: The Persian of Afghanistan. Mutually intelligible with Iranian Persian, with differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and some formal terms. Dari speakers generally follow Iranian Persian well and read the same script.
Tajik: The Persian of Tajikistan, written in Cyrillic. Tajik guests can usually follow much of the spoken Persian channel but may not read Perso-Arabic captions. Talk to us before relying on it.
Persian and Arabic: Different languages from different families that share a script and many loanwords. Arabic captions are not a substitute for Persian, and the reverse is also true.

Typical events

Trade and business forums with Iranian companies
Community and cultural events, including Nowruz celebrations
Healthcare and medical conferences
Academic conferences and university events
Corporate town halls for mixed teams

Glossary advice

Note forms of address: Agha (Mr) and Khanom (Mrs or Ms) are used with surnames, and professional titles such as Doktor and Mohandes (engineer) are used widely.
Speakers may give dates in the Iranian solar calendar, where the year begins at Nowruz in March. Add key dates in both calendars.
Agree the English spelling of Iranian names (Mohammad, Hossein, Reza) using the spelling each person uses.
Persian digits differ in form from the Arabic-Indic digits used in Arabic. Check figures on slides as well as in the glossary.
Expect taarof, the Persian etiquette of polite deference. Elaborate courtesies may be rendered more plainly in English.

How to prepare a glossary

Persian at UAE events

The Iranian community has been part of Dubai’s commercial life for generations, and Persian is heard in trading houses, clinics, schools and community halls. Many Afghan residents speak Dari, a form of Persian. At business forums, medical conferences and cultural evenings, a Persian channel lets these guests follow every detail in their own language.

SIM.AI delivers Persian as spoken interpretation and as right-to-left captions in Persian script, on each guest’s own phone, a few seconds behind the speaker. Persian can run as one of up to 12 languages at the same time from one audio feed.

A typical set-up

A medical conference in Dubai brings together clinicians from the UAE, Iran and the wider region. Plenary sessions are in English, with one keynote in Arabic and a panel that includes Persian-speaking surgeons. Delegates scan a QR code on their badge and choose Persian, Arabic, English or Russian. Before the day, we load procedure names, drug names, speakers’ names and institutions into the glossary, and use Precision mode for the most technical sessions. When a panellist moves from Persian into English, the system follows. Our team monitors every channel throughout. For clinical events, see healthcare.

Persian, Dari and Tajik

Persian has three main standard forms. Iranian Persian (Farsi) is the form the SIM.AI channel uses. Dari, spoken in Afghanistan, is mutually intelligible with it and uses the same script. Tajik is also Persian but is written in Cyrillic, so Tajik guests may follow the spoken channel yet struggle with the captions.

Persian is not Arabic

Persian uses the Arabic alphabet with four extra letters, and it has borrowed many Arabic words. It is still a different language, from a different family. Arabic-speaking and Persian-speaking guests each need their own channel, and both can run at once. Our Arabic interpretation page covers the Arabic side.

Courtesy and register

Persian has a rich etiquette of polite deference, known as taarof. Speakers may open with elaborate courtesies that come across more plainly in English. That is normal for interpretation of any kind.

Honest limits

Machine interpretation can make mistakes with names, poetry, idiom, humour and highly specialised terms. For legal proceedings, negotiations and medical consent, choose a certified human interpreter from Sim Trans, or a hybrid AI and human set-up. See all 81 languages for the rest of your audience.

Questions organisers ask

Is Farsi the same as Persian?

Yes. Farsi is the Persian name for the language, and Persian is the usual English name. The SIM.AI channel uses standard Iranian Persian.

Can Afghan guests who speak Dari use the Persian channel?

Generally, yes. Dari and Iranian Persian are mutually intelligible and use the same script. Some vocabulary and pronunciation differ, so add Afghan place and organisation names to the glossary.

Can you interpret directly between Arabic and Persian?

Yes. Arabic speakers can be heard in Persian and Persian speakers in Arabic, with right-to-left captions in each language.

When should we book a human Persian interpreter?

For legal proceedings, negotiations, medical consent and sensitive personal conversations. Sim Trans provides certified human interpreters, alone or alongside SIM.AI.

Persian (Farsi) interpretation for events in Dubai and the UAE