This paper presents a nuanced exploration of how ethnoreligious perceptions are negotiated in the everyday lives of the Iranian diaspora. While existing popular perceptions often portray a homogeneous Iranian society derived from limited ethnographic research, this study draws on four years of in-depth fieldwork to unveil the complexities inherent in negotiating these perceptions. The primary focus lies on cultural practices, specifically erfān assemblies, religious-cultural events, and singing classes, as discursive sites where individuals engage in intra-inter-ethnoreligious negotiations. Utilizing Bucholtz and Hall’s framework of distinction, authentication, and authorization practices (2004), the study demonstrates how individuals produce salient differences, socially construct identities as non/genuine, and legitimize identities through hegemonic and institutional authority. The examination goes beyond the surface level of negotiation and explores sociocultural mechanisms employed to integrate or marginalize individuals within the social circle. Socialization is revealed as a transactional tool, and diversity is strategically utilized. The research uncovers the prevalence of essentialist notions in reproducing homogenous and static ethnoreligious identities. The concept of fractally recursive identities is introduced, emphasizing localism concerning characterological sign-values to places like Shiraz, Hamedan, Tehran, and being dehati ‘peasant.’ Despite outward appearances of diversity within the Iranian diaspora communities of practice, individuals often find themselves treated and perceived as ‘Others’ in various social groups. In other words, despite the apparent diversity within the Iranian diaspora, individuals may still experience a sense of exclusion or marginalization when interacting with different social groups. Erfān assemblies, although attempting to redefine these dynamics and unsettle them, inadvertently contribute to their reconstitution in less overtly discursive ways. Furthermore, the study explores the embodiment of ‘Otherness’ and the attempt to create inclusive spaces by essentializing certain aspects in both Muslim and Jewish dominant spaces.