Blogs, rap and cosmetic surgery in modern Iran
Returning to Tehran after an absence of 16 years, the capital I discovered was one of true contrasts that reflect a deepening divide in this nation of 72 million people.
People told me they remain committed to the values of the Islamic Revolution,
but they are also clearly hungry for what modern life has to offer.
On the streets of a bustling Tehran, I saw a city of fashionable young women with colourful silk headscarves and the dramatic oversized sunglasses that dominate Western fashion magazines.
A current trend is for young women also to sport a shock of dyed blond hair, jutting out above their foreheads from under their scarves.
The conservative, black head coverings and flowing robes of the early phases of the revolution are being slowly replaced, despite the lurking presence of the morality police - ready to pounce on anyone they feel has gone too far.
Also popular in the Tehran of 2009 is cosmetic surgery, with the number of both men and women sporting post-surgical bandages on their face striking to the visitor.
Tehran is the plastic surgery capital of the Middle East. Perhaps even more startling than the trend for nosejobs and facelifts is the fact that sex change operations are sanctioned by religious decree, even though homosexuality is banned and gay people can be hanged.
It is in this younger, more
liberal Iran - 60% of the population is under the age of 30 - that I found a rapper named 'Nobody' and a blogger named Asieh.
'Nobody''s music is officially deemed to be 'western and decadent'. But the government ban on his performing and travelling does nothing to stop young people from downloading his music or video in which he and his crew blast their songs from the rooftops of Tehran.
While he tells me he is not political, 'Nobody' raps about God, nationalism, even in defence of Iran's much-disputed right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Asieh's blog details cases of women being brutalised, stoned and executed - often for adultery, although execution is not officially approved by the government.
Often blocked by the authorities, Asieh and her internet savvy contemporaries find a way around the filters and march on in defiance of the government to expose abuses of women's rights in the country.
Calling herself "a pioneer", Asieh says it falls on people like herself to bring about the change that Iran needs.
Iran's reformist candidates in Friday's presidential election are hoping that the country's young people turn out in large numbers to vote for that change.
You can also hear in this video from a member of Iran's scientific community who spoke to me about the impact of Western sanctions on their research work.
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Hello Jane.
Your Panorama programme had, as expected, some excellent interviews and the bomb incident was extremely well covered, but I was surprised that you went along with the usual distorted western media portrayal of Ahmadinejad, admittedly not the most popular (or likeable) politician in Iran.
You say that he has called for the destruction of Israel and questioned the Holocaust. His speech in 2005 about Zionism was falsely translated as "wiping Israel off the map". No Farsi scholar accepts that translation. There is a consensus that he said "the occupation regime over Jerusalem must be erased from the page of time", going on to compare the end of the Israeli regime with that of the Shah. Of course that hasn't stopped western politicians constantly and deliberately repeating the mistranslation. Again, in 2006, he said: The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon, the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom. This was reported correctly. He has never demanded a violent attack on Israel.
He has certainly questioned the six million figure for the Holocaust, like a minority of historians all over the world, but he has never denied that it took place. His main theme is the injustice of the Palestinians paying the price for the crimes of the Nazis by losing their country.
As for your suggestion that he is intent on getting nuclear weapons, this is pure American/Israeli propaganda. Iran is producing low-grade uranium enriched to only 2.5 %, to generate electricity. It has this absolute right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To make a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to over 90%. The IAEA have come up with absolutely no evidence that Iran is engaged in a nuclear weapons programme. Even the CIA say any ambition in this direction was abandoned years ago. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa in 2004 describing the use of nuclear weapons as immoral. He declared that "developing, producing or stockpiling nuclear weapons is forbidden under Islam." It is inconceivable that this is a bluff from a regime which derives its legitimacy from its fidelity to Islam.
Having said all that, there is no doubt that the election of a less divisive president would be a big help in avoiding the disaster of military action by Israel.
All the best.
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I'm studying a module on Modern Iran at Birkbeck University in London, so I'm trying to follow all the news about this key country. I found very interesting your Panorama report on the Iranian elections, and appreciate your quite objective tone. It was surprising for me to discover that there was an anti-islamic terrorist attack one year ago.
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