A quiet, internal revolution

Channel 4‘s Lindsey Hilsum reflects on the changes in Iran 10 years after she first visited the country:

…The scenes the government exhibits to foreign journalists – revolutionary parades, meetings of fervent women in black – represent an Iran created to prove a myth.

Most Iranians go nowhere near Friday prayers or the gatherings the international media are encouraged to film. They keep their heads down, avoid all this revolutionary religiosity and try to make a living.

Seventy per cent of Iranians were born after the Revolution. They want jobs and fashion and sex, just like young people everywhere.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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