PRI reporters Marco Werman and Matthew Bell recently traveled to Iran, to discover what the opening of the country means for Iranians, after 37 years of isolation from most people in America.
Here’s what they report: “Years of sanctions and authoritarianism in Iran seem to have emboldened people in some ways. Whether it’s downloading music from the the Internet using virtual private networks — which a lot of people in seem to be using — that skirt you outside of the eyes of government so you can access YouTube and Soundcloud and Facebook. Apparently some of these VPNs are legal, others are not, but people are using them and not really worried about getting caught.
Then there’s the way many women seem to be challenging how they wear the hijab — letting it slip farther back off their hairline until there are these moments when they realize it’s slipping way too far back and they move it back on their head. And sometimes pairing that symbol of modesty with clothes that suggest the opposite like, thigh-high leather boots or designer clothes.”
