In this ancient village in the mountains, we find one clear example of how rich Iran is in history and tradition. Another topic that surprised me is Iran's hatred for the US and Israel. THE CRADLE OF THE PERSIAN CIVILIZATION For some time now, Iran has been a protagonist in every western TV. In every western piece of media. We've been hearing for months about their social, economic, political situation, especially since the protests that took place months ago, and the harsh repression that came from the government. But let's learn more about a nation and territory that is so interesting. We talk about a large territory, about 82 million inhabitants who conform the 18th economy worldwide. It's a great mosaic of cultures and ethnic groups, Persians are barely above half of the population. We find Azeris, Baluchs, Kurds, Arabs, as well as three very controversial elements: Their gas and oil reserves, control over the Strait of Hormuz, and nuclear development. If we talk about religion, their mostly Shias, although there are minorities like Sunnites, Zoroasters, Jews, Armenians, They live in a theocratic regime, their leader is the religious leader. At the moment, it's Ali Khamenei. But let's go back to the past, to learn where all this comes from. The current situation and why socially how and why there have been protests. Iran has never been a colony of the main European powers, but there was a time when it was heavily connected with the United States, who is nowadays their greatest enemy, all this being not so long ago. In the year 1953, the US, through the CIA and Operation Ajax, expels the Iranian Prime Minister, who was trying to nationalize their oil. At this moment, the Shah or King becomes the new leader. And so Iran becomes the greatest ally of the US in this region of the East. There were agriculture reforms, industry, the country developed and grew richer, but just a few became richer. Corruption was at a maximum. The most conservative and religious sectors started manifesting heavily against these modern times and behaviors that started infecting the country. At that point, Iran even went as far as recognizing the state of Israel. 1978, the so called "Islamic Revolution" begins. These religious conservatives sectors begin with protests, riots, attacks, with the most liberal or communist sectors who were also against the Shah. 1979, with the Shah or King now in exile, they establish what is known as the Islamic Republic. Ruled by Ayatollah Homeini. So begins this theocratic regime led by the Ayatollah in the beginning, Homeni and, after his death, Khamenei. the current leader. They also start creating this volatile mix that we have now in the country. First and foremost, they sanction forbidding, conservative rules. They start depriving the population of a fair share of their liberties. On the other hand, the bad economy. Especially created by the harsh economic sanctions coming from the West. At the moment, with some context of this recent history of the past decades, we just have the important part left, staying away from books and TV, buying a ticket to Tehran, the capital of Iran, where we'll start a journey of almost a month, traveling the country from North to South and then to the East. We want to learn about the situation after these intense protests, and what differences we can see between what they tell us and the reality that the local population actually lives. So, we're off to Iran. We're talking about a country of over 1.5 square kilometers, to gain some reference, over three times the size of Spain, taking into account that Spain is not precisely a small country, with which we're talking about a very large country, not densely populated, with about 80-82 million people, where also most of them live in large cities, like the case of the capital, Tehran, where there are over 16 million people. So it's a country with a very small density of population and a country that's not very inhabited because it's very mountainous, with a very high median of altitude, which also makes it difficult to extract natural resources. It's a very complex country, really. Iran is an Islamic theocracy, so they have a secular government, which is now ruled by Ebrahim Raisi, who's elected democratically, supposedly. I say supposedly because democracy in Iran is actually very debatable. In spite of political parties not having liberty of ideas, there's no freedom of expression, and vote counting is questionable, as we've seen in many elections. But they have a secular government, and the decision maker, the supreme leader which is the Ayatollah, a religious figure. We say it's a government with a political system where religion has tremendous influence in every made decision. We are now in Tehran, this is the capital. It is now Friday, and this weekend is a holiday, which is why the capital is now almost empty. And not just this, this weekend there's a parade, a celebration. It's the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Everything is very controlled, I don't like that, plus it will be covered by other media, so we decided to leave the spotlight and start our route. We came to Kazan', a city two hours to the south. We'll film everything with a hand held cam, you'll be literally traveling with me. Another interesting point, I'm not alone, I'm with Sua, so we'll also try to convey what living in Iran is like, in the eyes of a woman, who has to be covered all the time. So this is the beginning. We are walking in the central market, the bazaar, but it's Friday and practically everything is closed. There are some stores around here, but almost everything is closed. Other days of the week this must be filled with people, but we'll find other bazaars filled with people in other cities. We continue going the south, and gaining altitude in this part, climbing up to 2300 meters. You can tell from the cold, the snowy mountains behind, so stopping to drink warm coffee and tea. Well, my first impression of Iran is that I don't feel all that control, like other countries with tense political situations, so to speak. There's not so much military control. If you have a visa for a certain route, with certain cities, you can't change that route. You can't go from a city to another one that wasn't in your route. You can travel all over the country, but giving notice previously. But there aren't that many controls, nor so much personality cult. We've been in other countries, for example, like Syria, also when we were in Chechnya, here it's not as much, you see pictures of the Ayatollah but not as much. Another thing is that you can't use credit cards, because of economic sanctions, there's also some censorship from the leading government of Iran, there are no credit cards, social media can only be used with VPN. Let's finish our tea and continue exploring... This village, it's not a random one, we stopped in Abyaneh, a village in the mountains with a lot of history, their own language, so let's move on. I start noticing, for example, that this here is very common in this country. Not just in altars like this one, but also on the road, in the entrances or exits of the city, on the road, in the middle of nowhere, there are pictures of martyrs. Some are recent pictures, of those fallen in the wars against Isis which also affected Iran. Especially near the borders with Iraq and Kurdistan. But most of them, like all of these, are pictures from the 80's. The war against Iraq, the war against Ayatollah Homeini in Iran and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. All of them are martyrs, and they're remembered in the villages. In this ancient village in the mountains, we find a clear example of the riches of Iran, the present day Iran, in history, tradition, in culture. We enter a mosque built by the families of the village, it's about 1200 years old. But we go down some stairs, and suddenly find this, which is an ancient fire temple. It's even older, over 2000 years old, it's from the Zoroaster religion. But this was already built from even more ancient religions. Where we are now are ancient temples dated from over 4000 years ago. We continue in the mountains, heading to Isfahan, a city even more to the south, I remind you we're traveling to the south of the country. We're going to the Strait of Hormuz, although we still have some days left. These lands were known as Persia for many centuries. From the first millennium After Christ until what may surprise you, but this was Persia until the 30's in the 20th century. It's one of the oldest civilizations in the world. But it's a population that, on the contrary, is very young. 60% of the population is younger than 30 years old. If the idea came up of changing the name to Iran, it was for this, to group up. Persia was for the Persians, what about the other ethnicities? It was called Iran to group up all these ethnicities, cultures and religions. We've been too little in the country to draw conclusions on the second day, but I can tell you that regarding how they treat women, in a country like this with so much trouble, and which has so many problems regarding the rights of women. The treat towards women is not as rough as could be in other countries, in some areas of Pakistan or Afghanistan, I don't know about other parts of Iran, it depends on the regions. There are areas where they can't even get in touch with women. However, in Iran, or at least these areas, we're doing it with no problem. We're in the city of Isfahan, welcomed in the best way possible, with some food: some sheep stock and traditional bread. Food won't stop coming. That's the spirit. IN THIS PLACE THEY ONLY EAT THE HEAD OF THE LAMB, EVEN INCLUDING IN THE DISHES THE ANIMAL'S TONGUE OR EYES. THE NEXT DAY We wake up in Isfahan with weather that's completely opposite of yesterday. We arrived with the sun, now we have hail and snow. We're in the Armenian neighborhood, behind me there's a church, but shaped as a mosque. It looks like that from outside, they built it like this to protect it. So that it didn't draw too much attention. But in this Armenian neighborhood we see crosses instead of Islam symbolism. Yesterday we went out walking downtown at night to go out for dinner, tremendous restaurants, expensive clothes stores, filled with families, couples, groups of friends. Walking, laughing, heading to the cinema, there was music in the streets. We saw an upbeat, modern city. Much more than I expected, I mean that. So let's enjoy because they told me that the art in this Armenian church is amazing. We started in the Armenian neighborhood churches, covered in snow and hail, and now we start with the city and it started raining, what a day. Likewise, we are in the great, famous Isfahan square, which is also a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and which has their four most important elements of civilization. Being the government, this was the house of the king, and here they played polo, a game played on horseback, and the king watched the polo games all the way from up there. So we have government, education, that part of the Mosque is a madrasa, the economy, all around it we have a bazaar, and, of course, religion, one of the great mosques of Isfahan. If there's anything we'll see everywhere in Iran, it's mosques. So let's go, because they're precious, with their characteristic blue colors. After seeing different Shiite mosques, in these Iranian cities I can tell two main differences from mosques in other parts of the world, where other branches of Islam are the predominant ones. For example, in these Shiite mosques, first I can see they're precious, this architecture, the blue colors. But they can draw or paint human figures, humans with their faces, as well as animals, which are creations of God. No, this is not allowed in other places. Also, they're more solitary, you can see that here. There aren't masses of hundreds or thousands of people praying. Of course, they also pray through the day, but in their houses or private areas, I'm not sure where, but not at the mosques. They tell us some dates of the year, on certain holidays, they're full of people, but in general, there are tourists from Iran, and that's it, they're much more solitary mosques. Now, we'll enjoy the Iranian cuisine again. We are actually enjoying it a lot. They call them "elephant ears". Typical sweet... in these parts of the world. What we've seen so far is that they eat many types of birds, not just chicken, but others like quail, a lot of lamb, rice, legumes, dry fruits. Lots of fresh salads. It's a very varied diet. And when you go to a restaurant, it's not a three course meal, nor one typical dish, there are tens of dishes to choose from. At this restaurant we're tripping, not just from the food that's not here yet, but check this out, it's like a darn museum. I'm about to ask for a tourist guide instead of a waiter. And it's at these local places where you share with Iranian families where you can appreciate a famous characteristic of the Iranian people, which is their kindness. They have codes of conduct called Tarof, through which the salesman seems to reject your money. That is, you want to buy something and they're like "No, thank you." "No, easy, really. It's alright." It can happen up to 3 or 4 times. At last, they take your money humbly. That's the game they have when buying or selling something. Whether it's clothes, food, or a taxi. At first it's like they didn't do it for money, "I don't need the money, it's alright." The Iranian people... As the food starts coming in, they're famous for being one of the most welcoming people in the world, so I hope we can live it in person just like that. Like I said, it's a minced meat, like kofta in other countries, but it's lamb. It's almost always lamb. Fresh salad. Damn! Let's enjoy this. Check out where we are! We're waking up in Tehran. In the great capital of Iran, after three weeks of traveling the country, the coasts of the south, borders with Pakistan to the east, it has been a tremendous journey, we've been here close to a month. And we discovered many things. A country like we imagined, in some aspects, but much more modern in others. We've seen a country with potential, despite international sanctions, we've seen a country with industry, commerce. With many own brands in many products. We reserved these days in Tehran at the end to talk about political, social aspects, because we wanted to travel the country and see it with our own eyes to be able to talk with substance and not from what we hear on TV. Now we have part of that knowledge, so we'll see the great city of Tehran in our last day in Iran and talk about many things, so let's go. We came to one of the most iconic, largest parks here in Tehran, to take a breath, we were in the bazaar, the area with commerce and business, and it was full of people. We also wanted to talk about what we've seen this time in the country. About the everyday life of the people. Especially that, how is life in Iran really on the streets? We all know the crazy laws in Iran. It's forbidden to dance, women have to cover their heads by law. Especially since the protests, we've seen on TV many times, news about executions, people put in jail. We discovered that laws and life in public is one thing, and a very different one that is lived behind closed doors. Where they drink alcohol, where women don't cover their heads, this mostly happens in the city, in other areas, with traditional ethnic, religious minorities this doesn't happen, but in the city we can tell that modern times are arriving. But it's not like people start doing crazy things in the street, it's that this freedom inside their homes is being passed on it's slowly going out into the streets. For example, about the hiyab, it's mandatory to wear it, but, you can tell the difference between the two types of women, who wear them because of religion, because they have to cover their hair, or those who wear it because it's mandatory. Those who cover it a bit, wearing it over their necks, it's also valid to wear a snow hat, or a cap. We've also seen women with dyed hair or makeup a lot of nose jobs. Iran is the country with the most nose jobs in the world. Both men and women, but especially women, you see a lot. And what Irati says, they can wear the veil like her, some not at all, out in the streets with no problem. They wear make up, hairstyles, piercings. Piercings, tattoos, which is something that is supposedly forbidden, and it's quite normal seeing young people with this type of accessories. TATTOOS ARE FORBIDDEN, HOWEVER PIERCINGS AREN'T, BUT THEY'RE BADLY SEEN SOCIALLY We also learned about a homosexual community in Tehran, where behind closed doors they can live with certain liberties, so to speak, in their homes or going to hotels, for example. They told us that, which is a stark contrast with reality, where if they're caught in the act, consequence may even be execution. So, they live this clash which, even for us can be hard to understand. Between these conservative, strict laws and the reality they live, where in the streets they keep an appearance, but we start seeing signs of change. I think these are times of change, not because I say it or people like it, but because you can tell from the streets. We mostly mean the cities, because it's true that in remote villages you can tell they're more conservative. In those places, for example, I had to wear the veil properly, I couldn't touch men to greet them, I couldn't touch their hands, I also couldn't show my arms. And the other reality is that there's little entertainment in Iranian cities. Understanding that it's forbidden to dance in public, how can they go to a ballet or musical? There's little entertainment, we were told by younger people who miss it. A disco, or some place with music, but there's no alcohol, often the biggest entertainment is a cafeteria full of young people. Another thing I've noticed, because it's very visual, also, is the hatred of Iran towards the US and Israel. Not just as a nation or state, but the population itself. Not just signs, paintings or murals against the US that we can see, but, for example, every 4th of November since 1979, they celebrate or commemorate hostages of the Islamic revolution, the hostage situation that took place in the United States Embassy. Every year, on that day, thousands of people go out to the streets, they burn US flags, even at school, children and teachers sing "Down to USA, down to Israel!" "Death to America and the great Satan!" It's... shocking to see it so much in the entire population. I'll say that I couldn't leave Iran without seeing this building without climbing this tower, but I didn't know it existed. I just learned that we're in the 6th tallest building in the world. A telecommunications tower that goes up to 400, 500 meters. Now we're in a middle level where we can see the street at 300 meters, but it's amazing to have this view of the city. Although these protections... Check them out. And the view is incredible, the skyline, let me show you some neighborhoods. Residential houses, US style, Mountain areas, commerce and office areas, It's a very large city, really. Well, if we talk about surprise, I think this is the final one. We found a place with different height activities, obviously the best one is the bungee, they say it's one of the best in the world, I'll jump, since I was here, down from 300 meters. So let's go. Here we are, hanging head down at about 250 meters. I want to talk about one more thing before ending this report. And it's the question you're all probably asking by now. Is there democracy in Iran? Let's go by parts, because most of you probably don't know this, but here they have a supreme leader as well as a government. A government which is chosen by vote, elections are every four years, and a president can't be reelected more than twice in a row, the most they can serve is 8 years. This is crazy, because it's like in Spain. Also, recently, an Iranian politician claimed that it's clear there's democracy, proof of that is that they've chosen four presidents in the last 20 years. All this sounds great, but obviously it's not that simple. It's true that they vote, but the leaders select the fitting candidates beforehand. Hundreds of candidates might run, but barely even 10 pass that filter. Also, there are more filters. To run, you must have a college degree, you must defend the Islam republic and be a practicing Muslim. Except for three ethnic minorities, which can also be a part of politics in Iran. which are Jews, Zoroasters, and Armenians. It's also required to be in good health, and being between 35 and 75 years old. There are even more things. For example, laws approved in chambers can be shut down by the supreme leader. TV, for example, can analyze... from a critical vision, they can criticize the government. They also tell us that during protests, they brought protesters on TV. And they said what they didn't like about the government. You can talk badly about the government, but not the Supreme Leader. So I can talk about these objective facts about politics and society in this country, but I cannot draw conclusions like if I understood all this history of a complete nation in just a month, some weeks that I've been here. Truth is that I can't. The government, the social-politic model, in this country before the Islamic Republic was a puppet of the US, the eternal enemy. They also told us that the situation of ethnic, religious minorities is not good, but before the Islamic Republic it was even worse. So we always have to try to understand what people in each country think. You have to have lived the entire history of those nations to understand situations. But, like in all countries, there are things I like and don't. There are things I enjoy, and others I don't. In any country of the world, I don't like oppressive control. Those strict laws that forbid you to live freely. For me, dancing is freedom. We have to think why in Spain, Europe, we have Iran on TV everyday. However, they don't talk about other countries in the area where the situation could be the same or even worse. You won't see news of things that happen in Saudi Arabia, you won't see it about other countries in this region. The only difference is who is allied with the US and Europe, and who is on the other political side of the world. That's the reality, there are things I don't like here, but in Spain what we get is biased and purposeful. The purpose is to divide politically one side of the world and the other. And that's how I see it, I wondered about Iran on TV in Spain. The situation is what it is, but we don't know about other countries.