to begin tomorrow i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks for joining us eric always with you at the top of the hour and have a great weekend. mr curious. yourself for. the new. school and don't miss out. no cause for celebration world press freedom day on d w.

forty years after the islamic revolution iran is a country torn between the conservative influence of the clerics and a desire for change. you can go online and find out what's going on in the world in a matter of minutes you can expect the younger generation to stand still young people will move on if equipment. many are pushing back against the country's strict social and cultural laws. there's a new law that says we can only sing in persian but since we started out we've always aim to be international international. and many are testing their own limits in their bid for greater freedom. this is the first time we've done an offer that i'm going into the forest and spending the night away from home it's great p. m. . potentially wealthy country struggling with powerful outside enemies and its own

domestic problems. with iran is known to be rich in natural resources but the government can't even manage one island that didn't have that. land of contradiction at once unsettling and fritz taking the fall another mama granites have a bitter skin but there's sweet inside just like iran if you don't. we begin our journey in the capital tehran. home to a population of thirteen million it's the beating heart of the country. where media

fashion designer whose mission is to challenge iran's strict islamic dress code. needed to have a maid and that moves in the way people dress is like a living museum a marriage to the country that long after the islamic revolution there were only four colors black brown dark blue and gray though his article. two thousand five hundred years ago iranians want to give guests colorful fabrics as gifts given. but today i have to tolerate that i thought that in islam black is actually seen as an ugly nasty unpopular color. if they think it shouldn't actually be worn you know. i don't know how it came to this that they all.

mine was a money's aim is to return color to the streets of iran she scours the country collecting antique fabrics and reworks them as fresh and modern outfits. money is the ground ever really in fashion a celebrity. but even though she has an ambitious agenda she's also careful not to go too far. so her seamstresses take their headscarves off when they're indoors in front of the camera so money keeps her head covered she doesn't want to trouble with the authorities. now we are going to the parliament and the parliament is the place. that they. don't screen public think. we accompany the designer on her weekly shopping trip to one of the city's main bazaars. a couple. of

months. i came back to tehran from london before the islamic revolution in the one nine hundred seventy nine and at first i worked for a bank. there was a doorman. every morning he tipped his hat when we arrived and greet us very respectfully. after the revolution he ordered us women to stay in our rooms and work give it. back then i decided never to be employed somewhere but rather to be my own boss so that was a political story was an act but not really it was just a personal anecdote right with. the conflict over iran's nuclear program has left the country isolated. u.s. sanctions against tehran affect everyone the value of the iranian ryall against the dollar continues to decline making imported goods more expensive. prices are

exploding. in a misguided damn i would say medals a few weeks ago for six cents now they cost eighty cents. i hardly have any customers left women used to come to me and pay the equivalent of seven hundred euros for an evening gown i mean i don't have customers like that anymore and the poor vendors here they have even bigger problems. although they look good. for her latest project milo some money has partnered with a major management consultancy. her glossy fashion magazine lotus is now published in english as well as persian. it's sold in iran and a number of select cities worldwide. so money is chief editor her backer has an international client base. but this particular one i like it because it's about a culture of life style that is

a new thing and this wonderful lady was the pioneer in fashion and she's the first designer to have a run you know. catwalk a fashion show and you want permits by the government. well that was the money spent months negotiating with the authorities for permission to publish her designs in a magazine on sale overseas islamic fashion. close to comply with standards of modest dress. now is it twenty years. by telling. what color and that. is if you will of course. but the fight hasn't been won yet. the money recently signed a contract with an airline to design the flight attendants outfits elegant but by

no means figure defining. the designer complains that she's not allowed to send models down a runway that's even allowed in afghanistan she says. was amicable. i would be so happy ever had an opportunity to present my work in public like designers all over the world to organize completely normal runway shows so that the fashion world can get to know my work. even of hundreds of women see me as successful personally i have no sense of satisfaction. yet that. small step by small step mom has a money is fighting for reform not by opposing the regime but by securing its permission to show her work. the younger generation in iran has less patience they

abide by the rules but they find ways of carving out small slices of their own personal freedom. we meet up with some young iranians in no shah on the southern shore of the caspian sea some two hundred kilometers north of tehran. seven years ago i decided to start saving up to buy my own car when i worked in a cafe from nine in the morning until eleven in the evening then i'd work in a garage making car headlamps until four in the morning. all through the local and all food was kind of. like. who are you getting me to do i came across these groups of people on instagram who do off roading i was really intrigued and started thinking about doing it myself there wasn't anyone around here that i knew of organizing off road adventures. did

you know the cathy needs you the hard to go. jump she'd and his girlfriend check i hadn't been together long they invited us along on one of their off road clubs tours and give us permission to film. it's brave of them to go on camera and for shy guy to let yourself be filmed without a headscarf. like i think the wall about it for young people getting to know each other over whether they're in a lot of or just a friend so this is a perfect spot with. a book about a corner and was going to. think that you deny usually meet up and go for a drive. sometimes just for fifteen minutes or half an hour. every two weeks we in a cafe have now and then we meet more regularly but we've never spent more than two hours together and. that would be me only.

if you don't know shar is a student city and popular with tourists fleeing the stress of tehran. here in the north the climate is mild year afresh and the view of the mountain forests are spectacular. the club members have invested a lot of money in their off road vehicles to them off roading is more than a hobby it's a taste of freedom. they get together once or twice a month then head out to the countryside. sugaree if father is considered a martyr he died of wounds sustained in the iran iraq war. her mother and her brothers are strict with her they don't know that she's spending the weekend with her boyfriend and. i am most proud that i know

this just as once told my brother the truth about where i was going but it was no good. i'm forced to lie. of course i'm worried i'll be found out. but you know normal everyday life is no fun. the worry makes this all the more exciting it makes me enjoy the trip all the more. feeling like you need to be secretive when you want to have a good time is actually cool. this is the first time she has come on a trip with me so i want to be as great as possible the first trip is important i want the first impression to be good if it was. still. going to be. all these young people were born

after the islamic revolution they've never known another iraq they're well educated and many of them have relatives who live abroad they know what's going on in the world at the very least from surfing the internet jumpseat and should i met online exchanging photos and phone numbers on instagram now and then the government blocks social media platforms so young people take it in stride. time to check out everyone uses social media in iran we couldn't survive a single day without it everyone knows how to get the apps you need to unlock sites that have been blocked so you can get back to surfing because it matters so much to the sad. socializing in iran usually happens behind closed doors or away from prying eyes

like at this campsite deep in the woods. religious police raids used to be commonplace these days the regime mostly leaves people in peace within their own four walls. and these young people don't mind being filmed they say we just want to do what young people all over the world do it doesn't mean we don't love our country. publicly by the vatican it's terrible that most documentaries show iran in such a black and white terms all despair and suffering and veiled women each other you'd think we lived in a communist system and total darkness. has never show that people in iran a happy to mind and enjoy life despite the restrictions we live with and he's still . not over. the fact. that they're taking a risk that they're willing to live with the consequences for the sake of their

personal freedom. that the. writer for. the. next day a few more pictures before they head back home to post on instagram for their friends and to show the world that there is another iran it's not an easy place to live but it's their hope. that i am one hundred and

if i walk down the. street like this even women would come up to me and complain it's not just the regime that strict black not even the police. if a woman saw me in public without a headscarf then she come up to me and ask why i was going about like that oh wow that's the culture that developed after the islamic revolution. no one is happy with the way things are at the moment. sometimes when we're together we joke with our elders that it's their fault. and they say it's true but this is not the way things were supposed to turn out or that. the listeners would feel samantha so. the club is already planning its next offroad tour the next escape from everyday life it's not easy for young people in iran to live their dreams. our next stop is mashad

a bustling city in the northeast of the country one of iran's most significant centers of religious and political power. it's a public holiday the anniversary of the martyrdom of a mom raising a descendent of the islamic prophet muhammad and the eighth shiite him on. the shrine is managed by an extremely wealthy religious foundation an institution that wields a lot of power not only in mashad but also on the regime in tehran. was . i. the. crowds of pilgrims mark the public holiday by visiting the shrine every year sees some twenty seven million devout muslims visit mashad this conservative reactionary city is an unlikely home for a lively underground rock music scene but as we find out appearances can be deceiving.

his soundproof too small sound studio in his parent's house to make sure the outside world doesn't hear what goes on in here. for me being a heavy metal musician in mashad means living in a dead end if so little of everything i do i do purely for myself. it's not for public consumption. i only do it because of the pressure i feel. this is bob but that reinforces my belief in what i'm doing. if it weren't for social media we wouldn't be here now we musicians are all connected via the internet. before i met the others on facebook i felt very lonely and lost. but when i realized there were many others in my position i realized i wasn't alone on the contact we have with one another and also

a sense of envy and competition is what spurs us on. a jam session with the band out of nowhere in the basement of a tenement block on the city's outskirts someone always keeps watch outside in case the police show up but down here it looks like a band practice anywhere in the world. i don't really if you play a well i play c. is that ok for you. there are thousands of rock musicians here in mashad many come from middle class families like a. religious hard liners reviled the western rock they play. and they see heavy metal as the devil's work.

bill money was intuition lots of people think that metal heads worship the devil and that we're satanists of course we're not it and they think our music is aggressive and incitement to violence and from all that's completely wrong because when i look at us metal heads are the most peaceful people you can imagine so. but people have these fixed ideas which is a real shame of one. behavior as i've seen lots of bands have their work censored for the authorities tell them that if they want to be approved they need to modify what they're doing i see that happening all the time but in the end the artist doesn't feel it's his own song anymore and doesn't want to play it is wrong during.

our next meeting is with razor go harry who's the same age as and the show. he was just a boy when he decided he wanted to be a cleric. days ago he wears the black turban of the same descendants of the prophet mohammed. he's a cool a servant of the holy shrine of the memories of who works in the soup kitchen and helps visitors to the mosque. going to join friends and i are here to provide everyone who visits with a place to find rest and something to eat because. the pilgrims have come a long way and are thirsty and often hungry. they come to my shot out of love and devotion to him on raising. we live here i see it is my duty to serve these people as a could. just call them. on

the anniversary of the memories as martyrdom has gripped by religious fervor his followers engage in archaic rituals flagellating themselves with chains to mimic his suffering. young men carry the heavy ensign of the. memories are staggering under its weight. that diana was going on was even if these martyrs are dead that we can reach out to them which if they are here and that there is much we can ask of the a mom's great spirits is that good to give and they can fulfill our requests because they rule over the universe that means that boy got on what it was on that is what the shia

believe in the found water they had the mission edge over many of us come to the a mom's mausoleum to reach out to his spirit and to show respect to his anger about the nature and death. rays ago harry lives in studies in the a mom raise a shrine complex. it encompasses a mosque and the muslim seven courtyards a seminary and islamic university libraries and seminar rooms. i go my son is going to us when we are unable to change the minds of young people who do not share our faith then we organize events are specifically for them so as not to lose contact with them. we offer them jobs taking photos or video recording events or working as drivers we do it to make sure we keep in touch with them i'm pretty sure that even highly be a vast bag out of a ship. but don't we arrange

a meeting between reza go hurry the young cleric and under the rock musician. they're both twenty seven they both grew up in mashad. but the two in have a completely different worlds and couldn't be more different still they talk to each other as openly as the constraints of iranian society own level. there's. all sorts of musicians perform here in the park issue but when we apply for a comment we're time down and usually on the grounds of the way we look because the authorities think we'll intimidate people what's your opinion which. sometimes you might meet a cleric who doesn't even know all the rules of his own religion let alone how musicians such as yourself think. and that's the problem we know far too little about one another so there's instant animosity and. that is one reason why there are so many hard rock and heavy metal musicians in mashad is the pressure we face. i'm always being told what i'm not allowed to do i need to write songs to

express how i feel and so do many others. and that's the basic principle of rock and metal more pressure there is the more explosive the reaction. to the music is rooted in the human problems social suffering these problems can't be ignored. i can't just grabbed on to shape by the collar and order him to get over these problems. that's not how it works. for the sharpness all i agree are not many like raised. another cleric would have had very different things to say what's wrong with this the idea that we might all sit down together and talk about ways to improve things is absurd. given the current circumstances it just wouldn't happen. show. at the fault in. the two men are unlikely to resolve their differences and will most likely never

meet again. that's and. you know i'm sure i won't spend the rest of my life in mashad at one point i'll leave but that doesn't mean i'll forget my home i'll come back one day and work in the cultural sector in music or something similar. maybe i'll open a music school. but only once i've gained experience elsewhere i will. show it is a city steeped in both religious devotion and social despair a city that at once repels its children and embraces them.

who leave mashad in the north and head south to homos island in the persian gulf. u.s. sanctions against iran have a special significance here it's a place where the country's international problems play out alongside its domestic once. more i'm going to run for most was once the most important port along the maritime stretch of the silk road the island is on the threshold between east and west and used to be beautiful and wealthy but whoever controlled hormones island controlled the seas the trade routes from india over africa and the suez canal.

ronnie's sings of love and suffering he grew up in poverty on homos island then left and went to tehran where he launched his successful career as a musician. but yet. today he and his band are famous in iran but he hasn't forgotten where he came from and often returns home to the persian gulf where the arabian peninsula feels nearer than tehran. here the many cultural influences of the countries along the silk road are still in evidence. their women wear color and the traditional face masks if you live in the coastal regions. but these people are poor they feel forgotten by their government and ignored by the rest of the world you see. razor uses his celebrity to organize aid projects here on homos island enlisting the help of other artists from across the country.

to the city to go we have always been very active here but it's not about self promotion we've organized cultural festivals to attract more tourism to harm us to provide the locals with an income so they can happen up to eat so that they don't have to resort to smuggling and risking their lives. riza takes us to meet a friend of his family a fisherman. his generation sacrificed their youth their families for this country and they lived through the revolution and the iran iraq war when they came home they wanted to work so they did what they'd always done they worked as fishermen and traders. you're more you don't you're told your. job to rock mine is fifty as a soldier in the one nine hundred eighty s. he was the victim of

a chemical attack along with thousands of others he still suffers from the consequences today. because his medical file was lost he can't claim any kind of state support. that. if i hadn't been wounded in the fighting there would have been a prisoner of war i would be better off now then i would at least get a monthly pension. the state would have given me a house my children would have work instead we have nothing the children are freed prisoners of war have senior positions we don't we're doing the same hard work we did before. abdul rahman family are preparing a special dinner for razor and the visitors from german television. because it's such a special occasion the women are cooking over the wood fire outside but it's a gas stove in the kitchen. they've served up a feast spicy rice with lentils and prawns fried fish and fresh salad.

with a day here in the form of those we're sitting on the biggest natural gas reserves in the world but the people here have nothing gas from formalises transported to carom on a muted tehran and top breeze moment the whole country gets gas from formulas you know but here on the island there aren't even any. i ply ends people like up dollar a month myself and others are forced to take gas cylinders to filling stations and carry them home on our backs so that the women can cook. was not going to scar you when they were funny. as children they would always run off when their mothers wanted to send them to get gas. the cylinders were so heavy.

cloud oh no heroes events of hormuz the price of gas is going up. there is none for now please do not knock. sometimes there's no gas for a whole month if the weather is stormy and the ships can't sail it's especially bad in winter. when we're here that's what life is like here. didn't go for. bush and no gas but at least there's time to chat and grumble about the sorry state of affairs. to. have to run on works day and night to ensure he catches enough to feed his family.

his son can't get married he tells us because the family can't afford to pay for the wedding. and he has no idea what will happen when he's too old to work so why not a lot of fishing has taken a turn for the worse in recent years the seas are over fish because three years ago the chinese were awarded industrial fishing licenses fish and shrimp stocks have fallen dramatically as a result. not the right one couldn't live from fishing alone so he began ferrying goats and fabrics to the arabian peninsula and smuggling cigarettes back to iran. eventually he was caught and served a lengthy jail sentence for smuggling they arrest a few poor people and then brand everyone in the south as smugglers of course smuggling is an issue but now there are sanctions against the oil trade and life will become even harder people here need to look after themselves and think about the future we have to come up with something. big was

a wonderful example. but fishing is the only job he's ever known. he only sells the best of the catch and keeps the rest for his family. today he sells just two hundred fifty grams of king prawns. today was terrible. i've even had to pay for fuel out of my own pocket. but still i'm grateful that i was on. wall idea and when they go if the government would pay a bit more attention to this region now that a miracle could happen. i'm serious. people here in the south are very hospitable despite the poverty. there is amazing heritage here and they look after it well. that's something that's wonderful and rare. joy.

but the iranian government is more interested in the strait of hormuz a short sea corridor between iran and oman of major strategic significance. one third of global oil production passes through it every day. shipments that iran could block if it so wished. the. decades of isolation and the controversy over iran's nuclear program have also left their mark on isfahan the most popular tourist site in iran. the historic city on the edge of the desert is known as the pearl of persia. one hundred square is unesco world heritage site and draws visitors from all over the world.

the carpet store owned by the huggy family is a local landmark. packing for me. and we've been decorating our floors with carpets for centuries. but they're more than decorative. carpets play a big role in our lives on babies are born on them and we sleep on them when the. life unfolds on persian rugs even if these days we sit on chairs and eat and tables . before the revolution this where was teeming with tourists far as the eye could see it was a bustling place but it's not like that anymore i don't want to be negative but i have happy memories of those times i wish things would change. in the past famous people from all over the world would visit the square with their entourages. they

would put barricades up around the square and there would be public celebrations. nothing like that has happened for ages. i wish the country would open its doors to the world again. the huggy family has been hand knotting persian carpets for one hundred twenty years their customers have included kings and presidents. phase older huggy is a master of his craft before he begins making a carpet he first sketches a design on paper. his workshop is just around the corner from where now seventy six has worked together with mr for the car for fifty years they've been friends since their school days. before the carpet is not it the designers create what's called a cartoon

a sort of rugged map on paper. each square represents a single not. we used paint and brushes and calculate each individual not to do. we mark exactly how many knots and which color will be not in a row. the secret of a good carpet is mathematics with but. next door the next generation is hard at work they're not using paper and paint brushes but touch screens and digital pens. sons are also carpet designers carpet making has traditionally been a male dominated industry but he's also training a young woman. this way color can be

corrected with one simple click but it's still meticulous work. even on the computer each individual not has to be marked. whether the designs are drawn up on paper or the computer screen they end up desexed it into pieces and stuck on wood to be used as a reference by the rather daughters in the workshop. read . this one will be forty square metres. eight by five. it's a work of art. because it's a work of art i can't name a price. it's only when it's finished and is appraised by experts that a price will be set. it's one of a pair the first is already finished. and the women have been working on them

for two years. i think they'll need another seven or eight months. into court and so that when if you want to be successful you must be creative. that's what i tell young people that you know that's what i tell my students here is a very talented she'll be qualifying as a master crafts woman soon and that in the good of the. twentieth never david in family i grew up in a family of doctors lawyers and engineers to begin with they didn't want me to study art but once i graduated from school all of a sudden they let me later i found out that my grandmother had argued my case she was very interested in carpet she died when i was still in my first year of my studies in the us. i think of her every day when i work here i count on one housemate.

faisal hugging he has three sons they all studied abroad computer technology architecture art and design. but they all came home to carry on the family tradition they learned from their father and develop their own styles these days their designs are on sale in the shop the most valuable rug is worth thirty thousand euros and was made by faisal had to give himself it boasts one hundred forty knots per square metre and is made of fine silk it's beautiful but he hasn't found a buyer. by the in quite a way that all after president trump imposed sanctions sixty percent of the people in this industry lost their jobs at the club we're no longer allowed to export our carpets and we can't trade abroad and. mr trump thinks he's fighting our government

but all he still. it is destroying the livelihoods of normal people. and then he's so proud of himself and what he thinks he's achieving. a result of hugging he says thinking about iran's economic plight makes him sad. he goes out to his pomegranate orchard whenever he can it revives his spirits here he can recover his optimism for his children and his country might one day have a brighter future for. the pomegranate is a wonderful. look how close the seeds are to one another. just like the people of iran with pomegranate is sweet inside but the skin is bitter like our current economic situation. but it's important we stick together and really we are very warm hearted be able to this many.

los. polar. e-coli africa a town under threat most of whom you love to take the song lead me up to keep it nice i move for a good gust of wind is a. move one move at a different climate change and industrialization have battered barney in synagogue a web documentary shows how local people have been affected. in thirty minutes.

how can we free the pacific ocean from plastic waste. our young dutchman is pointing the way the zip codes for a few world full of plastic trash floating off the coast of california is ocean freeing up system is like a garbage truck for the high seas the maneuver is not without its risks. will his mission succeed. tomorrow today ninety minutes on d w. sometimes books are more exciting than real life. preparing to marry. what if there's no escape. church or list underachievement must read.

this is e w news live from berlin two people die after cyclon found me slams into the east coast of india and the cycle has brought torrential rains and violent with it is set to pass over the homes of one hundred million people we will go live to our correspondent also coming up on the world's press freedom day do you need a version.