Tehran served as our home base for the three weeks we reported from Iran. We learned quickly that Iran's capital city is truly a city of contrasts.
With more than 12 million people, Tehran is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and is as thoroughly modern as any major Western capital. A construction boom is taking place on nearly every corner as new buildings rise up in the sprawling urban hub, located at the foot of the Alborz mountain range in northern Iran.
To say that Tehran's streets are packed with cars is a massive understatement; the gridlock from traffic on the city's busy streets and highways, and the pollution it produces, is immediately one of the most visible — and frustrating — aspects of the congested city.
Even though the U.S. has imposed various sanctions on Iran for more than a quarter century since the student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the city has certainly managed to keep up with the latest businesses and technology from the West.
Advertising for Sony and Samsung and other electronics companies cover billboards on nearly every corner, and the shining displays of cell phones and digital cameras in storefronts and malls along Tehran's Jamhouri Ave. almost rivals consumer culture in the U.S.
But while some billboards and bridge underpasses are plastered with Nokia cell phone ads, the influence of the Islamic Revolution is clear on the pillars of other bridges painted bright blue and yellow with verses from the Quran. Dozens of other building surfaces feature tributes to suicide bombers and martyrs from the decade-long Iran-Iraq War, which killed some 300,000 Iranians.
And no American visitor to Tehran can miss the overt displays of anti-American propaganda that dot the Tehran skyline — massive murals featuring "Down With the USA" and "Death to America" in English cover the faces of major buildings. The outer wall of the former site of the U.S. Embassy in downtown Tehran is one long-running display of anti-American murals depicting the last quarter-century of hostility between the U.S. and Iran.
But the thing that makes Tehran truly unique is the people who fill the congested streets. Anti-American propaganda may still be a staple of Tehran's skyline, but the murals on display are so ubiquitous and have been up for so many years that they have lost their meaning.
One worker at our hotel told us, "We don't see them anymore." And while the sight of American cameras can sometimes elicit a staged "Death to America" chant from a crowd leaving Friday prayers at one of Tehran's many mosques, the vast majority of Iranians we came across ranged from indifferent to our presence to openly friendly.
Tehran's massive youth population (some 70 percent of Iranians are under the age of 30) gives the city an even more surprisingly Western feel. They seem more distracted by the frivolous and the inconsequential — cell phones, parties and the latest fashion trends — than concerned with advancing the revolution their parents began, or pushing back against the ayatollahs that run the country and the restrictions placed on their lives.
While Islamic law obliges all women to cover their hair and some wear the traditional full black chador, most young women in Tehran are as conscious of designer clothes and accessories as any Western teenager. The balance between tradition and modernity is a constant dance in Tehran.
One scene from the streets of Tehran that eluded our cameras serves as a microcosm of sorts for the contradictions inherent in Iranian society. As they drove down the highway from the airport, Ted and our crew saw a sight that turned their heads — two young Iranian girls wearing inline skates clutching the doorframes of a car as the driver sped along at high speed.
Although they were breaking every traffic rule in the book, these young women made sure to clinch the ends of their scarves in their teeth to make sure the head covering stayed on firmly as they zipped along the road. As Ted noted at the sight, even with all the youth and modernity in Tehran, some red lines established by the Islamic Revolution just can't be crossed.
