Iran: Rap, blogs and the political mix

Sixteen years after visiting Iran to report for BBC's Panorama, and just as President Barack Obama makes overtures to the Islamic world, Jane Corbin returned on the eve of presidential elections.

She found a country with a burgeoning underground music scene, a love of cosmetic surgery and an internet savvy young electorate eager to make their own mark 30 years on from the Islamic Revolution.

After so many years, the Tehran I discovered was a capital of contrasts, reflecting a true - and deepening - divide in this nation of 72 million people.
People here told me that while they remain committed to the values of the Islamic Revolution, they are hungry for all that modern life has to offer.
On the streets, many push the limits of Islamic dress code, despite the lurking presence of the morality police, at the ready to arrest those deemed to have gone too far.
At the moment, that fashion is for brightly coloured silk headscarves and big sunglasses. Instead of conservative black head coverings and flowing robes, many women today are sporting a shock of dyed blonde hair pushed out provocatively from under their headscarves.
The trends extend to the popularity of plastic surgery, with surprising numbers of people - both women and men - walking the streets with post-surgical bandages on their faces.
Tehran, it turns out, is the plastic surgery capital of the Middle East.
Perhaps even more surprising in a country where homosexuality is banned and gay people can be hanged, sex change operations are sanctioned by religious decree.
It is with this younger, more liberal Iran that Britain, America and Europe hope to connect. This nation is one of young people - 60% of the population are under 30 - a reality that worries religious and political authorities.
Controlling this post-revolution generation is not easy.
Tight lid
The conservative government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tries hard to keep a tight lid on the country.
Indeed, it is one of the hardest places to film and to find people willing to open up and tell you what they really think - especially when it comes to politics. Repression remains and while there is some freedom of expression, saying the wrong thing can - and does -land Iranians in jail.
But thanks to the youthful make-up of today, there is also a thriving underground scene of musicians, artists and bloggers. These are the people who are changing Iranian society in ways which are beyond the reach of those who control the political arena.