Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:02Four years have passed since Mahsa Amini was killed in the custody of the
00:00:05morality police, and although the hijab law in Iran has not
00:00:09officially changed, these days some women appear with optional
00:00:12coverings in public places and even some official
00:00:16ceremonies. Has the Woman, Life, Freedom movement
00:00:19ended, or does that movement continue
00:00:23in other forms? Paria Manzarzadeh has taken a
00:00:26look at the transformation of women's status in these four years.
00:00:36Four years ago, this image of two women without mandatory hijab
00:00:40in a cafe in southern Tehran was a media
00:00:43bombshell. Dunia Rat was arrested for this
00:00:46photo.
00:00:51But other women also
00:00:52joined them.
00:00:55From familiar names in Iranian cinema to athletes and
00:00:58other women.
00:01:24The spark for this movement was the killing of Mahsa Zhina Amini in
00:01:28the custody of the morality police.
00:01:32The publication of images of Mahsa's family in the hospital and
00:01:36the widespread slogan of Woman, Life, Freedom just two days
00:01:39after Life, Freedom, and this became
00:01:43the starting point of protests that were evident from the beginning to be
00:01:46different from previous
00:01:48protests.
00:01:52From the dust of its
00:01:53streets
00:01:56, the mullah must leave.
00:02:00Many protesters took to the streets, but the intensity
00:02:03of the repression was such that some human rights organizations called
00:02:07it a crime against
00:02:09humanity.
00:02:11The funerals and fortieth-day ceremonies of the killed protesters
00:02:15became another starting point for renewed protest and
00:02:19again repression and violence. Seeking justice, families
00:02:22came forward. Mandalik Hayki Chawkarawe
00:02:24and Hoshiarn, D Zanian دریاییکی خوشتر و
00:02:28باشتریش هەیە.
00:02:40and windows were opened to the world of teenagers and young people.
00:02:53Names that became
00:02:54hashtags.
00:02:58and the support of different sections of society for the protesters. We cannot
00:03:02and should not sit quietly
00:03:05and silently, and every day witness
00:03:09another Armita, another Mahsa, and
00:03:12another dear child sacrificed for
00:03:16not wearing
00:03:17a headscarf.
00:03:21The support of the Sunni Imam of Zahedan, along with the people
00:03:25of that city, who created a bloody Friday, brought women's
00:03:29demands to the football field. In many major
00:03:32cities outside the country, every week, gatherings were held in support
00:03:36of the protesters in Iran.
00:03:39A wave started on Instagram and Twitter where some women said
00:03:42that from tomorrow they would walk in the streets without headscarves and scarves, and they asked
00:03:46men to please be supportive and not
00:03:50stare. Really, now that after 4 years I see that women
00:03:54appear in most places with the clothing they want, I am more
00:03:57sure that rights are to be taken.
00:04:00And certainly, every right has a cost, which the women of this period of Iranian
00:04:03history were able to overcome.
00:04:07How beautiful. Really, seeing
00:04:10your beautiful hair not only does not provoke us, but it also gives
00:04:14us a very good feeling. We hope
00:04:17for days when we get used to seeing these
00:04:20scenes.
00:04:23In these four years, the Iranian government has tried in various ways to deal
00:04:27with women who appear without headscarves in public places.
00:04:36From morality patrols in the streets to impounding private
00:04:39cars, cash fines, threats of
00:04:43deprivation of administrative services, blocking SIM cards, and
00:04:46closing social media accounts. Well, the events that
00:04:50happened, and we were also parents from the 560s generation, and the closed
00:04:54and closed society regarding hijab
00:04:57and the silly reasons they gave and put us
00:05:01under a lot of pressure, caused us to stand behind
00:05:05our children when this movement happened, even though many of
00:05:08us perhaps did not believe in being unveiled. Four
00:05:11years after Mahsa's movement, the face of cities, especially
00:05:15large cities, has
00:05:16changed.
00:05:23That young friend has come.
00:05:26has come. Your
00:05:30white face, your black hair.
00:05:33You see, certainly Mahsa's movement was important, but not
00:05:37everything should be attributed to this movement. Regarding hijab,
00:05:41a part of the government also disagreed with the morality police
00:05:44and bothering people about their clothing. This issue is also seen among Iranian military forces,
00:05:48who are mostly young themselves and had no
00:05:52desire to bother women about their clothing. That is,
00:05:55it was not merely the people's demand, because if it was only the people's demand,
00:05:59inflation would not have occurred or the government would have
00:06:01collapsed. Since Mahsa's uprising, it seems
00:06:05that the hijab situation has improved, but no law has been passed
00:06:09for optional hijab. As a woman, I am still obliged
00:06:12to wear a headscarf and even a chador in government offices, or my photo
00:06:16on my national ID card, passport, and driver's license must
00:06:20be with hijab. When verifying my identity for a banking app, I even have
00:06:23to wear a hijab at home, and many other things. Since Mahsa
00:06:27Amini's killing, Iran has experienced two wars and witnessed
00:06:30the killing of protesters in January 2023.
00:06:34In the shadow of restrictions and pressures resulting from social,
00:06:38political, and economic crises, Iranian women
00:06:41continue to pursue their demands, and of course, inequalities
00:06:44between women and men still
00:06:47persist. Legally too, there are many challenges
00:06:51and obstacles for women. From divorce laws,
00:06:54custody, inheritance to permission to leave the country
00:06:58and the right to ride a motorcycle.
00:07:02I believe that our
00:07:05approach has no choice but to
00:07:08change. Well, the government is resisting
00:07:12as much as it can. Well, the people
00:07:15are also resisting because the
00:07:18continuation of these laws, these
00:07:21policies, means much larger than
00:07:24laws, policies, programs,
00:07:27approaches, and attitudes
00:07:30that the Islamic Republic
00:07:33has in various fields, including
00:07:36women's issues, no longer
00:07:39work.
00:07:41I asked Hanne Naim, a Member of the European Parliament from Germany,
00:07:45as someone who has followed the Iranian women's movement for years,
00:07:49how she assesses their current
00:07:52situation.
00:07:57The Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran,
00:08:00which started four years ago, four years ago with
00:08:03the death of Mahsa Amini, transformed Iran
00:08:07because women and men and the entire
00:08:11society stood against a repressive
00:08:14government. This movement also changed the world's view of
00:08:17Iran. Now the whole world knows how repressive
00:08:21this government is. Despite all this, the Iranian
00:08:24government is still in power, and the information
00:08:27we get from inside Iran is that despite
00:08:31the government's efforts for censorship and cutting
00:08:34the internet, we see that repression has also
00:08:38increased. We see many people
00:08:41who went to the streets, not only in the
00:08:44Woman, Life, Freedom movement, but even in the January protests, they were
00:08:48imprisoned, some of them were executed.
00:08:51Now we see strict laws enacted against
00:08:54women. We see that accusations of espionage
00:08:57and other pretexts for repression through
00:09:00the government have made the rulers
00:09:04more hardened. But young people, women,
00:09:08are powerfully resisting this government, and the government
00:09:12is using violence against them. What we saw in
00:09:15the January protests was the tip of the iceberg. But in any case,
00:09:18the protests continue. And in any case,
00:09:21everyone outside the country talks about this issue and tries to
00:09:25shed light on this dictatorship and help
00:09:28the efforts of Iranian women and men for
00:09:32freedom.
00:09:35I also asked Ms. Naim to explain how, in a situation
00:09:39where diplomatic relations are at their lowest level, she intends to
00:09:42pursue cases of repression in Iran.
00:09:44The Iranian
00:09:49regime wants to commit massacres in
00:09:52the dark, it wants to suppress in the dark,
00:09:56and it wants the world to look the other way. They clearly
00:09:59demonstrated this in the worst way in the January protests,
00:10:03when thousands of their own people were killed and the internet
00:10:06was shut down so they could control the existing
00:10:10narratives. That's why it's important that we can support
00:10:14those who are not against the government, those who want to shed
00:10:18light on the regime's dictatorship. We must talk
00:10:21about the regime's repressions. Let the
00:10:25images and documents come out. We in the European
00:10:29Union, in the European Parliament, must talk about this issue.
00:10:32We have seen in the past that when some cases
00:10:35are raised at a high
00:10:39level, and these cases are set in motion, sometimes
00:10:42it will cause the Iranian government to show
00:10:45some tolerance in executions and repressions. This itself can
00:10:49provide more protection for those who fight against this government.
00:10:52It is important that we continue this work.
00:10:55As I said, we should not limit ourselves to these
00:10:58actions. We also need to adopt some political measures, including
00:11:02imposing severe sanctions to ensure that
00:11:06members of this regime cannot engage in
00:11:09transnational repressions. And also
00:11:13give asylum visas to those who fight
00:11:16against this government. Therefore, all measures must go
00:11:19hand in hand.
00:11:23That was Hanne Naim, the German representative in the European Parliament.
00:11:27But in Iran, according to reports, buying a normal
00:11:30set of stationery for each student in
00:11:34Iran costs up to 15 million
00:11:37Tomans. The head of the stationery union said that most
00:11:40writing supplies have increased in price by about
00:11:4450%. Poverty and inequality have prevented
00:11:47many students from continuing their education. Fari Nasmi has more
00:11:51details.
00:11:55This September, for many, doesn't smell like school. Economic
00:11:58difficulties have caused some students to either drop
00:12:02out of school or attend school with difficulty and concern
00:12:05due to the high costs of stationery. This
00:12:09September, for many, smells of poverty.
00:12:12This year, the stationery market is not very
00:12:16booming. News agencies have estimated the increase
00:12:19in stationery prices to be several times higher than last
00:12:23year. This compares the cost of a stationery
00:12:26shopping basket in September 2024 with
00:12:30September 2025. A regular backpack in
00:12:34September 2024 was 1.2 million Tomans. This
00:12:37year it's 3.8 million Tomans. A medium-sized
00:12:41pencil case was 300,000 Tomans last year, this year 500,000
00:12:44Tomans. 8 100-page notebooks, which were 280,000
00:12:47Tomans last year, are sold for 3.2 million
00:12:51Tomans this year. 6 notebooks of 60 and 80 pages last
00:12:59year. A set of erasers, sharpeners, and rulers was 150,000
00:13:03Tomans last year, this year 600,000 Tomans. A set of
00:13:07colored pencils and painting tools also increased from 300,000
00:13:10Tomans last year to 700,000 Tomans this
00:13:13year. Some media estimate the cost of stationery,
00:13:17shoes, and clothes to be around 15 to 17 million
00:13:21Tomans. For some families who have
00:13:25enrolled their children in private schools,
00:13:28tuition fees are also added. The tuition fees of some
00:13:31of these private schools are between 150 and 170
00:13:35million Tomans. The cost of non-profit schools is several
00:13:38times this. Most stationery products have increased
00:13:42by 50%, but depending on the
00:13:45type of goods and their dependence on some raw
00:13:49materials that have become expensive, this is higher. Between 50 and
00:13:52100, I can tell you. and the biggest price
00:13:55increase we've seen is in cellulose products like
00:13:59notebooks and paper, which had at least a 100%
00:14:02increase. There are a number of businesses that, because they are overcharging,
00:14:05don't provide receipts. The government has promised to control
00:14:09prices. A normal pen was 130,000 Tomans in one place,
00:14:13and 50,000 Tomans in another. Why should there be an 80,000
00:14:16Toman overcharge? Meanwhile, stationery sellers also say
00:14:20that the increase in raw material prices and the rise in goods
00:14:24prices have put them in a difficult situation. On this side,
00:14:27the price of goods has gone up so much that some
00:14:31goods cannot be sold to customers. I mean, you really can't say
00:14:34this item is this price. But families
00:14:38bear the brunt of the pressure. I am a
00:14:41mother who went to buy stationery for my
00:14:44children. I have two school-aged children. Look,
00:14:48I bought stationery for my child. This is all it is. The stationery
00:14:52I bought for her cost four.
00:15:01What are you doing? I bought this for the officials. What are you doing that we have
00:15:04to buy this amount of stationery at this price for our
00:15:08children? And many are forced to drop out of
00:15:11school. Last year, about one million Iranian students dropped
00:15:15out of school. Many of them were forced to work at young
00:15:18ages. As prices increase, more students
00:15:22face problems in continuing their education. The
00:15:28challenge of education in Iran becomes more widespread and deeper. Farin Hasemi, BBC.
00:15:32سی.
00:15:35Tahsin Mustafa, teachers.
00:15:43Welcome, Mr. Mustafa. You
00:15:45were a teacher, an educator.
00:15:49Do you have any personal experience of a student
00:15:52being forced to drop out of school due to
00:15:56poverty? Greetings
00:15:58and respect to you and your dear viewers. Yes,
00:16:02in the forefront of educational
00:16:05work, we have repeatedly encountered cases, for example, female
00:16:09students for whom uniforms were mandatory, but families
00:16:13were unable to buy those
00:16:16uniforms, and these students dropped out. The news reached the school,
00:16:20and school officials, teachers, and
00:16:23benevolent individuals provided clothes for those students. But many
00:16:27times these
00:16:29things remained hidden, and no one could help. We
00:16:33later found out about numerous cases where students were
00:16:37unable to attend school due to being unable to pay
00:16:41tuition or buy clothes or school bags or school
00:16:44mantos. And such
00:16:47cases, we have seen them in past years, not that
00:16:51inflation has been so runaway. In the 80s
00:16:55and 70s, we frequently witnessed this.
00:16:58Well, we know that, after all, high prices and poverty
00:17:02also affect the quality of education.
00:17:06What effects have you witnessed that this issue has had on
00:17:09the process of children's
00:17:11education?
00:17:14In education, we have a discussion where we say learning is a need, a
00:17:17self-motivated need. And before self-motivated needs, according to Maslow's
00:17:20hierarchy, we have a series of drives, which are innate needs. Until those
00:17:24innate needs are met, a person cannot reach
00:17:27self-motivated needs, and the prerequisite for learning is proper
00:17:31nutrition. In our school, the problem
00:17:34we always faced, and in recent years it has turned into a
00:17:37disaster, is the disaster of student malnutrition.
00:17:41We rarely had a day
00:17:44when we didn't see a student fainting in the school
00:17:47line, and the reason for all these fainting
00:17:51spells and unconsciousness of students
00:17:55was not eating breakfast and improper nutrition.
00:17:58We always discussed in education
00:18:01that proper learning requires a
00:18:04specific amount of calories, and this amount
00:18:31many people in society, the poor class of society, did not
00:18:35have the basic facilities to be able to use
00:18:38education as a miracle worker and break that cycle of poverty.
00:18:42They couldn't enter the middle and upper levels and
00:18:46managerial positions of society to be able to change the
00:18:49situation of society. In fact, for several
00:18:53past decades, we must look at the history of education.
00:18:57In several past decades, we have witnessed
00:19:00this cycle of educational inequality, and unfortunately,
00:19:04today, in wartime conditions and in circumstances
00:19:37children experience this for this reason, which does not cause them to
00:19:41become disinterested in continuing their education and
00:19:44education actually becomes less important
00:19:47and children look for ways to
00:19:50earn more income
00:19:53rather than pursuing education.
00:19:56Look,
00:19:58a student's dream doesn't reach a point where they think about earning money.
00:20:02The most important place where a student learns at school
00:20:06is among their friends and the noise when the
00:20:09teacher is quiet and students are talking to each other. Most learning happens
00:20:13in those noises, in those gatherings of students in the corner
00:20:17of the school
00:20:18yard.
00:20:21No, we must not forget that
00:20:24the students' conversations were about long-term goals
00:20:28and thinking about future careers and earning money. Today,
00:20:31it has given way to talking about and discussing
00:20:35hunger. And in a student's dream of
00:20:38becoming a pilot, of becoming a teacher, a doctor,
00:20:41it has given way to a student wishing and dreaming
00:20:45of a proper meal, a proper meal. We have seen this
00:20:49in past years in many schools. I personally witnessed
00:20:52a student directly looking at me and saying, "Mr.
00:20:56So-and-so, we are in a situation where we
00:20:59hear our stomachs rumbling. We can't listen to your lesson. Let us go get
00:21:03a sangak (bread)." I personally witnessed this many times, and
00:21:07now I cannot forget that
00:21:10a student stood in the corner of the yard, waiting for her
00:21:13brother and sister, whose school shifts had ended, to take their
00:21:17pens and paper so she could come to school. That is, the home
00:21:20was unable to provide the minimum facilities for students.
00:21:24Now that inflation has reached this level, and in Iran
00:21:28we are witnessing a very strange phenomenon, which we should not
00:21:31ignore its impact on learning. In today's society,
00:21:35we are not witnessing absolute poverty; we are witnessing severe
00:21:38poverty. Thank you very much, Mr. Mustafa. Thank you very much for
00:21:42your presence. Tahsin Mustafa, expelled teacher and former member of the board of directors
00:21:46of professional associations.
00:21:50The US, UK, and Netherlands in a joint cybersecurity
00:21:54alert released details of spyware that, according
00:21:57to them, Iranian government-affiliated actors use to target
00:22:01dissidents, activists, and journalists.
00:22:04The UK's National Cyber Security Centre announced
00:22:08that cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government
00:22:12use a family of spyware
00:22:15known as Chosen Brick to steal emails,
00:22:18messages, and other sensitive information on messaging
00:22:22platforms such as WhatsApp and
00:22:25Telegram. Amir Rashidi, an internet access
00:22:29researcher from Turin, Italy, is with us. Welcome,
00:22:32Mr. Rashidi.
00:22:35How new is this method that Iran has used
00:22:38for, in fact, a type of espionage against citizens outside
00:22:42Iran, and how widespread is it?
00:22:46Look, some of the technical details that have
00:22:50been used can be said to be new,
00:22:53but overall, we still can't say this is
00:22:57, for example, an incredibly sophisticated cyber attack
00:23:00with strange and unusual tools. They are still proceeding
00:23:04with the same old systems, but for example, in terms
00:23:08of collecting information from their victims, what devices
00:23:11they use, where they are, what they do,
00:23:15what platforms they are on, of course, it has been strengthened.
00:23:18The fact that they use some messengers like, for example, Telegram,
00:23:22to be able to communicate with the victim's device
00:23:25after it's infected. Apart from it being mentioned
00:23:29in this report, I have also seen examples myself
00:23:32recently where such methods have been used.
00:23:36In summary, I want to tell you that over the past
00:23:39six months, we have witnessed
00:23:42a very widespread wave of attacks
00:23:46that we categorize as cross-border repression
00:23:49or, in fact, these attacks are cyber
00:23:53attacks that use artificial intelligence to fake people's
00:23:56voices, try to gain trust, or fake
00:24:00the voices of two people who are communicating and send
00:24:04it to a third person to create conflict and disputes between
00:24:08individuals and groups. There have even been cases where individuals
00:24:12were tracked at their workplaces or places they were. In fact,
00:24:16we can say that in the past six months, the level
00:24:20of aggression or the number of
00:24:23attacks they are carrying out, especially targeting people
00:24:27outside Iran, can actually be said to have been unprecedented
00:24:31in the past few years, this widespread
00:24:35volume of attacks. How much
00:24:37artificial intelligence might be used in these
00:24:41operations? For example, in this report, it was mentioned
00:24:44that people's voices were reconstructed.
00:24:48For example, two friends were talking, their voices
00:24:51were reconstructed and broadcast to
00:24:55the foreign recipient. How concerned should
00:24:59we be about artificial intelligence
00:25:00in this area? The reports that the
00:25:04developer of Cloud also published in recent days are basically
00:25:08telling us the same thing. They are saying that artificial intelligence is
00:25:12being used. Artificial intelligence has not necessarily increased
00:25:16the cyber capabilities of the Islamic Republic. That is, for example,
00:25:20if we want to compare it with the cyber capabilities of the US
00:25:23or Israel or, say, England, it hasn't been
00:25:27able to reach that level. But what it has been able to do
00:25:30is to reduce the resources needed to design
00:25:34and implement their attacks. It has increased
00:25:38their speed. In fact, in these two areas, it has been
00:25:41able to provide a lot of help to the actors
00:25:45of the Islamic Republic
00:25:48to be able to carry out more attacks faster.
00:25:52But all this, excuse me, I wanted to ask
00:25:56you another question. We have little time, and there are many
00:25:59questions. If you could tell us very briefly how people can protect
00:26:03themselves from these attacks, what should
00:26:06they do? Very briefly, if you can tell me very quickly,
00:26:09I'll tell you. People should absolutely never
00:26:13rush to send messages. In Farsi, we say, "I trust someone like
00:26:16my eyes." Don't trust your eyes. If you receive a message
00:26:20from anyone, they give you a link, they give you a file, especially
00:26:24if they keep saying, "Hurry up, hurry up, open it," don't
00:26:28rush at all. Check it with several different places.
00:26:31If you have doubts,
00:26:36absolutely do not rush. If you do these few simple
00:26:39things, you can be sure that you can protect
00:26:43yourself from a large part of these attacks. Thank
00:26:46you, Amir Rashidi,
00:26:49internet researcher.
00:26:53Thank you for watching this 60-minute program
00:26:57until the end. You can also watch our program on YouTube and BBC
00:27:01podcast.
00:28:28I'm almost less than one and a
00:28:30half. I'm really not sure whether
00:28:34where we are standing is in Iranian Kurdistan or in Iraqi
00:28:38Kurdistan. We try to cover live everything
00:28:41that happens here for
00:28:43you.
00:28:46Tell us what we know, what are the new details?
00:28:50They moved the meeting an hour forward and quickly left
00:28:54here. They are at the
00:28:57Turkish border. They are not tourists, but they are not
00:29:01refugees either. Here, they were subjected
00:29:04to an air attack by Israeli
00:29:07forces. The images that reach us are very
00:29:11few due to internet
00:29:12outage.
00:29:15Minute-by-minute coverage of news on television,
00:29:18social networks, and the BBC Persian
00:29:21website. They stopped me in front
00:29:25of my house, in the alley. They basically said, "Ms. Alilousi?"
00:29:29I said, "Yes." They said, "Revolutionary Court." I rolled up the window.
00:29:32They locked the door. He went crazy, got
00:29:35a hammer and opened the door. I firmly tell
00:29:39you that I will not play with hijab under any circumstances.
00:29:43We still exist. Being banned from working in the Ministry
00:29:46of Islamic Guidance for me means
00:29:50absolutely no deletion.
00:30:22Headlines.
00:30:25Bin Salman's visit to Cairo in an attempt to counter the Yemeni
00:30:29Houthis. The Egyptian President emphasizes free shipping.