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.
00:00:00Four years have passed since Mahsa Amini was killed in the custody of the morality police,
00:00:04and although the hijab law in Iran has not officially changed,
00:00:07these days some women appear with optional coverings in public places and
00:00:10even some official ceremonies. Has the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement ended,
00:00:14or does it continue to live in other forms?
00:00:18Paria Manzarzadeh has taken a look at
00:00:22the evolution of women's status in these
00:00:25four years.
00:00:27Four years ago,
00:00:34this image of two women without mandatory hijab in a cafe
00:00:38in southern Tehran was a media sensation.
00:00:41Donya was arrested for this photo.
00:00:44But other women also joined them.
00:00:49From familiar names
00:00:50in Iranian cinema to athletes
00:00:54and other women.
00:00:57The publication of Mahsa's family photos
00:01:30in the hospital and the widespread
00:01:34adoption of the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" just two days later.
00:01:37And this was the starting point
00:01:40of protests that were clear from the beginning to be different
00:01:43from previous protests. From the dust
00:01:46of its alleys,
00:01:50it should be
00:01:51an Mullah must
00:01:55be.
00:01:57And windows were opened to the world
00:02:37of teenagers and young people. Names that became hashtags.
00:02:51And the support
00:02:52of different sections
00:02:56of society for the protesters. We cannot
00:03:00and should not sit quietly
00:03:03and watch every day another
00:03:07Armita, another Mahsa,
00:03:10or another dear child of ours be sacrificed
00:03:14for not
00:03:15having a
00:03:19day. The support of the Sunni Friday Imam of Zahedan,
00:03:23along with the people of this city, who caused the Bloody Friday.
00:03:26Women's demands also reached the football field.
00:03:30In many big cities outside the country,
00:03:33rallies were held every week in support of Iranian protesters.
00:03:37A wave started on Instagram and Twitter where some women said that from tomorrow
00:03:40they would walk in the streets without a headscarf or scarf
00:03:44and asked men to please be supportive
00:03:48and not stare. Now, after four years,
00:03:52I really see that women in most places are present
00:03:55with the clothing they want. I am more convinced that rights
00:03:59must be taken and certainly every right has a cost.
00:04:02That the women of this period of Iranian history were able to overcome. How
00:04:05beautiful.
00:04:07Indeed, seeing your beautiful hair not only does not
00:04:11provoke us, but gives us a very good feeling. We hope for days
00:04:15when we will get used to seeing these
00:04:18scenes.
00:04:21In these four years, the Iranian government has tried in various ways
00:04:24to deal with women who appear in public
00:04:28without headscarves.
00:04:34From bringing back the morality patrols to the streets to seizing
00:04:37private cars, cash fines,
00:04:41threats of deprivation of administrative services, blocking SIM cards,
00:04:44and closing social media accounts. Well, the events that happened,
00:04:48and we were parents of 506.
00:04:51The closing and closing of society
00:04:55regarding the hijab, the fake delays they caused
00:04:58and put us under a lot of pressure. It caused that when this
00:05:02movement happened, we stood behind our children,
00:05:06even though many of us perhaps did not believe in veiling.
00:05:09Four years after the Mahsa movement, the face of cities, especially
00:05:13big cities, has changed.
00:05:14That young friend
00:05:21came. Came.
00:05:24Your state. Your state is white.
00:05:27Your hair is black. See.
00:05:31Surely the Mahsa movement was important, but not everything should be attributed
00:05:35to this movement. Regarding the hijab,
00:05:38a part of the government also disagreed with the morality police
00:05:41and harassing people about their clothing. This issue is also seen among
00:05:45Iran's military forces, who are mostly young
00:05:49and had no desire to harass women about their clothing.
00:05:52That is, it was not merely the people's demand,
00:05:55because if it were only the people's demand, there would be no inflation or the government
00:05:59would have fallen. After Mahsa's uprising,
00:06:03it seems that the hijab situation has improved, but no law for optional hijab
00:06:07has been approved. As a woman,
00:06:10I am still obliged to wear a headscarf in government offices,
00:06:26Iran has experienced two wars and witnessed the killing
00:06:30of protesters in December 2025.
00:06:34Under the shadow of restrictions and pressures resulting from social,
00:06:37political, and economic crises, Iranian women continue to pursue
00:06:41their demands. And of course,
00:06:44inequalities between women and men still
00:06:47persist. In terms of legal rights, there are also many
00:06:50challenges and obstacles for women. From divorce,
00:06:53custody, and inheritance laws to permission to leave the country
00:06:57and the right to ride a motorcycle.
00:07:00I believe that our
00:07:03approach has no choice but to change.
00:07:07Now, the government is resisting as much
00:07:11as it can. Well, the people are also resisting
00:07:15because the continuation of these
00:07:17laws, these policies, meaning much broader
00:07:21than laws, policies,
00:07:25programs, approaches
00:07:28and attitudes
00:07:31that the Islamic Republic has in various
00:07:34fields, including women's affairs,
00:07:37no longer works.
00:07:39I asked Hannah Neumann, a Member of the European Parliament
00:07:43from Germany, as someone who has followed the Iranian women's movement
00:07:46for years, how she assesses their current situation.
00:07:49The "Woman, Life, Freedom"
00:07:55movement in Iran, which began four
00:07:58years ago, began four years ago with the death of Mahsa Amini
00:08:02and transformed Iran because
00:08:06women, men, and the entire
00:08:09society stood against a repressive government.
00:08:21Despite all this, the Iranian government is still
00:08:23in power, and the information we receive from inside Iran
00:08:27is that despite the government's efforts to censor
00:08:30and cut off the internet, we see that repression has also
00:08:34increased. We see many
00:08:37people who have taken
00:08:41to the streets, not only in the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement,
00:08:45but also in the December protests. Some of them were imprisoned,
00:08:48some were executed. Now we see strict
00:08:51laws passed against women. We see that accusations
00:08:55of espionage and other excuses for repression
00:08:58by the government have made the rulers
00:09:01more ruthless,
00:09:04but young women are not powerless against this government.
00:09:08However, the government uses violence against them.
00:09:11What we saw in the December protests was the tip
00:09:15of the iceberg, but protests continue,
00:09:18and everyone outside the country talks about this
00:09:21issue and tries to shed light on this
00:09:25dictatorship and help the efforts of Iranian
00:09:28women and men
00:09:29for freedom.
00:09:33I also asked Ms. Neumann to explain how, in a situation
00:09:37where diplomatic relations are at their lowest level, they plan to follow up
00:09:40on cases of repression in Iran.
00:10:12We must speak about those who oppose the government,
00:10:16about those who want to shed light on the regime's dictatorship.
00:10:19Let's release images and documents
00:10:22about the regime's suppressions. We in the European Union,
00:10:26in the European Parliament, must talk about this issue.
00:10:30In the past, we have seen that when some
00:10:32cases are raised
00:10:36at a high level, and they gain momentum,
00:10:40it will sometimes cause the Iranian government
00:10:43to hesitate a little in executions and suppressions.
00:10:47This alone can provide more protection for those who fight
00:10:50this government. It is important that we continue
00:10:54this work. As I said, we should not limit ourselves
00:10:57to these actions. We must also adopt some political measures,
00:11:01including strict sanctions, to ensure that
00:11:04members of this regime cannot engage
00:11:07in cross-border suppressions. And we must
00:11:10also grant asylum visas to those
00:11:14who fight against this government. Therefore, all
00:11:17measures must go hand in hand.
00:11:21That was Hannah Neumann, the German representative to the European Parliament.
00:11:25But in Iran, according to reports,
00:11:29purchasing a basic set of stationery for each student in Iran
00:11:32costs up to 15 million Tomans. The head
00:11:36of the Stationery Union said that most stationery
00:11:39products have seen a price increase of about 50
00:11:42percent. Poverty and inequality have kept many students
00:11:46from education. Ferein Nasemi has more details.
00:11:49This year's Mehr
00:11:52month was difficult for many. School does not provide.
00:11:56Economic difficulties have caused some students to either
00:12:00drop out of school or attend school with difficulty
00:12:03and worry due to the high costs of stationery.
00:12:07This year's Mehr month smells of poverty
00:12:10for many. This year, the stationery
00:12:14market is not very vibrant. News agencies have estimated
00:12:17that stationery prices have increased several times
00:12:21compared to last year. This comparison
00:12:25of the cost of a shopping basket of stationery in Mehr
00:12:282025 with Mehr 2026. A normal backpack
00:12:32in Mehr 2025 was 1 million 200 thousand tomans.
00:12:35This year it's 3 million 800 thousand tomans.
00:12:39A medium pencil case was 300 thousand tomans last year,
00:12:42this year it's 500 thousand tomans. 8 notebooks
00:12:45with 100 pages each, which were 280 thousand tomans last year,
00:12:49are sold for 3 million 200 thousand tomans this year. 6 notebooks
00:12:52with 60 and 80 pages were 250 thousand tomans last year.
00:13:14Some media outlets have estimated the cost of stationery,
00:13:17shoes, and clothes to be around 15 to 17 million tomans.
00:13:21For some families who have enrolled
00:13:24their children in non-governmental schools, the tuition
00:13:28fee is also added. The tuition fees for some
00:13:31of these non-governmental schools are between 150
00:13:34and 170 million tomans. The cost of non-profit schools
00:13:38is several times this. Most stationery products
00:13:41have seen about a 50% growth, but depending on the type
00:13:45of goods and their dependence on some raw materials
00:13:49that have become expensive, this is more, between 50
00:13:52and 100, I can tell you.
00:13:55And the most significant growth in price has been in cellulose
00:13:59products like notebooks and paper, which have seen at least a 100% growth.
00:14:02There are some businesses that, because they are overcharging,
00:14:06don't provide invoices. The government has promised
00:14:09to control prices. A common pen was sold for 130 thousand
00:14:12tomans in one place and 50 thousand tomans in another. Why should there
00:14:16be an 80 thousand toman overcharge? Meanwhile, stationery sellers
00:14:20also say that the increase in raw material prices and the high cost
00:14:23of goods have put them in a difficult situation. On the other hand,
00:14:27the price of goods has risen to such an extent that some goods cannot be
00:14:31told to the customer. I mean, you really can't say this
00:14:34is the price of this item. But families bear
00:14:38the most pressure. I am a mother who went to buy
00:14:41stationery for my children. I have two children in school.
00:14:44Look, I bought stationery for my children.
00:14:48This is all it is. The stationery I bought
00:14:52cost 4 million 7 hundred and
00:15:07many are also forced to drop out of school.
00:15:10Last year, about one million Iranian students dropped out
00:15:13of school. Many of them have been forced to work
00:15:17at a young age. As prices increase, and more students
00:15:20face difficulties in continuing their
00:15:24education, the challenge of education in Iran
00:15:27becomes wider and deeper. Farin Asemi, BBC.
00:15:30Tahsin Mostafa, a dismissed
00:15:33teacher and former member of the board of directors
00:15:37of Iranian teachers' unions, is with us from Munich, Germany.
00:15:41Welcome, Mr. Mostafa. You yourself
00:15:44were a teacher. Do you have any personal
00:15:47experience of a student being forced to drop out
00:15:51of school due to poverty?
00:15:54Greetings and respect to you and your dear
00:15:58viewers. Yes, we have encountered
00:16:01many cases in the forefront of educational
00:16:05work. For example,
00:16:11female students for whom school uniforms were mandatory, and their families were unable
00:16:14to buy those uniforms, so these students dropped out of school.
00:16:18The news reached the school, and the school staff,
00:16:21teachers, and benefactors provided clothes for those students.
00:16:25But in many cases,
00:16:27these have remained hidden, and no one
00:16:30has been able to help. We later realized
00:16:34that many students were unable to pay
00:16:37tuition fees or buy school uniforms
00:16:41or bags, so they were prevented
00:16:43from coming to school. We have seen such
00:16:47cases in past years, not that inflation
00:16:51would be so rampant. In the 80s and 70s,
00:16:54we witnessed this repeatedly. Well, we know
00:16:58that poverty and high prices also affect
00:17:02the quality of education. What impact have you witnessed
00:17:05this issue having on the process of children's
00:17:09education?
00:17:12In education, we have a discussion where we say learning is a need,
00:17:15a self-actualized need, and before self-actualized
00:17:19needs, according to Maslow's hierarchy, we have a series of drives,
00:17:22and these drives are innate needs. Until those innate
00:17:25needs are met, an individual cannot reach self-actualized
00:17:29needs, and the prerequisite for learning is proper nutrition.
00:17:32The problem we have always faced in schools, and
00:17:36in recent years has turned into a tragedy,
00:17:40is the tragedy of student malnutrition. We have rarely
00:17:43not witnessed a student fainting in the schoolyard,
00:17:46and the cause of all these fainting spells
00:17:50and unconsciousness of students
00:17:53has been not eating breakfast and improper nutrition.
00:17:56We have always discussed in education that
00:18:00proper learning requires a specific amount of calories,
00:18:04and if this specific amount of calories is not met,
00:18:08the cycle of education in an individual remains incomplete,
00:18:11and we are seeing its consequences in society today.
00:18:15One reason that if you look for the cause
00:18:19of high prices and the social situation in Iran today,
00:18:22it is the effect of this educational system.
00:18:26When in our educational cycle,
00:18:29many individuals in society, the poor class of society,
00:18:33did not have access to basic facilities so that they could
00:18:37use education as a miracle.
00:18:50In the past few decades, we must look at the history
00:18:54of education. In the past few decades,
00:18:57we have witnessed this cycle of injustice
00:19:01in education, and unfortunately, today, in wartime
00:19:04and in today's inflationary conditions, it has become
00:19:08more pronounced. And we should not expect that this society
00:19:11that we are witnessing today
00:19:15will have no individuals from the poor and middle
00:19:19class present in its middle and decision-making levels
00:19:22in the coming years. As a result, those
00:19:26who are in the management level, excuse me,
00:19:30these issues that you raised, this inequality
00:19:33and these hardships that some children experience for this reason.
00:19:40The continuation of education and
00:19:44training should become less important,
00:19:47and children should be looking
00:19:49more for income generation
00:19:53than for education. Look,
00:19:56a student's dream does not reach a point where
00:20:00it's about income generation. The most important place
00:20:04where a student learns in school is among their friends
00:20:07and those noises that the teacher is quiet and students are talking to each other.
00:20:11Most learning happens in those noises,
00:20:15in students gathering
00:20:15in the corner of the yard.
00:20:19No, we should not forget
00:20:22that the conversations were about imagination
00:20:26and thinking about future careers and earning income.
00:20:30Today, it has given way to talking about
00:20:33hunger, and the student's dream of becoming
00:20:37a linguist, a teacher, a doctor, has given
00:20:41way to the student wishing and dreaming
00:20:45of a proper meal, one proper meal.
00:20:48In past years, in many schools, I personally witnessed
00:20:52students directly looking at me and saying,
00:20:55"Sir, we cannot listen to your
00:20:59lesson when our stomachs are grumbling. Let us go get a sangak."
00:21:03I have repeatedly witnessed these things myself,
00:21:06and I cannot forget a student who stood
00:21:10in the corner of the yard waiting for his brother
00:21:13and sister, whose school shift ended, to give him
00:21:17their pen and paper so he could come to school. That means the family
00:21:20was unable to provide even the minimum facilities for students.
00:21:24Now that inflation has reached this level,
00:21:28and we are witnessing a very strange phenomenon in Iran
00:21:31that we should not ignore its impact on learning.
00:21:35We are not witnessing absolute poverty in society today,
00:21:38we are witnessing severe poverty. Thank you, Mr. Mostafa,
00:21:42thank you very much for your presence. Tahsin Mostafa, dismissed teacher
00:21:45and former member of the board
00:21:48of directors of the trade unions of teachers in Iran.
00:21:52The US, UK, and Canada, in a joint
00:21:55cybersecurity alert, published details of spyware
00:21:59that, according to them, actors linked to the Iranian
00:22:02government use to target dissidents, activists, and journalists.
00:22:06The UK's National Cybersecurity Centre has announced that
00:22:10cyber actors linked to the Iranian government use a family of spyware
00:22:13called "Chosen Break" to steal emails,
00:22:17messages, and other sensitive information across
00:22:50it can be said that it is new, but overall, we still
00:22:54cannot say that this is, for example, an extremely
00:22:57sophisticated cyberattack with strange tools.
00:23:01They are still using the same old systems.
00:23:05But, for example, in terms of collecting information
00:23:08from their victims, what devices they use,
00:23:12where they are, what they do, what platforms they are on,
00:23:16well, that has naturally improved. The fact that they use
00:23:20some messaging apps, like Telegram,
00:23:23to communicate with the victim's device after it's infected.
00:23:27Besides what is mentioned in this report,
00:23:30I have also seen examples recently where such methods
00:23:34have been used. Overall, I want to tell
00:23:37you that in the past six months,
00:23:40we have witnessed a very widespread wave
00:23:44of attacks that we actually categorize as cross-border
00:23:47repression or transnational attacks. These attacks
00:23:51are cyberattacks that use artificial intelligence
00:23:55to spoof people's voices, try to gain trust,
00:23:58or actually manipulate the voices of two people
00:24:02who are communicating and send them to a third
00:24:06person to create conflict and arguments between people
00:24:09and groups. There have even been cases where people
00:24:12were tracked at their workplaces or wherever they were.
00:24:15We can say that in the past six months,
00:24:18the level of
00:24:20aggressiveness or the number of attacks they are carrying
00:24:23out, especially targeting individuals outside Iran,
00:24:27I can say, perhaps, has been unprecedented
00:24:31in recent years. This massive volume
00:24:33of attacks. How much
00:24:37artificial intelligence may be used
00:24:41in these operations? In this report,
00:24:44for example, it was mentioned that the voices of individuals
00:24:47were reconstructed,
00:24:50for example, two friends were talking, their voices
00:24:54were reconstructed and played for that audience
00:24:57outside the country. How much should we be concerned
00:25:01about artificial intelligence in this area?
00:25:04Reports that the cloud manufacturer also published in recent
00:25:08days are actually telling us the same thing. It is saying
00:25:12that artificial intelligence is being used. Artificial intelligence
00:25:16has not necessarily increased the cyber capabilities of the Islamic Republic.
00:25:20That is, if we want to compare it with the cyber
00:25:23capabilities of the US or Israel, or, for example, the UK,
00:25:27it has not been able to reach that level of power.
00:25:30But what it has been able to do is to make it so that
00:25:34resources need minimal effort to design
00:25:38and implement their attacks. It has increased
00:25:41the speed of their work. In these two areas,
00:25:44it has been able to provide a lot of help to the actors
00:25:48of the Islamic Republic to be able to launch more
00:25:52attacks with greater speed. But all this...
00:25:55Excuse me, I wanted to ask you another question, we have little
00:25:59time and many questions. If you could tell us very briefly
00:26:02how to protect themselves from these attacks,
00:26:06what should they do? I'll tell you very quickly.
00:26:09Absolutely do not rush to message people. In Persian, we say,
00:26:13"I trust so-and-so like my eyes." Don't trust your eyes.
00:26:16If you receive a message from anyone,
00:26:20if they send you a link, if they send you a file,
00:26:23especially if they keep saying, "Hurry up, hurry up, open it,"
00:26:27don't rush at all. Check with several different places.
00:26:31If you are suspicious, you can contact places
00:26:34like Digital Security. Do not rush at all.
00:26:38If you do these few simple things, be sure that
00:26:42you can protect yourself from a large part of these attacks. Thank you,
00:26:45Amir Rashidi,
00:26:48internet researcher.
00:26:51Thank you for watching this 60-minute program
00:26:55until the end. You can also watch our program
00:26:58on YouTube and BBC Podcast. 14 things that are proven
00:27:20to be effective in preventing memory loss, dementia,
00:27:23and Alzheimer's, and we can all
00:27:26do them. Apparently, doing a set of different
00:27:30activities, whether solving puzzles
00:27:33or learning a language or an instrument that keeps the brain active,
00:27:37is beneficial. We talk about the latest
00:27:41treatments for Alzheimer's and their effectiveness,
00:27:44and we ask experts if Alzheimer's is hereditary. 37 degrees on BBC Persian.
00:30:20Headlines. bin Salman's
00:30:23visit to Cairo in an effort to counter
00:30:27Yemen's Houthis. The Egyptian president
00:30:30emphasized free navigation in Bab al-Mandab.