As Iran faces tighter economic sanctions from the UN and big trouble with the US, dissidents are being jailed and there's a public crackdown on men and women showing too much flesh in public. Tehran is an unlikely place for high-fashion shows in front of audiences wearing low-cut dresses, skin-tight T-shirts and acid-washed jeans, but Iran is a country of contrasts. Guests to a secret meeting are carefully screened and arrive to a "bland apartment building" north of Tehran "draped in coats and head scarves." But downstairs in the basement, it's air kisses, gossip, and hip-hop music in "a sea of bare skin and perfume." That's according to Borzou Daragahi, who reports from Tehran for the Los Angeles Times.
KCRW
