Iran International
An Iranian film made in defiance of the censors reached YouTube last week, and the argument it started was not the one its makers might have expected: many viewers are asking not whether Bidad goes too far, but whether it goes far enough for the country it depicts.
For some viewers, Soheil Beiraghi's fourth feature puts a recognizable Iran on screen for the first time in years: women without mandatory hijab, men and women embracing, underground music, and a young singer who refuses to accept that her voice cannot be heard.
Others reached almost the opposite conclusion, arguing that the film trails the society it means to portray, or that its accumulation of drugs, alcohol, sex and broken relationships pulls focus from what Iranians are actually living through.
"I watched the film. The story is deeply moving, and it reflects what we are living through as a society," one user wrote on Iran International's Instagram page, praising its defiance of taboos while criticizing some of its dialogue and pacing.
Another called it simply "behind society," arguing that Iranians now have "much, much more serious" concerns than the ones on screen.
The split has turned a film into an argument about something larger than cinema: the widening distance between what Iran's censors forbid, what filmmakers can now show by ignoring them, and what audiences already consider ordinary life.
When the street becomes the stage
Bidad follows Seti, played by Sarvin Zabetian, an aspiring singer whose ambitions collide with the restrictions on women's voices.
"You can't hear my voice," she protests to a music teacher early in the film, and is told that female singers may not be louder than the men accompanying them.
Seti refuses the compromise. She ends up singing in the street, where passers-by film her and circulate the clips, turning her into an emblem of a generation increasingly willing to take in public what official institutions withhold.
Making the film carried a price. Security agents raided the production office and seized equipment and recorded material, and Beiraghi and several cast and crew members faced prosecution.
The director received a prison sentence later converted into a fine; Zabetian and Leili Rashidi, who plays Seti's mother, were also sentenced, while other defendants were acquitted.
The film went on to win the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival before its release online.
Have the taboos already changed?
For some Iranian viewers, the value of Bidad lies in showing what approved cinema has never managed to.
"Just the fact that they weren't wearing scarves or headscarves at home was very good," one Instagram commenter wrote, describing the film as all the more bitter for being drawn from life. Another called it the "reality of our lives as women" in Iran.
Others questioned whether those images still transgress anything. One wrote that the film addresses concerns belonging to an earlier phase of Iranian society and has failed to keep pace with what people now demand.
Mohammad Abdi, a writer and film critic, places Bidad within Iran's underground cinema but argues that Beiraghi has gone further than his peers by abandoning the compromises censorship imposes.
"The important point is that, when it comes to the government, the film stops compromising and speaks very directly about a generation that is tired and is taking its demands to the street," Abdi told Iran International.
He rejected suggestions by some commenters that the film reflects a reformist outlook, pointing to Seti's journey from negotiating within the rules to carrying her demand into the open.
"The film is actually about moving beyond reformism," Abdi said. "She goes through all these tests until she finally concludes that reformism no longer has meaning and that she has to stand against the regime in the street."
A harsher line of criticism concerns how the film draws those who break the rules. One commenter objected to the prominence of alcohol, marijuana, sex and dysfunctional relationships, warning that such choices risk tying musicians and dissenters to social disorder in viewers' minds.
The Hollywood Reporter read the same world differently, describing a film populated by "rebels and outcasts" and arguing that Seti is far from alone in it: the picture follows one singer, but its wider significance lies in placing her among a growing number of young Iranians pushing back against limits on personal expression.
A related complaint appeared on X, where one user praised the film for its recognizable picture of Iranian life but wrote that it tries to carry too many injustices at once. Sexual harassment, a subplot in which Seti's mother is coerced into sex with an interrogator to secure her detained daughter's release, and Seti getting her period in custody were all unnecessary, the commenter argued.
That debate captures the unusual bind Bidad finds itself in: escaping censorship let it cross lines that approved cinema cannot, but crossing them no longer looks radical to audiences whose own lives changed faster than the rules did.
Two generations meet
The same divide runs inside the film, through Seti's relationship with a nameless older man played by Amir Jadidi, who asks to be called only "Bebin," or "Look."
Tattooed, frequently high and seemingly emptied of his old ideals, he stands against Seti's determination to force her way into public life, Abdi said.
Their intimate but unconventional relationship becomes an encounter between two generations: one carrying the weight of disillusionment, the other unwilling to accommodate restrictions.
The film's singing voice ties the fiction to the present. Its vocal tracks feature Parastoo Ahmadi, who has faced prosecution for performing without mandatory hijab.
In June, a court in Qom sentenced Ahmadi and eight musicians and crew members to 74 lashes each, a two-year ban on artistic work and a two-year travel ban over her 2024 Caravanserai Concert.
Bidad was made outside official channels because the Iran it shows cannot exist within the rules of approved cinema. Its reception online has exposed a second gap: some viewers celebrate the sight of those rules being broken, while others ask why the screen is still catching up with a society that broke them first.
Eleven of 16 properties examined in the affluent neighborhoods of Aghdasiyeh and Elahiyeh were advertised above 10 billion rials ($5,291) per square meter, the Iranian daily said on Wednesday.
It has to be noted that the Tehran figures are sellers' asking prices for a small selection of high-end properties, not completed transactions, while the international figures represent broader city-center apartment prices.
Average asking prices across Tehran were around 2.3 billion to 2.5 billion rials ($1,217-$1,323) per square meter, with completed sales likely to be lower than advertised prices, Farhikhtegan said.
Monthly salaries for many Iranian workers are commonly put at around 200 million to 250 million rials, equivalent to roughly $105 to $132.
Multimillion-dollar properties in northern Tehran
A 500-square-meter property in Aghdasiyeh was advertised at 15 billion rials ($7,937) per square meter, giving it a total asking price of around 7.5 trillion rials ($3.97 million), according to the newspaper.
Another property measuring 600 square meters was offered at 18 billion rials ($9,524) per square meter, or approximately 10.8 trillion rials ($5.71 million).
An 850-square-meter residential property marketed for redevelopment carried an asking price of 22 billion rials ($11,640) per square meter, putting the entire property at about 18.7 trillion rials ($9.89 million).
Prices in the sample climbed further in Elahiyeh. A 2,000-square-meter property marketed for redevelopment was advertised at 25 billion rials ($13,228) per square meter, equivalent to about 50 trillion rials ($26.46 million).
A 510-square-meter unit in a residential tower carried the same per-square-meter price, taking its total asking price to roughly 12.75 trillion rials ($6.75 million).
Tehran luxury prices overtake selected global cities
Farhikhtegan separately estimated luxury residential property in northern Tehran at $13,369 per square meter and compared that figure with average apartment prices across 30 cities.
Munich stood at $13,217 per square meter and Sydney at $13,067, according to the comparison. Shenzhen followed at $12,947, Taipei at $12,922 and Luxembourg at $12,793.
The Tehran estimate draws on luxury properties in some of the capital's most expensive neighborhoods, while the international figures cover broader city-center apartment markets.
International data focused specifically on luxury housing paints a different picture.
Knight Frank's Wealth Report 2026 defines prime property as the most desirable and expensive homes in a market, generally representing the top 5% by value.
Its data show that $1 million bought 42.1 square meters of prime residential property in Sydney at the end of 2025, implying a value of about $23,800 per square meter. The equivalent figures were about $30,400 in London, $29,500 in New York and $16,100 in Dubai.
Those figures put northern Tehran's listings in a different context. At an open-market exchange rate of around 1.89 million rials to the dollar, a property advertised at 25 billion rials per square meter was equivalent to about $13,228, below the prime residential values recorded by Knight Frank in Sydney, London, New York and Dubai.
The contrast highlights how Tehran can appear more expensive than Sydney when selected high-end listings in the Iranian capital are compared with average city-center apartments abroad, but cheaper when measured against Sydney's prime residential segment.
Tehran is not included in Knight Frank's international prime residential index, meaning no standardized ranking between the Iranian capital and the cities covered by its data is available.
Dollar pricing reaches high-end property market
The rial's depreciation has also led some owners of expensive properties to advertise rents or sale prices directly in dollars, Farhikhtegan said.
Previous listings cited by the newspaper included furnished apartments offered for monthly rents of roughly $1,100 to $4,200, with some landlords seeking dollar payments to limit the erosion of rental income as the rial loses value.
However, most residential sales and rental agreements remain denominated in Iran's currency.
The growing divide between incomes and housing costs has reshaped living arrangements for some Iranians, pushing tenants to cheaper cities or Tehran’s outskirts, back into their parents’ homes, or into shared apartments to split expenses.
Iranian forces had assessed possible strikes against US assets in southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, which approved the use of Bezmer Air Base by US refueling aircraft last month, the sources said.
Cyprus, where a British air base was hit by a drone in March, was also identified as a potential target for retaliation against a renewed US offensive, according to one of the sources.
Iran’s forces had separately examined attacks on subsea fiber-optic cables in the Strait of Hormuz if the conflict intensified, according to the report.
One source said Tehran was preparing to expand the war if Trump acted on threats to attack Iranian infrastructure. The other said Iran would place “no limits” on its response to US military action.
The sources described last month’s strike on a US base in Jordan, which killed three American service members, as Tehran’s most accurate long-range attack to date and evidence of its ability to hit targets farther afield.
“This was also a message to Europe: it can receive missiles, so it should know where it should stand in this war,” the first insider said. “A very big mistake, such as hitting our infrastructure, could make the war go beyond the region and reach Europe.”
Iran has not publicly confirmed the reported plans.
Military analysts told the FT that Iran could target US assets in southern and southeastern Europe with medium-range ballistic missiles, but questioned their accuracy and Tehran’s stockpile of longer-range weapons.
Iran’s recent elevation of hardliners to senior security and military posts has also deepened expectations within Tehran of renewed conflict, according to the report.
Referring to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator, and Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s top security chief, the second insider said Iran “is sending a clear message that if you don’t reach an agreement with Ghalibaf, you have to deal with Rezaei.”
“The message is: ‘Don’t be mad, because I’m madder than you are.’”
Meanwhile, negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz remained stalled and Trump said there were no talks scheduled with Tehran.
For many, life now divides in two: before January, and after. The same images return again and again in their accounts: the sound of gunfire, the people killed beside them, the friends and children who went out to protest and never came home.
“Time stopped for me after January 9,” one respondent wrote. “My life was divided into before and after the protests, and I never became the person I was before,” another said.
The responses vary widely. Some describe depression, recurring nightmares, anger and an inability to return to ordinary routines. Others say the experience made them more politically engaged and more determined to join future protests.
Together, they offer a picture of an upheaval whose consequences for some participants and witnesses have extended from the streets into private life.
‘All those scenes keep playing like a film’
Descriptions of psychological distress were among the most frequent responses.
One person who said they witnessed young people being killed described recurring nightmares, depression, crying at night and a sense that there was no future.
“I can no longer walk with a good feeling on streets where blood was spilled or do the everyday things I used to do,” the respondent wrote.
Another described being unable to escape the memories.
“I could never return to normal life. All those scenes keep playing in front of my eyes like a film – those streets and the faces of people who were dying.”
For some, particular dates have themselves become reminders. One said seeing the numbers 8 and 9, corresponding to the dates of the protests, now causes their heart rate to rise.
Others described guilt over having survived.
“Every day, I have to answer to my conscience for breathing,” one person wrote.
The effects described went beyond grief. Some said their relationship with ordinary pleasures, familiar streets and even other people had changed.
“I don't make fun of young people anymore,” one wrote. “I realized that anyone, regardless of their job, style or appearance, can be a Kaveh the Blacksmith against Zahhak.”
The reference draws on two figures from Persian mythology: Kaveh, a blacksmith who leads a revolt, and Zahhak, a tyrannical ruler.
Anger, but also determination
Anger repeatedly accompanied grief in the responses, with some saying executions, rising prices and what they see as continuing injustice had deepened rather than diminished it.
“At first I was very happy, then angry and hopeless, and then hopeful,” one wrote. “Now I am waiting and angry, with flames of suppressed anger; sometimes hopeless and sometimes hopeful. But we know we have to go to the end.”
Another wrote: “Those two nights ended, but a piece of me broke away and remained alone somewhere.”
Yet despair was not the only consequence described. Some said January had made them more willing to take risks and participate again.
“I became braver and more determined to achieve freedom,” one person wrote.
“Other than some of my hair turning grey, the biggest change is that I have prepared myself to repay my debt with the next call,” another said, referring to a future call for protests.
For these respondents, the memories of January have become a reason to continue rather than withdraw.
Politics enters personal relationships
Some responses described a shift in political understanding, including greater attention to the Islamic Republic's institutions, propaganda and political currents.
“January made me understand the propaganda system of this regime and its operatives,” one person wrote. “My political knowledge increased greatly. I learned about left and right. I understood how I was being played and why this regime has lasted 47 years.”
Political divisions have also entered friendships and family relationships.
One described the biggest change simply as: “Cutting ties with fence-sitting relatives and friends!”
For some, the reaction of people around them to protesters being killed, the crackdown and arguments about Iran's political future became a new measure for deciding which relationships to maintain.
Others described the opposite effect: a stronger sense of connection with fellow Iranians.
“In one sentence, I am proud of my Iranian compatriots because on January 8 and 9 we stood together,” one wrote.
Another cited the “courage, strength and self-sacrifice of a nation” as one of the enduring impressions of the protests.
‘We are alone’
Several said January also changed their expectations of foreign powers and whether outside intervention could alter Iran's future.
“We are alone and should not hope for any power to save us or bring us freedom, except through our own efforts,” one person wrote.
For others, grief, anger and political determination now coexist rather than replacing one another.
“The January protests changed something in me forever,” one respondent wrote. “Since that day, I have become angrier, more wounded and more depressed, but I have not been broken.”
For those who sent responses to Iran International, January remains more than a date marking a political confrontation. It has become a dividing line in their own lives – separating who they were before the protests from who they became afterward.
The Unheard Conscript Advocacy Network, a community group for former Iranian conscripts and their families, says more than 500 people within its roughly 1,300-member Telegram group have reported receiving procedural fairness letters in recent weeks.
The letters give applicants 30 days to respond to concerns raised by immigration officers before a decision is made.
Canada has previously told Iran International that compulsory service in the Guards does not automatically make someone inadmissible and that applications are assessed individually. But several letters reviewed by Iran International reveal a tension between that position and what former conscripts say they are experiencing.
In one case, internal Officer Decision Notes reviewed by Iran International show a former conscript answering a procedural fairness letter with his military completion card and evidence that his service was compulsory.
The officer accepted that the service was mandatory and found him inadmissible anyway, writing that there is "no exemption for individuals whose membership arose through mandatory service." The application was refused.
In a separate case, an August 6 letter acknowledges that the applicant completed "mandatory military service" with the Guards as a soldier between 2009 and 2010, with duties that included kitchen and canteen work and occasional driving.
"I am therefore concerned that you served in the IRGC and that you may be inadmissible to Canada," the officer wrote, citing the provision of Canadian immigration law covering membership in an organization believed to engage in terrorism. The applicant was given 30 days to respond.
The consequences can reach beyond the former conscript. In another letter reviewed by Iran International, the government told the wife of one man that her application could also be refused if her husband is found inadmissible over his service.
‘Now we are the victims’
"Fatima," who asked Iran International to use only her first name because of security concerns, moved to Canada with her husband and two daughters in 2022.
Her husband completed compulsory military service between 2003 and 2005. The family applied for permanent residence in March 2024, before Canada designated the entire Revolutionary Guards a terrorist entity.
"We brought our children here to give them more opportunity, to give them a better life," Fatima told Iran International. "How come we were supporters of this regulation and now we are the victims of that?"
Iran International reviewed the family's immigration correspondence along with official documentation confirming the husband's service.
A document issued by Iran's Public Conscription Organization states that he completed 20 months of compulsory service and received a military service completion card; the family later obtained further verification of the record's authenticity from the same body.
Fatima said her husband, who holds a bachelor's degree in computer science, spent his conscription assigned to a small repair room fixing personal computers that personnel brought in. "He wasn't doing anything for the organization," she said. "People brought their computers there if there was an issue."
The stakes run through the whole family. If her husband is found inadmissible, so are their daughters, one of whom is 18 and has been accepted into a program at the University of British Columbia.
"If IRCC refuses our PR application because of my husband's conscription, and if we are inadmissible to Canada, then both my daughters are going to be inadmissible too," Fatima said.
Sam, a member of the Unheard Conscript Advocacy Network, said the 500-plus letters documented inside the group are likely a fraction of the national total. The group argues that former conscripts are effectively being asked to prove a negative: that compulsory service did not amount to voluntary membership in the Guards.
Canada was warned about the distinction
Canada's own immigration system has examined the difference between conscription and membership.
In a 2022 Response to Information Request on Iran's armed forces, the Immigration and Refugee Board cited Saeid Golkar, a scholar specializing in the Guards and the Basij, who explained that men subject to compulsory service apply through the Public Conscription Organization, which assigns them to the regular army, the police or the Guards.
Sources consulted by the board indicated conscripts do not choose the branch in which they serve. Golkar has also argued that conscription should not provide a blanket exemption from scrutiny.
The distinction was raised in Parliament days before Canada listed the Guards. Appearing before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on June 10, 2024, University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau warned that broad measures could sweep up people who were never the target.
"There are hundreds of thousands of current and former members," Juneau told MPs, warning that "innocents" could be caught in the net. He argued for "targeted" and "surgical" measures while stressing that genuine Guards activity in Canada posed a serious threat.
Nine days later, on June 19, 2024, Canada formally listed the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. Iran International has previously reported on former conscripts whose immigration cases became uncertain after the designation.
Political pressure grows
Correspondence obtained by the advocacy network this year deepens the confusion over how Ottawa applies the policy.
In a February letter, Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of the Canada Border Services Agency's intelligence and enforcement branch, wrote that the 2024 designation made "anyone that had served in the Guard Corps inadmissible to Canada." The same letter says all cases are "reviewed, assessed, and decided on an individual basis." The two sentences describe two different policies.
Iran International asked Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada what standard officers use to distinguish compulsory service from voluntary membership, whether uniform national guidance exists, how many former conscripts have received procedural fairness letters, and how many have been found inadmissible.
IRCC spokesperson Anahita Beladi said compulsory service in the Guards does not automatically make an applicant inadmissible and that each case is assessed individually. Procedural fairness letters, she said, are not final findings but a chance for applicants to explain their service.
"The final decision is made by an IRCC officer after considering the applicant's response, all relevant information, applicable jurisprudence, and any recommendations made by partners, including the Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Security Intelligence Service."
Beladi said the agency does not currently hold data in a form that would show how many applicants completed compulsory service in the Guards, or how many letters have been issued over it.
The issue has now spilled into federal politics.
At an Iranian community town hall in North Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the government of risking action against the wrong people.
"I think they're risking going after law-abiding decent people who are actually against the IRGCs, but who have already been victimized through conscription," Poilievre told Iran International.
"The listing of terrorist organizations was meant to go after the perpetrator, not the victim. I would encourage the government to go after the actual terrorists, not their victims."
Conservative candidate Stephen Curran said Parliament should challenge the practice if conscripts are being swept into enforcement.
"They are targeting people that are innocent... victims of the regime in Tehran," Curran said. "If this is actually taking place, I think we would have to raise a very strong critique of it in Parliament and make sure that we're calling it out."
For Fatima, the policy debate is no longer abstract. Her family, she said, publicly supported Canada's designation of the Guards and joined demonstrations against the Islamic Republic.
"We supported that policy, IRGC as a terrorist organization," she said. "Now we are the victim of that."
