Tehran, Asharq Al-Awsat- “15 years ago, whoever purchased a cassette player would wrap it up and hide it in the car so that no one would discover it. The same thing applied to satellite dishes, but now it is normal to own one,” explained Armeni, a young middle class Iranian, as he commented on the changes that had been introduced gradually over the past ten years in Iranian society.
In Iran, items that are banned are readily available locally. These include satellite dishes, certain types of music, films, books and websites, in addition to certain types of clothing. For everything that is officially banned, there is an illegal alternative, for example, there are thousands of websites that have been blocked by the Iranian authorities; however, many young Iranians are technologically-savvy and can bypass the country's censors. There are also many films that are subjected to censorship or are banned in some cases, but at the same time these films are available in Iran and uncut versions can be found. Also certain genres of music like Hip-Hop are prohibited but they are popular amongst the Iranian youth and can be heard from cars as youngsters drive around the city at night. There are two worlds in Iran that contradict each other yet exist side by side.
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