jason: um, a lot of push and pull. a lot of give and take. when i first started coming here, you wouldn t hear pop music in a, in a restaurant, or a anthony: right. yeganeh: it s everywhere now. jason: now it s everywhere. yeganeh: we have police, they arrest girls, or women, for having bad hijab or not being covered enough. but it s not that we live with the police in our head, you know? anthony: you know, one of the first things that people will say when you say, well, i m going to iran. oh you re - but don t they make women do this, this and this. jason: yeah. anthony: actually, not so much. jason: yeah. anthony: not as much as our jason: friends. anthony: friends. anthony: compare and contrast, women aren t allowed to drive in saudi arabia. yeganeh: that s right. or vote. anthony: uh, or vote. you can drive? you can vote? yeganeh: yeah, of course. anthony: can you open a business? yeganeh: of course. my sister is an accountant. she has
anthony: are you optimistic about the future? yeganeh: yeah. especially if this nuclear deal finally happens, um, yeah. very much, actually. anthony: despite the hopeful nature of our conversation, six weeks after the filming of this episode, jason and yeganeh were mysteriously arrested and detained by the police. sadly, in iran, this sort of thing is not an isolated incident. c come together. ralphs club. the new fragrance. ralph lauren.
You know? it, the difficult part is convincing people on the other side of the world that, that what we re telling you, we re seeing in front of our eyes, is actually there. when you walk down the street, you see a different side of things. people are proud; the culture is vibrant, uh, people have a lot to say. anthony: jason rezaian is the washington post correspondent for iran. yeganeh, his wife and a fellow journalist, works for the uae-based newspaper the national. jason is iranian-american. yeganeh is a full iranian citizen. this is their city, tehran. the official attitude towards fun in general seems to be ever-shifting. how is fun even a good idea ?
maeimeh: tilapia. that fish is from the south of iran. anthony: from the persian gulf? bijan: persian gulf. maeimeh: yes. and this one is from north. we call it mahi-ye halva. anthony: maybe if i could try some, uh yes, thank you. maeimeh: of course. and that one is gheimeh. we made it with beans, meat. anthony: so good. mmm. fantastic food. bijan: man and wife, both of them working. you know? anthony: so it s hard to do something like this. bijan: yes. anthony: that s what i ve been waiting, that s the crispy rice at the bottom, right there? the, what s it called? tadek? is that maeimeh: tadek. anthony: tadek. maeimeh: exactly. anthony: oh, lovely. merci. maeimeh: my mom and my mother-in-law, they think if they have a guest, they have to, at least two or three kind of foods. anthony: right. maeimeh: and, uh, if they make just one, they think that this is not very polite for the guest. but, uh, nowadays, for example, for my generation, when i hav
yeganeh: we cannot. anthony: woman s issues are often at the spear point of change or possible change here. on one hand, prevailing conservative attitudes demand certain things. on the other hand, iranian women are famously assertive, opinionated. it s a striking difference from almost everywhere else in the region. so why are we so friendly with the saudi s again? jason: that s a great question. it s a really good question. yeganeh: i m happy that you asked the question. anthony: do you like it? you re happy here? jason: look, i m at a point now, after five years, where, uh, i miss certain things about home. i miss my buddies. i miss, uh, burritos. i miss having certain beverages with my buddies and burritos, and certain types of establishments. um, but i love it. i love it, and i hate it. you know? but, it s home. it s become home.