Iran’s children of the revolution return

Two years ago this summer, the photo-journalist Iason Athanasiadis reported for The First Post on the lifestyle of a generation of Iranians whom he called 'the children of the revolution'. Young, relatively westernised and angry at the Islamic regime, they are the sons and daughters whose parents redrew the political landscape of Iran by overthrowing the Shah in 1979 and installing the Ayatollah Khomeini in his place.

The photos, part of an ongoing project which Athanasiadis intends to publish as a book, Children of the Revolution: Khomeini's Unintended Legacy, proved to be one of the most popular photo-essays ever published by The First Post.

Showing young people dancing to music, and girls taking off their head scarves and smoking, the photos were the early indicators of a generation that wants change.

They are the ones who went on to vote for the reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi on Friday - and who now feel cheated by his failure to beat the system, and cruelly disappointed at the prospect of another four years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, backed by the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Athanasiadis described an extraordinary scene in central Tehran when a teenage girl, cornered by police, ripped off her headscarf and exposed her highlighted hair. "She screams insults at a policeman who begs her to put back on her hijab and stop causing a scene," wrote Athanasiadis. "Taking it from his hand, she throws it back in his face in one violent gesture, her indignant screams growing louder."

A middle-aged Iranian woman accompanying the photo-journalist told him: "This is the new generation. They're not scared at all. If I was stopped and told to fix my scarf, I'd be so terrified I'd pull it over my nose. But today's girls are not afraid, they will take the scarf off their head and throw it in the face of the police, even the basiji [Islamic militia]."

These are the same young people, unimpressed by the clerics who run their country, unmoved by Shia orthodoxy, and now unafraid to stand on the streets of Tehran and shout 'Death to the Dictator!' as the paramilitary basiji chase after them, wielding their sticks.