Inside Iran

Ann Curry • Profile

We're in Iran, and as we make our way, we're expecting what most Americans probably would expect.   A place of rage----especially toward the West, which is increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions; where freedom of expression is non-existent. But we soon discover there is another side to this Islamic Republic beyond those chants of death to America. There is an Iran unknown to most Americans. Young people singing for joy at a rally for a presidential candidate.

We are, you know, we are human, we are not terrorists!!

A  woman--who used to be a man-- her sex change operation approved by the Iranian government. A place where there's a proactive government policy to prevent AIDS.

Dr. Minoo Mohraz: I like you too, if you listen to me, don't worry, okay?

Where a Muslim cleric kisses a Jewish leader in friendship. And where women have more options than you might think. Now, a journey into a country of contradictions, at a significant moment in world history.  In Iran, voices of a new generation are beginning to be heard.

Everyone answers to a religious cleric known as the supreme leader. But there is also an elected president who runs the day-to-day government. And later this week, voters here will go to the polls to choose their next president. And the fiery Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing a serious challenge. Could the results alter the course of U.S.-Iranian relations?

President Obama: I would like to speak clearly to Iran 's leaders.

... At a time when the U.S. itself is showing signs of changing course.

President Obama: This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.   

But realistically, is mutual respect even possible between the United States and Iran?

Hooman Majd: The true Iran is probably very much like America.

Hooman Majd understands both cultures better than most.  The son of an Iranian diplomat, he grew up in the West, becoming a New York-based writer. He's written a book describing the many paradoxes of modern-day Iran.

Video   Iranian reformist leader: Ties with U.S. could improve Iran's reformist leader former President Mohammad Khatami talks to NBC's Ann Curry before his nation's election about what might change if the reformist movement had won. Dateline NBC

Hooman Majd: Most people have the same desires, the same needs as most Americans do.  There's a very big difference in the religion. But in reality what goes on in people's homes, what people think, what people do, you know, aspire to, is very similar um to what Americans desire and aspire to.

Then why all the tension?  To understand, consider Iran's history rich history dating back more than two thousand years when it was called the Persian Empire.  A civilization that came up with the first human rights doctrine and many other innovations...

Dateline NBC’s Ann Curry: Iran is the source of Polo?

Hooman Majd: The very town we're sitting in right now.  Yes.

Ann Curry: What else?

Hooman Majd: Backgammon, chess-- certain mathematical theories, astronomy-- all that goes back centuries and centuries, thousands of years.  So, Iranians are very, very proud of all that.  Yes.

The trouble between Iran and the United States started in the 1950s. After centuries of rule by monarchs known as the shahs, Iran was moving toward democracy. But the U.S.'S CIA helped get rid of Iran's democratically elected leader in favor of the Shah, who became known for repressing his people. They revolted in 1979. A cleric - Ayatollah Khomeini - returned to Iran from exile to lead the Islamic revolution. The U.S. gave the Shah refuge.

In retribution, a group of Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital, Tehran, and held more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. That set the tone for U.S.-Iranian relations for the next thirty years. Worsening the tensions --the U.S. supported Iraq in its war against Iran in the 1980s-- when hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed, some with chemical weapons.

Hooman Majd: They resent that greatly that the United States took the side of a brutal dictator like Saddam Hussein, who had invaded their country illegally. 

Slideshow   Inside Iran NBC’s Ann Curry shares photographs from NBC’s reporting inside this secretive and surprising nation. more photos

Even today you can see the depth of emotion at this cemetery, where tens of thousands of Iran's soldiers are buried. And in the way people line up to kiss a well-renown hero from that war.

Hooman Majd: Most families have-- all families have somebody who served-- my-- my own family included. They witnessed a horrific, horrific war.

Mistrust runs deep on both sides, with the U.S. pointing to Iran's poor record on human rights--and its support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

President Bush, 2002 State Of The Union: States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.

Relations worsened further after the election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for his anti-U.S. and anti-Israel diatribes--and for his repeated questioning of the Holocaust. But seeds of change may now be taking root in Iran.

Man: I have no freedom, no freedom of speech.  And so I'm trying-- I'm trying to change my destiny by voting. 

Of the seventy million people in Iran, two thirds of them are under the age of 30. Many are wary of talking openly - but we'll meet some who are willing to tell a stranger about the change they want.

Ann Curry: What kind of freedom do you want?

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