The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

“These are strange times, my dear, they smell your breath to see if you have spoken of love.” In Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran, an old Iranian woman recites verses of Persian poetry as she feeds forbidden books to a growing flame.

With a new generation of entrepreneurs, including relatives of the Islamic power, modern cafés and restaurants are booming in the Iranian capital. This contrasts with a past marked by a tasteless isolation, says Tehran correspondent of the Financial Times.