Iranians, says journalist Christopher de Bellaigue in his book “In the Rose Garden of Martyrs,” don’t smile. They are in mourning for the death of Imam Hussein in 680 AD, for the death of thousands in the Islamic revolutionary war, and for the death of as many as 200,000 in the eight-year war with Iraq.

The streets of Tehran are named after the “martyrs” of the revolution and the families who lost loved one to the war with Iraq. The country is a mullahtocracy, where torture and murder of critics is common. But so is pre-marital sex, divorce, drug addiction and prostitution.

Tune in for a conversation with journalist Christopher de Bellaigue about the daily life on the streets of post-Islamic revolution Iran.

Guests:

Christopher de Bellaigue, has been working as a journalist in the Middle East and South Asia for more than a decade, writer for The Economist, The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, resident of Tehran and author of the new book “In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran.”