The young people whom CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour meets in this month's Perspectives: A Revolutionary Journey (CNNI, 9pm) seem no different from the avant-garde of Hong Kong, London or New York. They party, drink alcohol, wear the latest fashions, enjoy rock and roll, and struggle to make provocative art.
But if they were caught while engaged in these activities, they would be whipped or imprisoned. As such, it comes as no surprise that they are in Iran, and the threat they pose to that country's Islamic regime is similar to that of the Tiananmen students in China in 1989.
Amanpour grew up in Iran before she and her family were forced to flee the country 20 years ago, after the Shah was overthrown. She goes back to find out what has become of her family home and to discover the dreams and aspirations of Iran's younger generation.
The family house is in virtual ruins, though it is occupied by poor tenants. One can imagine that Amanpour grew up in a far grander setting.
As for the young people, she has no difficulty in finding those who aspire to the type of freedom we enjoy in Hong Kong, and those prepared to defy the regime more blatantly in the radical newspapers they publish.
Alongside their yearning for greater personal freedom, the message is strong: these people want to join the rest of the CNN-receiving world in enjoyment of all things American. The conservative clerics ruling Iran insist that those whom Amanpour interviews reflect only a small minority, as China says of its dissidents. But they go further than that, by also describing the rebellious as 'disturbed' and 'unbalanced'. What Amanpour comes away with is a shocking portrait of a country on the brink of a new revolution.