Iran's Hard Line Begins At Home

When Behnaz Mohsenian, 29, started English lessons at Tehran's Najdad Institute this spring, the 15 men and women in her class studied grammar sitting in mixed circles. Last month the language school split the group by gender, with men and women meeting on different days. Now plans are under way to move the women's classes to a separate building, to eliminate altogether the possibility of illicit mingling. "It feels," says Mohsenian, "as if we're all incapable of behaving like normal people and need to be regulated at all times."

	TIME's Tehran correspondent examines what daily life is really like in Iran • Raising a Child in Iran's Cultural Divide Coping with the gulf between Iranian private and public life is a difficult skill even for adults to manage. So what should we teach our children? • A Nation of Holocaust Deniers? The president's skepticism is, surprisingly, shared by many Iranians. But that doesn't mean they are anti-Israel. Let me explain • You've Come Only a Little Way, Baby Bans on foreign, Kurdish and even some ancient Persian names for newborns have been around since the Islamic revolution but are now letting up slightly • Iran's Caesarean Section Craze Well-accustomed to elective surgery, Iranian women are choosing C-sections at such a high rate that it's a challenge now to find a doctor who will perform a "medieval" vaginal birth • How Iran's Populist Lost His Popularity With prices rising and the economy stagnating, Iranians view their President as less a national hero than the latest in a long line of ineffectual bureaucrats • Many Happy Returns, Twelfth Imam! The Mahdi, an imam who happens to be Ahmadinejad's favorite, has become the object of frenzied and government-nurtured worship • Silencing the Voices of Dissent Inside the forced shutdown of Iran's most popular reformist paper, Shargh • Who are the Women Behind the Men Running Iran? First ladies are usually kept in hiding, but one outspoken wife is causing big problems for Ahmadinejad • The Backlash Against Iran's Role in Lebanon The notion that Iranian dollars are going to Lebanese Shi`ites is fueling animosity between the Persian community and the Arab world

When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office last summer, everyone nervously watched...