On August 5, Iran inaugurated a new president, putting an end to the eight-year tenure of reformist Hassan Rouhani and ushering in a new government.
The new president, Ebrahim Raisi, is said to have been handpicked by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who controls Iran's religious and political ideology. Mr Raisi won his election amid accusations of corruption and historically low voter turnout.
The new president had vowed in his campaign to continue the nuclear talks in Vienna, in an effort to get US sanctions removed and help relieve some of Iran’s economic pain. He also tempered his usually hard-line rhetoric concerning domestic policy. But, now, a week since President Raisi was inaugurated, the people are already seeing a change.
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Leila Gharagozlou talks to an expert on the country’s political space and an Iranian reporter about the future of one of the world’s most closed off countries.
