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Alma Bahmanpour, 23...Her favorite television show is the American reality series, "So You Think You Can Dance?" She watches it with an illegal satellite dish on the roof of her family's apartment in an affluent neighborhood in northern Tehran. Her iPod, tucked under a form-fitting coat, is filled with rap and alternative rock.

On weekend nights, Ms. Bahmanpour applies dark eye-liner and red lipstick and lets her long brown hair loose. She wriggles into a miniskirt and high heels before heading to one of Tehran's underground parties held in private homes. DJs spin English and Persian tunes. Bootleg booze and drugs flow freely.

"Our lifestyle here is a copy of western lifestyle that we see on television and on the Internet
...Ms. Bahmanpour plans to leave Iran. She has studied French in school and is hoping to get accepted at a graduate program in France. Her parents support her ambitions.

"You can't really be who you want here. You have to always pretend because of all the contrasts between what the society expects from you and what you really want," she says.
Mostafa Sodoghi, 36 My generation did not vote for the Islamic Republic," roared Mostafa Sodoghi, his black robe sweeping the floor. "As our fathers, you were the ones who voted and brought this regime to power and now we hold you accountable."

The packed room of about 1,000 went wild with applause.

"We want real change, we want to move forward, not backward, just like the Americans who elected Obama," Mr. Sodoghi continued.
...Shadi Sadr, 35

Last year, Shadi Sadr served 17 days in solitary confinement in Tehran's infamous Evin prison. The lawyer was arrested at a women's rights protest and charged with threatening to overthrow the regime.

Ms. Sadr was arrested as part of the government's crackdown on the "One Million Signature Campaign." It aimed to collect one million signatures on a petition to parliament for rights in marriage, divorce and child custody issues among others. She is currently out on bail and awaiting trial.

Mahdi Moradani, 22"I'm afraid that the regime and Islam's dignity will be endangered when I hear such things. I have to put them in their place," he says.

Mr. Moradani is a member of the volunteer plain-clothed paramilitary task force Basij. Basij operates under the order of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and has neighborhood task forces across the country. Its forces serve as law enforcement, morality police, social service provider, and organizer of religious ceremonies.

When he was 14, the Basij forces piled Mr. Moradani and 100 other youths into buses and took them around the dormitories of Tehran University. They were ordered to beat up the students who had staged a pro-democracy and anti-regime rally, Mr. Moradani says.

"The revolution and Islam need me. I will give my life in a heartbeat if the regime asks me. Our society is now at the verge of sin," says Mr. Moradani, who tries to avoid making eye contact with women.
Inside Tehran's Hearts and Minds - WSJ.com