Ali

The first moment is right around the time of the very first U.S.

sanction against the Islamic Republic.

It was the founding moment of this new country, when the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, took power in 1979, and Iran was redefining itself.

That is the year after political economist Ivolela Peseron was born.

Ivo Leila is an academic at the University of Cambridge.

Her parents were among those who left during the revolution.

Under the Shah, Iran had for decades been very connected with and influenced by the West, most notably the UK and the US.

Photos from the 1970s circulate periodically.

Maybe you've seen them.

They look a lot like Europe, kind of.

Women are out and about with their hair out, wearing Western-style dresses.

After decades, the Iranian people decided to reject the rule of the Shah and all this Western influence violently.

In 1979, enormous protests over corruption and economic disparity and foreign influence overthrew the Shah.

And the Islamic Republic's first religious and political leader was installed.

And growing up in England, Iwilela always heard about her origin story, about being spirited away in the midst of this revolution.

Honestly, the subtitle is like so legit.

Hang on, let me find it.

Crushed it.

If you're trying to understand how sanctions have impacted Iran over time, Ivo Leila says this period, just after the revolution, is super important.

Because from the beginning, a huge part of the new government's project was to define itself against the U.S.