The Iranian uprising in 2009 occured on the 30th anniversary of the revolution. This book, written from 1986 to 2008, sheds light on many aspects of the years that led to the recent uprising. The author's accounts of her travels, mostly to her native city of Tehran, reflect the complexities and contradictions that define Iranian life, culture, and politics. The articles in this collection offer glimpses into many facets of Iranian society: survivors of terror and war, women, dissent, secular intelligentsia, underground culture, and Iranians in the diaspora.