In this news cycle, everyone is talking about Iran at the highest level from the president to politicians to foreign policy experts.

But so few of these voices have actually been inside the country.

So what should we all know about Iran? War correspondent and writer Holly McKay spent three weeks inside Iran alone.

Her story next. I'm Jenna. And this is Smarter News.

Holly, tell me just how you decided to go to Iran, how you even got there, and what was the

purpose of your trip?

So, I mean, Iran is always one of those places that you look at, especially as a journalist,

and it's kind of like this enigma that you want to go to. I think it was sort of the spring,

maybe, of 2017 or beginning of summer. mind you, going in my personal capacity,

not as a reporter at that point. And so I found that, you know, you could sign up through

these travel agencies and they would issue you kind of a what was called a visa code. So you

don't get the actual visa until you get there,

but you get a code that the airline will allow you to board the flight, etc. And then once you

have that code, they will issue you the visa on arrival in Tehran. And mind you, this is not

applicable to every country. Americans can't do that, British can't do that, and Canadians

can't do that. They have to apply for visas in advance, and it's a lot more of a strict

protocol. They also can't move around freely in Iran. So everything they do has to be kind of

structured into an approved itinerary. They have to have a minder with them

24-7, whereas because Australia has diplomatic relations with Iran, and this was just,

and the reason I chose to go at this time was because I was getting my American citizenship

at that point, and I felt like it was just kind of my last opportunity, my window opportunity to

go to Iran freely. So that's why I decided that it had to be now or never. And honestly,

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