This is The Guardian.

Today, women riding motorbikes and dancing in the streets.

Has the Iranian regime lost its power?

Thank you. Sitting on that airplane, getting closer, closer to Tehran, I think that's when all the feelings started coming.

I was very nervous.

Earlier this year, Iranian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri flew home to Iran for the first time in three years.

The hijab is mandatory in Iran, and Kiana knew wearing it to go through arrivals was essential.

I wore the headscarf and the dress that I was wearing as I left three years ago. So I was wearing the same thing.

At the airport, I was shocked. My friend walked up to the checkpoint where traditionally we used to wear our hijab, tighter, and she was wearing nothing. She was wearing no hijab. She was wearing a shirt

and pants. My friend took me directly from the airport to center of Tehran to this one specific street where a lot of young people go to hang out, to go to cafes and restaurants, and she took me straight there.

And I was so overwhelmed with what I saw.

It felt surreal.

Because no one was wearing hijab, I could see belly button.

I could see very modern goals made up in the cafe.

The last time Kiana was in Iran's capital three years ago,

the woman life freedom protests had just begun.

They were sparked by the death of Masahamini, a young

curlish woman who'd been picked up by the morality police for infractions of the hijab law

and who died in police custody. Those protests became the biggest anti-government demonstrations

in decades until the regime hit back.

Hundreds were killed.

It seemed like the protest movement had been brutally crushed and silenced.

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