For just over three weeks huge street protests have swept across Iran and threatened to topple The Islamic Republic regime of Iran. The regime has responded with a brutal crackdown on dissent and imposing a total internet blackout. President Donald Trump has urges Iranians to keep protesting and has promised that 'help is on its way'.
So how should we understand what’s happening in Iran and why does President Trump care so much. In this podcast extra we trace the story of Iran from the 1953 CIA coup that overthrow the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and ushered in the rule of the Shah through to the events that lead to the 1979 Iranian Revolution that ousted the Shah and the return of the Ayatollah, and finally, Iran post 1979 and the role that Iranian women have played in resisting the rule of the Ayatollahs.