On a dingy suburban street in southern Tehran, cats pick daintily through piles of rubbish, and black-swathed women walk past low-hanging electrical wires and graffiti-decorated walls. Anonymous among them, Zohreh fits the western image of the repressed Iranian woman. Not a strand of hair strays from her headscarf, and she tops her scarf and coat with a head-to-toe black chador.

But inside her small, immaculate apartment it becomes clear that life for Zohreh – as for the vast majority of Iranian women – is much more complicated than the western world believes. “Of course you know Iranian women normally win at home,” she laughs. A large woman, she wears her dyed brown-and-blonde hair in long layers. Her black trousers and brown patterned top are accented by a big gold pendant.