No, this is not a story about Iran, it is a story about its people—stories told through intimate moments and intricate windows of their lives; stories filled with intimacy and irony; stories filled with juxtaposing narratives that guide you through the nuances life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As you read these stories, you’ll find an intriguing familiarity, yet so distant—tucked away in an isolated country that’s rarely seen through the reality of life in its complex society. These are real stories of ordinary Iranian people who live thousands of miles away in a country that’s often synonymous with rogue behavior on the world stage. These stories are slices of life—of Iranians who want to be heard, be seen, and belong to an international community that often sees them through a blur of a political fog. Iran is a country of 80 million, with a young population that has been living in an isolated and peak-a-boo thrusting society since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This is a country where 60 percent of its population are under the age of 30; a country that is home to the largest population of Jews outside of Israel in the Middle East; a country that has the largest population of Internet users in the region; a country with the most transsexual surgeries in the Middle East; and an Islamic Republic that is an ambiguous question mark for millions of people in the United States and beyond. As you flip through each story, you’ll feel the defiance of a transgender woman whose salvation was in the hands of a prostitute, learn from a young rabbi who is training the future generation of Jewish rabbis in Israel’s enemy state, and walk along side a Muslim cleric who spends his money saving animals and defying religious bigotry - it is then that you will realize that each experience can belong to any one of us. Despite national, ethnic, religious and political divides, these are real people whose fears and dreams mirror that of millions of others worldwide.