In Tehran, money is short and a return to war looms over daily life

On a bright Tehran spring day, Sanaei Ghaznavi street, with its mix of shops selling groceries and household goods alongside fast food and flowers, seems like an everyday place. In a country where lives have long been buffeted by crises, it is a snapshot of a people just trying to get through the day while their future hangs on forces beyond their...

On a bright Tehran spring day, Sanaei Ghaznavi street, with its mix of shops selling groceries and household goods alongside fast food and flowers, seems like an everyday place.

In a country where lives have long been buffeted by crises, it is a snapshot of a people just trying to get through the day while their future hangs on forces beyond their control.

For Mohammad, in t-shirt and jeans, even cranking open the striped awning of his family's shoe shop is an act of hope.

"It makes me happy to be in here," he tells us when we wander into his pocket of a store with its floor-to-ceiling shelves of trainers, big and small. "So many people have lost their jobs and aren't working."