"Have you ever seen a satellite dish?" we ask one young village girl, "almost" she replies. The village elder is just as evasive, "I haven't seen anything with my own eyes. I wouldn't lie. If I'd seen anything I would tell." We politely avert our eyes from the wires disappearing across his garden.

So what is this problem with satellite TV? "Negative content" we are told, "immoral scenes, "corrupting influences." But in a country whose prudish black marketeers laboriously edit out sex scenes, in which even tribal elders have a glint in their eye as they deny knowledge of television, it seems that there must be a darker reason for censorship.

"They don't want us to witness other countries' freedoms," accuses teenage Davood Kamkar, and his mother agrees, "the decisions our government make are not in line with what people want". They have just had a shiny new black market dish installed in their home, and are busy registering their disapproval by catching up on the latest news.

Whatever this isolationist government's reasons for the crackdown, there is real resentment amongst its long suffering population. "I don't feel safe when I go out. I'd rather stay home and watch satellite," reveals Layla. "When I go shopping the officials constantly question me about my way of dressing, my scarf, my makeup." Safer then, to stay at home, escape reality another way.