Iran: the next revolution? Iran's population is mostly young, educated, and frustrated with the country's social restrictions. And they're starting to make noise.

• Author: Fathi, Nazila

TEHRAN, Iran--Standing among about 5,000 student demonstrators at Tehran University, Shayesteh Rezai punched her fist into the air and shouted in unison with the protesters: "All political prisoners must be released!"

The 18-year-old chemistry student had come to the center of Iran's capital to participate in a demonstration protesting the death sentence issued to Hashem Aghajari, a pro-democracy university professor who was accused of blasphemy.

Aghajari's crime? He called for the separation of religion and state in Iran, an Islamic state where religious leaders control key government functions.

"I cannot stay indifferent when I see the way people are treated because of the way they think," says Shayesteh, explaining her participation in the protest.

After two weeks of student demonstrations across Iran, the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered an appeals court to review and dismiss Aghajari's death sentence. The students had won this round: They had forced Iran's most powerful figure to intervene. What's more, the protests showed that the student movement for political reform was very much alive.

Twenty-three years after the revolution that brought an Islamic government to power, Iran may once again be on the brink of change. More than two thirds of Iran's 65 million people are under the age of 30. They are educated and familiar with the West's freedoms and opportunities. Increasingly, this younger generation is demanding political and social freedom.

"The world of Internet and satellite TV has opened our eyes to a new world that we want to be part of," says Mostafa Moradi, 19, a civil engineering student, who has voted in every election since he became eligible three years ago. "Reform is an inevitable path, because our generation wants to go to the same direction of progress and advancement that the global world is moving."

The push for change began in 1997, when Iranians overwhelmingly elected Mohammad Khatami, a reform-minded cleric and former head of the National Library, as President. Khatami promised to establish a civil society, within the confines of an Islamic system, that would have greater democracy and social freedom.

CHAT ROOMS, DVDS, POLITICS

Zahra Jalaipour, 17, spends her time doing the same things as teens in many developed countries: chatting on the Internet, watching DVDs with friends and her two brothers, and going to the movies. (Her latest favorite is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.) But unlike American teens, Zahra wears a chador, a...