Maani is a young Iranian who acted as Peter’s guide in Tehran. The same age as Peter, he is a gentle, quiet person who enjoys creating electronic music. Born in the late ‘70s baby boom following the establishment of the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran, Maani is one of the Third Generation. (Just as Peter is Gen X). In Iran, the ‘First Generation’ refers to the original Islamic revolutionaries of 1979. The ‘Second Generation’ were the young people decimated in numbers by the Iran - Iraq war (1980-1988) when Saddam Hussein’s American-backed forces invaded Iran and the resulting conflict led to the deaths of some one million Iranians (upper estimates reach 1.5 million). The ‘Third Generation’ are now in the majority in Iran - making Iran demographically one of the youngest countries in the world. The crippling power of the remaining First Generation conservative leaders means the current generation has little political voice and has been unable to bring about political reform, despite the dramatic post-election protests shortly after Peter’s visit.