Last year, Iran was rocked by some of the biggest protests the country has seen since the foundation of the Islamic Republic - as people were calling not just for women’s rights, but ultimately for regime change. 

Yet how realistic is regime change in a nation where the crackdown against the protests has been brutal and where the leaders are unwilling to alter the theological and ideological basis of their power?

In this week’s episode of the Fourcast, we speak to the head of middle eastern studies at the Royal United Services Institute, Dr Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi. She discusses whether the regime is weak right now and how worrying it is that as Iran becomes more ostracised from the west, it draws closer to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Sources: AP, Al Jazeera

Producer: Freya Pickford