tehran she could have left iran as many of her contemporaries did but paristrained pastry chef shahrzad shokouhivand decided to stay and work to make womens lives better inside the countryand the icing on the cake she and her husband now employ 70 people mostly womenits only by working here that well change things in iran said the 36yearold speaking to afp in one of her two chic cafepastry shops in tehranshe and her husband do admit that at one stage they thought of leaving the islamic republic choosing the path of exilemost of our friends have gone to canada the united states or australia said her husband babak mehrabanibut we decided not to emigratefor many young graduates economic considerations influence the decision to stay in their sanctionhit home country or move abroadsuch concerns may be bolstered by the protest movement that has swept the country since the september death in custody of iranian kurd mahsa amini following her arrest for an alleged breach of strict islamic dress rules for womentheir decision to stay in iran has paid off shokouhivand and her husband believelike many other residents of tehran she fervently wants to hope that things are changingdespite everything i remain optimistic for women in iran she saidthat belief is shared by 27yearold minoo also a chef who notes fewer women than before wear obligatory headscarves in public places in the teeming capitalthe requirement for women to wear the headscarf in public was enshrined in law shortly after the islamic revolution of 1979what i see on the faces of women today is very different from six months ago before the protests erupted minoo saidnot all women feel the same wayhomeira a retired 58yearold teacher said she grew up with the veilwearing the hijab is the law of our country and we must respect the law she saidunfortunately our young people do not accept it and criticise the religion homeira added while also defending the right of people to chooseshokouhivand believes that as a woman you have to work a lot harder if youre to succeed in business at home and also in your social lifebut experiencing such obstacles also means that you progressit was her childhood dream to become a pastry chef and in 2017 she went to paris for three months to the renowned le cordon bleu cooking schoolon her return she opened a pastry shop in the city centre on the site of a store that used to sell handbags she kept its name femme chicnow the welloff of tehran flock to sample her tarte tatin baba without the rum and even a version of the breton kouign amann cakenow five years later she and her husband have two shops and a 70strong workforce of mostly womenthe business is also profitable despite them having to reduce their margins because of the rampant inflation sweeping the countrybut despite the uncertainty we remain ambitiousnow she and her husband are thinking of opening pastry shops in other cities