Investigations

Andrew Callaghan's crew stopped in Tehran over satanic tattoo on camera

Police stopped his crew when an interviewee showed a satanic tattoo on camera.

In Tehran, Andrew Callaghan filmed hip neighborhoods and cafe crowds after a 48-hour tour arranged by the Iranian government. Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan posted the footage on Oct. 8, 2026, roughly four months after the trip.

Callaghan had spent his first nights at pro-government rallies before walking into areas such as Fetish, where young people gathered outside the Rooar cafe. Most people inside went unveiled, read art books, and bought art supplies. Interview subjects told him scenes like those would have been inconceivable around 2015 and that public pressure after lethal protests had pushed modesty enforcement partway underground.

Iran banned public alcohol sales after the 1979 revolution. Interview subjects described bootleg imports and secret drinking rooms, and said a second offense for drinking can bring 80 lashes. Morality enforcement falls to the guidance patrol, which subjects said dissolved after Mahsa Amini's death in 2022 and returned covertly by 2024. President Masoud Pezeshkian told journalists in 2024 that morality police were not supposed to confront women in the streets.

A freelance photographer who spoke on distorted audio said he was tortured and held in solitary confinement after joining January protests. He declined to discuss politics on camera and said speaking again could cost him his life. He and others blamed internet blackouts during the protests for wiping out online income, and said inflation had left many young Tehranians without steady work.

Iran quietly began issuing licenses for solo female motorcycle riding in the months before Callaghan arrived, interview subjects said. One rider filmed on a Honda Scoopy 130 said women had been prohibited from riding alone until the recent change.

Callaghan's crew was instructed to stop filming as police looked on after an interview subject displayed a "666" arm tattoo. The subject had said she got the tattoo at 13 and did not worry about it in daily life, but foreign cameras and forbidden speech could draw police attention.

Regime-critical youth blamed both U.S. sanctions and their own government's foreign policy for economic collapse. One cited former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vow that Israel would be wiped from the earth as the moment sanctions tightened. Even supporters at a Death to America rally acknowledged hardship and pointed to U.S. sanctions dating to 1979.

A cafe interview ended when the subject said political comments would endanger everyone present and asked for face blurring and voice changes.

Source video: Tehran Streets