Rageh Omaar

Rageh Omaar

(Rageh Inside Iran)

Rageh Omaar was most recently BBC News' Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg.
Previously he was Developing World Correspondent from 1998 and covered stories ranging from drought in Ethiopia to devastating floods in Mozambique.

Rageh began his journalistic career in 1990 as a trainee at The Voice newspaper in Brixton and then moved to City Limits magazine.

In 1991 he moved to Ethiopia where he freelanced as a foreign correspondent, much of his work being broadcast by BBC World Service. In 1992, he returned to London as a producer for Focus on Africa for the World Service at Bush House.

Between 1994 and 1996, he worked as a broadcast journalist for the World Service and then became a producer and reporter for Newshour. In September 1996 he undertook a three-month sabbatical at the University of Jordan, where he studied Arabic.
He was appointed Amman correspondent in March 1997.

Rageh Omaar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia on 19 July 1967. He is the youngest of four children. Educated at Cheltenham Boys College, he went on to Oxford University where he gained a BA Honours in Modern History in 1990.



Rageh Inside Iran

Award-winning journalist Rageh Omaar sets out on a personal journey through the politically sensitive cauldron of Tehran, telling the story of the region not through the eyes of politicians, officials and analysts, but through the experiences of ordinary Iranians.

With incredible access, Omaar visits people's homes and travels through a rich variety of neighborhoods and districts of the city, areas which are rarely filmed. In doing so, he is able to present a unique and intimate view of Tehran and dig deeper into what is both a complex and fascinating society.

Inside Iran Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard - ordinary Iranians. It took a year of wrangling to get permission to film inside Iran but the result is an amazing portrayal of an energetic and vibrant country that is completely different to the usual images seen in the media.

A country of contrasts!! Rageh soon discovers that Tehran is a complex place and uncovers a city of extremes of wealth and poverty, where some people survive on less than a dollar a day and others shop till they drop in glitzy shopping malls. Iran is a country that bans women from riding motorcycles but where 60 per cent of the student population is female. It is also a youthful place, with two thirds of Iran's 70 million populations under the age of 30.

Rageh meets with local people to hear their personal stories and feelings about the current state of affairs in Iran. There are stories of taxi drivers, wrestlers, business women, people working with drug addicts and the country's leading pop star and his manager - the 'Simon Cowell' of Iran.

Rageh Inside Iran transcends images of angry demonstrations and burning flags to reveal a country that isn't without its problems but which is also fascinating, dynamic and hospitable.


Rageh Inside Iran
Broadcast 02/15/07 BBC 4 - Video Runtime 98 Minutes

HaZeM