'It's irrelevant' Allowing a reformist to run fails to stop fall in turnout by Iran's voters

If Tehran is holding its breath, it is not because of political tensions but the smog that envelops the traffic-clogged capital in summertime.

- Patrick Wintour

Before tomorrow's presidential runoff between the hardliner Saeed Jalili and the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian - an election that has the potential to put Iran back on course to engage with the west - members of the young middle class sitting in Cafe Elie, Tehran, compete to express their disdain for the political process.

Two teenage girls, sipping drinks and not wearing hijabs, say they do not even know the candidates' names. Angel is a veteran of the Women, Life, Freedom protests, which erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was detained for allegedly not wearing a headscarf properly.

"We feel so disappointed by what happened," Angel said. "There were so many promises [after the protests], but none were kept.

Instead, they have come back to enforce the hijab and to take us back to the police station.

"In some ways it is worse and more humiliating because of what we have been through. Politics is an irrelevance."