With a presence in nearly every city and town across Iran, the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps has an ever-increasing influence on life in the Islamic Republic. Authorities created the Basij, which means mobilization in Persian, just after the country's 1979 Islamic Republic. It is part of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard. Photo: In this Thursday, August 22, 2013 photo, a female member of the Basij paramilitary militia aims a rifle as a trainer looks over her shoulder in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Krystian Herba, a Polish extreme cyclist jumps up the steps of Eureka Tower on a bicycle as he breaks a Guinness World Record at Eureka Tower on February 4, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. Herba jumped up 2,919 steps on his bicycle in 1 hour 45 minutes without supporting himself with his hands or feet to break his own Guinness World Record. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

A goose sits atop eggs in a flower bed on the Wisconsin Ave. bridge, Friday, April 19, 2013, feathers ruffled in the cold blowing wind and snowflakes. The goose is near to the statues dedicated to Gertie the duck who made international news when she built her nest next to the same bridge in 1945 and captured the attention of Milwaukee at the end of the war. A statue commemorating “Gertie the Duck” sits on the other side of the bridge. The goose has several eggs she is sitting on. (Photo by Mike De Sisti)

A Herero man holds the head of a freshly butchered cow, killed to supply meat for a funeral, 2012. (Photo by Jim Naughten, courtesy of Klompching Gallery, New York)

The Euro sculpture is partially reflected in a puddle on a cobblestone pavement in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt on Jan. 21. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge speaks to soldiers as she arrives at Calgary Airport on July 7, 2011 in Calgary, Canada. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Competitors take part in the Red Bull Crashed Ice Cross Downhill World Championship in Marseille, France, January 14, 2017. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

An artist airbrushes a model during the “World Bodypainting Festival 2017” in Klagenfurt, Austria on July 28, 2017. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)