Features
Hope for Iranians in the French Torture Game
[ comment ] A group of French psychologists recently recruited 80 volunteers for what they claimed was a pilot for a new TV show. The game involved posing questions to...
'Temporary Marriage' and the Economy of Pleasure
Feminist Political Scientist Condemns "Temporary Marriage" as Exploitation This article was first published on the Alborz website on January 9, 2010. In Iran, "temporary marriage," which was originally called sigheh...
Iran's Uranium Enrichment Program (Part I)
Amid the deep crisis faced by Iran since the June 2009 rigged presidential election and its aftermath, tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States and its allies has...
Spotlight: Golbarg Bashi + Iranian Women
golbarg bashi From One Third World Woman to Another | read Picturing Ourselves: 1953, 1979 and 2009 | read Iranian Feminism after June 2009 | read Feminist waves in...
Spotlight: Muhammad Sahimi
Dr. Muhammad Sahimi is a political columnist for Tehran Bureau. He is a professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and the NIOC Chair in petroleum engineering at the...
Pulling the Strings of the Net: Iran's Cyber Army
[ overview ] During the past few months, the activities of Iran's Cyber Army have attracted growing notice in the Iranian and international media. The suspicion that the Cyber Army's...
A response to Danny Postel's call for critical solidarity with Iran
Danny Postel's "The Specter Haunting Iran" is a welcome call for "critical solidarity" with the Iranian democratic opposition movement. Unlike those on the Left who have been wary of characterizing...
The Specter Haunting Iran
[ ideas ] A specter is haunting Iran -- the specter of democracy. The events of the last eight months in Iran have occasioned -- one might even say...
The Political Evolution of Mousavi
[ profile ] One of the most significant results of Iran's rigged presidential election of June 12, 2009, has been the political evolution of Mir Hossein Mousavi, recognized by many...
An Iranian Civil Rights Movement?
[ analysis ] For most observers of the Green Movement, the most salient question is how the current political movement in Iran mirrors the Islamic Revolution. But another parallel comes...
Economic Woes
[ analysis ] Iran's political evolution has not been without economic consequences. The increasingly uncertain future has affected businesses and households alike. Yet many important questions have remained unanswered, such...
Marandi takes on the Media
[ Q&A ] In the nearly eight months since the Iranian election, few in Iran have openly spoken to the western media. One exception has been Dr. Seyyed Mohammad...
Handguide: The American Women's Club of Iran
Starting on Monday, as the Islamic Republic celebrates the "ten days of dawn," the period marking the victory of the 1979 Revolution, this little handbook provides a glimpse inside Tehran...
Iran's New Labor?
Against the status quo: An interview with Iranian trade unionist Homayoun Pourzad Despite unrelenting state repression, there have been rumblings throughout the 2000s of renewed labor organizing inside the Islamic...
A Hardliner's Hardliner
A Hardliner's Hardliner: General Mohammad Ali Jafari [ profile ] In the spring of 2005, President Mohammad Khatami's second term was coming to an end. Since he could not run...
From One Third World Woman to Another
A conversation with Gayatri Spivak. [ feature ] Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is well known amongst many scholars, feminists and South Asian activists. Her reputation as a transnational feminist who combined...
Turning Point: Where is the Green Movement headed?
[ analysis ] The funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on Dec. 21, and the Ashura demonstrations on Dec. 27, marked a turning point for Iran's democratic movement. The...
A second coup?
Or a second coup? [ comment ] Former president Mohammad Khatami called the June 12 election a "velvet coup" against the people of Iran. Now as the Green Movement gains...
Ashura 101
[ overview ] December 18 marked the beginning of the month of Moharram. Shiites, and in particular Iranians, have been mourning the killing of their third Imam, Hossein, the quintessential...
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri: 1922-2009
He was not willing to sell his soul to stay in power. [ obit ] Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the spiritual leader of the Iran's democratic movement, and one...
United Students of Iran
[ feature ] The large campus protests in more than 15 cities across Iran on Dec. 7 in celebration of Student Day, which coincided with the six-month milestone in the...
The Chain Murders
[ feature ] The history of political assassinations in Iran is almost as old as the nation itself: Xerxes (519-465 BC) was killed by his guards; Xerxes II ruled for...
Staging Mousavi's Arrest?
[ overview ] Over the past week, there has been increased speculation that Mir Hossein Mousavi may be arrested. This began after state television broadcast a clip from student demonstrations...
Iran Media Guide
Television IRIB or the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (Farsi: Seda va Sima, or 'Voice and Vision'), is the state monopoly broadcaster (radio and television) directly overseen by the office...
16 Azar: Iran's Student Day
[ feature ] Iranians have been struggling for at least the past 150 years to establish a democratic political system in which the rule of law is supreme. Iranian university...
Oh What a Mess
[ analysis ] At a recent security conference in Tehran, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi raised "the need to redefine the Islamic Republic's security atmosphere and interests." No one could...
The House in Shemiran
[ personal history ] My great-grandmother, Madar Joon, had electricity, but she preferred to read by the glow of a kerosene lamp. She was always up before dawn, hunched over...
The Plight of Iranian Journalists
[ feature ] Except for a brief period in the beginning of President Mohammad Khatami's first term (1998-2000); and earlier, between 1941, when Allied forces occupied Iran, and 1953, the...
13 Aban (updates)
Photo (right): Regime supporters apparently accidentally set ablaze a flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the semi-official Mehr News Agency posted it on its site. From Tehran...
We met online, after the election
The Information Revolution knows no borders. [ comment ] The events of the Iranian election in June had us unrepentant Twitter addicts enthralled. With traditional media controlled by the government,...
Weapons of Mass Distraction
The 41st anniversary of the commencement of American-Israeli negotiations over Israel's nuclear program. [ region ] If Iranian negotiators haven't read Avner Cohen's book Israel and the Bomb, they should....
Overview: University Unrest
Photo translation: Happy Student Day to you the student who is: a hooligan! naive! an agent of a foreign adversary! a threat to public safety! a spy! a fake intellectual!...
Analysts: Internal disputes behind nuclear delay
[ analysis ] As Iran prolongs replying to a nuclear deal seen as a first step towards ending the Islamic Republic's longstanding standoff with the international community, analysts inside Iran...
The Fog over the 1983 Beirut Attacks
[ comment ] Friday marked the 26th anniversary of the bombing attacks on the U.S. Marines and French forces in Beirut, Lebanon. Two truckloads of explosives separately struck the buildings...
Who supports Jundallah?
[ analysis ] On Oct. 18, 2009, the Jundallah (God's Brigade) terrorist group mounted two terrorist attacks inside Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province. One was a suicide attack, and the other was...
Brew haha: Israeli boycott of Turkish coffee won't hold water
[ region ] Although Israeli political leaders have been playing down the significance of the fraying relations between Israel and Turkey, Haaretz reports that an Israeli cafe chain, Ilan Coffee,...
US-Iran talks: Does Green Movement benefit?
[ analysis ] Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany -- began on Thursday, October 1. Iran's...
So You Wanna Be A Hyperstar?
[ business ] A few years ago I had a conversation with an engineer who was complaining bitterly about the four traditional Iranian styles of bread. His harangue went on...
Me and My Basij Friend
More surreal than a movie. [ essay ] It was July 4, 2009. The protests had almost died out, but we were determined to make a last stand before...
Protesting against Dictators: Ahmadinejad and the Shah
A history of protest in the Iranian diaspora. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his annual visit to New York this week to address the United Nations General Assembly. Iranian expatriates from...
Stuck Between America and Iran
By JIM KRANE The 5,000 Iranians had waited for hours. They'd finished the last crumbs of their picnics and hung their homemade banners. They killed time by practicing their...
The Nuclear Thing & Other Persian Riddles
Farsi provides a multi-dimensionality that allows its speakers to deny truth in a most truthful way.Dispatch from Tehran | 10 Sept 2009 Over the years, everyone has heard the...
My revolutionary friends
The Iranian jet set help support a brutal regime by looking the other way. By SETAREH SABETY in Nice Those who come back from Iran speak with different degrees...
Cleaning up after the men
Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi pictured above with Fatemeh Ajorlou Iran's first woman health minister faces many challenges ahead -- segregating health care facilities for men and women is not one...
Majlis Day 3
Fatemeh Ajorlou, Ahmadinejad's pick for Minister of Social Welfare, speaks to lawmakers in parliament in Tehran, September 1, 2009. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (in glasses) speaks with lawmakers in...
Majlis Day 2
Photos/Tehran Bureau Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (immediately above), who will retain his job if parliament backs him, said Iran had successfully defended its "nuclear rights" against Western demands to...
Street Fightin' Soosool
Soosool boys from South Tehran increasingly difficult to tell apart from Northern brethren. Lynsey Addario/CorbisSocial Class and Tehran's Geography By MOHAMMAD KHIABANI in Tehran | 31 Aug 2009 There...
The Paranoid Style in Iranian Politics
Cartoon from the satirical leftist journal Ahanger (16 April 1979) depicting Iran in a chess match with the United States. Iran's chess pieces are workers, peasants, students, the Fedayin,...
Stalinist Show Trials: Part Four
Saeed Hajjarian (center), who was left partially paralyzed after an assassination attempt, is considered the brain behind the reformist movement. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 25 Aug...
History Used and Abused
In Nov. 1951, the British Embassy reported that Kashani was so disgruntled with Mosaddeq that he had put out "feelers" in many directions, including the royal court and the...
A Call for Human Rights Protection in Iran
Human Rights is a universal concern. By SAM SASAN SHOAMANESH at The Hague | 18 Aug 2009 In the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election, the world has...
Letter from Tehran
The Gossip in Tehran Whether a figment of the Iranian imagination or not, rumors have been persistent over the last two years that Ahmadinejad and the IRGC high command...
Shiraz Nights
Photos/Ghazzal Dabiri By GHAZZAL DABIRI in Shiraz | 9 Aug 2009 Everyone in my family who said they would not, went to vote. Unfortunately, I could not vote since I...
Genius
What does the new cabinet have in store? By GOLAB P. | 8 Aug 2009 Reports emerged this week that Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's parliamentary deputy, has a...
Global Solidarity 2.0
Information Revolution: Protests in Iran continue to reverberate worldwide. By NERI ZILBER in New York | 4 August 2009 Sepideh, a 23-year old Iranian student, held her cell phone...
Alien Nation
By KAMIN MOHAMMADI | 1 August 2009 'Now perhaps the world will know us better.' So said one of my cousins and best friends in Iran, my almost daily...
Martyred and Murdered
This list is in the process of being updated. By SAYA OVAISY in Tehran | 30 July 2009 [Updated 1 Aug 2009] [TEHRAN BUREAU] A massive demonstration had been...
Fight or flight? Many Head Out
Fight or take flight? 30 years after the 1979 revolution, at least 3 million Iranians live abroad. Photo depicts two young revolutionaries around the time of the 1978-79 revolution....
A Charter for the Green Movement
After weeks of virtual silence following his declared intention to form a new political front, Mir Hossein Mousavi's official Web site, Ghalam News, announced Wednesday that the opposition leader...
Lines Are Drawn in Iran
By FARIDEH FARHI in Honolulu | 22 July 2009 [IPS] With the historical Friday Prayer sermon given by former president and current chair of the Council of Experts and...
Prayers Make History
The following account is narrated in Farsi and translated by Tara Mahtafar. The narrator is a male student of political philosophy and in his early 30s. Friday Prayers, another...
Iran's new nuclear supremo
By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut | 20 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The appointment of Ali Akbar Salehi as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation will be taken as a...
The Man in the Shadow: Mojtaba Khamenei
There is much talk about Mojtaba in Iran. Is the young Khamanei being groomed to take over his father's position? By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 16 July...
No Revolution
A group of Iranian women in Tehran protesting forced hijab, or Islamic veiling, which was imposed shortly after the 1979 revolution. By SETAREH SABETY in Nice, France | 14...
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Fatwa
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Fatwa: an Unfair Supreme Leader is Illegitimate By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 12 July 2009 In a very important development, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri,...
Reformist Strategist: Saeed Hajjarian
Photo: Saeed Hajjarian and Mohsen Mirdamadi (looking up), secretary-general of the Islamic Iran Participation front. Both are in jail. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 8 July 2009...
Inside Evin
Dispatch from Tehran I was arrested walking home in the immediate aftermath of the election at a busy square in the city center. Chaos reigned: chants, stones, batons, teargas....
Geeks Around the Globe Rally to Help Iranians Online
Geeks and God: Sign reads, "God is on our side. Do you intend to filter God, too?" By CYRUS FARIVAR in San Francisco | 8 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU]...
Iran's Stolen Election
By AHMAD SALAMATIAN Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave this injunction to members of the government nine months before the country's presidential election on 12 June: "Do not...
Iranian Feminism after June 2009
Iranian Feminism after June 2009: A Conversation with Zillah Eisenstein By GOLBARG BASHI in New York | 4 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The world has now witnessed the extraordinary...
Blackout
Dispatch from Tehran | originally sent 14 June, two days after the election, published 2 July "Just keep walking and don't run," came a voice to my left. I...
Updates
29 June 2009 | 2:00 pm Eastern: [translated] After the 10 o'clock news, when the result of the Guardian Council's vote count was announced, the sound of Allah o...
Feminist waves in the Iranian Green Tsunami?
By GOLBARG BASHI in New York | 29 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] As pictures of women, young and old, religious and non-religious, have plastered our Internet and TV screens...
Sunday updates
Cartoonist: Nikahang Kowsar Re "Rafsanjani breaking his silence," our political watcher, Muhammad Sahimi says, "I read what Rafsanjani said. It was not saying much. He was saying the standard...
Iran updates
25 June: From Iran (not Tehran): About an hour ago they brought in an young man in his early twenties who was severely beaten by the Basij. His CPK...
The Leaders of Iran's 'Election Coup'
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders chant slogans during their meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not pictured, in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 11, 2007. (AP Photo/ISNA, Rouhollah Vahdati, File) By MUHAMMAD...
1984
Two Iranian soldiers kiss before they go to battle (Iran-Iraq war). I was born in 1984, amid a devastating war that had laid waste and destruction to my country....
Widespread Clashes in Tehran
Photo/Hamid Janipour By JASON REZAIAN in Tehran | 13 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The polling stations had been closed a little over two hours. Although we were told that...
Retrospective
The Rise and Fall of Mohammad Khatami Part 1: Children of the Revolution [ feature ] At thirty, Ali is too young to remember the 1979 Islamic revolution. Because...
Election Coverage
Link to (free) high-quality videos of debates Click here In Depth: commentary & analysis | By Muhammad Sahimi Part I: the political and economical landscape in Iran. Part II:...
The Virtual Iran Beat
By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD [NIEMAN REPORTS] The Pakistani taxi driver I have directed to the Iranian Embassy pumps his brakes as we approach the U.S. Embassy, a seven-story building that...
Nieman Reports Iran
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Q&A with Melissa Ludtke, Editor of Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard was established in 1938 "to promote and elevate the standards of journalism."...
Blind Luck
Pictured: Iranian football star Ali Daei. From Tehran to the BBC: How I became a sports journalist. By MANI DJAZMI in London [TEHRAN BUREAU] "The first male journalist to...
Mast-e Mei-e Mousavi
By AFSHIN SALIMPOUR in Tehran | 31 May 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] At a women's movement event in aid of the Mirhossein Mousavi campaign yesterday I sensed that the momentum...
Sexual Politics in Iran
By JANET AFARY The 1979 Islamic revolution was not a wholesale return to the past; rather, the new state reinvented and expanded certain retrogressive cultural practices and presented them...
Finding our voices
By MANIJEH NASRABADI in New York [TEHRAN BUREAU] Our stories don't always mention the cataclysmic events that turned Iranian society upside down in 1979. We were children then, some...
Unseen Iran: Solid Ground
What's it like not to see Iran, but smell, touch and hear it? "Solid Ground" is the third installment of UNSEEN IRAN, Mani's travel log. Click here to read...
Historical perspective: Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies
During the previous U.S. administration, there were many impediments to a U.S.-Iran rapprochement, as outlined by Barbara Slavin below. Barack Obama has now at least changed the tone in Washington....
Notes from Underground
Mr. Mojo Rising: Mohsen Namjoo, the star of Iran's underground music scene. By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Dubai [Tehran Bureau] On a drive home from dinner not too long ago,...
Kiarostami at the Opera
Kiarostami's Cosi Fan Tutte in Aix-en-Provence.By LEYLI DARYOUSH in Paris In July 2008, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence celebrated its 60th anniversary. For decades now, Aix has stood for innovation in staging...
Islamic influences in Florence
[gallery link="file" order="DESC" orderby="ID"] By KAMIN MOHAMMADI in Florence [Tehran Bureau] Visitors flock to the marvel of Renaissance expression, an ebullient city which, between the 14 to 16th centuries, led...
Tehran Calling
By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Boston [Tehran Bureau ] spotlight: Amir Ebrahimnia, the mastermind behind Radio Arazel, a new Persian underground podcast, is a proud 79'er--he was six when the...
Iranian Music: An Unexplored Territory
Photo/David Yaghoobi Why Iranian music has not taken its place on the world stage.By RAMIN SADIGHI in Tehran [Hafta Music Society] Traveling was once the affair of adventurers, tradesmen,...
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