Dispatches
Iran-US advisory group recommends technology-based policy
An advisory task force comprising U.S., EU, and Iranian members was convened by The Century Foundation's Inside Iran project in collaboration with the National Security Network -- two policy research...
A Haus for the Islamic Republic
[ opinion ] On March 14, a week before Nowrouz, the Iranian New Year, a conference was held in Hamburg, Germany, to commemorate a new cultural project, Iran Haus. Rahim...
Videos: Chaharshanbeh Souri
Iran Tehran 16 March 2010 Protest Chahar shanabe soori P1 16 March Øملهٔ پلیس ضد شورش با موتور Ùˆ سپر- شب چارشنبه سوری Iran - Exclusive Isfahan 16 March 2010...
Mojtaba Vahedi: Ahmadinejad-Khamenei Rift Widening
A senior aide to opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi said today that Iran's supreme leader has cooled his support for president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mojtaba Vahedi, chief of staff to Mehdi Karroubi...
A Well-Lighted Place
Tehran is a city inhabited by millions dashing, driving, and edging past one another every day. Those from smaller towns live to get to Tehran. Residents of Tehran would die...
On Fire
Suicides plague a town grappling with modernization. May 2009 Ilam, a city near Kermanshah in western Iran, is surrounded by oak-covered mountains. It has very narrow streets and just a...
Mousavi: This is a Cult not a Political System
The latest from Karroubi and Mousavi. A few days ago, Mehdi Karroubi declared that the people have not backed down and that they continue to stand firm for their legitimate...
From Berlin Wall to Firewall
[ comment ] Those of us who grew up in the 1970s and early 1980s, before the disaster of the Soviet adventure in Afghanistan became clear, lived in a different...
Not Defeated
[ comment ] The month of Bahman, the 11th in the Iranian calendar, has ended. Politics will pause for a moment while Iranians turn their attention to their beloved Norouz,...
Ahmadinejad's import mania
Ahmadinejad's import mania drives farmers to bankruptcy; industrial workers arbitrarily denied wages. Over the last few months, as the economic downturn has picked up momentum, a new demand is increasingly...
The Militarized Death of the Republic
This was first published by Tehran Bureau on July 6, 2009. The momentous June presidential election in Iran and its bloody aftermath will probably be remembered as a turning...
Why North Tehranis Don't Revolt
"So what's the talk among your colleagues?" a repatriate friend of mine asks, a reminder that he uses me as a measure for the sentiment among everyday Iranians. My situation...
UN, Human Rights and Union Activists
[ briefs ] As the Seventh Session of the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review met Monday to asses the situation in Iran, reports surfaced that Mansour Osanloo (pictured),...
No Sleep
The sun set as always, gracefully in a haze of pollution over Tehran. Tomorrow it will be 22nd of Bahman, the twenty-second day of the 11th month of the Iranian...
My Own Private Jerusalem
[ dispatch ] On February 12, or 22 Bahman by the Iranian calendar, many thousands will gather for what is referred to as a demonstration to celebrate the Revolution, 31...
The Ten Days That Changed Iran
February 11 marks the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which toppled the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, put an end to monarchy in Iran, and led to...
'Reflections on Democracy'
Reflections on Democracy, Non-Violence and Political Change in Iran [ analysis ] Struggles for democracy generally require three critical ingredients for success: effective and incorruptible leadership, a strategy for mass...
Will the Fajr boycott work?
[ dispatch ] The annual Fajr Film Festival is the biggest cinematic event of the year. It was established two years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The festival is sponsored...
What's monitored online?
A few tips. [ dispatch ] Iran has vowed to step up its efforts in digital censorship, claiming that the era of "mercy" is over. In a statement released by...
Who murdered Prof. Ali-Mohammadi?
Dr. Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of physics at the University of Tehran, was assassinated in front of his home in northern Tehran on Tuesday. Reports indicate that a motorcycle parked...
Scenario Building for Iran
[ analysis ] The political crisis in Tehran has four main possible outcomes. At issue is the struggle over the "Islamic republic" form of government. Islam itself is not at...
Statement by Five Religious Intellectuals
The hardliners' plan to exploit the events of Ashura to arrest the leaders of the Green Movement -- Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Khatami -- appear to have...
A Tale of Two Cities
[ feature ] For two months, life in a religious family or for those in a small town in Iran seems to have come to a standstill. No weddings, no...
Religious holiday turns bloody
[ dispatch ]Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters during anti-government demonstrations on Sunday, killing at least nine people and arresting more than 300 demonstrators in what marked the largest...
Ashura updates
Dec. 27, 2009 Reported deaths: 9 Videos posted here. Ashura Updates Source: Tehran Bureau Nurse: They brought a few of the injured today to the Al Zahra hospital in Isfahan....
Press Reports on Montazeri
Mousavi, Karroubi announce Monday national day of mourning Norooz | Dec. 20, 2009 Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi issued a joint statement in which they pronounced...
Ahmadinejad in Copenhagen
And Iran's right to nuclear energy. Today, at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the world's cameras will be watching and listening to the words of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Many will want...
Khamenei lashes out at Opposition
In an angry speech to young conservative clerics on Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at the opposition, accusing them of being behind tearing and burning posters...
Another Iranian Nuclear Negotiator Resigns
On Tuesday December 15th, Dr Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of planning for the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI) and a member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team for the...
Tehran University: A glimpse inside the protests
[ dispatch ] The University of Tehran has been in turmoil for nearly a week now. And this is saying a lot about a school that has been plagued by...
Students Day protests sweep campuses across Iran
[ dispatch ] Thousands of student protesters clashed with basij militiamen and riot police at demonstrations staged at and around universities in Tehran and other cities throughout Iran on Monday,...
Stories from North Tehran
Arrival, July 13 I was worried as my plane descended into Imam Khomeini International Airport around 3:00 am. A month earlier, Iran had erupted in protests following the country's presidential...
Gradual change more likely than revolution, experts say
[ dispatch ] Everyone wants to know what's next for Iran. Since the June 2009 election, and subsequent protests, the mainstream media has asked, "Is this the beginning of another...
The View from China
[ dispatch ] The most recent bombast from President Ahmadinejad, who called for an enormous expansion of Iran's nuclear enrichment program, has once again raised alarms in the United States,...
The mysterious death of a Kahrizak doctor
[ feature ] Iran has a long undistinguished history of prisons. The best-known is Evin prison, where hundreds of political prisoners were executed before, and thousands after, the 1979 revolution....
Metro-Sexual
The Ease of Being Metro-Sexual in Tehran's Underground. [ dispatch ] The cellphone has become the ultimate arbiter of social class in Iran, replacing the car. A majority of Iranians...
The Face behind Mousavi's Facebook
[ dispatch ] On the night of Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony, a young graduate student in Aachen, Germany set up a Facebook support group for an Iranian politician rumored to...
What Happened to Ehsan Fattahian?
In early morning of Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Ehsan Fattahian, a 28-year-old Kurdish activist, was executed in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan. He was a member of Komalah, a...
Full circle: Former hostage to tackle US-Iran relations
[ dispatch ] A quarter of a century ago, David Mack was the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and serving under him as consul general in Dubai was...
Ahmadinejad -- Free Marketeer
[ comment ] It was hard to believe, but they were on television: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and three Iranian economists discussing subsidy policies and the administration's plan to remove subsidies within...
Gearing up for 13 Aban
[ preview ] To the outside world, street protests in Iran appear to have 'died down' since summer ended. Yet the opposition movement, driven underground, has strategically slated mass...
The power behind the scene: Khoeiniha
The power behind the scene: Ayatollah Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha [ profile ] Divisions between Shia clerics existed from the beginning of the 1978-79 Revolution. But as a result of the...
Reading RAND in Tehran
Did anyone actually read this thing? [ analysis ] After two postponements and much controversy, a 50% plus one share of the state-owned Iranian Telecommunications Company was sold via Tehran's...
Blogging the Election with Broken Farsi
Karroubi in Arak. [ dispatch ] Nearly a year ago, after spending three months in Iran as an NGO volunteer learning Farsi, I lucked into a job reporting and...
The Week in Green with Hamid Dabashi
[ spotlight ] Renowned Columbia University Iran scholar Hamid Dabashi debuted as the host of a new broadcast, "The Week in Green with Hamid Dabashi: A Window into the...
DC and Tehran agree: "Don't Blame Us!"
[ comment ] An Iranian blogger called the past few months "Iran's aviation black summer," and he might be right. In the course of one month, Iranian airlines had two...
Mr. Mohajerani goes to Washington
[ dispatches ] Ataollah Mohajerani's political career began in 1980 when he entered the Islamic Republic's first Majlis as a representative from Shiraz as its youngest member. He served...
Sitting Ducks
A French magazine is the Israeli source for impending attack on Iran. [ dispatch ] Israeli broadcast and print media are reporting that an Israeli attack on Iran is taking...
The Death March
[ analysis ] Iran's post-election turmoil and the ensuing human rights crisis entered a new phase this week, after authorities announced death sentences for four defendants following the mass trials...
Iranian blogosphere reacts to Obama's Peace Prize
[ dispatch ] Outside of the United States, the news that U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize resonated perhaps most strongly with Iranians. The traditional anti-US...
Rafsanjani's Deal?
[ dispatch ] Politicians and officials linked to both Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani have released the draft of a plan to calm the crisis of...
When did Iran begin building the Qom nuclear facility?
Men with 'almond-shaped eyes' may hold a clue. [ analysis ] Iran's nuclear program is back center stage, dominating national and international headlines. After President Obama's press conference at the...
Breaking the Bond Between Mosque and State
[ comment ] It was Quds Day - the last Friday of Ramadan. I do not recall ever going to a Quds Day rally before this year. In previous years,...
Hard to Keep a Good Thing Down
Iran's Supreme Leader, in his Friday Prayer sermon two weeks ago, declared that the annual Quds Day demonstrations would take place as usual, but that those who try to...
Ahmadinejad gives soft tone for tough times
[ dispatches ] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad toned down his customary vitriol in his speech at the United Nations Wednesday night, outlining a vision of cooperation and a world...
Quds Day Updates
Clashes erupt in afternoon Tehran Bureau | Sept. 18, 2009 Witnesses present at the Quds Day rallies held Friday in Tehran report that while security forces showed restraint early...
Censoring reformists out of existence
It didn't work for the apartheid government of South Africa -- but it's apparently inspired Iran's hardliners. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 13 Sept 2009 When the...
Difficult Days Ahead
Oddly, just about everyone has kept quiet about the recent arrests. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 10 Sept 2009 Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main reformist candidate in...
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...
Another Cultural Revolution?
The Iranian leaders should think twice about the failure of Islamization in the past three decades. By RASOOL NAFISI | 6 Sept 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Ayatollah Khamenei met with...
Mousavi on the "Green Path of Hope"
Demonstrations during the Iranian revolution of 1978-79. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 5 Sept 2009 Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main reformist candidate in Iran's presidential election of...
IRGC's deeply-rooted animosity for reformists
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles As the author pointed out in a previous article, one goal of the second-generation conservative revolutionaries is the elimination of the reformists as...
Can Majles block Ahmadinejad's advance?
He doesn't want to hear it. Archive photo.Reporting from Tehran | 31 Aug 2009 Heads must have turned yesterday morning as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered Iran's Majles accompanied by...
Meet Etelaat and its "Nokias"
Caption: On June 22, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal reported that the Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies Siemens AG, the...
Principlist MP grilled by journalist about jailhouse visit
Tabnak | August 24, 2009 Farhad Tajari, the spokesman for the Majlis Judicial Commission Farhad, was one of two lawmakers allowed to visit Mostafa Tajzadeh. This is an interview...
Nepotism & the Larijani Dynasty
Nikahang Kowsar's "Three Musketeers." Roozonline By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 20 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Before the 1979 Revolution in Iran, one of the main grievances against...
The Great Tehran Expo Privatization Scandal You've Never Heard Of
"Ahmadinejad didn't steal," spray painted, in part, across campaign posters of the other principlist candidate, Mohsen Rezaei. Photo/Erfan Dadkhah Factional politics, you say? By MOHAMMAD KHIABANI in Tehran |...
Iran's Crumbling Judiciary
The breakdown of the judiciary has never been so glaringly visible. Photo: Ayatollah Shahroudi seated with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Date unknown. Update: Iran's supreme leader appoints Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani as...
Iran's Next Minister of Intelligence?
Photo: There is talk of Ruhollah Hosseinian taking over at the Intelligence Ministry. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles As first reported by the author, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired his...
Ahmadinejad's Predicament and Iran's Political Crisis
By FARIDEH FARHI [IPS] With the confirmation of his re-election by Ayatollah Khamenei and his oath of office taken, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will begin his second term facing much steeper...
The Turkish Misadventure
Fishy story: Images from Turkish television report. By AFSIN YURDAKUL in New York | 9 Aug 2009 In October 2008, an Iranian businessman named Esmael Safarian-Nasab shipped four containers...
Reporting from Dubai
Close enough to feel the heat. By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 5 August 2009 Notebook In recent weeks, Dubai has become perhaps the best place where one can...
Mousavi: Torture has reached the bone
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 2 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a new statement, blasting the sham trials that got under way yesterday. The statement...
Reformists call for elimination of 'Coup Government'
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 30 July 2009 Iranian hardliners and the political establishment were the target of a strongly-worded statement issued by the Islamic Iran Participation...
An International Day of Action
Photo/Leila Darabi "The reason it is important that we stand here today in solidarity with those in Iran is that we may be demonstrating for them -- demonstrating our...
Hunger Strike Draws Attention to Political Prisoners
By LEILA DARABI in New York | 23 July 2009 A group of 30 prominent Iranians in exile -- including academics, artists, actors and advocates -- commenced a three-day...
Mousavi counters Khamenei
Rafsanjani's sermon prompts more threats from Khamenei. Mousavi shows no signs of relenting. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 20 July 2009 Three days after Friday prayers, Ali...
Khatami: Referendum a Solution to Crisis
From left to right: Mohammad Khatami; Mousavi Bojnourdi, a member of ACC, Mir Hossein Mousavi; Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha; and Mohammad Ali Ansari, a former member of Iran's parliament and...
Jamming devices?
From an Iranian source in the Middle East [unconfirmed] | "Satellite jamming devices (manufactured locally by Saberin Co., an IRGC company) installed on Milad Tower. "Now we know why...
How Geeks (and Non-Geeks) Can Help Iranians Online
By CYRUS FARIVAR in Oakland | 17 July 2009 In the past few weeks, I've seen a surprising number of my non-Iranian friends utterly captivated by news coming out...
LOL -- Iran's SMS Boycott
Iranians getting the last laugh? [TEHRAN BUREAU] Before the contested presidential election, Iranians shared millions of text or SMS messages every day. Then, just before the election, the state...
State-Run TV Takes a Hit
Dispatch from Tehran | 12 July 2009 Iranian news outlets noandish.com and tabnak.com report that Iranian state television has been hurt by falling advertising revenue. Several companies have reportedly...
18 Tir: Fight the Power
Cartoon caption: The people are ahead of Mousavi. "Wait for me to catch up with you," he says. The city was revved up for 18 Tir. Emails had been...
'Them, Not Us'
No foreign hand: Iranians killing Iranians. Dispatch from Tehran | 8 July 2009 It was June 20. The day after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had addressed tens...
Legitimation Crisis
INTERVIEW: Lebanese intellectual Chibli Mallat outlines principles for non-violent change in Iran By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut [TEHRAN BUREAU] A leading academic authority on Shia Islam has put forward proposals...
'God has liberated SMS,' but targets satellite dishes
Dispatch from Tehran | 2 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Government officials are asking residents in north and northwest Tehran to choose: either keep their much prized -- but illegal...
The Writing on the Wall
Dispatch from Tehran | 1 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] For visible signs of the post-election unrest which has gripped the city of Tehran, one has to read between the...
No Refuge
Written by a University of Tehran graduate, from first-hand accounts | 30 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] We all have our memories of late-night cramming. The lights are low everywhere;...
'Thank You'
From Iran | 29 June 2009 I was nine and we were watching a movie on then-banned VHS. It was a harrowing tale of a woman and her daughter's...
Beheshti's Ghost
As the crackdown intensifies in Iran, the opposition is developing creative ways to fight back using the regime's own logic against it. Today, June 28, is the death anniversary...
Mousavi remains defiant
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 28 June 2009 Iran's Guardian Council -- the Constitutional body that vets the candidates and certifies the validity of the elections --...
The War of the Ayatollahs
By HANA H. in Tehran | 25 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The fact that there is a war going on between "two senior revolutionary clerics" is not a big secret....
Ahmadinejad and the Press
By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 25 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Two days after the June 12 election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a press conference for the foreign media in...
The Assembly of Experts
Rafsanjani and the Leadership The Iranian Constitution is a roadmap in which all roads lead to the Supreme Leader. He exercises control over all branches of the government and...
The Abduction
By MICHELLE MAY in Tehran/Dubai | 24 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The day after the Supreme Leader delivered his Friday prayer at Tehran University the streets of Tehran felt...
Mousavi's Defying Statement to the Iranian Nation
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 20 June 2009 In his Friday June 19 speech, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came down firmly on the side of...
Grand Ayatollah Rejects Election Results
Girls holding posters of Ayatollahs Beheshti, Khomeini and Montazeri at a rally in Tehran, circa 1980. Photo/ J. Javid Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri Rejects the Results of the...
Poll Indicating Legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's Victory Called into Question
*Analysis by Sharif University alum [TEHRAN BUREAU] The only major doubt in the western media over significant fraud in Iran's presidential election came with the publication of a poll...
Turmoil follows silent protest
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Article 27 [Freedom of Assembly] states that "Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that...
Sunday Iran Alerts
From Tehran: you have no idea what is going on right now! Im in Zafaranieh (Pesyan) and I can hear the uproar from Valiasr -- honking and shouting and...
Alerts from Tehran
*Hour/time given U.S. Eastern (unless otherwise noted) REFRESH THIS PAGE REGULARLY from Iran sent 10:15 PM sunday june 3 Tehran-time Telephone report from my wife - They are open firing...
Snippets from Voters
*** This will be updated throughout the day. I just received three pieces of news from good sources in Tehran: 1. Mousavi's vote was 21 million more than AN....
In a Different Voice
[ dispatch ] It's 3:00 a.m. A friend and I are cruising the streets of Tehran, which have turned into virtual discos. The music ranges from Persian pop to rap...
Isfahan and the Vote
A few nights ago, medics brought a few young men covered in green paint to Isfahan's Feiz Hospital. At first, doctors thought they were fanatical supporters of reformist presidential candidate...
Reaction to Rafsanjani Letter
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles In reaction to the open letter that former Iranian president and powerful politician Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wrote to Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, several...
All The President's Men
Photo/Maryam Rahmanian By JASON REZAIAN in Tehran | 9 June 2009 After our press cards were checked, we were hurried through airport-style metal detectors and into a cavernous mosque. As...
Open Letter: Fatwa Issued for Changing the Vote in Favor of Ahmadinejad
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles Read letter in Farsi [TEHRAN BUREAU] In an open letter, a group of employees of Iran's Interior Ministry (which supervises the elections) warned the...
Out on the Town
What happens after the foreign journalists go to sleep? Supporters come out en masse, but not just for Mir Hossein Mousavi. Photo: Behrouz Mehri /AFP/Getty Images By JASON REZAIAN...
Rallying behind their man
By AFSHIN SALIMPOUR in Tehran | 4 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] "Can we come in to see him speak?," I asked innocently. "Journalists? You have to arrange with Mr....
Rattling the Cage
"If he doesn't get in he'll speak from behind the gates." I tried to imagine presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi addressing a rally of reformist students from behind the green painted...
Opium of the people?
The Tehran Municipality has put up white banners all over the city to encourage supporters of presidential candidates to spray slogans in specified areas. Encourages debate and keeps the...
Zahedan and the Vote
Dispatch from Zahedan, Iran | This report was prepared before this week's bomb blast. [TEHRAN BUREAU] Signs of Iran's approaching presidential election are beginning to show here: Armed soldiers...
Letter from Zahedan
The Sunnis of Zahedan | originally published on May 20. Dispatch from Zahedan, Iran As I pack for a reporting trip to Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, I...
Things worth fearing
By JASON REZAIAN in Tehran Over the weekend six more American friends questioned my sanity about going to Iran. "You know there's no dessert in prison, don't you," they'd...
Obama's Team Moves to Middle Ground
By RAMI G. KHOURI in Beirut The meeting in the White House Monday between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified significant differences as well as...
Reaction to Roxana's release
From Tehran News of the release of Roxana Saberi, "the convicted spy arrested while buying an illicit alcoholic beverage," hit me like a hammer on the head. Don't get...
Women and the Vote
Raising hopes -- and eyebrows: Women in the political sphere. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Dr. Zahra Rahnavard. Photo/GhalamNews.ir Mir Hossein Mousavi stepped out into the hallway and...
Officials Admit Pakistanis Reject U.S. Priorities
FIZAGAT, PAKISTAN A paramilitary soldier from Pakistan's Frontier Corps doffs his weapon November 20, 2007 at Fizagat in the troubled Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan. The Pentagon announced that...
Talks on Two-Month Fuse
Nick Burns wants Iran talks on two-month fuse.By ROBERT DREYFUSS in Washington, D.C. At a hearing today at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator John Kerry, former...
The Prisoner of Colors
Iran leads the world in executions of child offenders. Iran and the United States have each executed more child offenders than all other countries combined. On the morning of...
What I Saw at the Revolution
Recalling the Ten Days of Dawn. By POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR in New York [The Daily Beast] February 11, 2009 1 This week the Iranian Revolution turns 30. I lived through...
How did Geneva play out in Tehran?
Iranian reaction to Ahmadineja'd speech at the UN conference on anti-racism. Dispatch from Tehran "Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech in Geneva is a source of pride for us. I proudly declare...
The View from Washington
THE OBAMA'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE... US-IRAN MEETING... good/don't expect movement soon By CHRIS NELSON in Washington D.C. [The Nelson Report] Much punditry has already been expended arguing that while the...
Tick, Tick
The Milad Tower dominates the Tehran skyline. Photo/YoungRobV. Tehran should be prepared in case of a natural disaster. By AMIR MOMENI in Tehran Tehran sits on a very active seismic...
Bigger than Nowruz
Sports and politics in Iran. By AMIR MOMENI in Tehran Fifty years ago, Greco-Roman style wrestling was the favorite sport of Iranians. Over the years, however, football replaced wrestling...
The End of a Childhood
By KAMIN MOHAMMADI in London I liked London. The summer preceding the Iranian revolution, we had holidayed there. It was a place of pale sunshine, big green parks and...
Why the Islamic Republic has survived
A cleric in a luxury car on February 11, 1979, day of the victory of the revolution. (Abbas/Magnum Photos) A U.S.-based Iran scholar argues it was not the eight-year...
The Hero and Heroin
Photos/Kamin Mohammadi A war veteran loses the drug battle. By KAMIN MOHAMMADI in Abadan It is Friday and Abadan's graveyard is busy. The second day of the weekend, this...
Consider the source
RELATED Going nuclear: Before and After Iran's Nuclear Program 101 By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles From 2001 to 2003, when the Bush administration was preparing the public for the...
The Afghan War Rationale
Some Strategists Cast Doubt on Afghan War Rationale. By GARETH PORTER in Washington, D.C. [IPS] The argument for deeper U.S. military commitment to the Afghan War invoked by President...
Hot times and cool heads
As Ayatollah Khamenei endorses possible talks with the United States, Iran's pragmatic conservatives hope the presidential election will help trim Ahmadinejad's international role. By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut There...
Dialogue or Dictating to Iran?
By RAMI G. KHOURI in Beirut U.S. President Barack Obama continues to make intriguing gestures in the Middle East that seem to soften or even reverse the policies of...
Paying the rent
By AMIR MOMENI in Tehran Some argue that oil has been the single most important discovery in the history of modern Iran. It was more than a century ago...
They Say, We Say
Please click here for the full report in English. March 21, 2009 Speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to a gathering at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad,...
Talk to Me
Taghi Amirani's impressive selection of cellphones. "Today Iran, the UK and the US -- tomorrow, The World," first appeared on Taghi Amirani's blog on March 10. By TAGHI AMIRANI in...
Obama's New Year message and the nuclear nettle
Sooner or later, the U.S. president must move to specifics with Iran. By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut Barack Obama's Nowruz message to Iran is pushing important buttons. As Iranians...
Iranian Election Plot Thickens
Khatami's withdrawal from the election campaign is bad news for Ahmadinejad. By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut [Tehran Bureau] The withdrawal of Mohammad Khatami from Iran's presidential election has disappointed...
Chahar-shanbeh-soori 1386
By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Abu Dhabi archives March 2008 -- Every year, Iranians gather to celebrate the end of the old year and the start of the new with...
Will the Principlists rally behind Ahmadinejad?
As the June 12 presidential election draws nearer, there is sudden talk of 'unity' in the fundamentalist camp. By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut [Tehran Bureau] Once Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won...
Iranica unites Iranians--for an evening
Shohreh Aghdashloo at the Iranica Gala in Dubai. May 2, 2008. By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Dubai [Tehran Bureau] archives May 2, 2008 -- Before many schools and universities were...
Iranian Photography Now
[Tehran Bureau ] spotlight IRANIAN PHOTOGRAPHY NOW EDITED BY ROSE ISSA Iranian Photography Now is a dynamic survey and celebration of the unique vision of 36 Iranian artists living...
Hillary & Iran & Dennis & Israel
Tehran launches "Omid," or "Hope" satellite amid 30th anniversary celebrations of Islamic revolution.By ROBERT DREYFUSS in Washington, D.C. In the first concrete overture by the Obama administration to Iran, Secretary...
Three not so wise men
Iran's reformists may run three candidates for president, boosting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chances of being re-elected.By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut In 2004, around 80 reformist deputies staged a sit-in and...
Madam Secretary, the Name is the Persian Gulf
Source: The AP Stylebook dictates proper name usage. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles The State Department statement was relatively brief: "The Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham Clinton] is pleased...
Three Decades in the Wilderness
Photo/Iason Athanasiadis After three decades in the wilderness, Iran has emerged as one of the world's most independent countries. By IASON ATHANASIADIS in Istanbul The West and its Arab allies...
Iran's Presidential Elections, Part I: The Landscape
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Second National Congress of "Fajr Afarinan," honoring Muslim political prisoners before the revolution. January 29, 2009. Photo/TehranBureau. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles [Tehran...
Replay: Student Protests
As widely reported, dozens of Iranian students were arrested Monday after they protested a government decision to rebury troops who died in the Iran-Iraq war on the grounds of...
Algiers Accords: A Good Precedent?
The Accords, which resolved the hotage crisis, provides a channel for U.S.-Iranian diplomacy.By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Boston About 28 years ago, the United States and the fledgling Islamic Republic...
The Latest IAEA Report
Photo by David Yaghoobi. Is the Latest IAEA Report Iran's Peace Overture to the U.S.? By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles [Tehran Bureau] The International Atomic Energy Agency just released...
Who's Telling the Truth About Iran's Nuclear Program?
Headline in Maariv newspaper after the publication of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate about Iran's nuclear program. Dec. 5, 2007 By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles [Tehran Bureau] Since...
Intel Estimate Muddied Iran's Nuclear Intent
By GARETH PORTER in Washington, D.C. [IPS] President Barack Obama and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair did not appear to be on the same page this week when...
A Nation in Love
Red, Red, Red: It's as if the color were splattered on the city's stores and shopping centers. Unlike Saudi Arabia, where officials banned florists and gift shop owners from...
The Internet: a veil for dating in Iran
May 2005 At the turn of the 21st century, I noticed a flood of messages from Iranian strangers each time I logged on to my instant messenger service. My...
The Other Revolution
Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution | By PARDIS MAHDAVI Reviewed by KAMIN MOHAMMADI Since Iran's revolution nearly 30 years ago which ousted the last Shah and instituted an Islamic...
Khatami Re-Emerges
Does he have a chance? By GOLNOUSH NIKNEJAD in Boston [Tehran Bureau ] After much speculation, Mohammad Khatami, the former Iranian president, announced on Sunday, February 8, that he...
U.S. Deeds vs. Iran's Clenched Fist
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised during his campaign that his administration will take a new approach to the crises in the Middle East...
The Revolution in Retrospect
Bottom photo: On 12 Bahman 1357 (Feb. 1, 1979) Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran from exile. Top: Tehran's philharmonic orchestra marks that day's 30th anniversary at Mehrabad International Airport...
Snapshot Beirut
Photo by James Alexander. Caution: Story contains a graphic passage that may be upsetting to some readers. Five hours in Hezbollah captivity.By JAMES ROBERT ALEXANDER in Beirut You are not...
Covering the Middle East
By IASON ATHANASIADIS in Cambridge, MA [Nieman Reports] My father introduced his seven-year-old son to international politics in the cosy environs of a provincial Greek pizza joint. It was...
Going Nuclear: Before and After
Ever a 'threat,' never an atomic power, Iran points up challenges of nuclear technology By CHARLES HANLEY [AP] Feb. 27, 2007 The Iranians may have an atom bomb within...
12 Bahman: Khomeini Returns
On this day 30 years ago, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile. 140 international reporters accompanied him on the chartered Air France Boeing 747 flight from Paris...
Son of a Rug Man
By JASON REZAIAN in San Francisco As we Iranian Americans recount all too often, we are doctors, lawyers, engineers, artists and even elected officials. We are considered to be...
On the Brink
Photo/Getty Images By ROBERT DREYFUSS in Washington, D.C. Anger is boiling over in the Middle East over Gaza, and the result of the war has been to boost radicalism...
Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran
Photo/Iason Athanasiadis By IASON ATHANASIADIS in Los Angeles [Tehran Bureau] spotlight It is the most hypothetical news story topping the international news agenda: Is the Islamic Republic pursuing a nuclear...
Who is Afraid of a U.S.- Iran Rapprochement?
In this photo, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appears to covet a status more commonly associated with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Cover of Diplomat magazine, published by the...
Campaign Promises
Cartoon by Nikahang Kosar CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate (July 2007) QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted...
Dear Mahmoud
By HOOMAN MAJD in New York [The Huffington Post] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's congratulatory letter to President-elect Barack Obama, the first of its kind in the thirty-year history of the...
A Winter Trend? Deck the Halls!
Christmas becomes more popular in Iran every year. By FARIBA PAJOOH in Tehran This year Christmas made its mark in Iran a bit more auspiciously than in the past....
Encyclopaedia Iranica: an Iranian love story
Ehsan Yarshater, the founder and director of the Encyclopedia Iranica at Columbia University, stands in front of portrait of Dr. Abraham V.W. Jackson, 1862-1937, a professor of Indo-Iranian language...
John Bolton Reads 'Em and Weeps
By ROBERT DREYFUSS in Washington, D.C. [Tehran Bureau] It was an extraordinary scene at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, where John Bolton read 'em and wept. There is,...
Head of State
By JASON REZAIAN in San Francisco It's becoming ever more clear that U.S. Iran policy is destined to fail unless the conversation is quickly and dramatically restructured, which seems...
Tehran matters
Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations Edited by MAZIAR BAHARI and MALU HALAS Reviewed by OLIVIA SNAIJE [Alef Magazine] Two thirds of Iran's population is under thirty years...
More of the same?
By JASON REZAIAN in San Francisco News this week that Hillary Clinton is a top candidate for secretary of state in the Obama administration should be shocking -- or...
Reality check, anyone
By JASON REZAIAN in San Francisco I'm as excited as everyone about Obama's victory, but as far as U.S. -Iran relations go, I think we must wait and see....
Ahmadinejad's letter to Obama
Here is a copy of Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter to the President-elect. Caveat: The file I got was a scanned (image) file, so using "OCR" (Optical Character Recognition) we turned...
Don't call it a comeback
"Either I or Mr. Mousavi will" be the reformist candidate, Khatami told a gathering in the western province of Ilam. Tehran Times, January 2008 By Golnoush Niknejad in Boston...
Iranians rejoice over Obama win
By FARIBA PAJOOH in Tehran News of Barack Hussein Obama's victory was met with elation here. Among the youth, I would say the reaction was as strong as it...
United Against Iran
By ROBERT DREYFUSS in Washington, D.C. A brand new assembly of bipartisan hawks, from neoconservative hardliners to liberal interventionists, was launched this fall with a mission to mobilize grassroots...
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