International Politics and Economy

By Ardeshir Tayebi | – ( RFE/RL) – Demonstrators in the western Iranian city of Javanrud were set on by security forces and have reportedly faced a martial-style clampdown since gathering in a local cemetery on December 31 to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for seven protesters killed by security forces in […]

Authoritarianism

More Iranians Move Their Protests To Rooftops Amid State Crackdown

Frud Bezhan

I’m Frud Bezhan, regional desk editor for Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Here’s what I’ve been following and what I’m watching out for in the days ahead. ( RFE/RL) – Fewer Iranians have protested on the streets in recent days, more than three months after the nationwide antiestablishment demonstrations erupted. From the outset, the authorities responded […]

Far Right

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being French: Murderer of Kurds ‘William M.’ Treated with kid Gloves

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last Thursday, one “William M.,” a retired French train conductor, went to the Kurdish Cultural center in the 10th Arondissement of Paris with a gun and shot six people, killing three and wounding three others, all Kurds. Some were in a hairdresser’s shop. So write Nathalie Birchem et Denis Peiron […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: ‘Bloody Friday’ Crackdown This Year’s Deadliest

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch ) – (Beirut) – Iranian security forces using unlawful lethal force, killed and wounded several dozen protesters in Zahedan on September 30, 2022, killing the most people during the protests on a day being called “Bloody Friday,” Human Rights Watch said today. The newly established United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran should […]

Authoritarianism

Families Of Slain Iranian Protesters Mark End Of Mourning Period With Defiance

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi/ Radio Farda | – ( RFE/RL ) – The families of the victims of the recent nationwide protests in Iran have staged protests amid ceremonies marking the 40th day since the death of 10 protesters across the country. With police standing nearby in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz on December 22, […]

Far Right

New Israeli Gov’t to un-ban Violent Racists from Parliament, and allow Discrimination against Women, Gays

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new Israeli government, formed in the nick of time by incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is so morally compromised that even the country’s right wing is visibly uncomfortable with the agreements made by Netanyahu to allow him to come back to power. Iconic among those concessions was Netanyahu’s acquiescence […]

Authoritarianism

How Female Iranian Activists use powerful Images to Protest oppressive Policies

The Conversation

By Parichehr Kazemi, PhD Candidate, University of Oregon | – (The Conversation) – Images of unveiled Iranian women and adolescent girls standing atop police cars or flipping off the ayatollah’s picture have become signature demonstrations of dissent in the past few months of protest in Iran. Mass protests in Iran over death of Mahsa Amini […]

Democracy

America’s best Christmas Present would be Real Democracy where even the Poor Vote

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com) – Last week, I was in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. The weather had turned cold and I couldn’t help noticing what an inhospitable place it had become for the city’s homeless and dispossessed. Once upon a time, anyone was allowed to be in the train station at any hour. Now, there were signs […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Till Death Do us Part

Fariba Amini

Revised 12/21/22. Within a. period of 4 months this year, I lost both my mother and oldest brother. The sense of loss has been enormous. Yet beyond my own grieving, I think every day about the hundreds of young people who have lost their lives in Iran. There is naturally no comparison. I remember that, […]