Iran

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran is witnessing the worst mass unrest since the failed Green Revolution of 2009, which saw its biggest crowds come out in major cities such as Tehran, Tabriz and Shiraz, and which was spear-headed by college students and youth more generally. The 2009 movement was not joined by the bazaar, […]

Arab World

The Mahsa Effect: Iran protest at enforced Veiling sparks online Debate and feminist Calls for Action across Arab World

The Conversation

By Balsam Mustafa, University of Warwick | – (The Conversation) – Iranian authorities have cracked down on protests which erupted after the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the hijab appropriately. The death of Mahsa Amini who was reportedly beaten after being arrested for […]

Feminism

Mahsa, a National Iranian Symbol of Resistance

Fariba Amini

Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the summer of 1993, I went to Iran to visit my parents who at the time were living in Tehran on and off. We had left Iran six months after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and I had not returned until 1993. I remember the atmosphere at […]

Authoritarianism

Iranian Government Websites Go Dark; ‘Anonymous’ Hacker Collective Claims Responsibility

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi | – ( RFE/RL ) – Several Iranian government and state-owned websites have been taken down by Anonymous, the international activist hacker group says, in a move of support for nationwide protests that followed the death of a 22-year-old woman following her arrest by the morality police. The website of the Iranian […]

Iran

What Really Drives Israeli Politicians’ Posturing over Revival of Iran Nuclear Deal?

Middle East Monitor

By Motasem A. Dalloul | – Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited himself for a security meeting with Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid last month to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. Afterwards, he said that Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz did not live up to their responsibilities for preventing a new nuclear deal […]

Featured

Fourth Day of Anti-Veil Protests Shake Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday Iran saw a fourth day of protests kicked off by the death in custody last week of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish young woman visiting Tehran who was arrested for imperfect veiling. Her father said her corpse showed bruising on her legs. Some women have burned their […]

Iran

The US-Iran Conflict: Review of “Republics of Myth”

Marc Martorell Junyent

Barcelona (Special to Informed Comment) – Review of Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman, Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2022.) The enmity between the United States and Iran following the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution constitutes one of the most studied international rivalries. This notwithstanding, the recently […]

Featured

Iran Security Fires on Crowd Protesting Death in Custody of Kurdish Woman for “Bad Veiling”, Wounds 13

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, 13 protesters were wounded when security forces opened fire on them outside the house of the governor in Saghez, Iranian Kurdistan. This, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. The demonstrators were expressing their fury over the death in police custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish […]

infrastructure

After oil: what Malaysia and Iran may look like in a post-Fossil Fuel Future

The Conversation

By Rowena Abdul Razak, London School of Economics and Political Science and Asma Mehan, Texas Tech University | – As the devastation of climate change makes the need to decarbonise clearer by the day, countries face the question of what to do with their old fossil fuel infrastructure. While some environmental activists have taken to […]