Iran

Middle East Monitor |- – Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose 2009 re-election prompted mass unrest over alleged vote rigging, has called for “free” presidential and parliamentary elections in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters reports. Khamenei backed Ahmadinejad after his return to power kicked off protests in which dozens of […]

Featured

Russia warns Israel on Syria strikes, danger to Russian Troops

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports on a statement in Russian at the site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Syria and the shoot-down by the Syrians of one Israeli fighter-jet. The Foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over the Israeli air strikes, […]

Featured

Russia-aided Syria shoots down Israeli F-16 after downing of Iranian Drone

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian anti-aircraft batteries scored a rare shoot-down of an Israeli F-16 late Saturday morning local time. It is being alleged by a whole range of analysts that this shoot-down could not have happened without Russian help. It required that the anti-aircraft personnel break Israeli radar jamming. […]

Feminism

Why Iranians are Really protesting Compulsory Veiling Laws

contributors

By Moujan Mirdamadi | (The Conversation) | – – Protests against Iran’s mandatory hijab law – which requires all women to wear it in public – have sprung up across Iran in the first few weeks of 2018. Women, acting individually, stood on utility boxes in public places, taking off their headscarves and holding them […]

Colonialism

British Empire’s hidden workings in India and Iran revealed in remarkable new film footage

contributors

By Jonathan Westaway | The Conversation | – – In a basement office at the Royal Geographical Society in London’s South Kensington, grainy 16mm film footage flickers silently across the screen, one of over a hundred expeditionary and travel films digitised recently by the society and the British Film Institute. They are now free to […]

Feminism

The ‘Girls of Revolution Street’ Protest Iran’s Compulsory Hijab Laws

contributors

By Mahsa Alimardani | ( GlobalVoices.org ) | – – A spate of defiant Iranian women have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest against compulsory veiling. Photos of their demonstrations have been widely circulated online under the hashtag #دختران_خیابان_انقلاب (translated to #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street). As of the afternoon of January 29, at least two women […]

Crime

Human Rights Win in Iran: Thousands of Death Sentences for Drugs Dropped

contributors

Centre for Human Rights in Iran | Trans. & Ed. Global Voices Online An estimated 4,000 prisoners currently on death row in Iran for drug-related crimes could have their death sentences revoked, following a judicial order based on the country’s newly amended drug trafficking law. The order, issued by Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani on January […]

Iran

Rouhani: Iran won’t allow unfair pressure on Qatar

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that his country does not accept “unjustified and unfair pressure” exerted on the Qatari people and government. Rouhani made the remarks as he welcomed Qatar’s Parliament Speaker, Ahmed al-Hamoud, in Tehran, the Iranian official news agency reported. “Iran and Qatar have been and […]

Iran

Iran says planned US-backed force inside Syria would fan war

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday a new US-backed, 30,000-strong force inside Syria constituted a breach of international law and Syrian sovereignty, joining Syria, Turkey and Russia in a vehement rebuke of the plan. On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, […]