Does the Genocide in Gaza Strengthen the Islamic Government in Iran?
On September 22, 2023, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech at the UN General Assembly, showed a map of "the New Middle East" and implied that the entire…
Iran
Why Do Washington and London Want to Preserve Theocracy in Iran?
Theocracy in Iran is based on a legend that a hidden Imam will resurface on the earth and bring justice to the world. According to Article 5 of the Islamic…
Iranian Regime Braces for Amini Death Anniversary Protests
“Take off your headscarf, let your hair flow, don’t be afraid my love. Laugh, protest against fear.” In opening a panel discussion titled “The Masha Amini Protests and the Road…
Theocracy is Under Attack in Iran
The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. and its European allies in the early 2000s alarmed the clerics in Tehran that they may be next to lose power.…
Anticlerical Rule is on the Rise in Iran
The women-led anti-hejab movement that began after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in Iran, is ongoing. Even though the street protests have subsided, many Iranian women…
The Clerics in Tehran Want to Wipeout the Iranian Cultural Heritage
The clerical leadership in Iran has tried hard to prevent its demise, as is popularly demanded in recent months by Iranians inside and outside Iran. To continue their Islamic rule,…
Background To The Struggle Of Iran’s Women
Women's Day A few days ago, on Woman's Day, an article called our attention to the plight of Iranian women, who are fighting for their freedom and civil rights against…
Iran Punished For Treatment of Women
The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first UN member ever to be expelled from the prestigious Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), tasked with protecting women’s rights and…
Salute Workers and People of Iran
In Iran, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, believed to be beaten following her arrest by the “Morality Police” on the grounds that her hair was visible,…
EU Cracks a Gentle Whip at Iran
The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels…
Iran, Past and Present
I would like to announce the publication of a new nook, entitled “Iran, Past and Present”. The book may be downloaded and circulated, free of charge, from the following link:…
U.S. Internationalizes Iran’s Unrest
The ongoing unrest in Iran since mid-September following the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody shows no signs of abating as of now. The unrest has drawn support…
The Protesters Want Fundamental Change in Iran
Since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, unrest in Iranian cities has continued. So far, more than 100 people have been killed in the riots, and many political…
The Number Of Death In The On-going Protests In Iran Reaches 154
The Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHRO) announced that the number of people killed in the on-going protests in Iran reached "at least 154 people". Among this number of deaths 9 were…
The only option for Iran is to end the Hijab mandate
‘One day the hijab will no longer be compulsory in Iran, this is part of progress and development’ – Parvaneh Salashouri, reformist lawmaker, women’s faction in Iranian Parliament, 2018 ‘The…
Enforcing Islamic Attire on Women Sparks Protests in Iran
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the ruling clerics have strictly enforced the Islamic hijab on women in Iran. The clerics require women above puberty age to wear headscarves and…
Defying Warning, Iranians’ Anti-hijab Protest Continues For 10th Night: 57 Deaths
Iranians took to the streets for a 10th consecutive night Sunday, in defiance of a warning from the judiciary, to protest the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police…
At least 31 Killed As Anti-government Protests Spread Across Iran
Norway-based, Iran Human Rights Organization says that they can confirm that at least 31 protesters have been killed in the on-going anti-government, anti-hijab protest across Iran. Iran's state-run media acknowledged on…
Iran imprisons film directors amid escalating crackdown on dissent and protests
In the largest crackdown on its film industry since 2010, Iran ordered internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, 62, to serve a six-year jail sentence after he criticised the government. Panahi…
Plotting War on Iran
The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.…
Iran’s Economy Growing Despite US Sanctions
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says the first priority of his administration during the Persian New Year is boosting employment and creating new jobs. He made the remarks in his New…
Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks
by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran…
As UAE embraces Iran, fizz goes pop for Abraham Accords
The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the crude devil of medieval legend. Goethe…
Iran’s SCO membership is a big deal
Like in a Wagnerian music drama, there is an associated melodic theme that accompanies the situations behind the two big regional developments last week — the announcement of the AUKUS,…
Biden Doctrine appears in Persian Gulf
The incipient signs of a US retrenchment from Saudi Arabia have appeared in a series of moves in the past 2-3 weeks. On a parallel track, the Biden Administration is…
America’s Afghan War Is Over, So What About Iraq – and Iran?
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies At Bagram air-base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of U.S. military equipment that was until recently the headquarters…
Afghanistan, Iran And USA
Introduction On July 7, 2021 Iran hosted talks between the Afghan Government and Taliban (the Taliban delegation was led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai). The same day, the Taliban attacked…
Forging a future with rather than against Iran
The rise of hardline President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has prompted someanalysts to counterintuitively suggest that it could pave the way for reduced regional tensions and potential talks on a rejiggered Middle…
How Biden Helped Hardliner Raisi Win Iran Election
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies It was common knowledge that a U.S. failure to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) before Iran’s June presidential…
Biden has a worthy interlocutor in Raisi
This may seem a paradox but the truth is that the United States does not realise that Iran’s presidential election result — the resounding victory of the conservative head of the judiciary…
“Unbearable”—The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance, June 13 – A Moment to Act
“Unbearable.” That’s the title of Reza Khandan’s gut-wrenching Ms. Magazine report from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) Qarchak prison for women. Khandan is the husband of attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is imprisoned…
How India lost its way in Persian Gulf
“India gets booted out, by Iran, of Farzad-B gas field in Persian Gulf… India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd had discovered it way back in 2008.” India began to identify itself with…
Saudi-Iran reset will take time
The Saudi-Iranian contacts that began last month in secrecy have gained gravitas. Significantly, this is an exclusively regional initiative. The Saudi-Iranian drive to normalise ties is motivated primarily by the…
Beautiful Plots: Israel Sabotages the Natanz Nuclear Facility
Over the weekend, Iran marked National Nuclear Technology Day. The stars of the show were going to be new advanced centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. Unfortunately, the stars…
With eye on Biden, India’s Iran diplomacy shifts gear
By a fortuitous happening, the top South Block official heading the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Division in India’s External Affairs Ministry, J.P. Singh was in Iran in the weekend, hot on the heels…
Health Imperialism and Discriminatory International Laws
“Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promise, for never intending to go beyond promise costs nothing.” - Edmund Burke Joe Biden’s statements on resuscitating the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of…
Is Iran Closer To Avenging The Murder Of Its Two Prominent Leaders?
Brigadier General Mohsen Fakhrizadeh of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command (IRGC) and Iran’s most important nuclear scientist was assassinated not too far from Tehran recently. Iran immediately accused Israel ,…
Insanity reigns — the US, Israel and Iran
All too often, events occur that make me feel that I am living in 'Bizarro World'. The recent talk and extensive US corporate media coverage about whether or not the…
Azerbaijani-Iranian Relations Continue to Warm
Since mid-August of this year, there has been an increase in the number of Iranian and Azerbaijani reports celebrating the continued warming of relations between these neighboring states. Of particular…
Iran Sitting On A Ticking Powder Keg
Shahran oil depot in north west Tehran has been likened to a "hydrogen bomb" The subterfuge and sabotage, particularly after the August 4, 2020 Beirut, Lebanon blasts 1…
Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran
There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations. Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of…
Will War with Iran Be Trump’s Election Eve Shocker?
Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in…
Iran And Israel Spar Over Cyber Warfare
There is a whole lot of churning going on in Iran, which has been at loggerheads with US, for around more than five-decades, as it traces its modern tussle with…
JCPOA: The Deal That Wasn’t
July 14th, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Agreement, often referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal (or simply the Deal) – the…
Life without the Hijab: A Woman’s Journey to Freedom?
I met my dear friend Maryam in the spring of 1980. We studied at the same US University in Rhode Island. She was a couple of years older than me…
Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran?
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies On May 6th, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military…
COVID-19: Iran and the U.S., An Irony of Curious Affinity
This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism -- this time in two countries that…
Vague Imminence: US policy, Pre-emptive Force and Qasem Soleimani
International relations is typified by its vagueness of definition and its shallowness of justification. Be it protecting citizens of a state in another, launching a pre-emptive strike to prevent what…
US backs off support for regime change in Iran
An Iran hawk who advocated killing general Qassim Soleimani, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered his diplomats to limit contacts with militant Iranian exile and opposition groups that…
A Time to Kill? Open Your Eyes!
In the movie adaptation of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” Carl Lee Hailey’s defense lawyer Jake Brigance, in his summation, asks the jury members to close their eyes while…
Disruptive Assassinations: Killing Qassem Soleimani
On the surface, it made not one iota of sense. The murder of a foreign military leader on his way from Baghdad airport, his diplomatic status assured by the local…
The ‘Great Game’ is Afoot: Killing Soleimani Reflects US Desperation in the Middle East
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo By killing top Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani, American and Israeli leaders demonstrated the idiom ‘out of the frying pan into the fire.’…
War With Iran
The assassination by the United States of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, near Baghdad’s airport will ignite widespread retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets from Shiites,…
Iran vs. US – The Murder of General Qassem Suleimani
Interestingly, after the US attack on Iraqi Militia fighters on 31 December 2020, and the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, on 2 January, the first thing President Trump could come…
Attacks On Iran, Past And Present
The assassination of General Qasem Soleimani On Friday, 3 January, 2020, progressives in the United States and all peace-loving people throughout the world were horrified to learn that Donald Tromp…
Iran – a Club of Sanctioned Countries – In Solidarity Against US Economic Terrorism
PressTV Interview - transcript Excerpts: An Iranian parliamentary faction has come up with the idea of establishing a club of sanctioned countries for concerted action against the US economic terrorism.…
Death of female Iranian soccer fan puts FIFA and Asian soccer body in the dock
When Sahar Khodayari this week set herself alight in front of a Tehran courthouse, she indicted world soccer body FIFA, its Asian regional group, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and…
Iran Nuclear Accord: The Third Act is Now Starting
The first act of the Iran Nuclear Accord took eight years. The backdrop kept changing from Geneva to Vienna but the actors were nearly all the same. Except for…
Why Should Iran Be Cherished And Defended
As I pen this short essay, Iran is standing against the mightiest nation on earth. It is facing tremendous danger; of annihilation even, if the world does not wake up…
After alleged UK tanker incident in Persian Gulf, EU powers threaten Iran
US and UK military sources claim that Iranian boats intercepted a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, before a British warship, the HMS Montrose, chased them off. None…
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