Author: Siyavash Shahabi
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Iran’s Geopolitical Weight, and Its Political Trap
Iran’s place in the world cannot be understood only through the language of its ruling regime. It has to be read as a geopolitical unit positioned at one of the most sensitive crossroads of energy, trade, and security in West Asia. This matters because not all states occupy the same place in the global order.…
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A Diaspora Misrepresented: Yasmine Mather on War and Media
The war against Iran has made it even harder to sustain the neat, one-dimensional image that many Persian-language and Western media outlets try to present of Iranians living abroad. In this dominant narrative, the “Iranian diaspora” is treated as if it naturally supports foreign intervention, the escalation of war, and even the destruction of Iran’s…
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Inside Tehran, Under Bombs, Arguing About War and Power
One month after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, a long conversation was recorded in Tehran between Sobhan Yahyaei, a media researcher and host of the Panorama podcast, and Mohammad Mehdi Ardabili, a philosopher and public intellectual. This was not just an abstract discussion. In the middle of the conversation, they say they…
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Iran Beyond the Myth of a Unified People
One of the laziest clichés about Iran is the idea that a single, unified “people” are standing against a single, unified “regime.” This formula works well for headlines, for rushed journalism, and for simple moral commentary. But when it comes to understanding real politics, it is almost useless. Iranian society is not a homogeneous block.…
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The Islamic Republic and the Seizure of a Popular Revolution
In the official calendar of the Islamic Republic, April 1 marks the day the “system” was consolidated. But in Iran’s critical memory, this date is not simply the anniversary of a referendum. It is the anniversary of the moment when a mass, diverse, anti-despotic revolution was compressed into a single, pre-directed answer: “Islamic Republic, yes…
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The Strait of Hormuz: Where War on Iran Becomes Everyone Else’s Crisis
In Iran, talking about a “global energy crisis” can sometimes feel like talking about something distant, something that belongs to other people’s lives. In a society that has spent years dealing with inflation, a collapsing currency, sanctions, structural corruption, and political repression, all alongside the organized looting of resources and the cheapening of labor, a…
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How a School In The Middle of War Became a Battleground Over The Truth
The Minab school case is not only about a deadly strike. It is about what happens to truth, language, and human judgment once war begins. On the morning of February 27, 2026, as the first wave of US and Israeli attacks on Iran was still unfolding, Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab collapsed. In the…
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Under Fire, Still Speaking of the Neighborhood
The article published by Shargh first has to be read in relation to the conditions in which it was produced. This text was not written in a free and normal setting. It was written in the middle of war, communication breakdown, public fear, population displacement, and within one of the most restricted media environments in…
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Kharg, Hormuz, and the Boundaries of U.S. Power
The US attacked Kharg, but it did not hit Iran’s oil export terminal there. That apparent contradiction may explain the nature of this war better than any official statement. Kharg is not just an island. It is a place where military force, the Iranian state budget, oil tanker routes, and the nerves of the global…
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Mojtaba Khamenei and the Rule of the Shadows
When it comes to Mojtaba Khamenei, the issue is not just whether he has become, or may become, his father’s successor. The more important issue is the kind of power concentrated around his name: faceless power, backstage power, security-driven power, and power deeply shaped by the logic of control. If we put together the many…
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Iran and Kurdistan in the Grip of Two Violences
What we are seeing today in part of the current Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan is no longer just a tactical slip or simply a sign that they cannot understand the real balance of forces. Organizations such as PJAK, PAK, and Khabat had been waiting for foreign intervention and for a chance to…
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Against Turning Kurdistan into a Ground War Zone
As the United States and Israel attacks on Iran enters a more sensitive phase, the Cooperation Council of Left and Communist Forces in Kurdistan have issued a joint statement warning about the danger of Kurdistan becoming the main center of war, destruction, and displacement. In this statement, the cooperation council said that the continued US…
