Author: Siyavash Shahabi
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Komalah, Communism, and the Political History of Iranian Kurdistan
In a recent episode of Asraneh, Ebrahim Alizadeh, the First Secretary of Komalah, the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran, gave a long interview about the history of Komalah, the Iranian left, the Kurdish question, the formation of the Communist Party of Iran, the later splits, and the current political situation in Iran.…
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La guerra que cambió la cuestión iraní
Se suponía que la guerra contra Irán simplificaría el problema: presión militar, retirada de Teherán, negociaciones desde una posición de debilidad y quizás, incluso, un cambio de régimen. Pero la guerra rara vez obedece las fantasías de quienes la desatan. En lugar de simplificarse, la cuestión iraní se ha transformado. El Irán posterior a la…
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Internet, classe e censura in Iran
Quando in Iran Internet viene bloccato, rallentato, filtrato o diviso per classe, non è solo uno strumento di comunicazione a scomparire dalla portata pubblica. A essere interrotta è una parte importante della vita quotidiana. E le esperienze sociali disperse fanno più fatica a connettersi tra loro. In un paese in cui i media indipendenti sono…
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Bread, Speech, and Prison: Remembering Sattar Beheshti on Workers’ Day
On International Workers’ Day, Goahar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, published a message addressed to workers in Iran. It is a short text, but it carries the weight of a whole political history: the history of a worker killed in custody, a mother turned into a public voice of justice, and a society where…
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Bread, Freedom and Organisation: Esmail Bakhshi on Iran Today
Esmail Bakhshi is a well-known Iranian worker and labour activist. His name is mostly associated with the struggles of the Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers, the fight for independent workers’ organisation, and his own experience of prison, torture, dismissal from work, and resistance to repression. Over the past years, he has not been known as the…
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National Wealth, Private Misery
When we talk about oil, the main issue is not always what we see at first glance. The usual question is this: under war, blockade, and disruption in maritime routes, how much oil can Iran still sell? But perhaps the more urgent question is this: how much of the oil it still produces can Iran…
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Beyond the Mountain Myth: Kurdistan as Society
Kurdistan is often reduced to a militarized myth, erasing society, class, and everyday life. This essay argues for restoring social reality at the center, showing how both internal politics and external narratives flatten complexity across Kurdistan and Iran.
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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…
