Tag: Iran
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The Mechanism of Turning Diplomacy into Religious Epic
While going through Telegram and Instagram, I notice that the texts I read tend to contain the same mechanism, namely, the negotiator sitting at the table, but no longer functioning as a negotiator. On the contrary, he appears as “a soldier,” “a man of the field,” “a field commander,” and his coming to the negotiating…
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The Arithmetic of Fear: Funeral Propaganda and the Fragility of the Iranian Regime
I watched Ali Khamenei’s funeral from Athens, on state feeds and drone footage, the way most Iranians abroad watched it. Nothing in the spectacle surprised me. States bury their rulers with state resources. The Islamic Republic set the template in 1989, when roughly ten million people attended Khomeini’s funeral, a figure Guinness recorded as the…
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Why Reza Shah Still Speaks to Iran’s Margins
Atatürk, Mohammed bin Salman, Hitler, and Reza Shah. In the time of the coronavirus, those who worked as service providers in Tehran were asked what could be done for the betterment of their conditions. And the thing most often mentioned was that there needed to be someone who would come and do things right. I…
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Anti-War, but From What Position?
Opposing bombing, sanctions and regime change imposed from abroad is the minimum political responsibility of anyone writing about Iran from inside a hostile country. But being anti-war does not have one fixed meaning, detached from where a person stands. For someone writing in the United States, the first responsibility is clear: stand against the war…
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Iran’s Workers and Pensioners After the War
On Sunday, June 14, 2026, pensioners from Shush, Karkheh and Haft-Tappeh, towns in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, again gathered outside the local Social Security office, demanding enforcement of Articles 54 and 96 of the Social Security Law and an end to the deductions taken for what the state calls “supplementary insurance.” According to the labor…
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Ekonomik altyapıya imha saldırılarından sonra: İran’da işsizlik tsunamisi
İran’da çalışma ofislerinin önündeki uzun kuyruklar, bahar aylarındaki savaşın ülkenin üretim altyapısını imha ederek hızlandırdığı daha derin bir kırılmanın yüzeye yansıması. 2026 Nisan ayının başlarında, ortak Amerikan ve İsrail harekatı nükleer ve askeri tesislerin ötesine geçerek sivil ekonominin belkemiğini hedef aldı. Yöntem bilinçliydi: Sadece fabrikalar değil, o tesislerin çalışması için elzem olan enerjiyi sağlayan altyapı…
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The Political Economy of Starlink in Iran
Imagine a small white dish, something like a flat plate fixed on a rooftop, balcony or courtyard. Instead of using cables, telecom companies or a domestic operator, it connects directly to a satellite. In many countries, this is just an internet device. In Iran today, the same small object can cost several thousand dollars, be…
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Né quella di Stato, né quella occidentale: la terza storia di Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi, scrittrice e regista, è morta a Parigi all’età di 56 anni. È stata una persona che è riuscita a strappare una parte dell’esperienza iraniana dalle mani dello Stato, della guerra, della propaganda, dell’orientalismo (lo sguardo che vede l’Oriente dall’esterno, attraverso cliché fissi) e della nostalgia dell’esilio, e a trasformarla in una storia. I…
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Migration, War, and the Dirty Work of Empire
Last night, I had a long discussion with an anarchist friend about the movement that today calls itself anti-imperialism. The result was this: I returned to a text I had written a few weeks ago and prepared it for my blog. The argument is simple. Europe produces deniability through distance. It places detention camps in…
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İranlı işçiler davalarını ILO’ya taşıyor
Yurtdışı İran Emek Konfederasyonu, İran’daki işçilere yönelik baskıyı çalışma standartlarından sorumlu Birleşmiş Milletler organı olan Uluslararası Çalışma Örgütünde (ILO) resmi bir davaya dönüştürmeye çalışıyor. Merkezi Berlin’de bulunan Yurtdışı İran Emek Konfederasyonu; dünya sendikalarına, yıllık Uluslararası Çalışma Konferansındaki işçi delegelerine ve ILO üyesi devletlere yönelik bir talep hazırladı. Amaç, İran İslam Cumhuriyeti’ne karşı resmi bir şikayet…
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Cosa significa la guerra in Iran per i lavoratori
In tempo di guerra, gli Stati parlano di obiettivi militari, infrastrutture, deterrenza, stretti, negoziati e ricostruzione. Ma per la maggior parte delle persone, la guerra diventa reale quando i prezzi dei generi alimentari aumentano, le tariffe dei trasporti salgono, le officine rimangono senza materie prime, i turni di lavoro vengono ridotti, l’elettricità viene interrotta, i…
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Kurdistan, War, and the Failure of Ready-Made Narratives
During the five-week war waged by Israel and the United States against Iran, one name was repeatedly pushed into the media and political spotlight: the Kurds. The announcement of a coalition among Iranian Kurdish political forces before the war, Donald Trump’s calls during the war with Kurdish leaders in Iraq and later with Mustafa Hijri,…
