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Bypassing Religion in Iran? A Rare TV Debate
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Recently, a TV debate on women’s rights in Iran has caused controversy. Dr. Maryam Nasr, a member of the Women’s Studies Department at the Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, and a clergyman named Majid Dehghan, a faculty member at the Women and Family Research Institute, discussed the topic of “Sovereignty and Gender…
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United Against Brutality: A Call for Solidarity with Iranians
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To date, they have received 200 signatures from over 20 countries. Signatories include individuals from various professions such as academics, doctors, lawyers, journalists, and artists, as well as representatives from trade unions, political and associative organizations.
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Evin’s Dark Night:
A Report on the Killing, Torture, and Transfer of Political Prisoners during the October 15th Fire•
On October 15th, a tragic event occurred at Evin prison in Iran, one of the country’s most feared facilities. Despite the passage of three months, the exact details of what happened remain a mystery, as independent investigations are not permitted in the Islamic Republic. Among the prisoners held at Evin are political dissidents, ordinary…
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Iranian Feminist May Face Death Penalty for Protesting Compulsory Hijab
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Mozhgan Keshavarz, an Iranian feminist, was arrested in early 2019 along with two other women’s rights activists, Munirah Arabshahi and Yasman Ariani (mother and daughter), for protesting against the compulsory hijab. Before their arrest, these three had published a video on social media giving flowers to women in the metro without hijab on 8…
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Voices of Iranian Educators:
Insights on Challenges and Demands•
Rasool Bodaghi is a teacher and a member of the Union of Iranian Educators. Bodaghi has dedicated his life to improving modern education and ensuring that all Iranian children receive a quality, free, and equal education. In a recent note written from Evin prison, he spoke about the demands of teachers over the years…
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Don’t Tell Mom
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Mohsen Shekari, 23, was a waiter in Tehran. Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, was publicly hanged from a crane in Mashhad (northeastern Iran) and did not have a defined profession. Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, was a worker and an orphan of both parents. He still published pictures on his Instagram that he took on a…
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The Political Foundations of Kurdistan’s Leftist and Communist Cooperation Council
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In the past months of the ongoing revolution in Iran, numerous pictures and videos from different Kurdish cities were published on social networks, which had a more radical political message than what was going on in other parts of Iran. “Long live socialism”, “Long live the council management” and emphasizing the opposition to the…
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An Outskirts Portrait of Tehran
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According to the governor of Tehran, approximately 5 million people live in these neighborhoods around the city, many of whom reside in dilapidated buildings that are at risk of collapsing. While the media is not forbidden from publishing reports on these neighborhoods, they may choose not to do so due to the possibility of…
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The Middle East and the Road to Peace
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In the Middle East, progressive political groups, including those on the left, right, seculars and radicals such as communists and anarchists, often face brutal suppression by authoritarian governments. At the same time, Islamist groups in the region also actively oppose and attack these progressive movements, using tactics such as assassination, murder, and forced disappearance.
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The Workers’ Revolt: Labor’s Role in Iran’s Nationwide Uprisings
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Why, after more than two months of protests, have nationwide strikes not yet occurred in Iran, and how do the demands of the current uprising for “women, life, freedom” align with those of the working class? To address these questions, we spoke with Parvin Mohammadi, the vice-chairman of the Independent Iranian Workers’ Union. With…
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Iran: The Construction of a National Identity
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A critical study of how Iranian nationalism, itself largely influenced by Orientalist scholarship first undertaken by the European Orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has shaped modern conceptions of Iran and Iranian identity, as well as narratives of Iranian history, leading to the adoption of a broad nationalist construction of identity to suit…
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Iran: A protester was executed
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Five protesters have been sentenced to death in an show-court in Alborz province, which had only three so-called hearings and lasted only six days. Sixteen people were convicted in this show-court, five of whom were sentenced to death, and the remaining eleven were sentenced to long prison terms. Three children under are among those…