Journal

  • Seven Women in Evin Prison Speak Out Against War

    Seven Women in Evin Prison Speak Out Against War

    Two separate but politically aligned statements from seven imprisoned Iranian women — all feminist and labor rights activists currently held in Tehran’s Evin Prison — have emerged, calling for an end to war, foreign aggression, and authoritarian rule. The statements sharply criticize both the Israeli government’s military assault on Iran and the wider role…

  • Palestine Between Propaganda and Betrayal

    Palestine Between Propaganda and Betrayal

    As expected, the IAEA has finally issued its resolution against Iran. Now, the case will likely be reviewed by the UN Security Council. In response, the Islamic regime quickly claimed it would build a new enrichment facility in a “more secure” location! But that means it would take at least a year or more…

  • 2024: The Year of Gradual Collapse of Labor Rights

    2024: The Year of Gradual Collapse of Labor Rights

    In a year when nearly half of the world’s population is expected to vote, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has released a report that goes beyond just another annual overview of labor conditions. The 2024 Global Rights Index doesn’t just map how labor rights are respected or violated in different countries—it also shows…

  • Guernica in Tehran: From Anti-War Icon to Tool of Hypocrisy

    Guernica in Tehran: From Anti-War Icon to Tool of Hypocrisy

    In a time when the world is blurred by the smoke and fire of wars, the exhibition of one of the most famous anti-war paintings of the 20th century—Guernica by Pablo Picasso—in Tehran is not just ironic; it’s a symbolic disaster. Guernica was created in memory of the brutal bombing of a small Spanish…

  • The Racism of Anti-Racists: Bourdieu, Said, and Inverted Orientalism

    The Racism of Anti-Racists: Bourdieu, Said, and Inverted Orientalism

    There’s a kind of violence that doesn’t wear a uniform, doesn’t raise its voice, and doesn’t need to spill blood to be effective. It speaks in well-published books, sits on academic panels, tweets in solidarity, and signs petitions. It insists on cultural understanding. It warns against Western arrogance. It tells you that criticizing a…

  • What Happened to Protection?

    What Happened to Protection?

    I have lived in Athens for eight years. Long enough to know its rhythms, and long enough to watch the word “protection” disappear. Every headline speaks of “illegal immigration,” every policy turns arrival into suspicion. The system doesn’t ask why you came—it asks how. And in that shift, survival becomes a crime. When I…

  • They Made Her a Metaphor, Then Made Her Illegal

    They Made Her a Metaphor, Then Made Her Illegal

    I still remember the first time I watched Baran. It was 2001. That film did something rare—it showed us what we already knew but refused to admit: that Afghan migrants were building our cities, stone by stone, and sleeping in their shadows. In those years, I saw the world behind the fences. I walked…

  • Banners in the Wind, Walls at the Border

    Banners in the Wind, Walls at the Border

    In late 2006, I took part in a small gathering in Sanandaj for World Children’s Day. We held signs that said children deserve education, not war—hardly a radical demand. Most of us were under 25. Some were students, some workers, some artists. We were thinking about Afghan children without access to school, about poverty,…

  • Geopolitics and Social Movements in Post-2023 Iran

    Geopolitics and Social Movements in Post-2023 Iran

    The Islamic Republic built a tool and named it the “Axis of Resistance.” For three decades, it used this label to present itself as a force against Israel and in support of Palestinian liberation. This construction was not accidental. It served a strategic purpose: to expand the regime’s regional influence under the cover of…

  • Your Values Burned the World

    Your Values Burned the World

    There is something about this crazy simplification. There’s no such thing as “Western values.” That clean, polished idea never really existed. The West wasn’t handed down from the sky. It was built through war, slavery, blood, and fire. Without that brutal history, it wouldn’t be what it is today. Even the Enlightenment (often praised…

  • National Conflict, Netanyahu, and Iran’s Revolutionary Future

    National Conflict, Netanyahu, and Iran’s Revolutionary Future

    The slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” represents a political movement that emerged in Iran with significant implications for the entire Middle East. It was a progressive and radical moment in recent regional history. However, it cannot be understood in isolation. It must be seen as part of a broader process of civil resistance and political…

  • We Were Never Meant to Belong

    We Were Never Meant to Belong

    Photo: Refugee temporary accommodation by IOM, Athens, November 17, 2020. In Iran, when the last days of a administrative come around, they do not go out with humility. No. They celebrate. They build stages and stand behind microphones, handing each other awards and shaking hands like they just saved the country. Ministers smile into…