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In This Blind Alley
They smell your mouth Lest you've told someone 'I love you.' They smell your heart These are strange times, my dear Love, they drag out under lampposts to thrash....
The Militarized Death of the Republic
This was first published by Tehran Bureau on July 6, 2009. The momentous June presidential election in Iran and its bloody aftermath will probably be remembered as a turning...
D-Day for the Greens
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 19 Sept 2009 Comment Quds Day was crucial to both the Green Movement and the hardliners. The Green Movement wanted to demonstrate...
Selected Headlines
Mousavi embraces Ayatollah Makarem. Archive photo *For Quds Day updates, please click here. Larijani secretly meets with Ayatollah Makarem Tabnak | Sept. 18, 2009 Majlis speaker Ali Larijani has...
Quds Day Updates
Clashes erupt in afternoon Tehran Bureau | Sept. 18, 2009 Witnesses present at the Quds Day rallies held Friday in Tehran report that while security forces showed restraint early...
Stuck Between America and Iran
By JIM KRANE The 5,000 Iranians had waited for hours. They'd finished the last crumbs of their picnics and hung their homemade banners. They killed time by practicing their...
Co-opting Quds Day
Kayhan's banner headline quotes from Ayatollah Khomeini: "I'm going to smack this government in the mouth." By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 17 Sept 2009 Comment This year...
Iranian Film Festival- San Francisco 9/19-20
When Saeed Shafa began making plans for the inaugural Tiburon International Film Festival, it was with the simple motto of encouraging local residents to "understand the world through film."...
Selected Headlines
Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Ahmadinejad's first vice president. Motahari: Rahimi is a Kordan in the Making Rokhad | Sept. 14, 2009 Principlist lawmaker Ali Motahari has criticized the appointment of...
Censoring reformists out of existence
It didn't work for the apartheid government of South Africa -- but it's apparently inspired Iran's hardliners. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 13 Sept 2009 When the...
Let's Not Let Them Get Away with It
Protests outside the UN after the widely disputed June 12 election. Photo/Leila Darabi By SETAREH SABETY [TEHRAN BUREAU] Opinion Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is slated to make his annual visit to...
Iran's Animal Farm
Animal Farm meets 1984 By HANA H. in Tehran | 10 Sept 2009 Comment Iranian politics is an unpredictable madhouse made up of all the crazies, majorly deluded and...
Selected Headlines
We are experiencing technical difficulties. We will update the site as soon as the matter is resolved. Arzi asks mourners to pray for death of protest leaders Khabaronline | Sept....
The Nuclear Thing & Other Persian Riddles
Farsi provides a multi-dimensionality that allows its speakers to deny truth in a most truthful way.Dispatch from Tehran | 10 Sept 2009 Over the years, everyone has heard the...
Where is Iran headed?
Living in a bubble, increasingly out of touch. Archive photo. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 8 Sept 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Comment The crackdown on peaceful demonstrators protesting...
Coup Leaders Afraid to Face the People
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI | 6 Sept 2009 Friday prayers, religious holidays and religious ceremonies have always been used by the Islamic Republic to showcase the support that it supposedly...
From Madman to Ad Man
Photos/William Levin @Jewish Robot Ahmadinejad Promotes Free Israel Trips for U.S. College Students By MARSHA B. COHEN | 6 Sept 2009 A program which offers college-age Jews free ten-day...
Selected Headlines
Fars news agency caption: "Congratulations on your union." Mysterious Meeting in Qom Tabnak | September 6, 2009 Grand Ayatollah Safi-Golapyegani has visited the Imam Sajjad seminary in Qom to...
Mousavi on the "Green Path of Hope"
Demonstrations during the Iranian revolution of 1978-79. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 5 Sept 2009 Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main reformist candidate in Iran's presidential election of...
My Revolutionary Friends
The Iranian jet set help support a brutal regime by looking the other way. By SETAREH SABETY in Nice Those who come back from Iran speak with different degrees...
Cleaning up after the men
Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi pictured above with Fatemeh Ajorlou Iran's first woman health minister faces many challenges ahead -- segregating health care facilities for men and women is not one...
IRGC's deeply-rooted animosity for reformists
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles As the author pointed out in a previous article, one goal of the second-generation conservative revolutionaries is the elimination of the reformists as...
Selected Headlines
Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, the new Health Minister, chats with lawmakers after her speech on Sept. 1, 2009. Photo/Tehran Bureau Iran's first female minister not Dastjerdi Blog Watch: Mehrekian | Sept....
Ahmadinejad & Family Take on 'New' Foreign Policy
The joke in Iran is that the country has three Foreign Ministers, including Johns Hopkins-educated pediatrician, Ali Akbar Velayati (in gray suit), special adviser on foreign affairs to Ayatollah...
Majlis Day 3
Fatemeh Ajorlou, Ahmadinejad's pick for Minister of Social Welfare, speaks to lawmakers in parliament in Tehran, September 1, 2009. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (in glasses) speaks with lawmakers in...
Majlis Day 2
Photos/Tehran Bureau Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (immediately above), who will retain his job if parliament backs him, said Iran had successfully defended its "nuclear rights" against Western demands to...
Street Fightin' Soosool
Soosool boys from South Tehran increasingly difficult to tell apart from Northern brethren. Lynsey Addario/CorbisSocial Class and Tehran's Geography By MOHAMMAD KHIABANI in Tehran | 31 Aug 2009 There...
Shariati on Religious Government
The Islamic Revolution once looked more like Ali Shariati than like Ali Khamenei -- though it is said that Khamenei, who hails from Mashhad as did Shariati, was once a...
Selected Headlines
The man is here to stay. Archive photo Mortazavi Promoted Tehran Bureau | August 30, 2009 Hojjatoleslam Sadegh Larijani has appointed Saeed Mortazavi, the notorious former Tehran Prosecutor General,...
Meet Etelaat and its "Nokias"
Caption: On June 22, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal reported that the Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies Siemens AG, the...
Isolated, weak and as delusional as ever
Ahmadinejad, pictured with the halo of light he claims the audience saw over his head the first time he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, says "Torture...
Selected Headlines
On the sidelines of the fourth 'velvet-coup' trials ILNA | August 25, 2009 Though for the previous court sessions detainees were not subject to surveillance and interceptor equipment, for the...
The Paranoid Style in Iranian Politics
Cartoon from the satirical leftist journal Ahanger (16 April 1979) depicting Iran in a chess match with the United States. Iran's chess pieces are workers, peasants, students, the Fedayin,...
How will the Afghans react?
By CAMELIA ENTEKHABIFARD in Kabul Comment In the summer of 2002, I was stuck alone in the Mazar-e Sharif airport, fearing for my life and trying to figure out...
The Bloody Red Summer of 1988
The 1980s were the bloodiest and darkest in the contemporary history of Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini (center), has his hand kissed. Seyyed Asadollah Lajevardi (lower right in white turtleneck and...
Selected Headlines
MP: Majlis will never okay Ajorlou Asr Iran | August 24, 2009 Seyyed Mehdi Zamani, a member of the Majlis Social Commission, said given Fatemeh Ajorlou's track record, he...
Iftar with the Bitter Taste of Inflation
By GOLAB P. | 20 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Briefs The month of Ramadan is almost here and I am left paralyzed thinking of all the Iranians who will...
Nepotism & the Larijani Dynasty
Nikahang Kowsar's "Three Musketeers." Roozonline By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 20 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Before the 1979 Revolution in Iran, one of the main grievances against...
Ahmadinejad's Security Cabinet
Photo: Sadegh Mahsouli (standing) says he is worth $160 million. He was a penniless IRGC officer at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Ali Khamenei, then president, seated on...
London Calling
Iran and the UK have a long intertwined history -- but familiarity doesn't always breed contempt. Members of Prime Minister Mossadegh's family went to school in Britain; even Ali...
History Used and Abused
In Nov. 1951, the British Embassy reported that Kashani was so disgruntled with Mosaddeq that he had put out "feelers" in many directions, including the royal court and the...
Selected Headlines
Larijani and Ahmadinejad to shuffle ministers Etemad-e Melli | August 19, 2009 Reports indicate that newly-appointed Judiciary Chief Sadeq Larijani has been reshuffling his personnel and appointing former Ahmadinejad...
Hajjarian to appear in court
Archive photo Hajjarian to appear in Revolutionary court Source: Mowjcamp | August 18, 2009 Saeed Hajjarian will reportedly be taken to the Revolutionary court tomorrow; reports also indicate that...
New Logos
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Blog Watch Blogger Gorizsabz has designed new logos for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and NAJA (the police forces). The caption says: "No copyright whatsoever and...
A Call for Human Rights Protection in Iran
Human Rights is a universal concern. By SAM SASAN SHOAMANESH at The Hague | 18 Aug 2009 In the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election, the world has...
The Great Tehran Expo Privatization Scandal You've Never Heard Of
"Ahmadinejad didn't steal," spray painted, in part, across campaign posters of the other principlist candidate, Mohsen Rezaei. Photo/Erfan Dadkhah Factional politics, you say? By MOHAMMAD KHIABANI in Tehran |...
Letter from Tehran
The Gossip in Tehran Whether a figment of the Iranian imagination or not, rumors have been persistent over the last two years that Ahmadinejad and the IRGC high command...
Iran's Crumbling Judiciary
The breakdown of the judiciary has never been so glaringly visible. Photo: Ayatollah Shahroudi seated with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Date unknown. Update: Iran's supreme leader appoints Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani as...
Selected Headlines
Mesbah Yazdi and Ahmadinejad embrace. Photo date unknown. Mesbah-Yazdi: Subservience to Ahmadinejad shows faith in God [Source: Farda News] August 12, 2009 Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi said the recent unrest...
Selected Headlines
IRIB cites Israeli cabinet as progressive model IRNA slams IRIB example of female ministers [Tabnak] August 12, 2009 In an unprecedented move, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB aired a report...
Selected Headlines
Captions: (Top) These rapes took place in the Shah's prisons too... (Bottom) Of course [in my case], we were killed! Cartoon by Nik Kowsar/Roozonline Hossein Karroubi: They rode prisoners...
Patriots and Reformists: Behzad Nabavi and Mostafa Tajzadeh
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 11 Aug 2009 Of all the reformist leaders who have been the target of the wrath of Iran's hardliners, none, with the...
Selected Headlines
MP: Larijani provoked Mousavi [Raja News] August 10, 2009 One of the lawmakers tasked with reviewing Ali Larijani's doctorate degree charged that the Majlis Speaker misused the title 'Dr.' years...
Shiraz Nights
Photos/Ghazzal Dabiri By GHAZZAL DABIRI in Shiraz | 9 Aug 2009 Everyone in my family who said they would not, went to vote. Unfortunately, I could not vote since I...
Selected headlines
Karroubi demands probe into detainee rapes [Radio Farda] August 9, 2009 Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi called on the Assembly of Experts to investigate the sexual assault of a number...
The Turkish Misadventure
Fishy story: Images from Turkish television report. By AFSIN YURDAKUL in New York | 9 Aug 2009 In October 2008, an Iranian businessman named Esmael Safarian-Nasab shipped four containers...
The Show Goes On
Show Trials, Part II By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 9 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] comment & analysis The second installment of the mass trial staged against reformist...
Fooling themselves alone
Iran's show trials resumed on Saturday. Photo/Fars News By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 8 Aug 2009 As the trials of more than 100 political prisoners, charged with inciting...
Genius
What does the new cabinet have in store? By GOLAB P. | 8 Aug 2009 Reports emerged this week that Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's parliamentary deputy, has a...
Selected Headlines from the Iranian Press
Qotbi's house raided over show of support for Ahmadinejad Source: Jahan News and Asr Iran Unidentified men on Thursday raided the UAE home of Iran's national soccer team coach,...
Selected Headlines, Blog Watch
'Velvet Coup' trials postponed [Fars News Agency] Upon the request of lawyers for ten defendants charged in connection with the post-election unrest, the Revolution Court postponed their trials for two...
If I Confess...
A statement for the times. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 6 Aug 2009 Mehdi Bazargan, Iran's first prime minister after the 1979 Revolution, is one of the...
Legal Scholar Blasts Judiciary Chief
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Salaam News The following are extracts from an open letter to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, written by Dr. Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaqeq-Damad, a professor of jurisprudence,...
Reporting from Dubai
Close enough to feel the heat. By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 5 August 2009 Notebook In recent weeks, Dubai has become perhaps the best place where one can...
ILNA removes report of Rouholamini's death from its website
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Mowjcamp.com Following Judge Saeed Mortazavi's remarks in a meeting with the Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, ILNA removed the report about Mohsen Rouholamini's death...
Updates from Aug 5
Videos coming in from clashes today will be posted here. Source: Parelment News Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony was held amid heavy police and security presence around the Iranian Parliament...
MP: 2-party system good govt
Date of photo unknown. [TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Parlement News Mohammad-Mehdi Shahriari, a member of the Majlis reformist bloc, said the Reformist Party cannot be wiped out -- it was...
Principlist MP: Larijani performed weakly in Majlis
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Tabnak Elias Naderan, a member of the Principlist bloc of the Iranian parliament, said the positions of Majlis Speaker and head of the Principlist faction should not...
Why Russia & China Love Iran's Hardliners
Russia knows how to play the hardliners -- by keeping them in need. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 5 Aug 2009 Marg bar Amrica -- "Death to...
Global Solidarity 2.0
Information Revolution: Protests in Iran continue to reverberate worldwide. By NERI ZILBER in New York | 4 August 2009 Sepideh, a 23-year old Iranian student, held her cell phone...
Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony: shows and no-shows
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Mowjcamp.com For the first time in 12 years, the Iranian presidential inauguration ceremony was not broadcast live. Photos of the ceremony were released after receiving approval...
Nekounam: Mousavi should be put on trial
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Alef News Hojjatoleslam Mohammad-Ibrahim Nekounam, Deputy Head of the Majlis Article 90 Commission, said if he were the judge presiding over the trial of the post-election detainees,...
Afrough: Prosecutor must be put on trial
Source: Ayandeh News Emad Afrough, a former Iranian lawmaker, said that those who have likened the post-election protests to a "velvet revolution" must be tried by the people and...
Selected Headlines
Features Abtahi Blogs From Evin Ahmad Sadri | August 26, 2009 Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a prominent Reformist politician and former vice president currently imprisoned in Iran, re-started his famous blog...
'Abtahi given pills to forget the world'
Photo: Mohammad Ali Abtahi, before and after incarceration. Source: Parliamentnews via blog In an interview with Parliamentnews, Mohammad-Reza Tabesh, head of the minority Reformist bloc of the Iranian parliament,...
Mousavi: Torture has reached the bone
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 2 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a new statement, blasting the sham trials that got under way yesterday. The statement...
Show Trials Get Under Way
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a prominent reformist and a cleric (clutching white piece of paper), was part of a group of 100 or so opposition figures who went on trial...
The Art of Translation
Solmaz Shahbazi, Still from "Persepolis," 2005, Single Channel Video, 1 projection, 17 minutes. Courtesy of the Artist. Image from arteeast.org."Tarjama/Translation" at the Queens Museum of Art [TEHRAN BUREAU] In...
Blog Watch: Ahmadinejad in Mashhad
[LAT Blog: Babylon and Beyond] Check out the photos above. All purport to show President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surrounded by swarms of followers during a July 16 trip to the...
Alien Nation
By KAMIN MOHAMMADI | 1 August 2009 'Now perhaps the world will know us better.' So said one of my cousins and best friends in Iran, my almost daily...
Martyred and Murdered
This list is in the process of being updated. By SAYA OVAISY in Tehran | 30 July 2009 [Updated 1 Aug 2009] [TEHRAN BUREAU] A massive demonstration had been...
40 Days Ago We Died
FORTY DAYS AGO WE DIED By Setareh Sabety Forty days ago we died Along with that mother Whose scream I still hear Not only in my ear But deeper...
Blog Watch: No Exit
[Life Goes on in Tehran] A personal monthly photoblog by a former Los Angeles resident who moved to Tehran. [Pedestrian] Mohammad Motahari is the son of the late Ayatollah...
Remembering Neda
AFP/Getty [TEHRAN BUREAU] Caspian Makan 37, boyfriend of Neda 27 (Q&A conducted 24 June 2009) Neda was a very happy girl, she was, how can I put it, a...
Reformists call for elimination of 'Coup Government'
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 30 July 2009 Iranian hardliners and the political establishment were the target of a strongly-worded statement issued by the Islamic Iran Participation...
"Level Minus Four" Detention Center
Sources: Tabnak and AutNews.me One month after its revelation, an Iranian lawmaker has confirmed the existence of an underground detention center in the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Kazem Jalali, the...
Principlist MP: Kissing Leader's hand is not allegiance
[Source: Tabnak] Tehran lawmaker Hamid-Reza Katouzian accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of confronting Iran's Leadership. Katouzian said that the president's actions over the past 10 days have been viewed as unacceptable...
Showdown between Khamenei and IRGC?
Who's really in charge? Is there a confrontation looming between Iran's supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guard? By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 28 July 2009 analysis Two...
Blog Watch: Robin Wright
Author and journalist Robin Wright, who has been covering Iran since her first trip in 1973, has launched a new blog, in part to address the current crisis in...
Hassani: Seniors should not be allowed out
As translated by Tehran Bureau staff [Asr Iran] Urumiyeh's Friday Prayers leader Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Reza Hassani thanked Security forces for restoring and maintaining calm throughout the country. Hassani said that...
Ahmadinejad Sacks Intelligence Minister
According to the Los Angeles Times: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dumped Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei a day after he accepted the resignation of his first vice president under pressure from his...
Ahmadinejad Sacks Ministers; Mashaei to Remain Close
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the controversial head of Iran's tourism office since 2005, will be Ahmadinejad's chief of staff after serving just one week as vice president. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in...
Fight or flight? Many Head Out
Fight or take flight? 30 years after the 1979 revolution, at least 3 million Iranians live abroad. Photo depicts two young revolutionaries around the time of the 1978-79 revolution....
Reformists Urge Grand Ayatollahs to Weigh In
The following are selected translations from the Iranian press. This section will expand as soon as we are able to raise enough money to hire a part- or full-time translator....
America's Misguided Left
The support of some on the American left for Ahmadinejad is badly misguided. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 24 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] comment Iran's rigged presidential...
A Charter for the Green Movement
After weeks of virtual silence following his declared intention to form a new political front, Mir Hossein Mousavi's official Web site, Ghalam News, announced Wednesday that the opposition leader...
Hunger Strike Draws Attention to Political Prisoners
By LEILA DARABI in New York | 23 July 2009 A group of 30 prominent Iranians in exile -- including academics, artists, actors and advocates -- commenced a three-day...
The Dynamics for Peace in the Middle East
The three critical dynamics determining whether the Middle East conflict moves towards peace: US-Israel relations, Israeli compliance with international laws and norms, and the capacity of the Arabs to...
Mousavi counters Khamenei
Rafsanjani's sermon prompts more threats from Khamenei. Mousavi shows no signs of relenting. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 20 July 2009 Three days after Friday prayers, Ali...
Prayers Make History
The following account is narrated in Farsi and translated by Tara Mahtafar. The narrator is a male student of political philosophy and in his early 30s. Friday Prayers, another...
People driving movement, not politicians
By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 20 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Op-Ed On May 21, I headed to Tehran to cover a president election that no one can claim...
Khatami: Referendum a Solution to Crisis
From left to right: Mohammad Khatami; Mousavi Bojnourdi, a member of ACC, Mir Hossein Mousavi; Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha; and Mohammad Ali Ansari, a former member of Iran's parliament and...
Iran's new nuclear supremo
By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut | 20 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The appointment of Ali Akbar Salehi as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation will be taken as a...
Another Senseless Arrest
Photo: Shadi Sadr By LEILA MOURI in New York | 19 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Comment At first I thought I had it wrong. I was not yet properly...
Rafsanjani's Sermon, Split in the Leadership
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 17 July 2009 Today's much anticipated Friday prayer ceremony was held at Tehran University. Crowds of people, some who could not get inside,...
How Geeks (and Non-Geeks) Can Help Iranians Online
By CYRUS FARIVAR in Oakland | 17 July 2009 In the past few weeks, I've seen a surprising number of my non-Iranian friends utterly captivated by news coming out...
The Man in the Shadow: Mojtaba Khamenei
There is much talk about Mojtaba in Iran. Is the young Khamanei being groomed to take over his father's position? By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 16 July...
Comment: 'Indiscriminate US Sanctions Resulted in Crash'
Iranians gather near the debris of the Caspian Airlines plane which crashed into a farmland near the city of Qazvin, northwest of Tehran. -- AFP A personal account of...
No Revolution
A group of Iranian women in Tehran protesting forced hijab, or Islamic veiling, which was imposed shortly after the 1979 revolution. By SETAREH SABETY in Nice, France | 14...
State-Run TV Takes a Hit
Dispatch from Tehran | 12 July 2009 Iranian news outlets noandish.com and tabnak.com report that Iranian state television has been hurt by falling advertising revenue. Several companies have reportedly...
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Fatwa
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Fatwa: an Unfair Supreme Leader is Illegitimate By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 12 July 2009 In a very important development, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri,...
18 Tir: The Past and Pending
Sign reads: "Evin Prison Accepting Students" I remember very vividly the eeriness of the streets; the quiet whispers of the wind. Had ghosts trodden there? Perhaps, as there was...
Reformist Strategist: Saeed Hajjarian
Photo: Saeed Hajjarian and Mohsen Mirdamadi (looking up), secretary-general of the Islamic Iran Participation front. Both are in jail. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 8 July 2009...
Inside Evin
Dispatch from Tehran I was arrested walking home in the immediate aftermath of the election at a busy square in the city center. Chaos reigned: chants, stones, batons, teargas....
Geeks Around the Globe Rally to Help Iranians Online
Geeks and God: Sign reads, "God is on our side. Do you intend to filter God, too?" By CYRUS FARIVAR in San Francisco | 8 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU]...
Eye of the Storm: 18th Tir
Opinion The day before the Iranian election took place, a tornado swept through the landscape south of Tehran. A friend recalled to me how he watched it whirl madly...
Between the Lines
Photo: "Out of Masks," reads the store sign. Dispatch from Tehran | 8 July 2009 On the front page article of Jam-e-Jam newspaper in Iran, July 7, 2009, is...
'Them, Not Us'
No foreign hand: Iranians killing Iranians. Dispatch from Tehran | 8 July 2009 It was June 20. The day after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had addressed tens...
Faith No More
7 July 2009 There is too much blood. Too much blood on the streets, too much blood on the news, on Facebook, in emails. There is blood everywhere. My...
Headlines, blog posts, updates
Date of photo unknown. Iran's Revolutionary Guard takes command [LAT] The top leaders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard publicly acknowledged they had taken over the nation's security and warned...
The significance of 18 Tir
By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 5 July 2009 The many tools implemented by the Islamic Republic to sedate its populous are the same ones now being used as detours...
Will the regime survive?
By GARETH SMYTH in Beirut Those anticipating the downfall of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and even the Islamic Republic of Iran should note that governments and dynasties throughout history...
Revolution Redux: The Shah of Shahs
Revolution Redux: Looking back on Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Shah of Shahs By MATTHEW GHAZARIAN [TEHRAN BUREAU] It has become popular for analysts of the Middle East to make a...
Blackout
Dispatch from Tehran | originally sent 14 June, two days after the election, published 2 July "Just keep walking and don't run," came a voice to my left. I...
'God has liberated SMS,' but targets satellite dishes
Dispatch from Tehran | 2 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Government officials are asking residents in north and northwest Tehran to choose: either keep their much prized -- but illegal...
The Widening Divide Among Iran's Clerics
The rift in the clerical establishment By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 30 June 2009 As the Iranian government crisis enters its 19th day, fissures among the clerics...
Feminist waves in the Iranian Green Tsunami?
By GOLBARG BASHI in New York | 29 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] As pictures of women, young and old, religious and non-religious, have plastered our Internet and TV screens...
I could have settled for Michael Jackson
By M.E. Dabiri in Tehran | 28 June 2009 I say, I don't accept him as my president. I haven't accepted him for the past four years, and I...
The War of the Ayatollahs
By HANA H. in Tehran | 25 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The fact that there is a war going on between "two senior revolutionary clerics" is not a big secret....
Iran's New Revolutionaries
By BABAK SARFARAZ in Tehran | 24 June 2009 For those steeped in the arcane art of Khamenei-watching, June 19 holds a special significance. On that day, after issuing...
The Assembly of Experts
Rafsanjani and the Leadership The Iranian Constitution is a roadmap in which all roads lead to the Supreme Leader. He exercises control over all branches of the government and...
The Abduction
By MICHELLE MAY in Tehran/Dubai | 24 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] The day after the Supreme Leader delivered his Friday prayer at Tehran University the streets of Tehran felt...
A Way Forward
Photo: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 23 June 2003 Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered what was widely considered to be a completely polarizing...
Headlines
Photo/TehranBureau Voices from Iran [open Democracy] If my experience is any guide, Iranians outside Iran are living some of the most intense days of their lives. Since the first,...
A Disgusting Fraud
By ROBERT DREYFUSS Gunfire, tear gas, and water cannons used by baton-wielding security forces in Iran have forced an uneasy calm on Tehran and other cities, but Mir Hossein...
Why Ahmadinejad Did Not Win
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 17 June 2009 Much has been said about the outcome of the Iranian presidential election, which took place last Friday. President Mahmoud...
1984
Two Iranian soldiers kiss before they go to battle (Iran-Iraq war). I was born in 1984, amid a devastating war that had laid waste and destruction to my country....
No Fools
By M. E. DABIRI in Tehran | Received June 15, 2009 (published 3 July 2009) [TEHRAN BUREAU] opinion This is an insult to one's dignity. If they had cheated...
Ayatollahs Protest Election Fraud
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 14 June 2009 Mir Hossein Mousavi's, the main reformist rival to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, letter to the important ayatollahs in the holy...
Spokesman: Political Coup
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 13 June 2009 In an interview, Mr. Mohsen Makhbalbaf, the distinguish movie director and spokesman for Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi, has declared...
The Expat Vote
Voters in London, New York, and across California are expressing concern and frustration over voting irregularities that they feel may be an orchestrated attempt to invalidate their votes. The problem...
Why I Voted
By M.E. DABIRI in Tehran | 12 June 2009 I stood in line at 9:45 on a warm, sunny morning at the Al-Rahman Mosque, four blocks from my flat, in...
In a Different Voice
[ dispatch ] It's 3:00 a.m. A friend and I are cruising the streets of Tehran, which have turned into virtual discos. The music ranges from Persian pop to rap...
Taking Command
Tehran | 8 June 2009 Tonight marked the last televised debate between Iran's presidential candidates. In this last round, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced off against another conservative, his former...
Out on the Town
What happens after the foreign journalists go to sleep? Supporters come out en masse, but not just for Mir Hossein Mousavi. Photo: Behrouz Mehri /AFP/Getty Images By JASON REZAIAN...
Reformists on the Rise
Former Iranian premier Mir Hossein Mousavi speaks during a press conference after registering his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election at the interior ministry in Tehran on May 9,...
Rallying behind their man
By AFSHIN SALIMPOUR in Tehran | 4 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] "Can we come in to see him speak?," I asked innocently. "Journalists? You have to arrange with Mr....
Art House
Tehran Bureau's Art House is launching soon. Please keep us apprised of any upcoming art or photography exhibit in your neighborhood. It will be included in our arts listing. Email...
Iran's Ralph Nader?
The Curious Case of Mehdi Karroubi | 3 June 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Mehdi Karroubi -- the former chairman of the Iranian Parliament, an ethnic Lur and an outspoken critic...
Nieman Reports Iran
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Q&A with Melissa Ludtke, Editor of Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard was established in 1938 "to promote and elevate the standards of journalism."...
Suitcases
Suitcases Suitcases of dried limes, dried figs, pomegranate paste, parsley laid in the sun, burnt honey, sugar cubes hardened on a baking sheet. Suitcases of practical underwear, hand-washed, dried...
Hardliners in a panic
This is the author's fifth article in a series on Iran's presidential election. Part I described the political and economical landscape in Iran. Part II provided a brief history...
New Syndicate to Focus Soley on Iran
NEW SYNDICATE TO FOCUS SOLELY ON IRAN TehranBureau.com to Maintain "Virtual Bureau" with Contributors Reporting on Iran-Related News May 28, 2009, New York, NY-- To expand its coverage of...
Sexual Politics in Iran
By JANET AFARY The 1979 Islamic revolution was not a wholesale return to the past; rather, the new state reinvented and expanded certain retrogressive cultural practices and presented them...
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