August 2009
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...
'Official Leak': Rouholamini tortured to death
Mehr News Agency | August 31, 2009 The semi-official Mehr News Agency quoted "an informed source" on the cause of death of 25-year-old Mohsen Rouholamini. The fact that this...
Can Majles block Ahmadinejad's advance?
He doesn't want to hear it. Archive photo.Reporting from Tehran | 31 Aug 2009 Heads must have turned yesterday morning as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered Iran's Majles accompanied by...
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...
Kayhan for Kids: shaping young hearts and minds
By GOLAB P. Kayhan Bacheha -- Kayhan for Kids -- is a weekly magazine for children published by the Kayhan Institute, the same publisher that prints the daily Kayhan...
Tehran Prosecutor Sacked
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the new Prosecutor General, was previously head of the judiciary in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. briefs Hojjatoleslam Sadegh Larijani, the new chief of the judiciary,...
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,...
More goodies for IRGC
By GOLAB P. briefs As previously reported, the Privatization Organization announced that in order to repay its debt to the armed forces it has transferred the concession and ownership...
Selected Photos
Photos of Section 302 of Behesht-e Zahra, where Norooz website reported some of the dead were secretly buried. Fatemeh Shams, Mohammad Reza Jalayipour's wife, calls for his freedom. Jalayipour...
Khamenei says protest leaders not foreign-backed
By GOLAB P. briefs After reading the AFP translation of Ayatollah Khamenei's speech and comparing it to the Persian, I thought I should clarify a couple of things. First,...
Principlist MP grilled by journalist about jailhouse visit
Tabnak | August 24, 2009 Farhad Tajari, the spokesman for the Majlis Judicial Commission Farhad, was one of two lawmakers allowed to visit Mostafa Tajzadeh. This is an interview...
Selected Headlines
Hossein Fadaei, a representative from Tehran, was reportedly directly involved in interrogations in Kahrizak. 3 MPs tied to Kahrizak prison Blog Watch: niacINsight | August 26, 2009 The reformist...
Selected Headlines
Nourouz releases serial numbers for burial site Parleman News | August 24, 2009 Nourouz website released the registration numbers of the burial permits issued on July 12 and 15...
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...
Stalinist Show Trials: Part Four
Saeed Hajjarian (center), who was left partially paralyzed after an assassination attempt, is considered the brain behind the reformist movement. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 25 Aug...
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...
Hajji Corleone, Sonny Seyyed and the Rapists who got away
Crumbling brotherhood: A younger Mehdi Karroubi seated next to a younger Ali Khamenei. By HANA H. in Tehran | 21 August [TEHRAN BUREAU] Comment When Mehdi Karroubi went public...
Selected Headlines
Bullet-ridden Reza Anbouhi Blog Watch | Date August 21, 2009 Reza Anbouhi was shot point blank in the head with a BB gun intended to be fired from a...
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...
Selected Headlines
Kayhan closure awaits Mortazavi approval ILNA | August 20, 2009 The hardline Kayhan daily has been suspended by the media court after its editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, was no-show at...
The Rights of Detainees
By NEMA MILANINIA | 19 Aug 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Briefs Two documents that can be found online detail relevant laws in Iran that address treatment in the arrest and...
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...
Karroubi takes on his critics
Karroubi won't shy away. Archive photo. Source: Mowjcamp | August 16, 2009 Reformist politician Mehdi Karroubi's recent letter to Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani requested an investigation into the rape of...
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...
Karoubi's newspaper shut, protests
Blog Watch Mehdi Karoubi's daily newspaper, Etemad-e Melli, was shut down yesterday. Pedestrian says it was because it printed Karoubi's statements in full. There had been calls to gather...
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 |...
Hello, there!
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wave hello at Sadeq Larijani's appointment ceremony as judiciary chief. Ahmadinejad has not had nice things to say about the former president....
The Coup against Mazdakite
Uprising in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Quest for Social Justice in today's Iran. By REZA AKHLAGHI in Toronto The influence of clergy over Iranian society is not limited to today's...
Selected Headlines
Someone didn't give him the memo... ''No doubt what is happening in Iran concerns and worries us, but we consider it to be an internal affair.'' Khaled Mashaal, top Hamas...
Selected Headlines
Oops, No Touching! It is forbidden in Islam for a man and woman not married, or otherwise mahram to each other, to make physical contact. Mousavi: Iranian authorities should...
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
Ayatollah calls for emergency Assembly of Experts meeting [Source: Yazd Online][Dastgheib.ir] August 13, 2009 Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Mohammad Dastgheib, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a senior cleric,...
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...
Iran's Next Minister of Intelligence?
Photo: There is talk of Ruhollah Hosseinian taking over at the Intelligence Ministry. By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles As first reported by the author, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired his...
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...
Ahmadinejad's Predicament and Iran's Political Crisis
By FARIDEH FARHI [IPS] With the confirmation of his re-election by Ayatollah Khamenei and his oath of office taken, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will begin his second term facing much steeper...
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...
IRGC: Arrest Mousavi, Khatami, and others
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 10 Aug 2009 Comment Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, head of the political directorate of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the backbone...
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...
Motahari: security officials sowing discord
Source: Tabnak Dr. Ali Motahari, a member of Majlis representing Tehran, said broadcasting confessions of officials accused of treason, indicated that security authorities did not want to see unity...
Saffar-Harandi mulls 'journalism'
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Roozna.com Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in the first Ahmadinejad administration, has rejected rumors that he will be the new head of...
Prosecutor: Confessions will not influence court verdict
Source: Khabar Online Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi said the prisoners' confessions in court were part of a legal procedure and would not have a major impact on the verdict....
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...
Britian, Iran: Ties strained, but in place
British Embassy in Tehran. Date unknown. [TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Asr Iran Instead of Ambassador Simon Glass, the British mission in Tehran sent its No. 2, Patrick Davies, to Mahmoud...
Nabavi, Hajjarian may be tried for Rajai assassination
Source: Asr Iran Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first term, said Saeed Hajjarian and Behzad Nabavi may be tried in connection with the...
On the Role of the Leader
By GOLAB P. [TEHRAN BUREAU] Blog Watch On this YouTube video, Mohsen Kadivar addresses the role of the supreme leader. I've seen him speak on a number of occasions...
The Next Interior Minister?
The Next Interior Minister? [TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Asr Iran While other military officials such as Iran's Police chief, Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, attended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's swearing-in ceremony in uniform,...
'Confessions Pleased Me'
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Asr Iran Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Yahya Jafari, Kerman's Friday Prayer Leader, urged Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to resort to their 'senses,' even if they lacked...
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,...
'Devils, global arrogants applauding'
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Bazyab.ir Hojjatoleslam Hossein Jamalizadeh, Jiroft Friday Prayers Leader, said many of those who voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi now regret their vote and are repenting. Drawing...
Khomeini's granddaughter speaks out
Photo Feb 2009/Press TV [TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Mowjcamp.com Zahra Eshraqi, a granddaughter of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, urged security and judiciary officials to...
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...
Rafsanjani's daughter-in-law detained, released
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: INN.ir Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter-in-law was among those detained in protests sparked by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's endorsement ceremony. According to the Iran Newspaper on Network report,...
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...
A Snub?
Iran's president gets cooler reception from top [AP] Iran's supreme leader bestowed his formal endorsement on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's second term as president on Monday but withheld a powerful symbolic...
Mohajerani: Confessions third act in a play
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: Parlement News Ataollah Mohajerani described the trial of those arrested after the election as the third act in an ongoing play in which the fourth act...
Badamchian: Absence of Rafsanjani, Khatami from inauguration unimportant
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source Mehr News Agency and Rahesabz.com Assadollah Badamchian, Deputy Head of the Islamic Coalition party, said it was not necessary for Seyyed Mohammad Khatami or Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani...
MP: Trials insult to political establishment
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: ILNA Dariush Qanbari, a spokesman for the Reformist faction of the Iranian Parliament, said they believe the trials of those arrested after the election, where not...
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,...
Supreme Leader's brother: Mousavi revived revolutionary ideals
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Source: ILNA In a meeting with a number of recently freed detainees of the post-vote-unrest, Seyyed Hadi Khamenei, the Supreme Leader's younger brother, criticized the Guardians (Council) of...
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...
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