Matt Kennard on August 9, 2010 0 Comments
Chavez, Morales and Correa must speak out on Iran
Editor's Pick, Politics
UK goverment “too busy” to stop Bita Ghaedi being deported to her death next week
Shreen Ayob — May 1, 2010 33 Comments
Bita Ghaedi is an Iranian UK-based asylum seeker. On May 5th she will be dragged back against her will into a brutal regime and family situation that will very likely lead to her murder
Editor's Pick, Social Policy
1979: Reluctant UK snub for Iran’s ousted shah
Matt Kennard — February 8, 2010 1 Comment
A confidential briefing by the Foreign Office cautioned that there “would be a strong possibility of retaliation, e.g. over oil supplies” should the shah be given sanctuary in the UK. It continued: “We are convinced that, if the shah came to Britain, there would be physical retaliation against British subjects in Iran.”
Editor's Pick, Politics
Manifesto for the liberation of women in Iran
Iran Solidarity — January 25, 2010 3 Comments
Today, support for the ongoing revolution in Iran can and should become a vast international movement. March 8th is International Women’s Day, which this year bears the mark of solidarity with women and people in Iran in the struggle to topple the Islamic regime. We call on women’s rights activists and organisations to express their solidarity with the women’s movement in Iran, while remembering Neda Agha Soltan as the symbol of the revolutionary movement against the Islamic Republic. March 8th this year is the day of solidarity with the movement of the people of Iran for freedom!
Editor's Pick, Politics
Iran: The War Dance
David Edwards — October 1, 2009 1 Comment
What level of social insanity is it that persuades people to imagine that a single individual has the power to undo what centuries of entrenched, organised and determined vested interests (that have not gone away) have put in place?
Politics
A riposte to Hamid Dabashi on Iran
Max Ajl — July 23, 2009 30 Comments
It’s not altogether clear from this physical distance who’s been protesting this past month, nor can we know the protesters’ composition with any precision. But over 70 million people live in Iran, and 50 million went to the polls on June 12. Analytical attention has zeroed in on the protesting minority. We are instinctively attracted, like hunting beasts, to flashing movements, the brilliant spectacle of mobilization. One would hope, from certain quarters, for something slightly better
Editor's Pick, Politics
Iran accuses the British embassy in Tehran of fomenting unrest
Alastair Kocho-Williams — July 4, 2009 1 Comment
The British Embassy’s Iranian staff are caught in a tricky position. They remain Iranian citizens living in Iran, yet serving a foreign government, leading to suspicion about their loyalty, and as they are not diplomats they enjoy none of the immunity that such a status would afford them
Editor's Pick, Politics
Iran Fantasies
Max Ajl — July 2, 2009 21 Comments
It’s of course a question of solidarity. But solidarity is different from cheer-leading, the Party Line isn’t always the correct one, and leftists seem to have gotten taken for a real ride. Not the outcome anyone wished
Editor's Pick, Politics
Will the cat above the precipice fall down?: Slavoj Zizek on Iran
Slavoj Zizek — June 25, 2009 3 Comments
Whatever the outcome, it is vitally important to keep in mind that we are witnessing a great emancipatory event which doesn’t fit the frame of the struggle between pro-Western liberals and anti-Western fundamentalists. If our cynical pragmatism will make us lose the capacity to recognize this emancipatory dimension, then we in the West are effectively entering a post-democratic era, getting ready for our own Ahmadinejads. Italians already know his name: Berlusconi. Others are waiting in line
Editor's Pick, Politics
Why are the Iranians dreaming again?*
Ali Alizadeh — June 20, 2009 2 Comments
Iran is currently in the grip of a new and strong political movement. While this movement proves that Ahmadinejad’s populist techniques of deception no longer work inside Iran, it seems they are still effective outside the country. This is mainly due to thirty years of isolation and mutual mistrust between Iran and the West which has turned my country into a mysterious phenomenon for outsiders. In this piece I will try to confront some of the mystifications and misunderstandings produced by the international media in the last week
Editor's Pick, Politics
Interview with Iranian dissident about working in notorious Evin Prison
Jessica Mudditt — June 16, 2009 1 Comment
Any soldier who helps with the execution is rewarded with two days holiday. There is so much competition to do this that the junior soldiers never get to do it. If, for example, eight people executed, six or seven soldiers are required for duties. The chair has to be set up, and the rope has to be fastened around the neck, and someone must pull the chair. And someone has to put the dead body in the bag. You cannot imagine how I felt as I watched the soldiers being eager to do these things
Editor's Pick, Politics
“Anything. Anything but this”: The Iranian opposition under the kosh
Leah Borromeo — June 15, 2009 4 Comments
Whether they feel this is a “revolution” is an issue for debate. Do they want to overthrow Ahmadinejad or the Ayatollah? What is clear is that they feel the democracy they were offered was ersatz. That the powers that be (in this case, the incumbent) held an election they’d already determined the result for and took the people along for a ride to make it look good