Tehran
Espressos and Escape in Tehran
Cafes in Iran have been transformed, as young people look for new places to socialize, learn skills that might be useful abroad and embrace a new marker of taste. They are also attracting attention from the authorities for mimicking bars and nightclubs, which are prohibited by law.
Iran's Missile Strategy
Stretching from Lebanon to Gaza and Yemen, Iran has built an extraordinary military alliance. The core of it is Tehran’s homegrown missile program, one that has given its allies surprising abilities — and poses a fundamental, long-term problem for the United States’ role in the Middle East.
Who is Iran’s new president?
Arash Azizi, author of “Shadow Commander”, and Cameron Khansarinia, policy director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran, sit down for a podcast with Newlines’ Rasha Elass to discuss what the election of the “hanging judge” means for Iran.
The Budding Kurdish-Iranian Alliance in Northern Iraq
In the dusty farms and villages of Sinjar, the interests of Iran and Turkey collide. Here in northern Iraq, Tehran is allying with non-state actors in order to further its own interests — this time with the controversial PKK group, which will bring it into conflict with Ankara.
How Iran’s Hanging Judge Became President
The first decade of Iran’s revolution was its most brutal, and much violence was meted out by the Judiciary. Ebrahim Raisi, the new system’s ultimate loyalist, was just the right man for enforcing such brutalities and rising through the ranks.
As Iran’s Hard-liners Tighten Their Grip, Ordinary Iranians Resort to Humor
One man showed up dressed as the blue Genie from “Aladdin” and declared his presidential candidacy. Another one, donning a face mask made from the Iranian flag, created massive chaos in the registration hall, then promised the bemused bureaucrats that he was running to “save Iran from the current chaos.”
After Khamenei
Whoever becomes the next president of the Islamic Republic will face many challenges. There are renewed nuclear talks and a restless nation licking its wounds from two bloody protests. And there will probably be a death and a succession to the position of supreme leader.