Iran
A Movement Cut Short
Amid new crackdowns and the threat of war, Iranians, both in Iran and across the diaspora, are asking why the Woman, Life, Freedom movement failed and the Islamic Republic endures. Their hopes for change depend on an organized and effectively led political alternative that has yet to emerge.
Tehran's ‘Charming Kitten’
Over the past few decades, the Iranian regime has developed both well-known cyberwarfare units — such as “Charming Kitten” — and more shadowy entities for psychological operations. While the former have received plenty of international attention, the latter have largely operated under the radar.
Women, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Protest Movement Today — With Arash Azizi
The 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran wasn’t able to change the government, Arash Azizi tells New Lines’ Danny Postel on The Lede, “but I think the movement really opened up questions of political change and the political future of the Islamic Republic in an unprecedented way. … It certainly made a mark on Iranian political history, and it will definitely color all future attempts for change.”
The Curious Case of the Kerman Attacks
The Iranian authorities appeared confused about whom to blame for the Kerman attacks. There is little evidence or precedent for their claim that Israel is likely to have been behind them, but the regime remains hopeful that Iranians will draw together in a response of national unity.
In Iran, Journalism Is Still Alive but Hanging by a Thread
In a stultifying climate of fear, as the state jockeys to stamp out every hint of heterogeneity in the press corps, a chorus of young, educated and smart reporters has kept the flames of ethical journalism alive, defying the myth that Iran’s news industry has gone extinct.
Iranians Have Become Desensitized to the Question of Palestine
If there was a genuine national consensus at the dawn of Iran's 1979 revolution that resistance to Israel’s policies was a moral and human responsibility, that commitment has since been shredded, thanks to the excesses of the Islamic Republic. From the perspective of the younger generations, Palestine is merely a playground where the leadership maneuvers to beef up its clout in the Muslim world.
Art, Music and Freedom in Iran — with Malu Halasa and Nahid Siamdoust
The death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Iranian morality police inspired the largest uprising Iran has seen since the 1979 revolution. A year after the protests began, Malu Halasa and Nahid Siamdoust join New Lines’ Danny Postel to talk about how art, poetry and music formed the movement's pulse.