Latest from Arash Azizi
The Fiasco of Iranian Diaspora Politics
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.
Iran Fatwa: the Meaning of the Attack on Salman Rushdie
Since the attack on the novelist, Iran’s newspapers have kept up a steady stream of invective against Rushdie. To understand why Tehran persists in criticizing Rushdie even after the death of Khomeini, it is essential to understand where the fatwa sits in its current identity.
Iran’s Cabinet of Hard-liners
Since his election in June and his inauguration on Aug. 3, Ebrahim Raisi had made all the right noises about forming a cabinet that would be “beyond factions,” nonpartisan and focused on bringing Iran out of the dire straits it finds itself in. On Aug. 11, all such hopes were dashed.
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.
Zarif’s Beefs
Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif is, in a sense, more of a true believer than many in the Revolutionary Guard. He genuinely appears to be under the illusion that the ideals of the Islamic Republic still have popular support and that Iran should rely on them instead of brute force. Few in the IRGC seem to harbor such illusions.