Kasra Aarabi
Kasra Aarabi is director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) research at United Against Nuclear Iran. He is also a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. He is working on a doctoral degree at the University of St Andrews, where his research focuses on the IRGC.
Latest from Kasra Aarabi
A New Appointment Signals Iran’s Investment in the Propaganda War
Attention is on a likely military response to the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Yet Iran’s strategic communications have already gone into overdrive under a new head of propaganda and public relations.
Iran’s Dissenting Voices Are Being Targeted Online
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.
A Shadowy Paramilitary Group Leads the Bloody Crackdown on Iran’s College Campuses
The bloody crackdowns at universities across Iran are not being led by the usual suspects — the police, the IRGC or its Basij militia. Rather, the brutal repression is being driven by a shadowy paramilitary group almost unknown beyond Iran’s borders.
Iran’s Failure to Suppress Valentine’s Day
Attempts have even been made to co-opt the celebration of love and Islamicize it. The regime has tried to replace Valentine’s Day with the wedding day of Imam Ali, the first divinely ordained Shia Imam, and Fatimah, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, but this attempt has not yet caught on.