Kourosh Ziabari
Kourosh Ziabari is an award-winning journalist based in New York and a 2022 World Press Institute fellow with the University of St. Thomas. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School with a master’s in political journalism. In 2022, he received the Professional Excellence Award from the Foreign Press Correspondents Association.
Latest from Kourosh Ziabari
Iran’s Persistent Sadness
Over five decades, the sanctity of mourning, the imperative of introversion and the centrality of pondering upon death have been instilled in Iran’s people. The masses have been trained to dismiss smiles and eulogize tears, with profound effects.
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.
Tweeting Is Banned in Iran, but Not for the Regime’s Supporters
Financing troll armies, pseudo-intellectuals, pundits and commentators whose day jobs boil down to waging wars on X is now the forte of a government that has officially banned the site.
Iran’s Hijab-Industrial Complex
When it comes to the compulsory hijab, there is also a political element at play: The Iranian government perceives the hijab battlefield as a catalyst of its dominance over the restive masses, a propeller of its perpetuity and a red line it doesn’t wish to see crossed so that it’s not required to make new concessions on civil liberties.
Javad Zarif’s Checkered Legacy
Iran’s U.S.-educated former top diplomat has claimed that Donald Trump was eyeing a fresh agreement with Iran after walking away from the original nuclear deal and offered to meet Zarif at least twice, but Zarif was not allowed to.