Tag Archives: Fatwa

Fundamentalist Calls To Ignore Norouz Go Unheard In Iran, Afghanistan

(RFE/RL) | March 21, 2010 By Abbas Djavadi Maryam had invited her two daughters and their husbands and grandchildren for Norouz, the New Year’s feast, to her home in western Tehran when I called her on Saturday. It was after 9:02 p.m. when “tahvil,” the change from the old to the new year, 1389 after [...]

Read More 2 Comments

Video Collection: Iran Festival of Fire, Day of Revelry and Resistance

This post contains video from Iran allegedly taken during the Nowruz Festival of Fire called Chahar Shanbe Soori. These videos are uploaded to the Internet after being filmed by people in the streets, most often with cell-phone video recorders. While I believe they are from March 16, 2010 (today) and that they are authentic, I [...]

Read More 2 Comments

Iranians Defy a Ban in a Display of Dissent

(The New York Times) | March 16, 2010 by Nazila Fathi Iranians defied a ban on events marking a traditional festival on Tuesday, turning an annual celebration into a show of antigovernment sentiment. Also Tuesday, the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi appeared to challenge the authority of the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by [...]

Read More 0 Comments

Regime Seeks to Appoint New “Grand Ayatollahs”

(Rooz Online) November 20, 2009 By Ali Farokhi Following the escalation of protests by Iran’s senior ayatollahs against the regime, some members of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association (the most important organization of clerics affiliated with the regime) are planning to present a new list of “grand ayatollahs” under the supervision of Mohammad Yazdi, Ahmad [...]

Read More 1 Comment

The dust of dissent can still choke this regime

On the surface, “order” has been enforced. But only on the surface. Inside Iran, public anger still burns, flaring up wherever opportunity presents. At the core of the Islamic regime, a struggle has been unleashed that — by stepping off his pedestal into the thick of the fray — the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has lost his once- undisputed power to bring under control. Far from subsiding, dissent is shaking the regime to its roots.

Read More 1 Comment

Senior Cleric Says Leaders Of Iran Are Unfit to Rule

“In my estimate this is the strongest criticism ever of the supreme leader,” said Rasool Nafisi, a United States-based academic and Iran expert. “Although it doesn’t mention Ayatollah Khamenei by name, it is clear he is referring to him.”

Read More 0 Comments

Feature: Instagrams from Iran (picture compilation)

A few pictures from Iran, taken by ordinary people and posted to Instagram

Iran Feature: Former Detainee Sarah Shourd “The Plight of Iranians and 3 Decades of US Foreign Policy”

The incredible thing for me was that so many Iranians worldwide took the time to care about us despite the thousands of other political prisoners they have to worry about. “I’m an Iranian boy ashamed for what our government did to three American hikers,” another message on Facebook says. “I want you to know Iranian people are with you and against their own government. Iran’s regime is not chosen by Iranian people. They kill and torture us and we are all in a very big prison named Iran.”

Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried — Three Developments You Probably Don’t Know

Our partner, EAWorldView, has published a ground-breaking piece on Iran’s Supreme Leader. This is a must-read.

Live-blog: Russia, what’s next?

Live-blog: Egypt Elections, Day 1

A historic day: The first post-Mubarak elections in Egypt

Journalist Mona Eltahawy’s harrowing ordeal – beating, sexual assault and arrest in Egypt – in her own words and tweets

“The past 12 hrs were painful and surreal but I know I got off much much easier than so many other Egyptians.”