Iran’s satellite launch carries more political weight than military significance
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) successful launch of the Noor (Light) satellite into space is a significant moment at a time when many countries, including Iran, are still grappling with the deadly COVID-19 virus. It marks a military advancement, an audacious move in the diplomatic poker game with Washington, and an effort to restore domestic political legitimacy after a series of blunders. ...
Why Iran’s coronavirus pandemic is also a crisis of human rights
Nazanin Boniadi is an actress, activist and a member of the Board of Directors at the Center for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Covid-19: Hitting Iran’s minorities harder
Initial data of Covid-19 mortality rates in the United States suggest that in several regions and cities, the virus hits minority communities harder than the general population. ...
In Iran, Isolated musicians perform from rooftops
On the rooftop terrace of her Tehran apartment building, 28-year-old Mojgan Hosseini’s fingers pluck the strings of her qanun, an ancient stringed instrument, bringing life to an Iranian capital stilled by the coronavirus. ...
Pandemic Exposes the Paranoid Style of Iran’s Supreme Leader
On March 22, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to ravage Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that the United States bore responsibility for his nation’s plight. In a speech rejecting US offers of medical aid, Khamenei declared—echoing a claim first promulgated by Chinese officials—that America may have created the virus in a deliberate effort to target Iranians. ...
Pandemic reveals Iran's online-learning challenges
In response to Iran’s coronavirus outbreak in late February, one of the government’s first actions was to close schools and universities on March 5, leaving the education of millions of students in limbo. The prolonged shutdown has led to major challenges for students, parents and teachers. ...
Rare voices from Iran’s epic coronavirus outbreak tell of stumbling government, deluged hospitals
Iran has been struck by one of the most severe coronavirus outbreaks in the world, but the voices of Iranians affected by the pandemic have remained largely unheard outside the country’s borders. The scale of their suffering has been obscured by often upbeat stories about survivors in Iran’s official media and by an inscrutable government many suspect is underplaying the toll. ...
Iranian officials troll the US handling of the coronavirus to hide their own failings
Iranian officials have taken to firing aggressive and sometimes disparaging remarks deriding the Western—especially American—response to the coronavirus outbreak in an apparent attempt to counter criticism of their own shortcomings. ...
How Did Iran Become an Islamic Republic?
Iranians marked the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution in 2019. Many an academic conference around the world marked the occasion (including a workshop jointly held by my own New York University and Columbia University), but grand narratives or conclusive accounts of the revolution have been conspicuous in their absence. This is partly explained by the fact that the revolution is a living event, copiously adding to its own history day by day and not yet achieving the distance of a “done” event that makes it a more comfortable topic for historians. ...
Some 18,000 Iranians Recover from COVID-19
Iran’s Health Ministry says 17,935 patients have so far recovered from the COVID-19 and been discharged from the hospital. ...
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