The Running To Take The Reins In Iran? - Golnaz Esfandiari
Iran will hold a presidential election in less than three months amid speculation that a hard-liner and a "military man" could succeed Hassan Rohani, who is serving his final term and is under heavy pressure from his hard-line opponents who have consolidated power in the Islamic republic. ...
Labor Activists, the Living Wage and State Law in Iran
Fruzan Afshar
On April 8, 2020, representatives of Iran’s government, business and labor sectors resumed long overdue negotiations to revise the national minimum wage. With an economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and crippling sanctions imposed by the United States, prospects for government and business representatives to consent to a substantial wage increase were slim. ...
Academic jailed in Iran pulls off daring escape back to Britain
A British- Iranian dual national sentenced to nine years and three months in jail in Iran for co-operating with “a hostile state power” has smuggled himself out of Iran, escaping over the country’s treacherous mountainous border, and is now living in London. In an interview with the Guardian, Kameel Ahmady explained he felt had no option but to flee after spending nearly 100 days in Evin prison, including a brutal spell in solitary confinement while he was being interrogated. ...
Former officials from across Europe urge change in diplomatic status toward Iran
On Thursday (28 January) a group of former government officials from more than a dozen European countries issued a statement urging the European Union and its member states to downgrade diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, pending guarantees for an end to the threat of Iranian state terrorism. The statement on the initiative of the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) was released exactly one week ahead of the anticipated verdict in the case of Assadollah Assadi, a high-ranking Iranian diplomat who allegedly served as the mastermind of a 2018 terror plot targeting a gathering of Iranian expatriates in France. During an online panel discussion, four officials on the ISJ talked about the failure of Europe’s policy of appeasement. ...
‘Iran’s Nelson Mandela’ is back in prison. Biden must push for her freedom.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, an attorney and human rights activist often called “Iran’s Nelson Mandela,” is back in an overcrowded prison cell, separated from those she loves. Under arrest since 2018, she was granted a brief medical leave this month, but it was abruptly canceled on Jan. 19, the same day the government froze her family’s bank accounts. That afternoon, her husband, Reza Khandan, drove her to Qarchak's prison for women, accompanied by their daughter Mehraveh and son Nima. ...
How an anti-elite TV drama became Iran’s lockdown hit
Holly Dagres
A woman screams for her life after being locked in a Mercedes-Benz in a junkyard. In the next scene, all that is left of her is a metal cube with blood gushing out. This isn’t a scene from the latest horror film, but the first episode of the new Iranian drama series, Aghazadeh – taken from a term used to describe children of the Iranian elite with privilege, connections and influence. ...
What Can A Biden Administration Do With Human Rights In Iran?
By Ali Afshari
Today, Iran sees a widening gap between the nation and state as systematic human rights violations grow day by day. This situation has created controversial debates on the intervention of the U.S. administration, whether the U.S. should take action to convince, or rather force, Iran’s leadership to address its misconduct against civil society activists and political dissidents. Although, since 1979, the U.S. government has stood in protest of the violation of basic rights in Iran, and during the Donald Trump presidency imposed more sanctions on individuals and organizations involved in these atrocities, some in Iran believe the actions are not sufficient and expect more drastic steps from U.S. government. The 2020 U.S. presidential election was followed very closely inside Iran and a sharp division emerged over which candidate, Joe Biden or Donald Trump, would be more likely to advance human rights in Iran. ...
Does Iran have a plan for a successor to Khamenei?
Ali Hashem Dec 28, 2020
Recent rumors regarding a decline in Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s health have led to renewed speculation about who will succeed him. ...
EU countries withdraw from Iran business forum over journalist’s execution
Organizers have now canceled the event, which was set to start Monday.
Ambassadors for France and other European countries pulled out of a business forum planned to start Monday with Tehran’s foreign minister, which has now been canceled, amid international outcry over the execution of journalist Rouhollah Zam. ...
What’s the Fallout From the Killing of a Top Iranian Nuclear Scientist?
By Ray Takeyh, CFR Expert
It is not yet clear how the November 27 killing of senior scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on a road outside of Tehran will affect Iran’s nuclear program. But coming after other successful attacks, which Iran has linked to Israel, the killing has spurred calls in the regime to reform internal security structures, as well as opposing views on whether to avenge Fakhrizadeh’s death. ...
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