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. ...

Guardianship: Child Trafficking and Forced Marriage

Mahdieh Golroo

When I was in the first grade, I had two nieces who are one and three years younger than I am. Their 24 years old father died in an accident so my 20 years old sister and her children were mourning for him. We spend a lot of time together. The kids can enjoy playing even in a sad time like all Syrian or Yemeni children who play and laugh under the bombing. The death of my sister's husband was the beginning of a new world for me with my nieces. ...

Iran's supreme leader, quoting Trump, mocks US election - NASSER KARIMI

Iran's supreme leader mocked America's presidential election Tuesday in a televised address, quoting President Donald Trump's own baseless claims about voter fraud to criticize the vote as Tehran marked the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis. ...

Book Review: Nasser Mohajer, Voices of a Massacre: Untold Stories of Life and Death in Iran, 1988

In 1988, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a secret fatwa (a religious edict) ordering judicial authorities to execute between 4,500 and 5,000 political prisoners. The inmates were men and women, young and old who had been arrested over the previous ten years for their dissident views or participation in street demonstrations. Some were teenagers at the time of their arrest. ...

British-Australian academic detained in Iran moved out of desert prison

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the British-Australian academic who has been detained in Iran for the past two years, has been moved from the notorious desert prison of Qarchak to an unknown location. ...

Iran’s Next President Could Be a Military Man

Who shall guard the Guards? At the start of the campaign for next summer’s presidential election, Iran faces the militarization of its political institutions. The strongest candidates to replace President Hassan Rouhani in June come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s most muscular military arm. ...

'Treating us like garbage': New sanctions announced as many Iranian Americans feel fed up with Trump

Jason Nazmiyal, a prominent Persian carpet dealer based in New York, is used to America's red tape when it comes to Iran. ...

Page