Irrespective of one’s ideological affiliations, 2011 was an inconvenient year for the Middle East, to put it mildly. The speed at which Arab Spring brought about change has been baffling to most of us and inevitably prepared us for more drastic changes to come. Now let’s take a look at the most significant changes that […]
Book Review Assassins of the Turquoise Palace by Roya Hakakian 322 pages- published by Grove Press “Number seven,” he said to the agent beside him”. These were the words uttered by Parviz Dastmalchi, a survivor of and witness to an assassination that shook Europe and the continent’s relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Parviz […]
Summary of Turkish foreign policy in 2011 2011 was in many ways a milestone in modern Turkish history. First, the Arab Spring not only shook the Western influence in the region, it also ended the post-colonial period in the Middle East, marked by authoritarian-suppressive regimes, which in their way mirrored and reflected their perception of […]
In an exclusive and wide-ranging discussion with Reza Akhlaghi, senior writer at the Foreign Policy Association, Ramin Jahanbegloo and Mehdi Khalaji talk about the current state of Iranian affairs. Topics discussed include: • Shiite clergy and institutionalization of violence in Iran; • Socio-cultural factors and civil, democratic institutions in Iran; • Iran’s Reformists; • […]
The following is a statement by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) in Washington D.C. Washington, DC – NIAC deplores the racist and violent depiction of what is supposed to be a group of cowboys donning “Iranians Suck” t-shirts while lynching an Iranian on a poster at a restaurant in Katy, Texas. In response to […]
Informed Americans about international and foreign policy affairs have voiced their frustration about U.S military interventions abroad and the potential for more of such interventions. These frustrations are undoubtedly the results of having been witness to consistent decline in the standards of living by Americans over the past decade, which have sharpened over the past […]
Explosive campaign on Change.org asks Sweden’s minister for migration and asylum policy to reconsider deportation of 20 Iranian Kurds facing prosecution and possible execution in Iran. Amsterdam – More than 56,000 people from over 40 countries have joined a popular campaign on Change.org demanding the Swedish government grant asylum to 20 Iranian Kurds who face […]
The following op-ed piece was written by Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir. Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir is a human rights defender and award winning journalist, currently living inToronto, Canada. He was the spokesman for the United Student Front, the biggest student secular democrat group in Iran, and founder of the first student human rights organization known as the […]
That education is a universal right is a principle enshrined in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, for a large part, in the psyche of humanity. Therefore, the idea that one would be barred from higher education based on one’s religious convictions becomes absurd at best. This is the absurd reality that the […]
The following is a contributing piece from guest writer Ladan Yazdian. Ms. Yazdian is a foreign affairs and Middle East specialist. She holds a BA and an MA in political science. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, working on global security, foreign policy, international relations, and human rights. In the wake of […]
Ever since the failure of their reform agenda and their subsequent marginalization by the coming to power of Ahmadinejad, Iran’s reformists have been in near constant search of a well-articulated stance on their role in the country’s political future. The reform agenda by Iranian reformists was crystallized in the two-term presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a […]
Editor’s Note: The following piece was written by Omid Memarian for the IPS News Agency. Omid Memarian is an Iranian-American journalist and analyst based in San Francisco. Mr. Memarian is a regular contributor to the IPS News Agency (Inter Press Service), the Daily Beast, as well as Huffington Post. He is also recipient of Human […]
From Amnesty International–Tania Stewart | Media Relations Assistant | Amnesty International USA (Washington, D.C.) — Graphic new video footage of a public hanging in Iran this week highlights the brutalization of both the condemned and those who watch executions, Amnesty International said today. The video can currently be viewed on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YTlbObayk8 . The video provided to […]
Iran is a land of not only great empires, but also of great traditions and cultures. The traditions that have shaped Iranian culture come from a variety of ethnic groups and cultures, blessing Iran with a longstanding and strong tradition of diversity that continues to date despite efforts by the current Iranian government to suppress […]
Lisa Daftari, Iranian-American award-winning journalist with expertise in counterterrorism and the Middle East, in a discussion with the American Thinker, reflects on the prospects of democratic change in Iran. The discussion was conducted by Amil Imani. Introduction: Since the fraudulent June 12th, 2009 Presidential Election in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), an increasingly emboldened opposition, […]