By Tara Sepehri Far. | ( Human Rights Watch ) | – – In Second Term, Should Move on Rights Reforms When the 2017 election season kicked off April 21, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani did not go into the race possessing an enviable track record of defending human rights. While he achieved his 2013 election […]
What Iranian women want: rights, jobs and a seat at the table
By Azadeh Davachi | (The Conversation) | – – Issues affecting women were conspicuously absent from Iran’s 2017 presidential election. That’s unless one finds useful the leading conservative candidate Hojjat al-Islam Ebrahim Raisi’s comment that his government would enhance women’s dignity within the family, because women should be “good mothers and wives”. The absence was […]
US Reputation under Trump Tanking, Costing Economy Billions
By Daniel Korschun, Boryana V Dimitrova, and Yoto V. Yotov | (The Conversation) | – – U.S. News and World Report recently published its annual “Best Countries” ranking, based on how thousands of people around the world perceive other nations. Switzerland topped the 80-country ranking, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom. One big surprise […]
Boycott Trump! Hit him where it Hurts
By Mattea Kramer | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In normal times, Dee from New York would have ordered her copy of The Handmaid’s Tale from Amazon, but these are not normal times. Amazon is on the Grab Your Wallet list, a campaign to boycott retailers that sell Trump family products, which began as […]
What is the Sunni-Shiite Divide into Which Trump just Stepped?
Ken Chitwood | (The Conversation) | – – In his address in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, May 21, while calling on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against terrorism, President Donald Trump identified Iran as a despotic state giving safe harbor and financing terror in the Middle East. As Iran is a Shia state and […]
Fascist, Go Home! After Bombing, Manchester Residents Shut Down Anti-Muslim Demo
TeleSur | – – “The people of Manchester don’t stand with your xenophobia and racism,” one man shouted at the English Defence League racists. In the aftermath of Monday’s tragic bombing, the people of Manchester showed little patience with the racist opportunists of the extreme right English Defence League, quickly confronting EDL attempts at provoking […]
Trump, Saudi Arabia and yet another arms deal
Russell E. Lucas, Michigan State University The first stop on Donald Trump’s first trip as U.S. president was to Saudi Arabia. That was no accident. His decision was surely based on the fact that the alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States is one of the foundations of American foreign policy in the Middle […]
Rouhani’s win a Victory for Reform, will Trump waste Opportunity?
By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – In Iran’s election, Hassan Rouhani’s re-election was not a forgone conclusion. Criticism of Rouhani’s performance focused on growing unemployment, as the economy was not keeping pace with new entries into the workforce. Official rates put unemployment at 12% but this rate is estimated to be much […]
Erdogan, Trump, the Russians and General Flynn: The Tangled Web
By Carl Max Kortepeter | (Informed Comment) | – – When Sally Yates testified that she had told the Trump Organization, before his appointment as National Security Adviser, that General Flynn was in the pay of Turkey, for $600,000, President Trump should not have made the appointment. Appointments have consequences. General Flynn was acting erratically […]







