International Politics and Economy

By Niloofar Hooman, McMaster University | – On Sept. 16, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in Tehran while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Her death set off a massive wave of demonstrations that have spread across the country. While the protests started with anger over the enforcement of the hijab, […]

Dissent

Iran’s Universities Turn Into A Major Battleground Amid Anti-Government Protests

Golnaz Esfandiari

By Golnaz Esfandiari and Mohammad Zarghami | – ( RFE/RL ) – Dozens of students protested outside the law faculty at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabei University on October 19, chanting, “dishonorable, dishonorable,” as a government official addressed a conference inside. When government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi later came outside, he was confronted by around 100 students. The […]

Climate Crisis

On Turning 70 in a Graying, Climate-threatened World where Christians and Muslims must learn to Understand Each Other

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A daily column is inevitably personal, even if the focus is, as with Informed Comment, on current events. Today I’m going to reflect, not so much on my turning 70 as on the world I confront through these old eyes, and how my experiences help me cope with it and […]

Authoritarianism

Top Iran Prosecutor Threatens Death Penalty for Leading Protests, as Government arrests over 7,000

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – BBC Monitoring reports that the protests in Iran are continuing, both in small towns and big cities, though the situation inside Iran is murky because the regime has cut off the internet. Many protesters appear to have retreated to the suburbs, rather than rallying right downtown where the state security […]

Arms Sales

Ukraine war: Iranian ‘kamikaze’ drones can inflict serious damage but will not be a gamechanger

The Conversation

By Dominika Kunertova, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich | – Many Ukrainians are facing the prospect of a winter of power outages after about 30% of the country’s power stations were knocked out in just over a week. The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, has warned that the country needs to […]

Greece

Could Tensions between Greece and Turkey spiral into yet another European war?

The Conversation

By Yasar Bukan, Toronto Metropolitan University | – Tensions are flaring between Turkey and Greece over the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands and a host of other issues. Considering Russia’s military expansion across the region, it would be strategically wise for the two NATO members to de-escalate and improve relations based on mutual trust […]

Authoritarianism

QKremlin? Russians say they Fear a NATO Invasion will Make their Children Gay

Richard Foltz

Montreal (Special to Informed Comment) – On October 17 the Russian Book Publishers Union sent a letter to the Russian Duma expressing concern thata proposed bill against “LGBT propaganda” could lead to the banning of numerous works of classic literature, including books by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Ostrovsky and many others. The proposed bill is merely the […]

Arms Sales

Iranian drones used by Russia in Ukraine show that there’s already one Victor in that War: Iran

The Conversation

By Aaron Pilkington, University of Denver | – The war in Ukraine is helping one country achieve its foreign policy and national security objectives, but it’s neither Russia nor Ukraine. It’s Iran. That was starkly clear on the morning of Oct. 17, 2022, as Iranian-made drones attacked civilian targets in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Russia used […]

Authoritarianism

The world must hear the Voice of Iranian Women

Global Voices

By Azin Mohajerin and Sussan Tahmasebi | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – The name Mahsa (Jina) Amini has become a rallying cry for millions of people across the world to protest the oppression of the Iranian government against its own citizens. The hashtag #MahsaAmini has broken records on social media for the number of times […]