Iran

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The sorts of sanctions and boycotts the United States and its allies are placing on Russia resemble those applied by Washington to Iran off and on in the past decade, though so far the measures in place against Tehran are still far more severe than what has been done to […]

Authoritarianism

Iran Must Release Prominent Anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah (MESA)

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association | – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, Head of the Judiciary Your Excellencies, We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) to express our grave dismay over the […]

Iran

Revolution and Exile: A Poignant New Memoir of Iran

Fariba Amini

Review by Fariba Amini. Neda Toloui-Semnani, They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of my Parents, New York: Little A, 2022. Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment) – Beautiful, inspiring, heartbreaking and truth telling are terms that come to mind describing the new memoir by Iranian- American journalist Neda Toloui-Semnani. Among the many memoirs written […]

Arab Americans

US Media (Rightly) focuses on Ukrainian Rights, but it Racializes Muslims deprived of those Same Rights

Assal Rad

(Special to Informed Comment) – Speaking about the significance of knowledge and its role in democracy, President John F. Kennedy once stated that only an “informed people will be a free people, that the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” One of the most important institutions that informs public […]

Iran

Foes of a new Nuclear Agreement Demonize Tehran, but what is Iranian Society really Like Today?

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment) – The nature and the parameters of power relations in the state-society relations in Iran since the 1978-79 revolution have radically changed. The revolution ended the twenty-five-hundred-year-old monarchical rule in Iran and gave rise to a Shi’a ‘ulema-dominated rule. The demise of the old Pahlavi regime saw the […]

Iran

Iran nuclear deal: to reset relations with Tehran, Biden must overcome a long legacy of mistrust at home

The Conversation

By Andrew Payne and Louise Fawcett | – As officials from Washington and Tehran return to Vienna for talks that aim to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran hawks in the US Congress are determined to prevent that happening. In a letter sent to the US president Joe Biden on February 7, Republican US senator […]

Dissent

‘State Of Explosion’: Leaked IRGC Document Warns Of Rising Discontent In Iran

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/RL ) – A “highly confidential” state document leaked to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda warns that discontent is rising in Iran, with society in a “state of explosion.” The document highlights the clerical establishment’s concerns over potential social unrest due to the deteriorating economy, which has been crushed by crippling U.S. sanctions and years of […]

Featured

Is Peace on the Verge of breaking out between US and Iran? Biden waives some Trump-Era Sanctions

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera English reports that the Biden administration has restored a key waiver for Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program that allows third parties such as Russia and France to consult with Tehran about how to dial back and repurpose the program. Without the waiver, if some officials had gone off […]

Iran

What the Escalating Yemen War means for Iran, Israel and the United Arab Emirates

Middle East Monitor

By Jonathan Fenton-Harvey | – Over the past year, a new phase of violence has emerged in war-torn Yemen between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels. From being deadlocked by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) military operations to the Houthis’ continued escalation and recruitment of child soldiers in the war, Yemenis […]