Iran’s Telling Ministerial Confirmation Hearings

by Farideh Farhi Iran’s cabinet confirmation hearings this week were painful, but not for its new president Hassan Rouhani, despite the rejection of 3 out of his 18 ministerial nominees. They were painful for Iran’s hardliners, whose mismanagement of the… Continue Reading

Political Prisoners: A Strong Voice in Iranian Politics

by Mohammad Ali Kadivar In a historic letter to President Barack Obama, 55 Iranian political prisoners describe the effect of the crippling sanctions regime on the Iranian people and plead for a new approach to the nuclear issue. They write: Mr.… Continue Reading

Iran’s Journalist Arrests Bode ill for 2013 Presidential Election

by Farideh Farhi Since Saturday, more than a dozen young journalists working for five reformist newspapers and journals, one news agency (Iranian Labor News Agency or ILNA), and one website (Baztab), have been arrested mostly at their place of work… Continue Reading

Iran in 2012: A Year in Review

For Iran, 2012 will go down as the year of economic woes. The mantra of the “enemy’s psychological war against Iran” will no longer be blamed more than internal mismanagement even by the most ardent supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and… Continue Reading

Jailed Iranian Rights Defender Nasrin Sotoudeh Unable to Collect Award

The whole world needs to know about Nasrin Sotoudeh, the Iranian rights lawyer who was ultimately sentenced to 6 years in prison after the Islamic Republic convicted her of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security in 2011. Sotoudeh’s… Continue Reading