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Writings

  • My Favorite Cake: That daring quest called life

    Published in Universal Cinema Long before I watched My Favorite Cake, I was struck by the power of some of the scenes shown in its trailer. I wasn’t alone and this wonder was shared by thousands of Iranians who watched the viral trailer. In a particularly memorable scene, Mahin (Leyli Farhadpour) pours a glass of wine for…

  • Why Reading Lolita in Tehran Holds Up

    Published by the Atlantic The past few years may well be remembered as the nadir of Iranian-Israeli relations, and the first occasion when the two countries attacked each other directly. But they were also a golden period for Iranian-Israeli collaboration in cinema. In 2023, Tatami was the first-ever film to be co-directed by an Israeli (Guy Nattiv) and…

  • Breakfast with Giraffes: Iranian absurdism for absurd times

    Published in Universal Cinema Iranian cinema has long been known for its poetic films and, more recently, for its intense dramas. But one oft-ignored Iranian genre is comedy, a rarity on the festival circuit. In the Iranian box-office, however, comedies often do well.  Soroush Sehhat’s Breakfast with Giraffes is one example. Although it hasn’t been shown in…

  • Iranian politicians’ debate over sending aid to California is revealing

    Published by the National The wildfires currently rolling through southern California have brought unprecedented damage to the Golden State and dominated global headlines. Thousands of miles away from the US, in Iran, the wildfires have become the subject of a revealing political debate between the country’s divergent political factions. It can be seen as a…

  • Lisbon as a flaneur

    Published on my Substack Last September, I spent a week in Lisbon, long one of my favorite cities. I was there for a conference, but I knew I have a lot of free time and had decided to use it to engage in being what I love most: a flaneur. I had flaneured in Lisbon…

  • Iran’s Return to Pragmatism

    Published by the Atlantic The Iranian presidency seems to be a cursed position. Of the eight men who have held it before the current president, five eventually found themselves politically marginalized after their term finished. Two others fell to violent deaths in office (a bomb attack in 1981, a helicopter crash in 2024). The only exception is…

  • Despite Pezeshkian’s limited powers, the tide is turning in favour of internet freedom in Iran

    Published by the National Iran is often in the news for its regional and international affairs, but in recent weeks a domestic political issue has dominated the headlines in the country – censorship of the internet. Ordinary Iranians have had limited access to the internet for very many years now. Thousands of websites are banned,…

  • What does Trump want from Iran?

    Published by Al Majalla Donald Trump is still a few weeks away from the White House, but every decision he makes is watched closely by a host of stakeholders around the world. What we do know is that the president-elect is notoriously unpredictable, especially when it comes to Middle East policy. Observers are thus looking into his…

  • RIP, the Axis of Resistance

    Published by the Atlantic Iran’s Axis of Resistance, an informal coalition of anti-Western and anti-Israeli militias, was already having a terrible year. But the loss of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad may have dealt the knockout blow. Syria was both the organizing ground and the proof of concept for the Axis. Assad owed his throne…

  • Assad’s Opponents Are Building a New Order

    Published by the Atlantic A carnival of joy has erupted in Syria with the fall of the strongman Bashar al-Assad. Syrians have waited a long time and paid a heavy price for this jubilation. Thirteen years ago, the country’s revolution began with peaceful demonstrations; since then, by one estimate, more than 600,000 Syrians have lost their lives.…

  • The Folly of Ignoring Syria This Long

    Published by the Atlantic Until last week, Syria’s civil war was a classic example of a “frozen conflict”: A cease-fire in 2020 had stanched the fighting, but the sides had reached no permanent political settlement. Little happened that rose to the level of active warfare—and yet the country could not really have been said to…

  • Why Iran’s new president is desperate to move the capital from Tehran

    Published by the National Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been in office for less than four months, a time dominated by Israel’s war in the region, including its direct exchange of fire with Iran. But last week his government put the focus on an evergreen domestic issue: the changing of Iran’s capital city. Every single Iranian…

  • The International Criminal Court Shows Its Mettle

    Published by the Atlantic Passing judgment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was never going to be simple for the International Criminal Court. Even harder than acting fairly and impartially would be appearing to have done so, in a conflict that stirs fierce passions the world over. On top of that, equality before the law is a basic principle of…

  • The Problem With Boycotting Israel

    Published in the Atlantic When you hear that thousands of writers have signed a petition, you can already guess what they are calling for: What other than boycotting Israel could generate such enthusiasm among the literati? A staggering 6,000 writers and publishing professionals have signed a letter to address “the most profound moral, political and cultural…

  • Why has it turned so dark in Iran?

    Published by the National An old song about the city of Tehran praises it for being “always full of light”. But this isn’t how most Tehranis are experiencing their city this week. Like other parts of Iran, the city is going through government-organised electricity cuts. Its long highways have gone dark and every home has received a…

  • Don’t Give Up on America

    Published by the Atlantic Waking up to the election results on Wednesday, many Americans who opposed Donald Trump may have felt inclined to resent their neighbors. How could more than 70 million of them vote for a convicted felon who had hobnobbed with a fascist, showed little respect for the country’s institutions or alliances, and couldn’t…

  • The eventuality of US-Iran negotiations

    Published by Majalla The year 2024 was dubbed the ‘Year of Elections’ due to hundreds of millions of people voting in polls around the globe—from Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan to the UK and Iran. But there is no doubt which elections matter the most: the presidential polls in the United States. One could even argue…

  • Full-On War Between Israel and Iran Isn’t Inevitable

    Published in the Atlantic It took 25 days, but in the early hours today, Israel responded to Iran’s salvo of missiles earlier this month. The operation, named “Days of Repentance,” was the most significant attack on Iran by any country since the 1980s. The Iranian regime’s years of waging a shadow war on Israel have…

  • Iranian Dissidents Don’t Want War With Israel—But They Can’t Stop It

    Published by the Atlantic There is something ironic about the fact that, of all the countries in the Middle East, Iran is the one that now finds itself on the brink of war with Israel. Iran is not one of the 22 Arab states party to the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict. Its population, unlike those of many…

  • Flaneur: Jewish Feelings, Vibes, and Currents

    Published in the Liberties A friend of mine once asked me why I get so worked up about Jewish Currents, a left-wing American magazine known for airing anti-Zionist views. Of all the actors large and small that help shape the narrative about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, why care about a magazine based in Long Island with a few…