Writings

Published in the Liberties Iran today may be best known for two things: one of the most repressive regimes in the world and one of the most remarkable cinemas in the world. The coexistence of the two is a conundrum that perplexes many people. How does a country known for ferocious repression of dissent and…

Published by Liberties “Were you culture-shocked?” is the question people often ask upon discovering that, at  the age of twenty,  I moved from Iran to the West. “Of course I was,” I usually say. “I still am.”  But I suspect they mis-imagine the tribulations of that transition. Exchanging the Tehran of the 2000s, where I…

Published by the Atlantic On March 29, a friend of mine, the Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, was crossing the road outside his Wimbledon home in southwestern London, to get his car. A man approached him and asked for change; then another man, with his face covered, gave Zeraati a bear hug while the first man…

Published by the Spectator The Middle East is bracing for an attack whose exact source, targets, method, timing and scope are unknown. On Monday, a suspected Israeli air strike targeted a group of Iranian officials in Damascus, Syria, and citizens of the region are now waiting to see how Iran’s regime will respond. Israel has…

Published by the Atlantic American leftists are facing a question that has become a perennial bugbear. Come November, should they support the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden to defeat Donald Trump? Or, given their profound reservations about both candidates, should they abstain from voting at all? Biden’s support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza has given…

Published by the National Late March is a festive occasion for Iranians and many others, as we celebrate the beginning of Persian New Year, coinciding with the beginning of the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. Known as Nowruz, the festival has gained global recognition in recent years and even got its own Google doodle…

Co-written with Didi Tal for IranWire In their attempt to reconstruct the past, historians often rely on archival documents. But these documents never tell the full story and we often have to work through the gaps. Looking at some of the major archives related to the Holocaust, we sifted through official documents, lists, registrations, and…

Published by IranWire Floriane Azoulay, director of an archive dedicated to documenting Nazi crimes, is used to dealing with harrowing material. But many of her stories from her eight years at the Arolsen Archives are also incredibly touching. Take the story of Thomas Buergenthal, the famed Czechoslovak-born American international lawyer who passed away in May…

Published by the New York Times On March 1, Iranians went to the polls for the first time since the protest movement of 2022 and the war in Gaza. The vote, for the Parliament and Assembly of Experts, which appoints the supreme leader, was far from a referendum on current leaders, though. The big result…

Published by the Washington Post Arash Azizi, a professor of history at Clemson University, is author of “What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom.” This piece is adapted from an essay in the spring 2024 issue of Liberties, a journal of culture and politics. Iran today might be best known for two things: one of the…

Published by CNN Denis Villeneuve is busy these days. His film, “Dune: Part Two,” just opened in the US, with a $190 million budget, ensemble cast of stars and loyal following of the franchise. It’s already one of the most talked-about films of the season and won the No. 1 spot in its opening weekend with $81.5 million in domestic sales (CNN and the film’s…

Published by the Atlantic Council Iran is set to hold elections for its parliament and its Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with supervising and picking the supreme leader, on March 1. But while the elections held under the Islamic Republic have never been free or fair, the 2024 elections are the most restricted polls…

Published by ISPI Online For the past quarter of a century, Iranians who demand sociopolitical change have often alternated between strategies of electoral participation and street protests. Closing of one avenue has often encouraged resorting to the other. We thus saw massive electoral participation of pro-change voters in parliamentary and presidential polls of 1997, 2000, 2001,…

Published by Spectator On Thursday, a 60-year-old Japanese crime boss appeared in a New York court to respond to charges that he helped traffic illicit material from Myanmar to Thailand. You might expect this to be a story about the Southeast Asian drug trade – it’s a vibrant business after all. In fact the supposed…

Published by the Wall Street Journal On Sept. 16, 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody in Tehran after being arrested for allegedly wearing an improper veil. Her death sparked a wave of protests across Iran, the latest in a series of uprisings that have challenged the country’s Islamist regime over the past 15…

Published in the Atlantic Iran and the United States have been in a shadow war with each other for years. That the conflict has never spilled into all-out war is only because both countries have kept to certain unwritten red lines and rules of engagement. One such rule, rarely broken in recent years, is: Thou…

Published by IranWire The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have been engaged in an indirect conflict for years, with fire being exchanged between militias backed by Tehran and US soldiers based in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. But the Sunday drone attack that targeted US soldiers near the Jordanian-Syrian border is unique: It…

Published by Universal Cinema Caroline Lindy’s Your Monster rests on several distinct worlds, each with their own rich traditions. No wonder critics have been unsure how to categorize it. Is it a horror, a comedy or a rom-com? To boot, it is set in the dog-eats-dog world of Broadway musical acting, making it also a musical-adjacent film.…

Published by the Spectator About a month ago, a regional brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the militia that undergirds the power in the Islamic Republic of Iran, held a political conference in the port city of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. The keynote speaker was a surprise for most attendees: Salim al-Montasser,…

Published by the Atlantic Fridays are holy days of rest in the Middle East, but today the region braces itself for the awful possibility of broader conflict. Following repeated attacks on their warships, the United States and the United Kingdom have finally hit back at the Houthis, a Yemeni militia that holds power in the…