 RFE/RL Iran Report 01.06.2009 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Iran.For more stories on Iran, please visit and bookmark our Iran page . |
 At These Prices, Why Vote? Zarehbiin advises against excessive economic optimism, no matter who wins the election. More  'Mahmud is Gone' A viral photo doing the rounds shows a man holding the Iranian daily "Ettelaat." The paper has a big headline that says " Mahmud is Gone." More  Five Reported Killed In Arson Attack In Southeastern Iran At least five people have been killed in an arson attack on a building in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, where a bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque last week left 25 people dead. More  Candidate Fatimah? Safahatekhali asks what Iran's election vetters would have said had the Prophet Muhammad's daughter herself applied to run in the June presidential election. More  Woe Are The Teens St-behesht questions the pledges of reformist candidate Musavi, as well as the principles of his sympathizers. More  Khatami Says Ethnic Joke Video Is Fake Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami has said that a video purportedly showing him telling a joke about Iran’s Azeri minority is a "montage" and fake. More  Iranians Allege U.S. 'Hands' Behind Mosque Bombing The attack was one of the deadliest such incidents in decades in Iran, where local officials have occasionally accused Washington and its allies of operating through minorities to stir up trouble in remote border regions. More  Plugging Our New Iran Coverage Two new RFE/RL blogs to bring to your attention. More  Will 'Silent Voters' Be Heard? Iran's “silent voters” -- the 20 million who skipped the 2005 presidential ballot -- are expected to play a decisive role in the June 12 election. In a bid to reach them, reformist candidates are using everything from text messages to e-mails to video clips, all with the same message: a decision to stay home is a vote for Mahmud Ahmadinejad. More  Iran Presidential Candidate On Interpol List Conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai, who isn't expected to poll well in the June 12 election, has been under scrutiny in the last few days. More  Question Of The Day: Why Don't Mullahs Die Young? ZarehBiin wonders aloud about the secret to Iranian clerics' longevity. More  Election Jokes Make The Rounds It's election season and that can mean only one thing in Iran: jokes. And many of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, poking fun at Ahmadinejad. More In the last two weeks, a video showing Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami telling a joke about Iran’s Azeri minority has led to protests by Iranian Azeris and students in several cities including Tehran, Orumyeh, and Tabriz. (The video above is from a protest in Tabriz on May 25.) More  Video: Primer On Iran's Election With a little more than two weeks to go before Iranians go to the polls to pick a president, RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari sketches the candidates and outlines the political landscape. More The media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging candidates running in Iran's upcoming presidential election to commit to the unconditional release of the 13 journalists and bloggers currently being held in the country. More Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  Prospects For Iran-Pakistan 'Pipeline Of Peace' Islamabad and Tehran have signed a 25-year deal under which Iran aims to export some 150 million cubic meters of gas to Pakistan per day. But there are some major obstacles to overcome before any Iranian gas actually crosses the border into Pakistan -- and even more before that gas can be routed to India. More  HRW Says Iranian Political Prisoner’s Life Is In Danger Human Rights Watch is calling on the Iranian government to immediately release political prisoner Behrooz Javid-Tehrani and provide him with access to adequate medical care. More  Ahmadinejad's Challengers Lose Vital Web Tool Supporters of both reformist candidates, Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi (who have already accused the Iranian state broadcaster of biased election coverage that favors Ahmadinejad), have reportedly been using the social-networking site effectively to spread arguments on behalf of the reformists. More  Apathy Could Be Ahmadinejad's Election Ally It would seem that the establishment is bent on securing a first-round win for the president, even if by a narrow margin. The fear is that a second-round runoff might look too much like an up-or-down vote on Ahmadinejad, and a contest like that might be impossible to win. More  Four Candidates Approved To Run For President The clerically dominated vetting body has approved the candidacies of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Musavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps head Mohsen Rezai. It rejected 471 other applicants. More  Iranian Activist Emad Baghi Wins Top Human Rights Award Iranian human rights activist Emad Baghi is the winner of this year’s prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. More |
