 RFE/RL Iran Report 2/25/2010 4:57:04 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Iran.For more stories on Iran, please visit and bookmark our Iran page . |
 A Marja Is Not A Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shi'ite authority, doesn't issue political or legal orders, he just gives advice. But many Shi'a in Iraq and Iran follow him -- and not because he is an official "supreme leader." More  Listen In On Iranian Strong-Arming RFE/RL's Radio Farda has obtained an audio recording that offers disquieting insight into the methods being employed by Iranian officials during the current clampdown. More  Clinton Sees Support For Iran Sanctions U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says a new package of sanctions against Iran could come up for a vote in the UN Security Council in as little as one month's time. More  World Press Photo Winner Criticized As Coward The winner of this year's World Press Photo prize has reportedly been criticized for not photographing street demonstrations in Iran last year. More  Kyrgyz Confirm Iran Intercepted Plane Kyrgyzstan has confirmed that Iran forced one of its planes to land and arrested two of the passengers, apparently confirming Tehran's claim that it seized a top Sunni militant on a flight to the Central Asian country. More  Jailed Iran Academic In 'Critical Condition' The first chancellor of Tehran University after the 1979 Islamic Revolution remains in jail despite what his wife says is his deteriorating health. More  Lack Of Language Day Protest Doesn't Mean All Is Fine In Iran Every year on this day, thousands of Azeris staged demonstrations in the cities of Iranian Azerbaijan to call for language rights. But this year, nothing happened. More  A Dervish’s Dream For Iran Several years ago the friendliness, sincerity, and the pure faith of the Gonabadi dervishes attracted me and, with the grace of God, I became a dervish. More “Women In Shroud,” a documentary coproduced by RFE/RL's Radio Farda broadcaster Mohammad Reza Kazemi, was awarded by the Cinema For Peace initiative that promotes humanity through film. More  Iranian Lawyer Rejects Official's Portrayal Of Human Rights A prominent Iranian lawyer has rejected the optimistic portrayal of Iran's human rights situation offered to the United Nations earlier this week, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. More  IAEA Report Shows 'Greater Sense of Urgency' On Iran's Nuclear Progress In a new report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggests for the first time that Iran is actively pursuing a nuclear-weapons capability. Shannon Kile, a senior nonproliferation expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, discussed the report and the tougher mood at the UN watchdog agency. More  Why Iran's Green Movement Objects To President's Economic Style What keeps Iran's Green Movement alive, despite being muscled off the streets? One big factor is anger over President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's peculiar vision of economics. More  Letter From Tehran: The Artist's Dilemma The weather is cold and the skies are cloudy. As the Iranian poet Akhavan Saales wrote, it is the type of weather when “no one wants to say hello, everything is cold, [and] no one pulls out his hand to shake yours." More  Rafsanjani Vs. Khamenei: No Differences Says Rafsanjani Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s former president and head of the Assembly of Experts, the body that oversees the work of the supreme leader, has said that there are no differences between him and Ayatollah Khamenei. More  Tehran's 'Pond Of Blood' In the early years of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, a pond with several sections was built near an area dedicated to martyrs at the Beheshte Zahra graveyard in Tehran. Its fountain spurted blood. It became known as the "Pond of Blood." Obviously, it was not actual blood but only red coloring mixed in the water. More More than 110,000 people have now watched an amateur video (above) of a member of Iran’s security forces beating up a young man on a Tehran street on February 11. RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari spoke with the young Iranian man who posted the video on YouTube. More  In Iran, A Government Show Of Force And An Opposition Display Of Courage The anniversary of Iran's 1979 revolution was marked by clashes and arrests of opposition members. The Iranian government, which prepared for the event for months, managed to prevent the large-scale opposition protests seen in past months. Yet observers say both sides can claim to have made gains. More  Iran's Opposition Must Take Back The Initiative One obvious rigidity of the protest movement in Iran is its tight attachment to important days of mourning or celebrations. This gives the regime advance warning to prepare for confrontation and also time to recoup and deal with opponents in between waves of protests. Therefore, the protest movement should be more innovative and flexible to try to choose its own time, place, and method of defiance. More |
