Arash Bahmani
TEHRAN—What happened in Iran after the disputed June 12 presidential election affected everyone’s lives in Iran, but arguably, those who have suffered the most are Iranian journalists. Journalists have been sentenced to long prison terms, their publications were shut down, and many of them were either silenced or forced to leave their homeland. more»
Patrick Disney
WASHINGTON—To an outsider, it may seem like Washington is united in favor of imposing new sanctions on Iran. But, like in Iran itself, the internal wrangling over this question among Washington policymakers is much more complex and divided by factions than one may assume. more»
Mojtaba Vahedi is a senior advisor to opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi. Vahedi recently came to study in the United States and spoke to insideIRAN.org from Washington.
Q: How do you view the state of the opposition movement now? Is the Green Movement still capable of organizing large crowds and large demonstrations? more»
Jamsheed K. Choksy
A preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities by the U.S., Israel, or both nations has been on the table for quite some time. Yet because Iran has at least a dozen centers related to its nuclear activities, demolishing the program would be extremely difficult. None the less, there is no dearth of war game scenarios by think tanks, universities, government departments, even magazines in the U.S. and Israel. Iran too has conducted its own large-scale defensive and offensive scenarios – including one last November involving actual military exercises. more»
Mahour S.
TORONTO—Two days before the Iranian New Year, Mir Hossein Mousavi released a video message to the people of Iran. Surprisingly, Zahra Rahnavard, his wife, who is a prominent intellectual and political activist, issued a Norouz message of her own. In the thirty-one years of the Islamic Republic, when it is customary for the president and the Supreme Leader to release Norouz messages, not only were we hearing a message recorded by someone with no official position within the administration, but it was the first time a women addressed the nation with a greeting. more»