Islamic Revolution of Iran
All topics-
Parliamentary elections 2020 in Iran
Era of the Khamenei vassals
Once again there was not much to vote for in the Islamic Republic. Half of the candidates were excluded anyway. But for Khamenei, the election was part of a larger plan, namely full-scale preparation for an uncertain future. By Ali Sadrzadeh
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Elections in the Islamic republic
Strong vote for a strong Iran?
In the run-up to Iran’s parliamentary elections on 21 February, state media was at full blast. Urging Iranians to take to the polls, state TV’s Channel 1 ran an election-day countdown, showing images of past elections and enthusiastic voters, regularly interrupted by music appealing to Iranians' sense of patriotism and nationalism. By Ali Fathollah-Nejad
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Contemporary Iranian literature
Reading outside the box
Mullahs, dictatorship, nuclear conflict – Iran could be reduced to these keywords if one were to rely only on the articles in the daily press. But to really understand a country better, you have to study its literature. And Iranian literature is just as diverse as the country itself. By Gerrit Wustmann
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At Khomeini's service
Britain complicit in the crushing of Iran's Tudeh party
Recently the British National Archives released the correspondence of former high-ranking British diplomats posted to Iran in the early eighties. The letters indicate that the United Kingdom put its weight behind crushing the Iranian opposition Tudeh party in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. By Iman Aslani
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The longest duel
Iran and the USA square off
The Iranian people are being held hostage by the confrontation between America and the regime in Tehran. Stefan Buchen considers in his essay whether the country's culture can still continue to flourish in the face of this latest 'high noon'
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Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani
Tehran weighs its next move
In recent years, Tehran had pushed a clever public-relations campaign to depict Soleimani as a Napoleon- or Caesar-like warrior-poet. He was even mooted as a likely presidential candidate in the next election. Any public sympathy for Soleimani will therefore now extend to the regime, at least in the short run. By Abbas Milani
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Interview with the artist Parastou Forouhar
Iranian society in shock
Every year German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar travels to Iran to commemorate her parents who were killed by secret service agents. This year, the funeral service coincided with the nationwide protests in Iran. Interview by Farhad Payar
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Foreign academics risk arrest in Iran
Tehran's new hostage policy
Political hostage takings are nothing new in Iran. But the detention of several western academics represents a new dimension. There are grounds for suspecting that hardliners in the judiciary, intelligence service and Revolutionary Guard Corps are intent on scuppering talks to salvage the nuclear accord. By Ulrich von Schwerin
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The mirage of regime change
Why the United States is Khamenei’s bogeyman
According to the leadership in Tehran, the USA is driven by an insurmountable hostility towards Iran. But even if Trump's policy of "maximum pressure" seems to confirm this notion, the U.S. government is not pursuing a policy of regime change. By Payam Ghalehdar & Ali Fathollah-Nejad
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Film review: Hossein Pourseifi's "Morgen sind wir frei"
Love in the time of revolution
"Morgen sind wir frei" – Tomorrow we'll be free – charts a love story under the baleful glare of a face painted on the side of a building in Tehran. It is a film about the hopes of a German-Iranian family during and after the revolution in Iran with all the pain of terror, oppression and separation. By Maryam Ansari
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Reassessing the Islamic Republic
Did the Iranian revolution deliver?
According to the well-known Tehran political science professor, Sadegh Zibakalam, if Iran were to hold a referendum on the Islamic Republic today, over 70% would clearly oppose it. Forty years on from the foundation of the Islamic Republic, Ali Fathollah-Nejad revisits the promises of the revolution to explore why this is the case
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Sufism in Iran
Finding joy in times of trouble
Islamic mysticism from the Sufi tradition is experiencing a renaissance in Iran – much to the irritation of the Mullahs. In recent years, tensions between Sufis and the orthodoxy have escalated into tangible enmity. By Elisabeth Kiderlen