Digital Isolation as a Power Strategy/Fereshte Goli

…and suddenly, total darkness and a heavy silence of ignorance about what had happened on the streets of Iran. Everything was a sign of a disaster. All communication and information channels had been cut off. News was passed around, with a multitude of worrying and frightening speculations broadcast from satellite news networks. On January 18, […]...

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Narrative Creation in the Communication Void/Sina Yousefi

The recent protests in Iran, accompanied by widespread, violent and unprecedented repression, have once again exposed the established patterns of human rights violations by the government. Along with the killing of protesters, mass arrests and the imposition of severe security restrictions, the broadcast of forced confessions by state media has become a central tool for […]...

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A call that never connected/ Mahtab Alinejad

It’s almost three in the morning. The cold light of a mobile phone illuminates the room, and the hands of a young girl in a European city restlessly glide across the screen. She dials her mother’s number for the umpteenth time. It beeps, then hangs up. Again. No messages are exchanged. The internet is down […]...

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Red Iran; From “Disconnection of Contact” to “Disconnection of Life”/ Nafiseh Laleh

Tehran, evening of January 18, 1404, around 8:00 PM His excited voice echoes in the echo of the desperate voices of the street and my heart skips a beat. The call is cut off around the first minute and remains cut off for the following days and weeks; like ourselves, from life. We do not […]...

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Words in Black Bags/Alma Fazeli

It has been more than sixteen years since the first image of Neda Agha Soltan’s last look was released, and about forty days since the first film of the pile of black bags for human corpses was released. Let me not go back any further, because to write about the experience of these days, I […]...

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When the Internet Was Shut Down, the Image Spoke/ Raha Sabet Sarvestani

The release of videos related to the events of Kahrizak, at a time when the internet was widely shut down inside Iran, triggered a wave of shock and reaction among public opinion abroad—particularly among the Iranian diaspora, international observers, politicians, and human rights activists. This phenomenon cannot be regarded merely as a media event; rather, […]...

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The Right to Image and the Politics of Representation/ Mina Javani

Iran’s underground cinema, as a semi-independent and often marginal sector of the country’s film production, has consistently navigated the intersection of legal restrictions, cultural pressures, and media representations. These films, produced outside the official mechanisms of Iranian cinema, not only provide a platform for expressing real social and ecological experiences, but also serve as vehicles […]...

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New Control Tool: Critics’ SIM Card Disconnect/ Fereshteh Goli

Nowadays, having a SIM card is one of the necessities of life in the digital and virtual world, and any deprivation of this right for anyone can be considered a tragedy. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has emphasized the importance of access to communication tools as a human right in several official documents, especially in […]...

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When the Twelve-Day War Reached the Internet/ Fereshteh Goli

In today’s world, the internet has a clear meaning: a tool for fast, direct, and uncensored communication among people, with access to firsthand news and information—even if that information is sometimes incorrect or misleading. In any case, the right to access the internet is recognized in international law as part of fundamental human rights and […]...

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Censorship as a Preserver of the Old Order: From the Constitutional Revolution to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance/ Mehrdad Naghibi

The policy of censorship and pre-publication review, as the primary deterrent to the advancement of culture, has continued to persist for years by relying on a wide range of available tools, aiding opponents of freedom of expression. Today, the issue of censorship is no longer confined to book publishing and the press; instead, all cultural, […]...

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A Review of Lost Trust in Official Media in the Narration of National Disasters / Nafiseh Sharafaldini

“Verification is the first unconscious reaction of an individual when faced with an event or news. Even a child, who lives solely based on instinct and unreliable bits of learning, turns to their parents for verification to determine the accuracy of a position. In the modern world, media has to a large extent replaced parents […]...

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The Supreme Council of Cyberspace Acting Against National Security An Interview with Alireza Bozorgmehri/ Pedram Tahsini

Alireza Bozorgmehri, a former member of the Digital Economy Working Group at the Ministry of Economy, spoke with Peace Mark Monthly Magazine about the filtering environment in Iran and the obstacles to its removal. According to Bozorgmehri, until the composition of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace changes, there is little hope for the acceleration of […]...

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