De-identification as Politics/Aida Abrofarakh

In the analysis of state violence, a focus solely on the moment of killing or the number of victims often obscures the deeper mechanisms that enable and anchor widespread violence in a social context. Violence, especially in the form of mass killing, is not a sudden, momentary act, but a gradual process that begins before […]...

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Witness accounts of the January 1404 uprising/ Nafiseh Sharaf al-Dinini

The accumulated crises in the political, economic, and social structure of the Islamic Republic reached an explosive point in January 1404, which, in terms of geographical scope, the intensity of government violence, and the depth of popular demands, constituted the most unprecedented challenge to governance in Iran’s contemporary history. The January 1404 uprising, which sprouted […]...

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Silence for the Killing/Amir Aghaei

The following text is a scribble by a young man from inside Iran about the internet shutdown during the recent protests. It was originally supposed to be a report on the internet shutdown, but I couldn’t. No matter how much I tried to maintain an impartial tone of reporting, I couldn’t. No matter how much […]...

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After the collapse of institutional trust/ Kazem Alamdari

Introduction: From political crisis to normative crisis The political developments in Iran in recent years cannot be analyzed simply in terms of a recurring cycle of “protest-repression.” What happened in the recent uprising—and especially the government’s response to it—reflects the entry of the Islamic Republic’s political order into a qualitatively different phase. At this stage, […]...

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When Politics Turns into Death/Diako Moradi

Introduction: The Problem of State Violence in an Era of Collapsed Legitimacy In the classical tradition of political science, state violence was often analyzed as an exceptional means of containing crisis and restoring order, something that made sense in the context of Weber’s “legitimate monopoly of violence.” In this view, legitimacy was not only a […]...

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Maintaining the system by firing bullets/ Morteza Hamounian

Everyone had come. With every force they could muster to organize the suppression. In a structure where maintaining the system is an obligation, all their strength is expended to fulfill this obligation; even if this fulfillment comes at the cost of the blood of citizens. In January 1404, Iran witnessed a protest movement that began […]...

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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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The right to treatment under security fire/Musa Barzin

During the recent protests, we witnessed many bitter incidents and extra-legal actions in Iran. One of these cases was the restriction of treatment for protesters in various forms. According to reports published from the very first days of the protests, police and security forces attacked hospitals where injured protesters had been taken, creating heartbreaking scenes. […]...

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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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