The Wounded Memory of a Protest/Mina Jawani

The protests of January 1404 are remembered neither as a single image nor as a narrative that can be easily retold. What remains is more of a scattering: unfinished scenes, videos that were cut short, streets that emptied sooner than expected. They neither became a moment of triumph nor a complete defeat; they remain in […]...

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Violent subjugation: Why do the repressive forces shoot? / Hermine Hordad

A young man, caught in the crosshairs of a slave, sits cross-legged on the asphalt in the most defenseless human situation; in front of him stands the Islamic Republic’s suppression machine. A few meters away, a girl and a boy are shielding their chests from forces holding weapons. The statistics are horrifying. It is difficult […]...

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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 Dignity of “Fajr Festival” Is Over/ Navid Mihandoust

Over its 44-year history, the Fajr Film Festival has gone through different periods which, based on the documented record of this state-run festival, I divide into three main eras: 1) the era of enmity and camaraderie; 2) the era of misery; 3) the era of disgrace. The first era began in February 1983 (Bahman 1361). […]...

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Women’s Health Between Population Policy and Class Inequality / Dina Ghalibaf

Following the sudden and quiet removal of the Iranian “Papilloguard” vaccine from pharmacies across the country, women who had been awaiting national vaccination to prevent infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) have been forced to turn to foreign vaccines at prices several times higher—vaccines whose cost is incompatible with the economic circumstances of many women. […]...

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The National Women’s Health Document and the Erasure of the Discourse on Violence/ Pardis Parsa

Recently, the “National Women’s Health Document” was issued by the President of the Islamic Republic and the head of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, with stated goals such as promoting women’s physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Yet rather than being the result of engagement with the lived realities of women, the document […]...

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The Chain of Trust Crisis in Iranian Society/ Majid Shieh-Ali

The murder of a doctor in Yasuj and the widespread support for the perpetrator is an issue that, amid the significant crises and incidents of recent months, has gone largely overlooked. Although the act itself was deeply painful, the broad support for the murderer—even from official figures—revealed that we are facing a fundamental crisis. The […]...

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The Collective Psychology of Anger/ Mehdi Anbari

In both narratives, there is a moment when time seems to stop—a moment when the individual or the family realizes they can no longer wait. In one case, a doctor loses his life at work; in the other, a child who should have been within the safest circle of life becomes the victim of profound […]...

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