From the very first days of the 1979 Revolution, when groups among the revolutionaries sought to restrict citizens’ lifestyles to one particular preference, resistance to this tendency also emerged. This resistance ranged broadly, from figures among the revolution’s leaders such as Ayatollah Taleghani to the large women’s gathering on March 8. The forms of resistance […]...

Political power is not exercised only through laws and formal institutions; it also manifests itself in the way spaces are organized, movement is regulated, and the limits of social presence are defined. One way to observe the logic of power in action is to examine moments when a place becomes the subject of intervention not […]...

After the ceasefire in Iran, public policymaking, especially regarding public spaces and service occupations, underwent extensive changes. After 1401, with some twists and turns, the policy that Ali Motahari referred to as the “Sa’ah Sadr Nizam” was put on the agenda, and the previous strictures were somewhat relaxed. In these two or three years, it […]...

Between July 11 and August 1, 2026 (20 Tir to 10 Mordad 1405), at least 72 well-known pages and accounts on Iranian social media were blocked or seized, the administrators of at least 21 pages were forced to publish pledges, and at least 23 business establishments in different cities were sealed. The scope of the […]...

The issue is not merely the closure of an Instagram page. It is not merely the sealing of a café or the summoning of a blogger. The issue is not even only hijab, music, tourism tours, or the content of an online page. What has been seen in Iran in recent weeks, when viewed together, […]...

In recent months, as the discourse of war has relatively subsided, significant signs have emerged of intensified government intervention in areas that, at first glance, are not directly political: the sealing of cafés and café-bookstores, measures against tour operators, the blocking of Instagram pages, the summoning of bloggers, removal of content, compulsory pledges, and pressure […]...

In recent years, one of the significant changes in the way social control policies are enforced in Iran has been the expansion of business owners’ responsibility for the conduct of individuals who are neither their employees nor necessarily under their legal authority or supervision. The owner of a restaurant, café, gym, or tourism center, or […]...

Introduction: Two Complementary Movements in the Language of Power In the official discourse of the Islamic Republic, “norm-breaking” appears to be a simple term used to describe deviation from accepted social rules. But this sociological appearance conceals its political and criminal function. In part of the political discourse of recent years, the central instance of […]...

In recent months, as the war has subsided, what has been seen on the streets, Instagram, and cyberspace is the return of the focus of governance from Iranian soil to the city; from the sealing of cafes and book cafes in Sana’i and Iranshahr to the crackdown on tourist tours and the blocking of bloggers’ […]...

A Human Rights Perspective on the Expanding Use of Preventive Control, Written Undertakings, Summonses, and Self-Censorship When examining state action against citizens, attention usually focuses on the final stages of the process: arrest, prosecution, sentencing, or the closure of a business. Yet much of what is happening in Iran today takes place before matters reach […]...

Usually, after a calamity, clearing the rubble begins. For example, when a war occurs, after it ends, everyone seeks to clear away the rubble of war and tries, through a collective effort, to heal one another’s wounds. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it seems that everything is reversed. Once the war subsides, only […]...

In periods of heightened external threats, the concept of national security naturally becomes the focus of public policymaking. In such circumstances, the expansion of state authority, the strengthening of security institutions, and the restriction of certain civil liberties are often justified by invoking the “necessity of security.” This logic is based on the assumption that […]...