Collective Trauma in the Cinema of Jafar Panahi
Panahi’s latest film is a political black comedy with a mystery at its core. Its subject is both grim and peculiar: the enduring bond between torturer and victim in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Contextual Orientalism: Freedom for Some, Context for Others
Iran forces a question many Western-left debates avoid: are political rights truly universal? When repression abroad is endlessly contextualized rather than opposed, solidarity dissolves into geopolitical caution and internationalism loses its meaning.
Reclaiming Grief: When Iranians Turn Sorrow and Rage into Dance
Mourning dance represents a shift in how grief is embodied. Each step challenges fear; each rhythm asserts presence. Dancing bodies become living archives, carrying memory through motion and making forgetting impossible.
When Hope Outpaces Calculation, Mechanisms of Collective Perceptual Error in a Moment of Protest
On 8–9 January 2026, nationwide protests in Iran culminated in one of the deadliest crackdowns in recent history. This essay explores how symbolic power, media framing, and distorted risk perception shaped a collective perceptual error.
How “Women, Life, Freedom” Was Contained
“Woman, Life, Freedom” began as a plural uprising from Iran’s margins. Through media framing and nationalist reframing, its radical challenge to centralism was narrowed into a single narrative, turning unity into a vehicle for erasure.
Pahlavism, the Return of "the Father"
The patriarchal logic of monarchy extends beyond dynastic succession. Once detached from the palace, it reappears at the national level, reorganizing political authority through paternal symbolism and demands for loyalty rather than popular consent.
Vijay Prashad and the Sanctions Frame on Iran
Persian edition 4 February 2026 This essay is not about Iran; it is about the method through which Iran is explained. It examines a mode of thinking that recognizes repression, poverty, and class struggle only as long as they occur in the “right” geography—and the moment they cross an
The Logic of Regime Change and the Allure of Revolution
From the outset, the concept of “barandāzi” (براندازی) defined itself in opposition to reformism, while at the same time keeping a deliberate distance from its conceptual sibling, revolution.
Blood and Bones Besieged by Two Camps
Thursday 22 January 2026 Besiege your besiegement, no way out. Your arms fell, pick them up. Strike your enemy, no way out. Mahmoud Darwish From the moment we open our eyes, if we have slept at all, we coil inward like serpents, tightening with each new blow of bad news.
Power and Shi‘a Theocracy in Iran
Editorial Note (2026): In the wake of the popular protests in Iran in January 2026, public curiosity about the nature of the Islamic Republic, its political architecture, and its internal logic of power has intensified. The essay below, first published in Persian in 2013, is drawn from the archives of
Iran Is Being Silenced Again: What to Expect Next?
by Mahtab Mahboub Tuesday 13 January 2026 Iran is undergoing an escalation of repression by the government: a nationwide internet shutdown—now extended to satellite services such as Starlink—is being used to erase visibility while security forces kill protesters and extort families for the return of bodies. This strategy
Structural Crisis and the Expectation of Revolution
In Iran, economic demands are political. Like “Woman, Life, Freedom,” today’s protests are cross-class and pluralistic, binding bread-and-butter grievances to calls for human dignity and freedom, a signature pattern of 21st-century movements.