Siyavash Shahabi, Athens-based political refugee, writer, and independent journalist. Reports on labor, migration, and state power across Iran and West of Asia; documents refugees in Europe; writes critiques of religion.
Political Commentary
Persian edition In late November 2025, outside the Governorate of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad in Yasuj, a scene unfolded whose very plainness made it one of the most condensed images of the water–development–power nexus in Iran today. ISNA reports that “the people of Yasuj, the provincial capital of Kohgiluyeh
Political Commentary
If we want to fight femicide today, we have to do two things at the same time: expose the structure and record the feeling. A legal and political struggle without archiving feelings collapses into statistics; and an archive of feelings without structure dissolves into ineffectual tears.
Political Commentary
Ahmad Baladi’s death exposes a system where “urban order” masks dispossession. Small livelihoods are erased through legal procedures that present poverty not as a social condition, but as an administrative offense.
Essay
Dabashi’s power lies in rewriting the genealogy of colonial violence and binding it to the present. Still, his critique falters when it treats “the West” as an essence or "civilizational instinct" rather than a shifting system of power and institutions.
Essay
The Islamic Republic regime is weakened but still poses a threat to the Iranian people. The recent short conflict with Israel revealed the country's vulnerabilities and the helplessness of its citizens. How can domestic tyranny be dismantled without succumbing to foreign warfare or internal chaos?