Political Commentary
War and Resistance
A Radio Payam Conversation with Abdee Kalantari and Siyavash Shahabi.
Siyavash Shahabi
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.
Essay
Beyond the Mountain Myth: Kurdistan as Society
Kurdistan is often reduced to a militarized myth, erasing society, class, and everyday life. This essay argues for restoring social reality at the center, showing how both internal politics and external narratives flatten complexity across Kurdistan and Iran.
Political Commentary
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.
Political Commentary
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
Political Commentary
Water Management in Iran as Internal Colonialism
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
The Archive of Mourning and Resistance: From Rabia’s Poetry to Naming Femicide
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
Dispossessing Life: The Urban Machinery of Erasing Small Livelihoods
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
Gaza Beyond Metaphor: On Hamid Dabashi’s Civilizational Ethics
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 Ascent of Life: A Narrative of Iran After Jina
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?