Iran Insights

Tehran is once again tiptoeing around the issue of gasoline prices under the long shadow of November 2019 protests that became one of the bloodiest crackdowns in the Islamic Republic’s history.

The sudden closure of the Tehran Design Week exhibition at Tehran University has ignited a storm of reactions—from hardline groups that pushed for its shutdown to students and sympathizers who lamented the decision.

A new school curriculum mandated by Iran’s education ministry has cast a 12-day war with Israel in June as a national triumph, underscoring a bid by the country's clerical rulers to boost support following the punishing conflict.

Tehran’s fraught relationship with the UN nuclear watchdog is set to enter a more confrontational phase as the IAEA Board of Governors meets in Vienna this week to vote on a Western-backed resolution censuring Iran for non-cooperation.

Tehran is turning to quieter, more insidious forms of repression: cutting citizens off from their mobile phone numbers without notice or pressuring them to shut down their often popular social-media accounts.

Iran’s strategy post-war and post-UN sanctions appears to have taken shape into what some in Tehran media have called “armed negotiations,” warning that it could make a thaw with Washington less likely.

The arrest of two men waving the pre-1979 Iranian flag at a Tehran subway station on Wednesday led to discussion among Iranians about the prospects of renewed protests and fundamental change in Iran.

Hardline media in Tehran have launched an unusual defence of President Massoud Pezeshkian, accusing the moderates who backed his rise of undermining him and even pushing for his resignation.

Iran’s economy is now defined by a widening gulf between rich and poor and the rapid disappearance of the middle class, with a constant stream of corruption scandals adding to the daily hardship millions already face.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is coming under growing pressure for what critics call his failure to match tough talk on economic reform with concrete action.

The debut of Tehran Fashion Week, held as part of Tehran Design Week, has set social media abuzz as the officially sanctioned fashion on show looked nothing like its past editions which extolled Islamic modesty.

Iran’s political establishment is once again flirting changing laws to allow women to ride motorcycles even as women and girls have already spent years doing it without waiting for an official green light.

Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.

Hardliners in Iran have seized on oblique remarks made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier this week as a green light to crack down on women who have shunned the hijab amid lax enforcement in recent years.

Reports that YouTube access had been restored for students at the University of Tehran while it remains blocked for the wider population, though denied swiftly by officials, triggered outrage among critics of Iran's censorship of the internet.

Iran’s latest attempt to curb soaring food prices—delegating the distribution of staple goods in Tehran to the city’s municipality—has again exposed a deeper truth about the country’s economic crisis: quick fixes rarely work when the foundations are broken.

The latest chatter in Tehran’s political circles is that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may be eyeing a bigger role for former Revolutionary Guards general and current parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Zohran Mamdani’s stomping win in New York’s mayoral race drew starkly different reactions in Iran, with views on the first Muslim to run America’s largest city reflecting a bitterly divided political landscape.