Iran’s Fajr Film Festival went ahead this year as planned. But it did so in a country still reeling from bloodshed, and the red carpets beneath its guests carried a symbolic weight that many in the film community found difficult to ignore.
Freelancers across Iran lost foreign contracts and saw income dry up during January’s internet shutdown, digital workers told Iran International, as weeks offline cut their access to projects and payments in an economy already hit by global isolation.
Ali Heydari, a 20-year-old Iranian protester wounded and arrested during demonstrations in Mashhad on January 8, was shot in the head and killed in detention about a month later, a source close to his family told Iran International.
About a month ago, US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and take over institutions, saying that “help is on the way.”
The night air on Jan. 8 in northeastern Tehran filled with chants rising in defiance. Among them stood Pooya Faragerdi, a violinist whose life was measured in music and a heart that beat for Iran. Then came the gunfire.
Iranians took to social media on the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution to challenge the Islamic Republic’s claims of overwhelming public support, sharing videos of anti-government chants and questioning the authenticity of state broadcasts.
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it described as systematic repression by Iran’s authorities against protesters and civil society, warning that reported killings during recent unrest could amount to crimes against humanity.
One month after a sweeping and deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, Islamic Republic marked its anniversary with state-organized rallies that appeared designed to project strength even as anti-government chants reverberated across neighborhoods nationwide.
An Iranian teachers' union has confirmed the identities of 200 students killed during the January protests and published their names, defying efforts to suppress information about the deaths.
The arrest of several prominent reformist figures in Tehran appears less aimed at silencing dissent than at tightening control at a moment of acute vulnerability for the state, as Iran navigates renewed talks with the United States under the shadow of war.
Iran’s January protests were the predictable result of years of ignored economic and social warning signs, according to one of the country’s most prominent economists, who says the state failed to recognize how close society had come to the brink.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ intelligence organization and Iran’s Intelligence Ministry pressured families of some detainees linked to nationwide protests to attend a pro-state rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, sources told Iran International.
Weeks after Iran’s bloody January crackdown, intimate tragedies are emerging from the silence, among them the story of a young auto mechanic and his dog.
Digital art and AI-generated images of protesters killed in Iran have flooded social media, turning victims of recent unrest into national icons.
The killings that swept Iran last month revived memories of 1988, when the Islamic Republic erased thousands of political prisoners in silence—my brother, Bijan, among them.
Hundreds of messages sent to Iran International from Iranians inside the country urge US President Donald Trump not to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, warning that talks would legitimize repression and betray protesters killed by security forces.
Middle East analyst Elizabeth Tsurkov says people close to President Trump believe he is likely to strike Iran, arguing the Islamic Republic’s failure against Israel revealed a “paper tiger” abroad — even as it remains ruthlessly lethal toward its own citizens.
Human rights activists are sounding the alarm over reports of secret and extrajudicial executions in Iran, warning that the authorities may be moving toward retaliating against detainees after the deadly crackdown on protests in January.
A senior Iranian reformist has accused security bodies of deliberately escalating and even staging violence including alleged killings among their own ranks to legitimize a sweeping crackdown on protests, sharply disputing the official narrative blaming foreign actors.
Physicians working with Iranian protesters are warning that hospitals and medical care in Iran may be increasingly used as tools of repression, as doctors are arrested or threatened for treating the wounded and injured demonstrators are denied care.
A group of scholars in Iranian studies issued a public statement expressing solidarity with people in Iran, describing the protests as a defining historical moment and warning that silence or misplaced neutrality carries consequences.
Canada condemned the killing of protesters and use of violence by Iranian authorities after a video shared by Iran International showed an armored vehicle operated by Iranian security force running over demonstrators in Ardabil, northwest of Iran.