
Israeli bombs shattered homes—and our sense of safety
This is Tehran, two weeks after the ceasefire with Israel. Shops are open, people are out, the air is as polluted as ever—and the dread that began last month still hasn’t lifted.
This is Tehran, two weeks after the ceasefire with Israel. Shops are open, people are out, the air is as polluted as ever—and the dread that began last month still hasn’t lifted.
Tehran’s patriotic messaging in the wake of the war with Israel reached new heights when Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in his first public appearance since the ceasefire, requested that a patriotic song be sung at the year’s flagship religious ceremony.
More than 1,300 activists, artists, and journalists from both Iran and Afghanistan have signed an open letter addressed to the Islamic Republic, calling for an immediate halt to the mass deportation of Afghans, which has intensified following the Israel war.
Israel’s twelve days of air attacks on Iran killed hundreds of civilians—among them an eight-year-old gymnast in a red dress whose last joyful dance has become a symbol of the war’s human cost.
Iranians speaking via Iran International's submission line doubted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s declaration of victory over the United States and Israel in a televised speech on Thursday.
I’ve spent time in Evin, Iran’s most notorious prison, the one Israel bombed on Monday. Half a dozen of my closest friends have been there too. Do we want it flattened, turned into a park? Yes. Are we pleased it was bombed? No.
The war may have begun as a clash between Israel and the Islamic Republic, but for many Iranians now caught in the crossfire, it has become an intimate reality, marked by both grief and rare solidarity.
Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB may raise legal questions for scholars of war, but for many Iranians, it felt like a long-overdue punch to the face of the Islamic Republic.
So much has happened since Israel began striking Iran that the killing of IRGC aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajizadeh already feels half-buried—but not to those who lost loved ones on Flight PS752, shot down by the forces under his command.
"The contrast between the defiance projected on X by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his appearance in two recent video addresses—broadcast from what appears to be a bunker—could hardly be starker."
Five days have passed since the war began. Last night, Donald Trump told us to leave Tehran—but didn’t say where.
Panic-stricken residents began fleeing Tehran on Sunday as Israeli strikes and air defense fire rocked the city, sending thick plumes of smoke into the skyline of a capital unprepared for war.
The killing of 24-year-old Elahe Hosseinnejad by a driver from a ride-hailing app has deeply jarred Iranian women who say they live in daily fear on buses, in taxis and on the streets.
Iran has carried out amputation sentences on two people convicted of theft in Isfahan Central Prison, the head of the Isfahan Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
Lawyers of a South Korean woman allegedly raped by Iranian athletes during the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships say Seoul has full jurisdiction over the case, which may lead to life sentences under domestic sexual violence laws, rejecting any external pressure for a settlement.
The murder of 24-year-old Elahe Hosseinnejad gripped Iran, sparking grief and anger over gender violence, legal discrimination and the state’s failure to protect women.
People in Iran are often accused of contributing to the country’s economic woes through wasteful habits—not just by officials, but by one another. But how much truth is there to these claims?
Iranian prosecutors have expanded a ban on dog walking to more than 20 cities across the country, building on similar restrictions first introduced in the capital Tehran in 2019.
Iran’s average meat consumption has dropped to as little as seven kilograms per person annually from an average of 18, with some citizens eating none at all, according to Masoud Rasouli, secretary of the Meat Production and Packaging Association.
Despite legal and religious prohibitions, online gambling is quietly on the rise in Iran, offering an illusory hope of gain to many worn out by economic hardship.
Iranian authorities have shut down the Instagram page of a popular beauty brand after it released a promotional rap music video featuring young female hip hop artists, in the latest official move against the creative advertising industry.
A theatrical “hell” installation staged by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards failed to deliver its fiery finale after technical issues left the exhibit cold on its final night, the online newspaper Faraz reported.