Routine screenings and consultations for Iranian women can now cost more than two months of average pay, as healthcare prices rise much faster than wages and force some women to postpone preventive care.
A dispute over Iran’s proposed measures to combat foreign infiltration escalated Thursday, with a senior lawmaker accusing President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government of acting illegally after the cabinet opposed a parliamentary committee report on the controversial legislation.
Iranian authorities are holding back from enforcing mandatory hijab as extensively as they would like because of “war conditions,” a senior official said Wednesday, even as pressure grows for tougher enforcement.
Mohsen Namjoo mocked the Quran, ridiculed religious figures and crossed political red lines that have brought severe punishment for others in Iran. Now back in the country, his return contrasts sharply with restrictions still imposed on female singers.
Iran is preparing to issue a new compulsory hijab directive for universities, a senior official said Tuesday, as hardliners intensify pressure on women over mandatory veiling ahead of the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in morality police custody.
Iranian security forces deployed around fuel stations and on streets across the country as a gasoline price increase took effect, with people warning of further pressure on household budgets and rising prices for other goods and services.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry called for legal action against those behind an attack on Iraqi students in Iran’s Semnan province after a confrontation reportedly triggered by unconfirmed allegations that several Iraqi students assaulted an Iranian woman.
Iranian authorities are expanding programs aimed at preparing young people for future police and security roles, with President Masoud Pezeshkian attending the opening of a police high school on Saturday.
Iranians have found a way to complain about prices that no prosecutor can touch: they film themselves dancing beside the groceries, insist they are delighted, and explain that if they were not, they would be executed.
Signs of renewed street-level hijab enforcement have emerged in Tehran and other parts of Iran, including footage of women warning passersby over their clothing, though it remains unclear whether it represents an organized return of hijab patrols.
Sexual transmission accounted for about 65% of newly identified HIV cases in Iran last year, replacing injecting drug use as the main route of new infections as diagnoses among women increased, a leading HIV researcher said on Thursday.
Iran faces shortages of about 800 medicines, including dozens considered vital, as currency constraints and import disruptions threaten to drive some drug costs as much as threefold, Iranian local media reported on Thursday.
Growing numbers of middle-aged women are appearing at drug-use sites in Tehran as economic hardship and homelessness push some from previously stable lives into environments rife with addiction and violence, Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The Islamic Republic moved beliefs about the unseen from the margins of society to the center of power, and used oil money to give them institutions, budgets and a propaganda apparatus, so that its rulers could draw legitimacy from a source no citizen can question.
A major Tehran theater production has dropped a prominent actor after his support for Palestine triggered fierce backlash, exposing a rare reversal where a stance strongly backed by the Islamic Republic appears to have become a liability with the public.
Iranians pushed back against a senior government official questioning cheap gasoline, contrasting fuel subsidies with low wages and soaring living costs as the US dollar traded around a historic 2.1 million rials on Monday.
Forty-four percent of respondents to an Iran International Instagram poll said they would not buy a home in Iran even if they could afford one, with comments citing economic insecurity, emigration plans and concerns about keeping their wealth in the country.
Iranians described cancelled language tests, soaring costs, visa hurdles and internet restrictions as obstacles increasingly putting study abroad beyond reach, in messages sent to Iran International following new US sanctions.
Iranian photographer Maryam Saeedpoor has been named Fine Art Photographer of the Year at the 2026 International Photography Awards for her wartime series “Painful hug,” placing her among the finalists for the competition’s top professional prize.
Nine in 10 respondents to an Iran International Instagram poll said they did not want to marry or have children under Iran’s economic, social and political conditions, according to results gathered from about 100,000 participants.
Iranians described deepening financial hardship and questioned whether economic pressure can change government policy as the dollar hit a historic 2 million rials, extending the currency's sharp decline on Sunday.
Messages sent to Iran International after the death of its 37-year-old presenter Farahnaz Espad have mixed personal tributes with reflections on exile, repression and hopes for political change among Iranians at home and abroad.