Weekly Review
#Iran — Are We Wrong to Hope?
Arseh Sevom — Can you excuse us for hoping for change even though we know that political prisoners and prisoners of conscience face malicious neglect and execution to this day? Like many in Iran, we were hoping for a quick positive outcome to the nuclear negot
#Iran — Ssshh…People are Dying Here
Arseh Sevom- This week’s review is unfortunately focused on the treatment of political prisoners in Iran. Events of the past months demand this. The season marking the anniversary of the taking of the American Embassy seems to endanger Iran’s homegrown activis
#Iran: Let’s Make a (Nuclear) Deal
Arseh Sevom — Nuclear negotiations are eclipsing other news in Iran. There are hopes that an agreement can be reached and that at least some of the sanctions will be relaxed. Attention to foreign relations seems to have left the Rouhani administration with lit
#Iran — Has the Time Come for a Thaw in Relations with Its Own People?
Pay no attention to the executions behind the curtainArseh Sevom — In this week’s overview, we learn that the short term political aims of sanctions have long term effects on the most vulnerable. Improved relations may actually lead to some ease in US sanction
#Iran — The Smell of Change
Arseh Sevom — As we were getting ready to post this week’s review, we heard the good news that Nassrin Sotoudeh and eight other political prisoners had been released from prison. Author Pejman Majidzadeh’s nose must really be filled with the smell of change no
#Iran: Can Word Games Lead to Action and Real Change
Arseh Sevom–While the war in Syria may become an international war soon, Iran and America have been engaged in some pre-diplomatic word games. Will Ta’amol, the Persian word for mutual action, enter the language the way that the Russian word Glasnost (openness
#Iran — I Want My Google Play
Arseh Sevom — Budget shortfalls have wreaked havoc on the state of Iran’s healthcare, which is facing more than one billion euros of debt. Since sanctions were loosened on personal electronics, Iranians can now buy iPhones and Androids. Social Media is not jus
Iran: Mourning Hikers, Hoping for Wisdom
So many people were touched by the story of the three Iranian climbers who successfully opened a new way to the summit of Broad Peak, yet were lost on the way down. Social networks buzzed with news, prayers, and remembrances of the climbers. Trees on Tehran’s
Iran: Ultra Democracy, Engineering Makes it So
In the most “engineered” of election campaigns since the inception of the Islamic Republic, candidates are surprised to find themselves censored. The Revolutionary Guards reorganizes to face the challenge posed by elections, warning that Ahmadinejad supporters