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Geopolitics

Iranians React To Raisi Death: Mourning, Cheering, Succession Whispers, Israel’s Role

With the passing of President Ebrahim Raisi, some dare hope for a boost in anti Iranian regime movements. Others mourn the death of a martyr or blame Israel. But his succession is for all a high-stake issue.

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Geopolitics

Reza Pahlavi: Why The Shah’s Son Is The Most Direct Path To Iranian Democracy

Iran’s exiled and surprisingly popular crown prince Reza Pahlavi is the son of the last shah, and is uniquely positioned to help unite opponents against the country’s brutal regime. But he can only do that by reaffirming his royal status, rather than responding on calls to renounce his title.

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Ideas

Two Revolutions, Neo-Colonialism, Paris Bed Bugs: Most Popular Worldcrunch Stories In 2023

Also: How China fell in love with Syria’s first lady…

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In The News

Worldcrunch Magazine #49 — Eye On Iran, One Year Later

September 11 – September 17, 2023

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Geopolitics

Will Iran Reignite With The Anniversary Of Mahsa Amini’s Death?

Iran’s regime has tightened its grip on the population ahead of the September 16 one-year anniversary of the death that set off the country’s biggest revolt of recent years.

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Geopolitics Society

Iran’s Protests Sealed The Bond Between Expats And Those Who Never Left — Now What?

Mass protests which lasted for months in Iran last year galvanized Iranians at home and abroad, in a way not seen since the 1979 revolution. That unity must be maintained as political capital for the next time Iranians challenge the Islamic Republic.

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Geopolitics Society

Iran: Time To Ask What The Protest Movement Did And Didn’t Achieve

Impatient to be rid of a 40-year dictatorship, many Iranians have sunk into despair at the failure of protests last year to topple the Islamic Republic. They must be patient and sober in their immediate expectations, before a longer, ongoing process of change turns Iran into a free nation with the rule of law.

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Ideas Society Women Worldwide

Iran’s Violence Against Women Runs Deep — And Can No Longer Be Swept Away

Iran must one day write the history of the violence perpetrated on its women, especially under the 40-year Islamic Republic, if historiography is to serve its progress toward a peaceful, democratic society.

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Ideas Society

Iranians And The Headscarf — It’s Complicated

Media coverage of Iran’s mass protests of 2022 failed to truly show how most Iranians thought about the hijab or a general dress code for women. Centering the whole fight for justice in Iran around the headscarf has its risks.

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In The News

Iran’s Use Of Death Penalty Has Doubled, Targeting Protesters And Ethnic Minorities

Without drawing attention to public executions like it did last year, the regime has quietly continued to mete out capital punishment: increasing both death sentences and the carrying out of executions, on pace in 2023 to double from the previous year.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Iranians Can Only Topple The Dictatorship With Help From The West

Inside Iran, people are risking their lives to fight the oppressive Islamic Republic. Now, they need support from compatriots abroad and Western democracies to bring an end to this decades-long fight for democracy.

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In The News

Iranian “Justice” At Work: Executions For Protesters, Leniency For Honor Killings

After hanging at least four anti-government protesters, Islamic Iran’s judiciary decided, not for the first time, to give a short jail term to a man who murdered his “unruly” wife last year.

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In The News

End-Of-Regime Vibe? Supreme Leader Keeps Referring To Shah’s Final Days

In recent weeks, Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has made repeated references to the end of Iran’s last regime in 1979. It may be a sign the country is indeed approaching another kind of revolution.

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Ideas Women Worldwide

Iran’s Tale Of Two Revolutions, 1979 & 2022 — And What To Look For Now

The revolt in Iran began in protest of police brutality and the Islamic Republic’s rotten structures, but quickly became a “revolution of minds,” hastening the rise of a national community united in its resolve to live in a free and lawful state.

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In The News

Reverse Aging, Mole In Iran, Precious Ukraine: The Year’s Most Popular Worldcrunch Stories

Here are the 10 most-read articles of the past year: Escape From Foxconn: Inside The COVID Lockdown Chaos Blocking China’s iPhone Production THE INITIUM Around China, Zero-COVID policy has shut down entire towns and workplaces. But in the high-tech Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, famous for cranking out iPhones, employees were forced to work even if […]

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Ideas

Worldcrunch Staff Picks Its 10 Most Memorable Stories Of 2022

Worldcrunch asked its staff to choose the articles published this year that made a particular impression on them. They largely cover the major events that marked the news in 2022, from the war in Ukraine to the protests in Iran and the overturning of Roe v Wade in the U.S. Here are the 10 stories […]

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In The News

Strange And Cruel As It Sounds, 2022 Was A Year Of Hope

Many lives have been lost, rights trampled and dreams crushed. But through the haze, the world took the right turn on many fronts this past year, from Ukraine to Iran to China. Trying to take stock amid the suffering.

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In The News

Why Iran’s Regime Is Cracking Down On Celebrities Now

The arrest Saturday of prominent actress Taraneh Alidoosti in Tehran is part of a wider move by Iran’s embattled regime to turn its fury on artists, entertainers and athletes in an attempt to stifle their public support for weeks of anti-state protests.

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In The News

Iran Clerics Denounce “Foolish” Executions of Protesters, A Rare Critique Of Regime

In an unusual challenge to Iran’s senior leaders from Shia clerics in the country, a group of theologians and jurists in Qom say the state has been incompetent and had no right to execute protesters. At least two Iranian demonstrators have been executed this month, with the latest publicly hanged on a crane.

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Ideas

Why The Fate Of Iran (Like Ukraine!) Is About Something Much Bigger

Just as Ukrainians are defending the sovereignty of Europe’s borders and the right to democracy, the Iranians risking their lives to protest are fighting a bigger battle for peace across the Middle East.

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Economy Geopolitics

Sham Trial, Public Hanging: The Method To Iran’s “Exemplary” Execution Of Protester

By executing a protester after a rapid trial, Iran’s clerical regime has taken its clampdown on the once-in-a-generation uprising to a new level. Observers fear there are more to come soon.

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In The News

Sabotage, Desertions, Gamers? Why It’s Getting Harder For Iran To Squash Protests

Faced with the resilience of the national protests, Iran’s security forces are now facing unusual acts of sabotage on state installations, and clerical authorities have started to wonder which of their loyalist forces can be firmly relied on still to defend the regime.

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Geopolitics Society

How Iranian Protesters Unmasked The Regime’s Old Game Of “Divide And Rule”

Iran’s clerical regime has worked hard over 40 years to set Iranians against each other on multiple bases, and must now watch a nation united in opposition to itself and breaking its red lines, notably those set around gender, faith and even ethnicity.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Will Iran’s Uprising Trigger An Islamic Reformation Across The Middle East?

The showdown between Iranian protesters and the clerical regime is another episode in a decades-long clash of theocracy and Western-style secular modernity. Its outcomes will reverberate across the entire Islamic world, so the West needs to pay attention.

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Future Geopolitics

Is Elon Watching? How Chaos At Twitter Could Impact Iranian Protesters

Two anonymous Iranian Twitter users spoke about their hopes that Iran’s protests could hasten the end of the unpopular regime, and what Elon Musk’s takeover of the the platform could mean for them.

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Geopolitics

Unnerved By Protests, Tehran Is Now Hounding Foreign Embassies And Iranian Ex-Pats

Amid increasing tensions prompted by ongoing anti-government protests, reports from Tehran show increased surveillance of some foreign embassies. Iranian agents are said to be particularly curious about visas to get out of the country.

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In The News

Report: As Iranian Protests Continue, Regime Officials Are Fleeing To Venezuela

Reports from Tehran suggest that some senior officials may be “quietly” taking exile in the South American nation led by Nicolas Maduro, a trusted ally of the Iranian regime.

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In The News Society

Le Weekend ➡️ Ghibli Park Opens, New Zulu King, World Ballet Day

November 5-6   OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ What do you remember from the news this week? 1. Defeated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro urged his supporters to stop what kind of public protest against the election result? 2. What facility, the biggest of its kind in the world, did China lock down amid a new COVID […]

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Geopolitics Society

Yes, Iran’s Protests Are Different This Time — But How Will It End?

Mass demonstrations and civil disobedience continue to take place in Iran, shaking both its ruling regime and the world. But beyond the headlines, gauging what effects they will really have is a trickier exercise. Mada Masr asked Iranian political scientist Fatemeh Sadeghi about the biggest acts of civil disobedience Iran has seen in decades.

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In The News Society

Le Weekend ➡️ Musk’s Bird, Rescue Rats, Soulages Back To Black

October 29-30   OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ What do you remember from the news this week? 1. Which carmaker became the latest major company to leave Russia over its invasion of Ukraine? 2. Why did Iran’s anti-government protesters hold a special rally 40 days after Mahsa Amini was killed by Iran police? 3. A day […]

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In The News

One Clear Sign Iran’s Protests Are Working: An End To Western Appeasement

The Western world has taken note of the desperate fury of Iranians protesting against a 40-year dictatorship in their country. Now there are signs that the West has finally lost patience with the a regime based on repression and subterfuge.

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LGBTQ Plus

LGBTQ+ International: Cuban Marriage, Kharkiv Pride, Trump’s Gaffe — And The Week’s Other Top News

Welcome to Worldcrunch’s LGBTQ+ International. We bring you up-to-speed each week on a topic you may follow closely at home, but can now see from different places and perspectives around the world. Discover the latest news on everything LGBTQ+ — from all corners of the planet. All in one smooth scroll! This week featuring: Cuba […]

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Geopolitics

Protests In Iran Risk Spreading As Ukraine War Triggers Global Food Crisis

After a break in late March, small protests have broken out all over Iran over wages and pensions. A higher cost of living caused by the war in Ukraine may be the final straw for exasperated Iranians.

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Geopolitics Society

Growing Public Hatred Of Religious Leaders Unnerves Iran Regime

An increase in public protests has sounded the alarm bell for Iranian officials and clerics. But public discontent runs much deeper than discontent over wages and water. There are also signs of nostalgia for the monarchy that ruled the country before the 1979 revolution.

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