Tag: iran
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Iran’s Divorce Rate, A State Secret?
TEHRAN — Iranian officials may restrict publication of the country’s latest divorce statistics so as not to distress the public, which has long been taught that early and lasting matrimony is a key to social harmony. “There have already been enough divorce statistics. Citing more won’t solve the problems,” Ali Akbar Mahzun, of the demographics […]
Jomhouri-e Eslami — July 19, 2016 As the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashes a major crackdown after the failed coup over the weekend, criticism across the border in Iran is rising. Tehran daily Jomhuri-e Eslami ran a front-page report Tuesday accusing Erdogan of “kickstarting a full-blown coup against opponents.” The highly critical […]
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Extra! Is Iran-Venezuela Love Affair Over?
The regimes of Iran and Venezuela may have been great chums and eager members of the anti-imperialist camp over the past decade. But the current in Caracas, where food shortages and clashes are rising, is prompting some finger-wagging in Tehran. “We Want Food — Venezuela’s Economy A Step Away From Total Collapse” read the front […]
Registration officials in Iran supect there has been an increase of late in the number of informal and “unregistered” relationships. People are experimenting more with Western-style affairs of the heart, in other words — “shacking up” rather than rushing into marriage. And they’re not even going through the bother of entering a “temporary marriage,” a […]
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Hajj Boycott, Big Enchilada, Bleached Reef
SPOTLIGHT: IRAN TO BOYCOTT HAJJ PILGRIMAGE Tensions between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are once again threatening to escalate. The two archenemies are already entangled in proxy wars against each other, in Syria and Yemen, and diplomatic ties between the two have been cut since Saudi Arabia executed a Shia cleric at the beginning […]
TEHRAN — The humble water pipe — that traditional contraption often found in the Middle East, designed to ensure a cool and smooth smoke — has been having a tough time in Iran. Whether that’s due to its association with traditional tea shops, which Iran’s Islamic authorities frown upon for encouraging idle socializing, or to […]
TEHRAN — Talk about a life in crime. Iranian police recently busted — or re-busted — a thieving gang consisting mostly of middle-aged and older men who have been in and out of prison since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The gang’s head is believed to be around 63 years old, and is known to law […]
TEHRAN — The Iranian capital used to boast 1,400 public baths, which the daily Shargh observes were among its “main public spaces,” an integral part of Iran’s social culture and an efficient way of facilitating hygiene for the masses. Yet today, just 10% of the baths remain, in spite of the needs of thousands of […]
Italian Valentina Simeone’s eyes were opened by her six months at Tehran University, yet another breakthrough in relations between Iran and the West.
TEHRAN — Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s diplomatic visit to Tehran this week, the first by a Western leader since the Iranian nuclear deal, is seen back in Italy mostly as a smart business trip. The focus of the two-day trip, which concludes Wednesday, has been in opening up trade between the two countries, after the […]
Abolfazl Arabpour, 86, has been sizing up all the high dignitaries of the Iranian clergy for half a century.
TEHRAN — How much is a life worth in Iran? In what may be a small but significant sign of progress, senior Iranian clerics have ruled that relatives of fatal car crash victims should receive the same amount of insurance compensation regardless of whether the deceased was a man or woman. The same new parity […]
TEHRAN — Emerging after years of sanctions, Iran appears almost single-mindedly eager to boost its economic growth. Thus a photo op this week of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei planting and watering a tree, and cited as telling “all” Iranians to care for “green spaces,” was a minor newsstand surprise Wednesday around the […]
While You Slept IRAN VOTES Polls have opened throughout Iran as the country votes for two assemblies in the most important election since the 2013 presidential campaign that ushered in the reformist Hassan Rouhani. Voters will cast ballots for the unicameral “Islamic” parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e khobregan), a body of clerics […]
Iran is holding elections for two assemblies on Friday, the unicameral “Islamic” parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e khobregan), a body of clerics and “experts” deemed versed enough in public affairs and laws to merit choosing, in time, the next supreme leader. It is the most important election in Iran since the 2013 […]
TEHRAN — Repeating something Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, said years ago — long before Iran’s latest clash with Saudi Arabia — Moussa reveals much about the current mindselt in the streets and cafés of the Iranian capital: “With the Great Satan we could forgive and forget,” he says. “But with the Ibn […]
Look no further than fried chicken for signs that American influence is returning to Iran in the wake of the deal to end sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. That was the message from influential Republican Guards General Mohammad Hossein Sepehr, who cited the opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken in […]
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February 1
The news continues to be troubling for Tehran: Several more Arab states have followed Saudi Arabia to cut or curb ties with Iran in the wake of a showdown over Riyadh’s execution of a Shia leader. And yet, Iran’s reformist leaders and most of the country’s media are remaining notably calm. In the immediate aftermath […]
SAUDI ALLIES CUT TIES WITH IRAN Photo: Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua/ZUMA After Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait has also broken its diplomatic ties with Iran, recalling its ambassador from Tehran today, the BBC reports. The Mideast diplomatic crisis began after Saudi Arabia executed Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other […]
In anticipation of international sanctions on Iran being lifted at the beginning of 2016, European executives are chomping at the bit to do business there. But how will a market economy play with the Islamic regime?
Iranian foreign policy is still a major question mark, even as Western delegations stream through Tehran in the wake of a nuclear deal that promises an end to sanctions and international isolation. But there is no denying that Iran is a major regional power, which holds the real potential of becoming a working partner with […]
For world leaders in Paris trying to reach a historic deal to protect the environment, it is worth looking at the Iranian city of Ahwaz. For at least three years, this city of 1.4 million has been hit each autumn with spells of polluted rain that have caused breathing difficulties for thousands of residents. Even […]
TEHRAN — Iranian traffice authorities have announced the removal of any “Latin” spellings of names and driving instructions in Tehran. The move comes as a surprise as many Iranians are hoping for a boom in foreign visitors following the phase-out of international sanctions. The capital’s head of traffic, Ja’far Tashakkori-Hashemi, recently told Iran’s ISNA news […]
During its years of international isolation, Iran saw “culture” solely as a way to promote its Shia Islamic heritage. Yet Iranian officials recently have begun to take an interest in questions of national identity, heritage and Iranian civilization that are unrelated to the Islamic clerical regime and its values. As the country prepares to move […]
TEHRAN — Both at home and abroad, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has become the public face of his country’s willingness to sign a deal with the West to limit its nuclear program. The Vienna accord, inked in July, has also made Zarif the main target of Iran’s religious hardliners, whom he confirmed Wednesday […]
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Iran Warns ISIS: These Are Our Red Lines
TEHRAN — Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has warned the Sunni Islamist terror group ISIS not to approach Iranian territory or the Shia shrines in Iraq. Speaking at a gathering Friday in Tabas, in eastern Iran, Fazli said that ISIS should not get closer than 40 kilometers (25 miles) to Iran’s border nor attack […]
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U.S. To Return ‘Disputed’ Fossils To Iran
In another possible sign of thaw after decades of chilly relations between the United States and Iran, the U.S. is set to return 1,500 fossil pieces to Iran that it has kept since the 1979 revolution, the reformist paper Shargh reported this week, citing comments by Iran’s chief environmental official Masoumeh Ebtekar. Ebtekar confirmed the […]
TEHRAN — While the moderate government headed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani enjoys the Supreme Leader’s qualified backing — which is crucial to its survival inside Iran — it contends daily with criticisms, often from its conservative opponents. The conservatives fear that his policy of bringing détente with the West and opening the economy will […]
ROME — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has chosen Italy as his first major Western destination since winning elections in 2013, and the first to come in the wake of the Vienna accords on Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of international sanctions. Italian newspaper La Stampa first reported earlier this month that the president will […]
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Behind The Missing Obama-Rouhani Handshake
TEHRAN — Iranian legislators questioned Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about why he had shaken hands last month with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The gesture was viewed by many as another positive sign of Iran’s thawing relations with the West, but has irritated the country’s conservatives opposed […]
Tehran’s Milad Tower — Photo: Hamed Saber Tehran’s northern suburbs, in the foothills of the Alborz mountains, used to be a summer refuge from the heat of downtown Tehran, mainly for their numerous gardens and abundant trees. The rich used to live there before 1979, and some still do. But over the past 20 years […]
TEHRAN — Iran’s Islamic Republic has sought to control morals and public conduct for some 40 years now, and the apparent détente with Western powers won’t be changing anything on this front. Take its ongoing antipathy toward Western — or some would say, virtually all — music. For Iran’s clerics, music and related festivities are […]
TEHRAN — The deal between Tehran and the West to curb Iran’s secretive nuclear program in return for an end to crippling economic sanctions isn’t slated to take effect until Oct. 19. But with Western delegations already streaming in and out of Tehran in anticipation of business and investment opportunities, Iran’s Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi […]
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Desert Relentlessly Advances In Iran
TEHRAN — Iran is increasingly “becoming a desert” thanks to decades of wasted water supplies and a dry climate exacerbated by climate change, Tehran daily Arman-e Emruz reported Thursday. Water resource specialist Mohammadreza Fatemi told the newspaper that the state environmental agency has mismanged water resources for at least 20 years, destroying the environment in […]