Articles

Iran's foreign minister accuses America of not desposing of its nuclear bombs. Iran's Revolutionary Guards warn of Iran's nuclear tests. It seems they want the Iranians and the world to get used to the Iranian nuclear bomb....

On 5th and 6th June 2011 Iranian politicians have used the memorial day of Ayatollah Khomeini´s death as an opportunity to call for the end of Israel. For Ahmadinejad, calls for Israel's destruction constitute a "sacred slogan"....

Ali Asghar Soltaniye, Iranian representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on 28th May 2011 that international sanctions would not disrupt the Iranian atomic programmes' activities. Furthermore, he defended the Iranian missile programme....

A few weeks ago Fariba Kamalabadi, one of seven former leaders of Iran's Bahai community, used a telephone call to a relative to urge the leaders of the free world to take action. The conversation lasted just one minute: "Right now you should do everything in your power," he urged....

Whilst Iran's politicians and representatives invoke the country's "moral" society and state policy both at home and abroad, Iran's prisons are in a deplorable state....

EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo analyses different points of view on the relationship between the Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignants’ protests and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. Among others, both media and shared ideologies such as anti-Americanism represent the ground common to all these protests....

Following the Jasmine and Lotus revolutions, the Arab world knew a general spread of optimism. The opening of the political arena and constitutional changes, respectively in Tunisia and Egypt, were positive signals of an effective result of the popular movements. Nevertheless, as EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo shows, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, critical problems still exist. Notably, the Muslim Brotherhood grasped the opportunities...

Kayhan acts as mouthpiece for Iranian Revolutionary Leader Ali Khamenei. On 10th May 2011 the newspaper published a piece criticising the recent agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Hussein Schariati, Kayhan's Editor-in-Chief criticises the 4th May agreement which was signed between Mahmud Abbas and Khaled Mashal....

Iranian news agency Farsnews has published a series on the "secret information war between Hezbollah and Israel." Farsnews glorifies the Lebanese Hezbollah's secret service which provides particularly important information for military attacks and war....

Lebanese Hezbollah plans its terror attacks systematically. Its organised secret service carries out preparatory work for terrorists. At the same time, Lebanese Hezbollah is championing a totalitarian ideology of Khomeinism....

Bahai persecution in Iran has a historical dimension that predates the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, since the establishment of the “Islamic Republic of Iran,” state persecution has become systematic in nature....

Iran's pseudo-Parliament has decided by majority to create a commission for "specific economic tasks." Indeed, Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei has already proclaimed the Iranian New Year, which started at the beginning of Spring, as the year of "economic Jihad." Iranians should now work harder, longer and for less salary, it is claimed, in order to defeat imperialism....

"The hijab is not a duty for Muslim women." This is a quote by Gamal al-Banna, one of the most famous Egyptian theologians, author of many books about Islam and, last but not least, the brother of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. In a recent documentary, shot last November by the Norwegian "Channel 2", Gamal al-Banna pointed out that the Koran only dictates that women must cover their "beautiful parts" with mantles; that i...

On 10th February, I met Selim Jeddi, Habib Sayah and some other young Tunisians living in Paris, who have recently founded the website El-Mouwaten ("The Citizen") following the Jasmine revolution with the aim of helping their country from abroad. Meeting them, I had the feeling that I was missing the point of the transitions taking place in countries like Tunisia and Egypt....

In mid-February, the Iranian News Agency Tabnek, linked to Mohssen Rezai the former Revolutionary Guard General, reported that "Nazi propagandists are once again active in Iran." The Islamist News Agency criticised the fact that no one took action against the Iranian Nazis. Whilst Tabnak is anti-Israeli, it still does not view co-operation between some Islamists and Nazis in a favourable light....

On 27th March, following Egypt's constitutional referendum on 19th March, the Al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo launched the report series "Egypt after 25th January." Whilst this provided an interesting analysis, it could have benefited from a greater objectivity....

Could Arab theatre be a form of contemporary revolution? Could Arab theatre lead the people of the region to ask for greater freedom? I definitely think so. On 21st February 2011, whilst in Kuwait, I was invited to a theatre premiére at Dar al-Athar al-Islamiya, an innovative organisation promoting arts, culture and education and led by Her Highness Shaykha Hussah al-Salem al-Sabah.On stage, actors performed Sulayman al-Bassam's Speaker's Progre...

After 25th January 2011, 19th March could become an historical date to remember for Egyptians. For the first time after Mubarak's fall, as matter of fact for the first time in modern history, Egyptians have the opportunity to give their opinion on whether to vote "Yes" and amend their constitution, or to vote "No" and abolish it in favour of a completely new one....

"Today, Tunisia is one of the names of freedom in the world," this sentence was written on Facebook on 15th January, that is, on the day Ben Ali left the country. Started almost by chance, the Jasmin revolution has now spread all over the Arab world: Algeria, Sudan, Mauritania, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Syria are all on the move....

Tunisia's Jasmin revolution and Egypt's Lotus revolution led, respectively, to the fall of the regime of former president Ben Ali, which began in November 1987, and the expulsion of Hosni Mubarak, in office since October 1981. Above all, both have triggered a domino effect in other countries, not only in North Africa, but all over the Middle Eastern region....

Tunisian women, their NGOs and their protection afforded by legislation have always been considered an example to follow inside the Arab world. Female adult illiteracy has dropped by 27% since 1980, but at 42% remains significant. Nevertheless, this figure is expected to drop as nearly 100% of girls were enrolled in primary school by 1998. Women currently make up approximately 31% of the workforce....

Iran now has a 'Cyber-army' to fight revolutionaries who sow seeds of dissent as well as to combat Iranian exiles who wish to introduce democracy and human rights in Iran. The Iranian regime supports 'liberation movements' which are viewed by European democracies as terrorist groups. Iran claims that its support for these groups is, of course, "moral."...

The BBC's Persian-language website has published articles by several Iranian men and women living in exile. Their arguments, which are repeated in summary in the following article, highlight the systematic oppression of Iran's women by the country's authorities....

Hussein Taeb is a cleric holding the religious rank of a Hokatuislam. He is also the Director of the Secret Service Department of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Holding a gloomy view of Iran's future, he believes that in around one year the American government wants to stage a "Velvet Revolution," Iranian state media outlet Farsnews reported on 2nd March 2011....

Whilst Human Rights Organisations complain of extensive human rights abuses in Iran, the country's rulers think they have successfully defeated the uprisings....

In October 2010, EFD Senior Fellow Wahied Wahdat-Hagh contributed to the Foreign Policy Centre's inaugural Iran Human Rights Review, focusing on the issue of religion. Edited by Tahirih Danesh and Adam Hug, the Review aims to contribute to creating "the main building blocks of a true democracy: a new culture of harmony and trust within Iranian society."...

For the past few weeks, we've been hearing that the "wall of fear" in Egypt has collapsed. Not to rain on anyone's revolutionary parade, but I beg to differ. What's changed in Egypt is the politics of the state. A big deal, to be sure. Yet a culture of democracy will require piercing something more: the politics of the family. That's where fear begins in much of Arab society. Brian Whitaker, former Middle East editor of The Guardian newspaper...

Monday's demonstrations in Tehran have been nipped in the bud. The police did not allow the tens of thousands of protesters to gather even once. The demonstration was ended before it had really begun....

Iranian News agencies are celebrating the Egyptian revolution, hoping that Iran's Islamic revolution could also be successfully repeated in Egypt. Iranian leaders are citing Khomeini, who called the 1979 revolution "an explosion of beams of light."...

Kamal Al-Halbavi, a high-ranking member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, is harbouring the hope that one day Egypt will have a President who is as good as Ahmadinejad....

Have you had enough analysis of Hosni Mubarak's mistakes? Then read on. Because this column is about looking forward and proving that the Middle East really can be governed with a new, freedom-hungry, generation in mind....

The Iranian rulers see in the new mass protests in Arabic states the reawakening of Islam and speak of the "new axis of Islam in the middle East." They think that the Islamic revolution of 1979 was the beginning of the protests against the western and "Zionist" supremacy....

Some of the Iranian clerics like ayatollah Kashani speak the Iranian position out without any diplomatic caution. He said, that the western countries have to learn from their mistakes. Iran would not change its policy, even not under the pressure of sanctions....

Several Afghan newspapers reported about the deterioration of the economic relationships between Afghanistan and Iran. There are a lot of demonstrations in different Afghan cities against the political and economic Iranian policies towards Afghanistan. Iran builds barriers for the rapid transport of gasoline to Afghanistan. Notwithstanding that Iran is committed by international law to let the gasoline tankers to cross the border to Afghanistan....

Iran doesn't care if Israel is concerned about the economic relationships between Iran and Germany. Kayhan is happy, because Germany is increasing its exports to Iran. Kayhan thinks that Israel will suffer from a better Iranian-German relationship....

On the 8th January 2011, speaking on Iranian News Agency ISNA, High Ayatollah Makarem Shirasi issued a Fatwa: "The wearing of crosses during the "Namas" (daily prayer) and elsewhere is "haram". And in case wearing of crosses constitutes a problem for prayer."...