Home
Between Iran and Me
If Iranian arts and culture have been glaringly missing from our newspaper pages and TV screens for so long, if Iran resurfaces to the headlines and everyone has heard something about it without knowing anything about its provenance as a civilization, and if the country’s dynamic civil society is acknowledged only when it is under visible repression, but not when it reels from marginalization, it is the outcome of a collective failure.
Latest articles
US-Israeli Strikes Damage UNESCO Heritage Site in Iran
A US-Israeli airstrike substantially damaged the Golestan Palace, a 15th century royal complex in Tehran and the former residence of the Qajar Dynasty. Since the start of the war, an increasing number of iconic locations, neighborhoods, parks, and local businesses have been bombed. Donald Trump had floated the idea of targeting Iran’s cultural sites in his first presidency.
Despite the mainstreaming of bigotry, Muslims run in midterm elections
As midterm election races heat up across the United States, more Muslim Americans are venturing to run for office, navigating the odds of success at a time of increasing polarization and political violence characterized by the steep rise of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant sentiments.
Can Iran move past its nuclear fixation?
If the world’s fifth most resource-rich country is incapable of providing running water and electricity to its citizens, would it not be irrational for it to remain obsessed with a nuclear program that has neither earned it any deterrence nor any civilian benefits?
Iran’s Journalists: The Muted Voices of a Movement
The upheaval in Iran represents a watershed moment when many are awaiting long-lasting change. This is precisely the time when the voices of Iranian writers and journalists are needed more than before. It is inconceivable to ask them to remain silent bystanders.
An Elegy for the Iran I Knew
With thousands of protesters killed and the social fabric in tatters, I mourn the Iran I knew. Just months ago, a 12-day war with Israel left scores of Iranians dead and further weakened the country’s ailing economy. Where is the treasured past and the vibrant present, that Iran once celebrated?
Iran’s Protest Movement and Diaspora Politics
Three weeks of protests in Iran over the collapse of the national currency has left the country reeling from hundreds of deaths, violence, destruction, and increasing polarization. In response, Iran’s diaspora has exuded division and confusion.
The Iranian Journalist Who Dialed Nobel Laureates
Between 2009 and 2014, I worked as a reporter for Daneshmand, Iran’s longest-running popular science magazine, where I initiated an effort to foster dialogue between Iran and the world through journalism, resulting in nearly 30 interviews with Nobel Prize laureates. That initiative was cut short by political shifts that stripped the magazine of its relevance.
The Banality of a Public Race for the Nobel Peace Prize
The banality of Donald Trump’s commercial hunt for a Nobel Peace Prize was self-evident since the day it was set in motion. It became more grotesque over time as he ramped up his violent immigration raids and military deployments across U.S. cities, terrorizing communities while lavishing praise on his peace credentials.
Arrested for being Iranian: How a war in the Middle East gave ICE new targets at home
The unusual surge in the deportation of Iranian nationals by the Trump administration after he joined Israel’s war on Iran provides empirical evidence that immigration enforcement is being weaponized to further the confrontational foreign policy agenda of the 47th president
Reflections of a movement, not the nation
Human nature isn’t alien to mistrust of the other. Studies show that even children as young as 7-9 can internalize racial bias. Despite the intolerance personified by the MAGA movement, Zohran Mamdani’s rise as New York City’s mayoral frontrunner signals the continuity of the culture of tolerance in America