Iranwire – Mehdi Mahdavikia, who was meant to be the new head coach of Iran’s Omid national team, an under-23 team and technical director of the Iranian Football Federation, has resigned under a barrage of negative press by Fars News Agency. According to Tabnak news agency, Mahdavikia, in response to an invitation received from the World Football Federation, has announced …

VOA – The Biden administration on Friday restored some sanctions relief to Iran’s civil nuclear program as talks aimed at salvaging the languishing 2015 nuclear deal enter a critical phase. As U.S. negotiators head back to Vienna for what could be a make-or-break session, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions waivers related to Iran’s civilian nuclear activities. The …

VOA – Iran is not serious about wanting a prisoner exchange with the United States and instead appears to be seeking money as part of any deal to release four Americans labeled by the U.S. as hostages of Tehran, according to informed sources. U.S. and Iranian officials have been trying to negotiate a potential rare exchange of prisoners since last …

Iran-HRM – An Iranian teacher, Mostafa Ranjbaran, a biology teacher in Minab, southern Iran committed suicide due to unbearable economic pressures. In a tweet on Thursday, February 3, Mohammad Habibi, a member of the board of directors of the Iran Teachers Trade Association, called “these suicides among teachers, workers, retirees and students” as “a kind of systematic murder” and that …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO)- An unidentified man who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Shiraz Central Prison. According to Hrana newsagency, a man was executed in Shiraz Central Prison on the morning of February 1. The 36-year-old man whose identity has not been established, was sentenced to qisas for murder. According to informed sources, the executed man was unable to …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Hafizollah Barahouyi, a Baluch man sentenced to death on drug-related charges, has been executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to the Baluch Activists Campaign, a Baluch man was executed in Zahedan Central Prison on the morning of February 3. Identified as Hafizollah Barahouyi, he had been sentenced to death for drug-related offences. Hafizollah’s family had …

RFL/RE – A rare collection of color images made by a European woman who traveled throughout Iran as modernization and political upheavals forever changed the country. A boy lost in thought in a garden in Galandovak in the northeast of Tehran. A handsome boatsman on an unidentified coastline in Iran. Fishermen working in the shallows of the Caspian Sea in …

Iranwire – The Quarterly Journal of Strategic Studies recently published a study, Identity Policy, Education and National Security in Iran, which analyzes the content of the Social Studies textbook used in the first grade of high school. Space given in the book to national identity, religious identity and global identity are explored, and the results of this official study are a …

Iranwire – As January came to a close, 65 Iranian motorcyclists took part in a Motorcycle and Auto Racing Federation competitive event in Iran. More than 30 women competed, despite an official ban on doing so. Iran’s state media and media affliated with the Revolutionary Guards refuse to cover such events, but independent websites and media in the diaspora regularly report …

Iranwire – The United Nations’ World Mother Language Day falls a little over two weeks from now on February 21. In advance of this, close to a thousand Iranians who grew up speaking a minority language have already taken to Twitter to express their sense of loss and frustration at the marginalization of their mother tongue. The #Manofarsi (Me and …