Iran and China on the Verge of Signing 25-Year Deal
By Ahmad Rafat
After years of talks, Iran and China are reportedly getting ready to sign a wide-reaching 25-year contract. There has been no official announcement regarding the agreement. It is also unclear whether the...
VIDEO: Actress Nazanin Boniadi Meets Refugees in Calais
By Ahmad Rafat
In July 2019, the British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi visited refugee camps in Calais (France) and Dunkirk (UK), and met asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and other countries. “Stateless” — a documentary film produced during...
ANALYSIS: Taliban Comeback Will Shift Balance of Power in the Region
By Ahmad Rafat
The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan at lightning speed last week — 20 years after U.S. military forces removed them from power. Their return and territorial gains in such a short time...
ANALYSIS: How Iran Has Turned Itself Into a Pariah State
By Ahmad Rafat
Every action taken by the Islamic Republic in the past year has secured the regime’s status as a pariah state. These include scaling back its commitments to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan...
ANALYSIS: Much of Iran Is Threatened By Drought and Water Scarcity
By Ahmad Rafat
Climate change poses a clear and present danger to our planet. The situation is even more critical in the Middle East and Iran, where water shortage, drought, and forest fires have turned...
Iran’s Women-Led Revolution Inspires Italian Cartoonist Gianluca Costantini
By Ahmad Rafat
Gianluca Costantini is a renowned Italian cartoonist, artist, and comic journalist whose recent works have focused on the ongoing protests in Iran, sparked by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old...
Helping Victims of Self-Immolation in the Mideast: Kayhan Life Meets Co-Founder of Roulah
By Ahmad Rafat
Roulah is a U.S.-registered non-profit organization dedicated to helping Middle Eastern women.
Established in July 2021 by co-founders Sheema Kalbasi and Shaghayegh Moradinnejad, it aims to help victims of self-immolation, domestic abuse, underage...
ANALYSIS: Iran’s Khamenei Holds Key to Talks With U.S.
By Ahmad Rafat
Joe Biden is the sixth U.S. president to have had to deal with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the past 31 years. Contrary to popular belief, and despite Mr. Biden’s...
ANALYSIS: Disbanding Morality Police Won’t Stop Iranians Urging Regime Change
By Ahmad Rafat
International media have reported extensively on recent ambiguous comments by Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, suggesting that the country had disbanded its morality police (the Guidance patrol).
Mr. Montazeri made those comments...
Iranian Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Receives Award for Campaign Against Death Penalty
By Ahmad Rafat
The Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, was awarded the Robert Badinter Award at the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty on Nov. 18 in Berlin.
The event was sponsored by the...
