IranWatch
IranWatch
IranWatch
Fifty Iranian Activists Write a Letter to President Biden Asking for Help...Again
Written by Visiting Fellow Vafa Fanaii At the onset of the Biden administration, a group of Iranian activists wrote a letter to President Biden, drawing attention to the pro-democracy movement in Iran and expressing their opposition to the regime and its repressive policies. This letter represented...
IranWatch
Crime and Punishment: the Islamic Republic Version
Written by NUFDI Summer Fellow Armita Hooman Imagine seeing a man holding a bloody knife and a severed head, blood dripping from the blade as he walked around town. What would you think? How would you expect the law to punish him? Now, imagine sitting in a taxi not knowing whether the driver is a...
IranWatch
Skepticism, Conspiracy Theories, and the Gap Between the Iranian State and Nation
Throughout the last week, Persian Twitter has been a hotbed of opinions and videos dissecting the officially announced results of the Islamic Republic's election. Despite the announced turnout rates of 40 and 50 percent in the first and second rounds of the election respectively, viral hashtags...
IranWatch
Norooz is Not About Gaza
In his Norooz message, President Joe Biden congratulated Iranians, including Iranian- Americans, on our new year. He pledged to continue to support Iranians in their struggle against tyranny—days after giving the tyrants $10 billion. Most curiously, he also assured his audience that he was working...
IranWatch
The Cost of Complacency: The Islamic Republic Gains as America Steps Back
The Islamic Republic is besting the United States. Over the past two decades, as the American public has tired of engagement in the Middle East after it peaked in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Iranian dictatorship and its terrorist proxies have won the war of wills in the...
IranWatch
A Letter from Evin Prison: Mahvash Sabet
The Islamic Republic has “Disqualified” us Baha’is from Living When the revolution happened, I was 26 years old, working as the principal of a school in the south of the capital [Tehran]. One day, I received word that I had been “disqualified” from my job. Around the same time, I was also...
IranWatch
Improving the Proposed “Iran Sanctions Enforcement Act”
Subject: Improving the Proposed “Iran Sanction Enforcement Act” From: Navid Mohebbi, Policy Director at National Union for Democracy in Iran Background: Recently, Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the “Iran Sanctions Enforcement Act.” This bill aims to turn...
IranWatch
Dignified Diplomacy, Not Capitulation: A Response to Senator Chris Murphy
This week Senator Chris Murphy had something of a tantrum on Twitter when he was faced with backlash to the Biden administration’s recently announced deal to release $6 billion to the Islamic Republic in exchange for 5 Iranian-Americans held hostage in Tehran. As the national media began to cover...