Iranian Madness

The latest news from the Iranian government, apart from the endless and pointless debate about the nuclear programme, is that they have kicked off laughter classes in Tehran.
The idea may not work, as Robert Tait (perhaps the most competent journalist when it’s about Iran and Iranians) points out. Laughing during Moharram (which will start [...]

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Chi non conosce Persepolis, il libro autobiografico a fumetti dell’autrice iraniana Marjane Satrapi?
Grazie all’ottima rivista Internazionale, possiamo leggere l’opinione dell’autrice in un articolo che spiega, tra le altre cose, la ragione che spinge gli iraniani a protestare, e ci fa pensare che la rivolta iraniana non abbia esaurito i suoi colpi.

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When you see police patrolling the alleys and destroying the vehicles that are parked there, it’s a clear sign that the regime has weakened big time.
Now that the street protests have largely been quieted the rough way, and anyway the foreign media cannot report them, a question looms: how will life go on in Iran?
The [...]

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I want eyes is one of my favourite songs, written by Level 42 back in 1983.
I dedicate it to Neda and the Iranian people.

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I have just found an excellent article from the NYT’s Roger Cohen.
Nothing to add, really. He’s right on all fronts.

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There are several theories about what is going on in Iran right now.
We’ve seen it all: mass rallies in support of the defeated presidential candidates Mirhossein Moussavi, clashes between supporters of different candidates, crackdown by the authorities (quite mild, actually, in comparison to what it could have been), and most recently, no less than [...]

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I absolutely adore the Iranian government when they let news about demonstrations leak.
Recently it’s been quite a few of them – and guess what? they were all pro-Gaza and anti-Israel. What a surprise!
You have to concede that the Iranians are quite creative in this.
First, they throw Molotov bombs to the Saudi Arabian [...]

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Blogging is becoming a dangerous sport in Iran.

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At least, Iran and Israel have something in common: nobody likes them.
Israel is viewed as the country with the second most negative influence on the world, according to a poll released recently by the BBC World Service.
Iran was considered to have the most negative influence, ranked lowest in world opinion at 54 percent [...]

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Seems that The Guardian’s excellent Iran-based columnist Robert Tait has been expelled – the Iranian way, by not renewing his work permit and not offering any explanation.
Reality is, he was getting too deep into the truths of Iranian society. His last correspondence from Iran is a good testimony of this.
Will the same happen to [...]

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