Reading Time: 3 minutes The Koran instructs Muslim women to be modest in their dress partly to publicly identify with Islam and partly to avoid sexual assault. Since 630 CE, we have come to understand that the sexual assault of women is not caused by how sexy they look but by male control issues. Human rights groups and feminists universally advise that […]
Iran
Posted inPolitics
The banality of evil: Meet Iran’s probable next Supreme Leader
Reading Time: 8 minutes He sleepwalked through a massacre. Now, despite (or because of) a lack of skills or personality, Raisi is likely to stumble upward into the role of Supreme Leader.
Kaveh Mousavi reporting from Tehran.
Posted inFree Expression
This week in protests and strikes: China, Iran, and the US
Reading Time: 5 minutes On Tuesday, November 29, the US and Iran played at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It was a tense match, but not necessarily for reasons related to the game. The US Soccer Federation had originally flown an Iranian flag on social media platforms that omitted the emblem of the Islamic Republic. That was its […]
Posted inFree Expression
What we talk about when we talk about hijab—a view from Tehran
Reading Time: 9 minutes Like all people called to witness the unraveling of history as it happens, I am plagued more than anything by anxiety, a child of uncertainty. The tidy parade of events in history books belies the fact that those living through it do not know how their chapter will end. Will the chaos in Iran breed anything but further chaos? Will everything fall apart?
Posted inReligious News
Mahsa Amini’s death must not be in vain
Reading Time: 3 minutes Iran is more secular than you might think, and its people are rising up against theocratic rule.
Posted inReligious News
The murder of Mahsa Amini: Is this what happens when religion rules?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last week, Mahsa Amini died from an alleged “heart attack” while in police custody during a visit to Tehran, the capital of Iran. Her crime? Showing her hair. Amini’s murder has sparked mass protests and at least 17 deaths across Iran as well as global outrage in the days since. For Americans, it is all […]
Posted inPolitics
Does cutting off Russian oil put the US in bed with other authoritarians?
Reading Time: 3 minutes In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and its Western allies ramped up sanctions and political pressure on Moscow. Russia is a major exporter of commodities including wheat and oil, and the sanctions have led to significant volatility in the markets. This has played a large role in the dramatic rise in […]
Posted inNews
Op-ed: Defending the Honour of Mr God
Reading Time: 4 minutes DONALD Trump has been very friendly to Saudi Arabia during his stint as US President. Just this week he announced he’s pushing through a massive arms deal with the Saudis even though everyone else thinks it’s a bad move. He likes to be a zany madcap rebel that way. Meanwhile The Guardian reports: Loujain al-Hathloul, […]
Posted inGeneral
In Saudi Arabia, just belonging to wrong Muslim sect can be deadly
Reading Time: 4 minutes Certainly, different religions clash in different societies, even different sects of the same religion. But in Saudi Arabia, the latter is particularly tricky.
Posted inPolitics
Iran and Context, and…Defending Trump?
Reading Time: 5 minutes The good ole context argument, eh! Actually, context can be very important in understanding explanation, though it is very important to understand the distinction between explanation and justification. Explanation is not justification. Things have been very worrying as of late. But first, let me get onto defending Trump. Well, not really that much. Trump ordered […]