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Violence, suicide and addiction: an unprecedented economic crisis plunges Iranian society into chaos
Videos of fights breaking out in front of supermarkets or currency exchange offices in Iran have become so common on social media over the past few years that many people don’t even find them surprising anymore. These fraught scenes illustrate the stress caused by the economic downturn that has swept the country, accompanied by rampant inflation and currency devaluation. Experts and observers describe an...
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Iran: 7-year-old boy is latest child to lose arm to crocodile while fetching water
A crocodile attack on a 7-year-old boy has refocused attention on the plight of villages in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province that lack running water. Residents say their children have no option but to fetch water from lakes and rivers, exposing them to the dangers of drowning and attacks by a species of marsh crocodile known locally as “gandos”. On Aug. 11, a...
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How do governments push false news about Covid-19?
In this episode of Misinfodemia, Seema Yasmin talks to me about how government push false news and how social media platforms both help and hinder the fight to tackle misinformation and disinformation. I talked about how Iran’s government is hiding the real number of corona virus victimes and how we worked on it in France24.
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Pro-regime Iranians circulate fake video to promote the death sentence for three activists
Iran’s Supreme Court announced on July 10 that three men who had participated in protests against the government last November had been sentenced to death. Many people took to social media to protest the announcement, calling for the sentence to be overturned. At the same time, ultra-conservative supporters of the regime started circulating a video that they claimed showed the young activists carrying out...
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As a second wave of Covid-19 sweeps Iran, “people aren’t respecting social distancing at all” (2/2)
A second wave of Covid-19 has been sweeping Iran since mid-May. My contacts say that even though hospitals are already overwhelmed with cases, Iranians are not adhering to basic preventative measures. They blame the government for reopening the country too quickly after the first wave and not responding fast enough to the latest crisis.
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Second wave of Covid-19 sweeps Iran, ‘affecting the elderly, young and children’ (1/2)
While Europe has been slowly reopening after lockdowns meant to halt the spread of Covid-19, Iran is in the grips of a second deadly wave of the virus. Hospitals across the country are filling up and our Observers say, in some regions, they’ve already run out of beds. While the government is still reporting relatively low numbers of cases, our Observers say this just...
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In Iran, poverty and lack of internet make distance learning impossible
Iran, like many other countries hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, has closed schools and universities and prioritized online learning. But in a country where there is widespread poverty and some regions have no internet coverage at all, some students are locked out of virtual classrooms.
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‘Iran’s Hidden Slaughter’: a video investigation
Between November 15 and 18, hundreds of people were killed in Iran when the government cracked down on protests that had been sparked by a hike in petrol prices.
