Donate

Iran

woman facing camera

A traditional Iranian sport has been closed off to women. One activist wants to change that.

Women & Gender

Varzeshe Pahlavani is a mix of martial arts, wrestling and calisthenics. It has deep roots in Persian tradition going back centuries. The sport is officially closed off to women, but one female Iranian activist is trying to change that.

band

TarantisT bandleader on protests in Iran: ‘This is not protest anymore. This is a revolution’

Music
In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, Iranians protests the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police, in Tehran, Oct. 1, 2022. 

Amid ongoing protests, Iran’s morality police ‘lies in ruins,’ analyst says

Protest
man singing

‘For the Sake of’ song becomes anthem for protests in Iran

Music
Chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami wearing a mask, attends a ceremony on the occasion of first anniversary of death of late Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) general and commander of the Quds Force Qasem Soleimani, in Tehran

US’ indefinite ban on Iranians drafted into Iran’s Revolutionary Guard continues to separate families

Immigration
A gas station is empty because the gas pumps are out of service in Tehran, Iran, after a widespread outage of a system that allows consumers to buy fuel with a government-issued card

Iran faces widespread gas station outage, believed to be a cyberattack.

Top of The World

A network outage across Iran — believe to be a cyberattack — has shut down a government system that manages fuel subsidies. Also, protesters burn tires and block roads a day after a military coup in Sudan. And, Egypt ends its state of emergency after four years.

A family visits across the U.S.-Canada border at the Peace Arch Historical State Park as a cyclist rides past on the Canadian side, in Blaine, Wash.

US to reopen land borders next month to fully vaccinated people

Top of The World

The US will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel in November for people who are fully vaccinated. Also, the international community is looking for ways to help Afghans financially, while circumventing the Taliban government. And, Iran and Saudi Arabia are holding talks brokered by Iraq to repair ties and come to an agreement to end the war in Yemen.

A woman and a boy walk on the dried up riverbed of the Zayandeh Roud river that no longer runs under the 400-year-old Si-o-seh Pol bridge, named for its 33 arches, in Isfahan, Iran

Iran’s ‘system is essentially water bankrupt,’ says environmental expert

Climate Change

Kaveh Madani, a senior fellow at Yale University and former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment, joins The World’s host Marco Werman to discuss some of the reasons behind Iran’s latest water shortages.

Sabha Aminikia immigrated to the US as a refugee and began studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. But even as he launched his career in America, his music was often focused on Iran.

Iranian American composer Sahba Aminikia: Music transforms like raindrops that ‘wash this part of humanity’

Movement

Iranian American composer Sahba Aminikia, who had to leave his homeland due to religious persecution, says his pain comes out in his music.

A rocket goes off with fire underneath it.

The leftovers: What happens to foreign policy in power transitions? Part I

Critical State

This week, Critical State, our weekly foreign policy newsletter, takes a deep dive into new research on what to expect as norms about foreign policy continuity in the US continue to erode.

Latest Episode

Politics with Amy Walter: Iran, Impeachment, and Iowa