As Azerbaijan and other Caspian Sea states deepen partnerships with Western energy companies to extract more oil and gas from aging offshore fields, Iran stands apart as the only Caspian littoral country that produces no hydrocarbons from the sea at all.
Faced with economic crisis, social defiance and regional strain, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei continues to invoke earlier moments of “glory,” treating defeat and mismanagement as moral triumphs rather than political failures.
Iran is not a war-torn country, yet four decades of Islamic Republic rule have driven mass emigration. UN data show over five million registered refugees or asylum seekers since 1980, with millions more leaving legally – about one in every 15 Iranians now living abroad.
Iran’s president is facing growing heat as moderate allies turn against him, arguing that his promised government of national consensus has instead lost its authority and internal cohesion.
Tehran state-affiliated media are hinting that Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei could soon be appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head the Guardian Council, the powerful body that vets election candidates and approves parliament’s legislation.
Iran faces a stark choice to address a cost of living crisis: preserve subsidized exchange rates that have failed to protect purchasing power and fueled corruption or remove it and risk triggering another wave of uncontrolled inflation.
An annual cultural celebration of women and mothers in Iran falling on the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah has galvanized critics of the theocracy's rights record for women even as supporters come to its defense.
Iranians are increasingly discontented with how their country is run but the Islamic Republic persists because of its ability and willingness to crush dissent by force, ex-CIA analyst and National Security Council director Ken Pollack told Eye for Iran.
Lebanon is one of Iran's key launchpads for regional influence via its longtime armed ally Hezbollah, but Beirut dealt a deep cut this week when its foreign minister curtly declined an invitation to visit Tehran.
Ordinary Iranians are buckling under the physical and psychological strain of surging prices, toxic air and deepening food and medicine insecurity, officials and experts in Tehran have warned.
A dramatic cultural opening is sweeping across Iran, not as a government reform but as a bottom-up movement driven by a young generation that is less willing to be intimidated by the state, Iran analyst Omid Memarian told Eye for Iran.
A prominent academic’s assertion that many of Iran’s problems stem from “the dominance of the economically weak class” in governance has stoked outrage in a country whose theocracy bills itself as a champion of the downtrodden.
Rap has moved from the margins to the spotlight in Iran, where it is being promoted on streaming platforms, entertainment shows and Instagram feeds tied to state interests and seen by millions.
Half a century of rule built on clerical authority has secularized Iran, available data suggests, with most still believing in God but not in the theocracy.
The political storm over a marathon on Iran’s Kish Island may have started as a dispute over unveiled participants, but it now reflects a deeper struggle between a society pushing for change and institutions intent on reasserting control.
Former US diplomat John Limbert, a hostage during the 1979 Tehran embassy takeover, told Eye for Iran that Iran's society has radically developed in recent decades even as its ruling system has barely changed.
Tehran’s move to sharply limit a man’s liability for paying his wife mehriyeh—a gift of value promised at marriage—has triggered a fierce social debate, with critics warning that it tilts the legal balance further away from women.
The once-hushed conversation about who will succeed Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not only spilled into the open, but has curdled into public intimidation of contender and former president Hassan Rouhani.
Moderate insiders in Tehran are warning that the public’s alienation may have deprived the system of the very vehicle it once relied on to manage public anger.
An Iranian singer who won a Grammy for a ballad which became the unofficial song for a scotched national uprising in 2022 has incurred fury for announcing the release of an album which received an official state license.
The revelation that Iranian journalists received government-issued SIM cards for unfettered access internet access while most users endured heavy state censorship has led to accusations that their privilege skewed their output.
Iran’s fractious parliament is the crosshairs of increasingly strident criticism as factional infighting has precluded any concerted response to a deepening economic and ecological crisis.