Iran's elimination from the FIFA World Cup prompted a wave of public reactions, with many citizens arguing the team's defeat reflected the political positions of some players rather than simply a sporting failure, according to messages sent to Iran International.
Many Iranians are using the Shiite mourning period of Muharram to commemorate those killed in January's nationwide protests rather than take part in state-backed religious ceremonies, according to messages sent to Iran International and videos from across the country.
Iran International has launched a new phase of its campaign documenting the January massacre, focusing on Gharazi Hospital in Isfahan, where documents and witness accounts show the facility became a destination for many of those killed or wounded during the January 8-10 protests.
FIFA said fans will be allowed to bring rainbow flags to Egypt’s World Cup group match against Iran in Seattle on Friday, while barring Iran’s pre-revolutionary “Lion and Sun” flag from World Cup venues on the grounds that political symbols are prohibited.
Daily electricity and water outages disrupted life across Iran as summer began, with residents blaming years of underinvestment and deteriorating infrastructure despite officials citing rising demand and shrinking water supplies.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday that Israel had smuggled tens of thousands of Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help anti-government protesters, but said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not complete the effort.
High school students in several Iranian cities gathered outside education offices on Monday, demanding that final exams be postponed after a compressed testing schedule left them with too little time to prepare.
Sharif University of Technology has issued preliminary expulsion orders for seven students, according to the student group United Students, in a move that rights advocates say reflects a broader postwar tightening of political and social control inside Iran.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett says he has drawn up a detailed plan to help Iranians topple the Islamic Republic, addressing growing frustration among dissidents that an emerging US-Iran deal could save and embolden Tehran’s hardline rulers.
The Islamic Republic executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, two men arrested during the January protests in Shahrud, early Tuesday, the judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency reported.
Days before nationwide protest calls for January 8 and 9, Nourabad Mamasani was already under fire. Accounts received by Iran International describe live ammunition, snipers and heavy weapons used in a crackdown that culminated outside the town courthouse.
Confiscations of assets belonging to exiled Iranians will weaken their protests in front of the Islamic Republic’s embassies overseas, a judge said on Tuesday.
A group of Iranian activists has launched a digital platform designed to display the Lion and Sun flag and political messages inside 2026 World Cup stadiums after FIFA restricted the symbol’s entry, according to comments by a former national boxing team captain.
Student protests over Iran’s university entrance exam system continued on Sunday, spreading across at least 20 provinces as pupils demanded changes to rules that give school grades a decisive role in university admissions.
Security forces opened fire on protesters, blocked medical aid and secretly removed bodies as they crushed demonstrations in Rasht, northern Iran, during January’s nationwide uprising, eyewitness accounts and documents sent to Iran International show.
High school students in about 20 Iranian provinces have held protests against education policies, final exam rules and changes affecting the national university entrance exam, with some gatherings met by violence and arrests.
Families of people killed in Iran’s January protests say names and burial records have disappeared from Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery database, raising new concerns over efforts to erase evidence of the deaths.
Iranian authorities are using wartime conditions to intensify repression through mass arrests, fast-tracked prosecutions, political executions and harsh prison sentences, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Witnesses in Rasht say protesters were driven into narrow market passages, trapped as fire spread and fired upon by security forces during January’s unrest, according to accounts gathered by Iran International.
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, a possible ban on Iran’s lion-and-sun flag has opened a dispute between FIFA and Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic over identity, representation and politics in sport.
Rauf Derakhshani-Mehr, a 19-year-old university student killed during January protests in the southern city of Dezful, was buried at night under pressure from security forces after his family located his body in a morgue, according to information obtained by Iran International.
The Islamic Republic executed Abbas Akbari Feyzabadi, a detainee arrested during January protests in Isfahan province, after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, the judiciary said on Monday.