Society

Iran is intensifying its crackdown on women, minorities, and activists using drones, facial recognition, and tracking apps to monitor and suppress dissent, a new UN report reveals.

Italy has installed Starlink antennas in four high-risk embassies, including one in Iran, as part of a test phase amid Tehran's internet restrictions, a government minister confirmed on Thursday.

Iranian authorities have intensified their campaign against online dating content, summoning or arresting 15 people involved in organizing blind date events on social media.

A new United Nations report has strongly criticized Iran for a dramatic increase in executions, systematic gender-based discrimination, and repression of minorities in 2024.

As Iranians prepare to celebrate the ancient Persian New Year, which predates Islam, the IRGC commander in Ilam has announced that official Nowruz celebrations in the province will not be granted permits.

Last week I took my teenage niece to a concert at Tehran’s iconic Vahdat Hall, where two large portraits hang high on stage walls, watching over the audience. “What’s the Islamic Republic doing here,” my niece joked.

The Berlinale has joined the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), urging Iran to drop charges against filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who face court on Saturday.

Iran’s religious and political establishment is increasingly concerned that the growing popularity of pre-Islamic festivals, like Espandgan—celebrated as an alternative to Valentine’s Day—poses a threat to Islamic culture.

Ozempic and other weight-loss injections have become the latest luxury craze among affluent Iranians, as the nation struggles with a chronic shortage and soaring cost of essential medications.

Nahid Shirpisheh, an Iranian prisoner whose son Pouya Bakhtiari was killed during the 2019 protests, has attempted suicide in Zanjan Central Prison after enduring weeks of abuse and neglect, her daughter announced.

The family of two British nationals detained in Iran has expressed their concern and confirmed they are working with relevant authorities to ensure the safe return of their loved ones who were on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

An Iranian drama series was abruptly banned after just one episode for depicting women without hijab, dance scenes and using wigs and hats to portray life before the 1979 Islamic Revolution more realistically.

A child trafficking ring based in the religious city of Mashhad has been busted by security forces, according to an online news outlet, resulting in several arrests and raising alarm about the prevalence of similar abuses elsewhere.

Almost four in ten marriages in Iran end in divorce, according to the latest official figures, giving rise to theocrats' cries of a crisis that may not be as obvious to some of the women gaining their freedom.

A surge in counterfeit drugs has worsened Iran’s strained medicine market, forcing many with serious conditions to rely on the black market for scarce medication.

The clerical establishment in Tehran has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Generation Z and hopes now to win the loyalty of Gen Alpha, Middle East analyst Holly Dagres told Iran International.

Public participation in the ancient Zoroastrian Sadeh festival, once nearly forgotten but now surging in popularity among Iranians, is being banned anew by authorities in the Islamic Republic.

An Iranian sociologist has warned that middle-class citizens pushed below the poverty line by persistently high inflation and forced into the lower class are the most likely to spark a revolt against the ruling system.