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... bureau">Facebook</a>.</p></description>
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... ted companies. All rights reserved. 2024</copyright>
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<dc:date>2024-05-19T21:39:40Z</dc:date>
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<dc:rights>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated compa ...
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<dc:date>2016-09-29T11:05:20Z</dc:date>
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Tehran Bureau | The Guardian</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/tehran-bureau</link> <description><p>The Tehran Bureau is an independent news organisation,&nbsp;formerly&nbsp;hosted by the Guardian, offering original reporting, comment and analysis on one of the world's most important stories. Follow @Tehran Bureau on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/TehranBureau">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tehran.bureau">Facebook</a>.</p></description> <language>en-gb</language> <copyright>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2024</copyright> <pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2024 21:39:40 GMT</pubDate> <dc:date>2024-05-19T21:39:40Z</dc:date> <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language> <dc:rights>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2024</dc:rights> <image> <title>The Guardian</title> <url>https://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.png</url> <link>https://www.theguardian.com</link> </image> <item> <title>Removal of the heart: how Islam became a matter of state in Iran</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/29/iran-shia-islam-matter-of-state</link> <description><p>Some academics argue the Safavid Shahs gave Iranian Shiism a rule-fixation and abandonment of spirituality it has never lost</p><p>The crowning of Ismail as king of Iran in Tabriz in 1501 was low-key, as was his announcement that Shia Islam would henceforth be the official state religion. And yet this was a turning-point in Iranian history, with repercussions up to the present day.<br></p><p>Like most Iranians the Safavids (1501-1722) were Sunni, although like many outside Shi’ism they venerated Imam Ali (601-661), the first of the 12 Shia imams. The Sufi orders, sometimes based on trades or guilds, were the main way religion was organised, and they encouraged self-discipline, spirituality and mysticism in varying degrees.</p><p><em>Even though distinguished jurists were in general revered and emulated, the clerical community as a whole, with its varying judicial ranks, were at times the center [sic] of ridicule and disdain among common Persians. Proponents of folk Sufism attracted a significant following along the lower classes, which perceived them as more genuine, altruistic, austere and generous than the jurists. These contradictory developments reflected a social protest against state support of the mujtahids, who manipulated the power to ‘discipline’ for self-interest and greed.</em></p><p><em>The designation ‘internalist’ is intended to denote any Muslim writer or thinker whose scholarly attention was focused primarily on the fundamentals of belief (</em>usul al-iman<em>)…and dissemination of knowledge of God and His attributes (</em>ma’rifa<em>). In this sense, internalism has often been articulated best by those attached in some way or other to Sufism and Sufi orders…By contrast, the term ‘externalist’ is used to signify those Muslim scholars…whose primary consideration was the acquisition and promulgation of the ‘secondary sciences’ </em>[including both jurisprudence and studying hadith, sayings of the prophet].</p><p><em>According to Ghazali</em>, writes Turner, <em>jurisprudence is connected with religion only indirectly…The regulation of social life and form of government are secondary – albeit indispensable – adjuncts to the fundamentals of belief, and it is the regulation of social life and government, with its myriad rules and laws, that form the domain of the jurist. The heart is removed from this domain, since attention is focused only on the outward confession (Islam) and not the inward intention.</em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/29/iran-shia-islam-matter-of-state">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/religion">Religion</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/religion">Religion</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/islam">Islam</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-revolution">The Iranian revolution</category> <pubDate>Thu, 29 Sep 2016 11:05:20 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/29/iran-shia-islam-matter-of-state</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f5cb292c0be6c96aa31f627a595f8a69e19e7e36/0_200_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0cedf3df5db57583f9f89e0e39655bfd"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/REUTERS</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f5cb292c0be6c96aa31f627a595f8a69e19e7e36/0_200_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6c924ff0a7d1813ffe29df14983003f3"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/REUTERS</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Gareth Smyth for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-09-29T11:05:20Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>‘I am Lake Urmia’: a social media campaign takes on the environment in Iran</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/sep/23/iran-lake-urmia-environment</link> <description><p>Lake Urmia’s grim destiny reflects a wider trend of enviromental problems in Iran, including an over-reliance on dams, extreme weather patterns, climatic changes, poor irrigation practices and unregulated use of water </p><p>Long tucked away behind the mountains of northwest Iran, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/sep/02/iran-lake-urmia-in-pictures">Lake Urmia</a> is becoming a national symbol of environmental degradation that is eliciting public sensitivity and awareness. Launched at the end of August, the ‘I am Lake Urmia’ campaign is a grassroots effort to collect <a href="https://www.change.org/p/to-the-people-who-care-urmia-lake-which-is-located-inside-iran-is-one-of-the-biggest-environmental-issues-that-face-region-and-even-beyond-the-borders-we-ask-for-emergency-attention-to-this-lake-and-rehabilitation-of-it?recruiter=589538633&amp;utm_source=petitions_show_components_action_panel_wrapper&amp;utm_medium=copylink">a million signatures</a> to push the United Nations to discuss ways to revive this salt lake, which has lost 90% of its surface area since the 1970s.<br></p><p>The “I am Lake Urmia” hashtag (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/%D9%85%D9%86_%D8%AF%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%A7%DA%86%D9%87_%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%87_%D9%87%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%85/">من_دریاچه_ارومیه_هستم#</a>) is slowly trending across social media platforms. Actor Reza Kianian was one of the first to take up the call, using <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJw4MrnAFDl/?taken-by=reza_kianian_official">Instagram</a> to ask fellow Iranians to take responsibility for the lake. In his post Kianian stressed, <a href="http://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/5764013/%25D9%2587%25D8%25B4%25D8%25AA%25DA%25AF-%25D9%2585%25D9%2586-%25D8%25AF%25D8%25B1%25DB%258C%25D8%25A7%25DA%2586%25D9%2587-%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D9%2588%25D9%2585%25DB%258C%25D9%2587-%25D9%2587%25D8%25B3%25D8%25AA%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A7%25DB%258C%25D8%25AC%25D8%25A7%25D8%25AF-%25D8%25B4%25D8%25AF-%25D8%25A7%25DB%258C%25D9%2586%25D8%25B3%25D8%25AA%25D8%25A7%25D9%25BE%25D8%25B3%25D8%25AA%25E2%2580%258C%25D9%2587%25D8%25A7">“If we save our lake, we will save ourselves”</a>, reminding Iranians of their social responsibility for creating a more sustainable future. Kianian’s plea has echoed across popular apps like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/%25D9%2585%25D9%2586_%25D8%25AF%25D8%25B1%25D9%258A%25D8%25A7%25DA%2586%25D9%2587_%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D9%2588%25D9%2585%25D9%258A%25D9%2587_%25D9%2587%25D8%25B3%25D8%25AA%25D9%2585/">Instagram</a> and on the newly formed “I am Lake Urmia” <a href="https://telegram.me/urmulake">Telegram channel</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/sep/23/iran-lake-urmia-environment">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/film/leonardodicaprio">Leonardo DiCaprio</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/water">Water</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/access-to-water">Access to water</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/environment">Environment</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/global-development">Global development</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/instagram">Instagram</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations">United Nations</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/japan">Japan</category> <pubDate>Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:46:15 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/sep/23/iran-lake-urmia-environment</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1195064a441f06ef3e887937eed2b3da589dea06/0_233_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f60e6729de16abe8fa3b9fd501cbe167"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1195064a441f06ef3e887937eed2b3da589dea06/0_233_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=48889d4c32ef63d72274b83469d54dad"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Shirin Hakim and Kaveh Madani for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-09-23T12:46:15Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Polling gives a dark forecast for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/polling-gives-a-dark-forecast-for-iranian-president-hassan-rouhani</link> <description><p>Rouhani is losing ground as his fundamentalists opponents push slogans oddly similar to those of Donald Trump and the Brexiteers <br></p><p>The <a href="http://www.iranpoll.com/blog/jcpoa">latest poll</a> from IranPoll, the Canadian outfit linked to Maryland University, is bad news for president Hassan Rouhani. Just under three quarters – 74% - of Iranians surveyed on 17-27 June say there has been no improvement in the economy as a result of last year’s nuclear agreement with world powers. With a presidential election looming next year, probably in June, Rouhani’s lead over possible challenger Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former ‘principle-ist’ (or fundamentalist) president, has narrowed to eight percentage points from 27 points in May 2015.</p><p>Economic growth in the Iranian year ending in March was far smaller than expected. A leading Iranian business journalist told me he thought it had been 0.9% at best. The government anticipates 3.9% growth in the current year. This improvement will come from a doubling of oil exports since sanctions eased in February, but it also reflects the government loosening monetary and fiscal discipline, stimulating economic activity at the risk of higher inflation.<br></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/polling-gives-a-dark-forecast-for-iranian-president-hassan-rouhani">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ayatollah-ali-khamenei">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</category> <pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2016 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/polling-gives-a-dark-forecast-for-iranian-president-hassan-rouhani</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/81a9438f2629ba4c9a40c56070949c45d7c64a30/0_63_3950_2370/3950.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f6730a3fa5b8a47778262ecc39e6e9b0"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/81a9438f2629ba4c9a40c56070949c45d7c64a30/0_63_3950_2370/3950.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=bb64937b9b7a0c1d918bbb9c06ceab13"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Guardian Staff</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-07-13T06:00:00Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>The lure of conspiracy theories in Iranian politics</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/jul/01/iran-conspiracy-theories-khomeini-carter</link> <description><p>Do documents support the claim from BBC Persian that the United States helped Ayatollah Khomeini gain power in 1979?</p><p>‘A tempest in a teapot’ was how Gary Sick described the recent reports by BBC Persian’s Kambiz Fattahi on declassified United States documents on contacts with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the Iranian Revolution. As the official dealing with Iran in Jimmy Carter’s White House, Sick pointed out that these dealings with Khomeini have been public knowledge for decades and that the BBC’s ‘revelations’ added little to what we already knew. <br></p><p>Yet, the BBC’s claims have provoked outrage from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, who has called the documents a forgery and a British conspiracy to defame Khomeini’s memory. Conversely, for many Iranians who fled Iran after the fall of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the BBC reports confirmed the Shah’s claims in his memoirs that the Carter administration had abandoned him and paved the way for the victory of the revolution.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/jul/01/iran-conspiracy-theories-khomeini-carter">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ayatollah-ali-khamenei">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-revolution">The Iranian revolution</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc">BBC</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media">Media</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jimmy-carter">Jimmy Carter</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2016 14:50:28 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/jul/01/iran-conspiracy-theories-khomeini-carter</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2c4cec609f8bde4e9ca893a77ac08fe7080cb494/0_31_1633_980/1000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=354b0709939a9e608c1888d69f2453c6"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: DENIS CAMERON/REX FEATURES</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2c4cec609f8bde4e9ca893a77ac08fe7080cb494/0_31_1633_980/1000.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=28b90cfb656e5ad1550f6b3ceefc369c"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: DENIS CAMERON/REX FEATURES</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Roham Alvandi and Christian Emery for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-07-01T14:50:28Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>'A kind of death': life on the US Treasury blacklist</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/25/kassim-tajideen-us-treasury-hezbollah-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>The United States in 2009 listed Kassim Tajideen as a financier of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Lebanese party, leaving him shut out from banks with no legal redress</p><p>Put aside any image of a global terrorist in an Afghan cave or an armed camp in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Forget the triumphalism of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander. Kassim Tajideen arrives in a Beirut restaurant wearing a flat cloth cap and chats over a lunch of spiced fish.<br></p><p>The fact he can’t pay with a Visa card is one of the lesser disadvantages of being listed by the United States Treasury Department as a financial supporter of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Lebanese Shia Muslim group the United States classifies as a foreign terrorist organisation.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/25/kassim-tajideen-us-treasury-hezbollah-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hezbollah">Hezbollah</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/lebanon">Lebanon</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-national-security">US national security</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/banking">Banking</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-foreign-policy">US foreign policy</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/belgium">Belgium</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/sierraleone">Sierra Leone</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ivory-coast">Ivory Coast</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/angola">Angola</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/israel">Israel</category> <pubDate>Wed, 25 May 2016 11:44:35 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/25/kassim-tajideen-us-treasury-hezbollah-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3129ab87a4486dcef0cbbdc58283547dae0b742b/0_129_2926_1755/2926.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2833a09588947a0d3452c9c63ac55409"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3129ab87a4486dcef0cbbdc58283547dae0b742b/0_129_2926_1755/2926.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=170a3b26adb930ce9b36d763d5d7d4c4"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Gareth Smyth for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-05-25T11:44:35Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>In from the cold: Iran x Cuba – review</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/10/iran-x-cuba-beyond-the-headline-review</link> <description><p>Playful seriousness abounds in this exhibition at New York’s Rogue Space gallery</p><p>Holy Cow. The title of Allahyar Najafi’s painting captures the playful seriousness that abounds in IRAN X CUBA: Beyond the Headline. The show features work by 19 artists from two countries whose revolutions denied them the tender affections of a certain global hegemon for decades on end; now, as if love might actually trump hate in time, they have come together at New York’s Rogue Space gallery. <br></p><p>In Najafi’s piece, the titular bovine, sacred not only in Hinduism – the artist resided in India for several years – but in Iran’s own Zoroastrianism, weeps amid an array of other hallowed beasts. Through the ether swim a pod of Caspian seals, seemingly a personal totem for the artist, who now lives in Rasht, not far from the sea (one takes center stage in Pusa Caspica, after the animal’s Latin name). From a crook in the cow’s form stares a bald eagle, once-secular American iconography now as sanctified as the almighty dollar.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/10/iran-x-cuba-beyond-the-headline-review">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/cuba">Cuba</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/americas">Americas</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/new-york">New York</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/art">Art</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/exhibition">Exhibitions</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artanddesign">Art and design</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <pubDate>Tue, 10 May 2016 04:37:50 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/10/iran-x-cuba-beyond-the-headline-review</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/628deecd919d83bcecff58e94d2035a672c240df/0_55_1280_768/1280.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=02bfd7b7b16d3144b65dbe44c0c20a04"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Courtesy of the artist</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/628deecd919d83bcecff58e94d2035a672c240df/0_55_1280_768/1280.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=30312431930988499ac8b8bdd4db005e"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Courtesy of the artist</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Dan Geist for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-05-10T04:37:50Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>A grand but faulty vision for Iran's water problems</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/iran-desalination-water</link> <description><p>Massive water transfer schemes are no solution to Iran’s growing problems with drought<br></p><p>A grand vision of eliminating water scarcity looks attractive for tens of millions of people in the desert cities of central Iran worried about drought. Ambitious water transfer projects are being put in place to answer <a href="http://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2016/ 03/08/1022552/water-to-be-transferred-from-persian-gulf-to-central-iran-in-giant-project">a call</a> from President Hassan Rouhani. <br></p><p>Two high-profile projects would see desalinised water transferred to the central plateau from the <a href="http://financialtribune.com/articles/environment/39621/new-twist-caspian-water-transfer-debate">Caspian Sea</a>, and from the <a href="http://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2016/03/08/1022552/water-to-be-transferred-from-persian-gulf-to-central-iran-in-giant-project">Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/iran-desalination-water">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/water">Water</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/access-to-water">Access to water</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/environment">Environment</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/global-development">Global development</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</category> <pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2016 09:36:04 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/iran-desalination-water</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/54129e5dc37e91479b862ea0a5e6471d6d9ec4cd/0_102_1920_1151/1920.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=1b04b642de21c486ffccf52f23c13e62"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Sentinel-1A/ESA</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/54129e5dc37e91479b862ea0a5e6471d6d9ec4cd/0_102_1920_1151/1920.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f8efb41e09c340d581b4466ddc385303"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Sentinel-1A/ESA</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Ali Mirchi and Kaveh Madani for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-05-09T09:36:04Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Desperate remedies: inside a neurosurgery ward in Iran</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/03/desperate-remedies-inside-a-neurosurgery-ward-in-iran</link> <description><p>For the sick, it doesn’t matter whether sanctions or government mismanagement is more to blame for the dire state of Iran’s health service. A doctor-in-training gives us an inside look</p><p>I left Iran at a young age and have always enjoyed going back to visit family, relive childhood memories and learn about the challenges of life there. Growing up abroad, I decided to become a doctor, and between my studies and applying for a job, I decided to take up an opportunity in late 2015 to shadow one of Iran’s most renowned neurosurgeons. <br></p><p>I had opted for neurosurgery even before I started medical school, partly because someone close to me had suffered from a brain tumour. The uncertain outcomes, the fear, the emotional and physical pain that both the patient and those around them must endure are hard to describe.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/03/desperate-remedies-inside-a-neurosurgery-ward-in-iran">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <pubDate>Tue, 03 May 2016 11:54:48 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/may/03/desperate-remedies-inside-a-neurosurgery-ward-in-iran</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c2eb0603abec3679a4cb62965e19090a86de011a/187_1155_2198_1319/2198.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2025c9e7a0169c3eed382c8c78f7975a"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Tehran Bureau</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c2eb0603abec3679a4cb62965e19090a86de011a/187_1155_2198_1319/2198.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=14842dfd2299ce787103bafdd8aef6e4"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Tehran Bureau</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Tehran Bureau correspondent</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-05-03T11:54:48Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Why so many Iranians have come to hate the hijab</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/iranian-women-hate-hijab-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>Over the years the state crackdown on women’s dress has become more of a show to placate the country’s hardline base. Our correspondent shares stories from her personal repertoire illustrating the point </p><p>As summer approaches, police in Tehran have <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/06/summertime-in-iran.html">once again</a> begun to crack down on Iranians who fail to comply with the country’s Islamic dress code. This year, besides the customary uniformed morality police, 7,000 undercover agents are reportedly also on the case. I was spared the early years of the Islamic Republic, but my mother recalls how diligent she had to be to avoid giving the morality police – or anyone else with the authority to judge appearances – any pretext to find fault with her, as jail sentences for “protesting” were all too common for dress-code transgressors.<br></p><p>It was a hot day in the early 1980s and my parents were going to an international exhibition in Tehran. As my older sister, then a baby, lay in her carriage, my mom wheeled her into the room filled with female agents who were in charge of checking the women’s compliance. They would ask some to fix their hijab, passing tissues to others to wipe off their makeup. As one agent finished scrutinizing my mother, she looked at my sister in the carriage.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/iranian-women-hate-hijab-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/islamic-veil">Islamic veil</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/islam">Islam</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/religion">Religion</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-revolution">The Iranian revolution</category> <pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2016 08:00:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/iranian-women-hate-hijab-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4f784afeeebcee01f440f14fbdeb75d72ca26a33/0_173_5184_3110/5184.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=3dbbbfc0be4a77ca65879fdbf49c5731"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4f784afeeebcee01f440f14fbdeb75d72ca26a33/0_173_5184_3110/5184.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c06177e046eff75519cc30e2b4bd8295"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Denise Hassanzade Ajiri for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-28T08:00:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>North American professors' plea to President Rouhani: the full letter</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/27/iran-president-rouhani-open-letter-prisoners-urgent-need-medical-care-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>Cancer and other chronic diseases are reportedly sweeping Iran’s prisons and inmates are routinely denied access to proper medical care. A group of prominent professors urge the President to intervene quickly </p><p>Your Excellency, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Hassan Rouhani:</p><p>We the undersigned, a group of university professors in North America, write you concerning the dire circumstances of a number of political prisoners in Iran. It is our hope that you would consider intervening on their behalf and arranging for their immediate hospitalization under the care of competent and expert physicians.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/27/iran-president-rouhani-open-letter-prisoners-urgent-need-medical-care-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/law/human-rights">Human rights</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/freedom-of-speech">Freedom of speech</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/law/law">Law</category> <pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:42:18 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/27/iran-president-rouhani-open-letter-prisoners-urgent-need-medical-care-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/aaebd822ff79e9e95982c9d6a9d465bcb05ee5bc/0_0_2560_1536/2560.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=caeb9a04e22bd8e76d0fff7d901c7396"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: supplied</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/aaebd822ff79e9e95982c9d6a9d465bcb05ee5bc/0_0_2560_1536/2560.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a576b1ed5777600d07065ec1bbfa6775"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: supplied</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-27T14:42:18Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>The tricky triangle of Iran, Russia and Israel</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/25/iran-russia-israel-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>On the complex regional chess board, Iran wants better relations with Moscow even as the Russians have extended their intelligence co-operation with Israel in Syria<br></p><p>Ali Larijani, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, has long been an advocate of better relations with Russia and his recent interview with TASS, in which he spoke of Iran’s “eastern orientation, first of all towards Russia…[as] the country’s strategic choice”, is no surprise.<br></p><p>But Iran’s relationships with all international powers are becoming more nuanced as the result of changes in the region. Last July’s nuclear agreement with world powers, including the ‘Great Satan’, has helped produce a diplomatic palate with many shades of grey. There are few steadfast allies or implacable enemies.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/25/iran-russia-israel-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/israel">Israel</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/russia">Russia</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hezbollah">Hezbollah</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ayatollah-ali-khamenei">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/syria">Syria</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin Netanyahu</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mossad">The Mossad</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/vladimir-putin">Vladimir Putin</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations">United Nations</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-foreign-policy">US foreign policy</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news">Europe</category> <pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:47:11 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/25/iran-russia-israel-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/39e6036f495356be5bd824b2a4234010faa2d53c/0_19_3500_2099/3500.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2a8b2a3c308b0820ea41e4a44ffc4388"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/39e6036f495356be5bd824b2a4234010faa2d53c/0_19_3500_2099/3500.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=607c36b66f5c5450276d6bfd809a9c80"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Gareth Smyth for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-25T12:47:11Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Discount ticket on the bus to reform: Iran's runoff elections</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/22/iran-runoff-parliamentary-elections-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>The reformists used to give up when their candidates were disqualified or defeated in the first round - now they ask voters to go tactical. The remaining parliamentary seats are up for grab next week</p><p>After the February surprise when <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/iran-elections-struggle-theocracy-democracy-tehranbureau ">Iran’s reformers</a> ingeniously outmanoeuvred the fundamentalists, Iran’s 2016 elections have fallen off the global media’s radar screen. However, a crucial second round of voting on 29 April is approaching for 69 parliamentary seats in districts all around the country. These are the places that were too close to call in February, when 221 out of 290 seats were decided.</p><p>All seats for metropolitan Tehran are filled – although there will be polling in three of its satellite cities – and most of the run-offs are in small towns, scattered around 18 of Iran’s 31 provinces. The races are lively, proving that Iran’s provinces, even if rarely visited by Tehranis much less foreigners, are no longer mired in myopic local rivalries.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/22/iran-runoff-parliamentary-elections-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ayatollah-ali-khamenei">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-presidential-election-2013">Iranian presidential election 2013</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2016 06:00:20 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/22/iran-runoff-parliamentary-elections-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/77f9e2a08a15bee99b38ec81669f493151d161d9/0_0_3724_2235/3724.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=47fe93605dd81c09ddfb9c844a3d36e9"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Hamid Najafi via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/77f9e2a08a15bee99b38ec81669f493151d161d9/0_0_3724_2235/3724.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=495cdcb5a3fc56bf031c58f62482c503"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Hamid Najafi via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Mahmoud Sadri and Emad Goli for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-22T06:00:20Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Deciphering the Iranian leader's call for a 'resistance economy' | Gareth Smyth</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/19/iran-resistance-economy-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>As with the nuclear agreement, supreme leader Ali Khamenei and President Rouhani may have more in common than in dispute over the economy and foreign investment</p><p>The relationship between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, and president Hassan Rouhani has been at the heart of the domestic <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/28/five-lessons-from-irans-2016-elections-tehranbureau">political realignment</a> that made possible last July’s nuclear agreement with world powers and the strong showing for pro-agreement candidates in February’s elections for parliament and Majles-e Khobregan (the Experts Assembly), the clerical body that chooses the leader.<br></p><p>Next up comes improving economic performance, and this will be another challenge for both men and for their relationship. Both would like to see higher economic growth – at least the 5% that could see the labour market absorb new entrants each year – and both know faster and wider easing of international sanctions would help.<br></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/19/iran-resistance-economy-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ayatollah-ali-khamenei">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/barack-obama">Barack Obama</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/oil">Oil</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/business">Business</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-revolution">The Iranian revolution</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-foreign-policy">US foreign policy</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</category> <pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2016 06:00:16 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/19/iran-resistance-economy-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/13065515da68c874aacdc9b8463ae6224faa438c/0_223_3552_2131/3552.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c13a6f09e2f4251150fd32428f8d4704"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/13065515da68c874aacdc9b8463ae6224faa438c/0_223_3552_2131/3552.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0ca9d906402c81430be8d769c0572c87"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Gareth Smyth for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-19T06:00:16Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Untangling Iran's web of sanctions after the nuclear deal</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/13/untangling-irans-web-of-sanctions-after-the-nuclear-deal</link> <description><p>A former US negotiator doesn’t think European companies should shun doing business with the Islamic Republic. Just do your due diligence and keep records, says Richard Nephew<br></p><p>United States government representatives are advising European businesses to do their homework before dipping their fingers into post-nuclear deal Iran. According to University of California Los Angeles scholar Kevan Harris and former deputy industry minister Mohsen Safai Farahani, more than half of Iran’s economy is run by pseudo-private entities linked to “parastatal organisations”, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which remains subject to both European Union and United States sanctions. <br></p><p>So how best can a foreign investor avoid being fined by the US government for dealing with IRGC front companies? “Check up on what you can check up on, keep your records, be able to make your case,” Richard Nephew, the former lead US sanctions negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks, told Tehran Bureau in Berlin last month.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/13/untangling-irans-web-of-sanctions-after-the-nuclear-deal">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/banking">Banking</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-foreign-policy">US foreign policy</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/germany">Germany</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/austria">Austria</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/belgium">Belgium</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/business">Business</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news">Europe</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/republicans">Republicans</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/obama-administration">Obama administration</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/eu">European Union</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations">United Nations</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-congress">US Congress</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/france">France</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/bnp-paribas">BNP Paribas</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hong-kong">Hong Kong</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/europeanbanks">European banks</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/financial-sector">Financial sector</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/law/law-us">Law (US)</category> <pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2016 07:00:07 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/13/untangling-irans-web-of-sanctions-after-the-nuclear-deal</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fdd8d3b824b15214a9073b077103fc9ef7b9cbe8/0_0_2954_1774/2954.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d4c27b7fd401651b4ad4bb1f9815b1dd"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Yonhap File/EPA</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fdd8d3b824b15214a9073b077103fc9ef7b9cbe8/0_0_2954_1774/2954.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b29a9252c05038f9cc379b5ce2de027b"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Yonhap File/EPA</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Marketa Hulpachova for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-13T07:00:07Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Herbal life: traditional medicine gets a modern twist in Iran</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/11/iran-traditional-medicine-herbs-regulation-tehranbureau</link> <description><p>Iranians have long used traditional remedies to cure all kinds of ailments - pennyroyal to soothe, chicory to purify, marjoram to lift the spirits. But a rapid recent growth in traditional medicine has led to problems with regulation</p><p>Shahla pulls her wheeled suitcase behind her over the cobblestone streets of Istanbul. Inside are herbs and herbal products she has brought from Iran for her niece. As soon as she arrives, she opens the suitcase and hands them one by one: henna, tea, turmeric, cinnamon, herbal flu tablets and shampoos. She apologises for not bringing pennyroyal. <br></p><p>Shahla, who is in her early 60s and lives in Tehran, is an encyclopaedia of traditional medicine. “I barely use chemical medicine for flu, instead I drink brewed pennyroyal or borage,” she says. “Pennyroyal is a pain killer too. If you have a fracture or bruise, you can mix it with roasted flour and oil and rub it in.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/11/iran-traditional-medicine-herbs-regulation-tehranbureau">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/science/science">Science</category> <pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:20:41 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/11/iran-traditional-medicine-herbs-regulation-tehranbureau</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0908a4f81ed02d95234cb907ee782e55f573f44e/0_290_5472_3283/5472.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=730d4e6b55cb1a9fd1d3c64d9cd15545"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Antoine Pedro via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0908a4f81ed02d95234cb907ee782e55f573f44e/0_290_5472_3283/5472.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4ff517e3e9db7e072df6195b5054242d"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Antoine Pedro via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Denise Hassanzade Ajiri and Tehran Bureau correspondent</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-11T13:20:41Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>On the shoulder of giants in southwest Iran – in pictures</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/08/iran-men-of-dezful-pictures</link> <description><p>Photographer <strong>Sabyl Ghoussoub </strong>always wanted to take pictures of the country, but he was’t interested in veiled women, clerics<em> </em>or the underground scene in Tehran. The road less traveled led to Dezful</p><p>“They drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. They were not religious at all.” That is how Sabyl Ghoussoub remembers the men of Dezful. Prompted by a suggestion from a friend in Tehran, the French-Lebanese photographer visited the ancient city in southwest Iran earlier this year. For five days, he roamed around with his friend’s father-in-law and the latter’s own crew of middle-aged comrades, a mixed group of small business owners, laborers, and farmers.<br></p><p>Ghoussoub was never introduced to the men’s wives, sisters, or daughters, and aside from being allowed to traverse the city in their company, was largely kept in the dark. “I never knew anything about them - they were mysterious, impenetrable,” he says. One of the aims of his current work is to highlight “the virility that every Middle Eastern man has to confront. Where does it stop?” A long way from his home in Paris, his experience in Dezful reinforced his impression of the region as a “man’s, man’s, man’s world.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/08/iran-men-of-dezful-pictures">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/photography">Photography</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/middleeast">Middle East holidays</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/travel">Travel</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/iran">Iran holidays</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/feminism">Feminism</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/lebanon">Lebanon</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/france">France</category> <pubDate>Fri, 08 Apr 2016 12:14:30 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/08/iran-men-of-dezful-pictures</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/33123df9f17566da11b5ee3fd599c563fae1aecb/0_338_5184_3110/5184.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b4bf98dc1f3557e9d4568f813fd9978b"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Sabyl Ghoussoub</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/33123df9f17566da11b5ee3fd599c563fae1aecb/0_338_5184_3110/5184.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=bbc8af1d9c136a740b0656617bdb0099"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Sabyl Ghoussoub</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Joobin Bekhrad for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-08T12:14:30Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Hard talk or tunnel vision? Iranian TV needs to wise up</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/06/iran-state-tv-challenge-social-media</link> <description><p>Irib’s monopoly has gone, but burying its head in the sand only harms state broadcasting as a whole, argues <strong>Rohollah Faghihi</strong>. Even conservatives agree<br></p><p>For 25 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (Irib) dominated television in Iran. However, in recent years, state TV has been losing viewers to online rivals.<br></p><p>“Online channels and social networks are a big challenge for state TV, because they are breaking its monopoly,” Majid Rezaian, professor of journalism at the Islamic Azad University, told Tehran Bureau.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/06/iran-state-tv-challenge-social-media">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media">Media</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/youtube">YouTube</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/technology">Technology</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc">BBC</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/social-media">Social media</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2016 20:03:22 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/apr/06/iran-state-tv-challenge-social-media</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e60588aace3986d56293d16c798da57f9205a823/33_0_958_575/master/958.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f7e4e2546d18def4ea7926467275fd14"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ben Piven via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e60588aace3986d56293d16c798da57f9205a823/33_0_958_575/master/958.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d5c060031cd6a31f7d28abd3b87a1ae5"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ben Piven via Flickr</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Rohollah Faghihi for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-04-06T20:03:22Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Iranian group gets help from Islam to save juveniles from execution</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/31/iran-juveniles-saved-death-row-imam-ali-society</link> <description><p>As 160 under-18s wait on death row in the Islamic Republic, an NGO is raising blood money and public awareness to halt executions of juvenile offenders</p><p>On the night of 22 March 2009, 17-year-old Hamid was in his dad’s mini-bus when their neighbour’s son, Ayyoub, 16, got in. Hamid was in the business of selling mobile phones, and Ayyoub had been in dispute with him for days over a cellphone he’d bought from him. As their argument became heated, Hamid grabbed part of a seat cover and strangled Ayyoub.<br></p><p>Hamid was sentenced to death by hanging. Murder in Iran carries capital punishment even for minors who are incarcerated until the sentence is carried out when they turn 18. The execution can be halted only if the victim’s family pardons the offender, usually in return for blood money.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/31/iran-juveniles-saved-death-row-imam-ali-society">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/law/human-rights">Human rights</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations">United Nations</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/islam">Islam</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/religion">Religion</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/law/law">Law</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <pubDate>Thu, 31 Mar 2016 06:00:07 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/31/iran-juveniles-saved-death-row-imam-ali-society</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ac7b5a31cbdffcccbc09933570aee141bf36395/235_0_1964_1180/master/1964.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=33deab7193277038b95d2bda5a467f6a"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/REUTERS</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ac7b5a31cbdffcccbc09933570aee141bf36395/235_0_1964_1180/master/1964.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=27b3e3c2234ddb965de981ea846cf73e"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/REUTERS</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Denise Hassanzade Ajiri for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-03-31T06:00:07Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Sanctions, misunderstanding and religion: 100 Iranians give their view</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/ng-interactive/2016/mar/30/sanctions-western-misunderstanding-and-religion-100-iranians-share-their-views</link> <description><p>The post-sanctions era: a “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/17/rouhani-targets-economic-boom-for-iran-as-he-hails-golden-nuclear-deal">golden page in history</a>”, a turning point in the economy, or business as usual? According to the popular western media narrative, Iran is now ready to talk to the world – tourist numbers are set to rise, there has been a flurry of high-profile business deals and a recent election saw reformists sweep to victory in Tehran.</p><p>But what do ordinary Iranians think about politics? How does it feel to live in the Islamic Republic, long-maligned by the world? Are they misrepresented, and if so how do we remedy that? 100 people living in the country, and across the diaspora, share their views</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/ng-interactive/2016/mar/30/sanctions-western-misunderstanding-and-religion-100-iranians-share-their-views">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iranian-revolution">The Iranian revolution</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/irans-nuclear-programme">Iran's nuclear programme</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/hassan-rouhani">Hassan Rouhani</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <pubDate>Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:45:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/ng-interactive/2016/mar/30/sanctions-western-misunderstanding-and-religion-100-iranians-share-their-views</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bdb8a981d85283faad6f3ca95975c56579f217de/0_0_958_575/master/958.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e7a05a41c84f92ddf8698e2189577638"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: The Guardian/GuardianWitness</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bdb8a981d85283faad6f3ca95975c56579f217de/0_0_958_575/master/958.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c90d0c64ba5c763ec7199b91b4315407"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: The Guardian/GuardianWitness</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Matthew Holmes and Maeve Shearlaw</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-03-30T08:45:03Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>A sanctuary for stray dogs grows in Iran thanks to social media</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/29/iran-maryam-sanei-hospice-stray-dogs</link> <description><p>Animal lover Maryam Sanei has set up a hospice for unwanted pooches. A draft law penalising those who harass stray animals was referred to the President’s office last month<br></p><p>I called Maryam Sanei in Tehran a little before 9pm. She had asked me to call her at night, saying she was busy during the day taking care of her dogs, which she calls “kids”. <br></p><p>After a few rings, she picked up, sounding anxious. “I can’t talk right now. We have a kid here who’s badly injured. Can I talk to you in few hours?” She got back to me at 1.30am.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/29/iran-maryam-sanei-hospice-stray-dogs">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/animals">Animals</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast">Middle East and north Africa</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/facebook">Facebook</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/socialnetworking">Social networking</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/instagram">Instagram</category> <pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2016 07:00:09 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/29/iran-maryam-sanei-hospice-stray-dogs</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd89023918a1b4347898befa4187024c2601f47b/0_71_1280_768/master/1280.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=87028488fb34be4c187761aae3acc18d"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Maryam Sanei</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd89023918a1b4347898befa4187024c2601f47b/0_71_1280_768/master/1280.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=950377281f837468aefc221536f6e4bb"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Maryam Sanei</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Denise Hassanzade Ajiri for Tehran Bureau</dc:creator> <dc:date>2016-03-29T07:00:09Z</dc:date> </item> </channel></rss> If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:
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