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☆ Iran announces record low election turnout despite calls on voters to participate
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

It is unclear if the announced 41% turnout will sink further in the coming days, with some candidates in the parliamentary election going to a runoff. Iran’s last parliamentary election in 2020 saw a turnout of 42.57%, and its last presidential election in 2021 had a turnout of 48.8% – both were the lowest since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Some 15,000 candidates competed last week for the 290-seat parliamentary election, and 144 ran for the 88 seats of the Assembly of Experts. Some 25 million people cast their ballots out of Iran's 61 million eligible voters. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and former Revolutionary Guards air force commander, seemed to lose some votes, coming fourth in this year’s election after his popularity peaked in the 2020 parliamentary election.

Persons: IRNA, ”, Alex Vatanka, Mahsa, Iran’s, Ebrahim Raisi, Hossein Beris, Mohammad Khatami, Azar Mansouri, “, Khatami, Khamenei, ” Vatanka, watchdogs, –, Hassan Rouhani, Atta Kenare, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Ghalibaf’s, ” Sanam Vakil, Vakil, ” Vakil Organizations: CNN, Middle East Institute, “, Saturday, Experts, Getty, Iran’s Guardian, Revolutionary Guards, North Africa, Chatham House Locations: Iran, Washington , DC, Fars, Islamic Republic, Iranian, Tehran, AFP, East, London

☆ Iran vote turnout hits historic low amid discontent
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Turnout for Iran's parliamentary election, seen as a test of the clerical establishment's legitimacy, appears to have hit an historic low of around 41%, according to unofficial reports quoted by state media on Saturday. Mohammad Khatami, Iran's first reformist president, was among critics who did not vote on Friday. State news agency IRNA said unofficial reports put turnout at more than 25 million, or about 41% of eligible voters. If the turnout figure is confirmed, it would be the lowest since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. Iran's turnout fell to 42.5% in 2020 parliamentary elections from about 62% in 2016.

Persons: Mohammad Khatami, Iran's, Narges Mohammadi, IRNA, Joe Biden, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, Hassan Rouhani Organizations: Reuters, Iran's, Experts Locations: Tehran, State, United States, Israel, Ham Mihan

☆ Fact Check: Image of Barack Obama bowing to Ayatollah Khamenei is fake
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Two separate photographs of former U.S. President Barack Obama and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were digitally combined into a single image to make it appear as if Obama was bowing before Khamenei. It was captured by AFP photographer Atta Kenare and shows Khamenei looking toward Ahmadinejad while former Iranian presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashami Rafsanjani, are seen sitting next to Khamenei. The image of Obama bowing has been taken from an official White House photograph from May 8, 2009. Years later, Obama reconnected with the boy and posted a video about the encounter on Instagram (archived) on May 27, 2022. The image of Obama bowing to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei is edited to combine two unrelated photographs.

Persons: Barack Obama, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Obama, Khamenei, ”, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Atta Kenare, Ahmadinejad, Mohammad Khatami, Ali Akbar Hashami Rafsanjani, Jacob Philadelphia, Read Organizations: Iran's, Twitter, Facebook, AFP, White House, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Iran’s, Tehran

☆ Salman Rushdie to publish memoir on stabbing that left him blind in one eye
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Christy Choi | Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters —Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him because of his writing, will publish a memoir on his 2022 stabbing in New York, book publisher Penguin Random House said on Wednesday. Rushdie’s new memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” will be published on April 16, 2024. The cover of Salman Rushdie's forthcoming memoir, "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder." His attacker, a Shi’ite Muslim American from New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault. Khomeini’s successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once said the fatwa against Rushdie was “irrevocable.”

Persons: Reuters — Salman Rushdie, Rushdie’s, ” Rushdie, Salman Rushdie's, Rushdie, Iran’s, Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad Khatami, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ” Organizations: Reuters, Random Locations: Iran, New York, British, New Jersey, Victory, ”

Salman Rushdie poses after being made a Companion of Honour by the Princess Royal, during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, Britian May 23, 2023. Andrew Matthews/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him because of his writing, will publish a memoir on his 2022 stabbing in New York, book publisher Penguin Random House said on Wednesday. Rushdie's new memoir, "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder," will be published on April 16, 2024. Rushdie released a new novel, "Victory City," nearly six months after his stabbing attack. Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once said the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable."

Persons: Salman Rushdie, Princess Royal, Andrew Matthews, Rushdie's, Rushdie, Iran's, Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad Khatami, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Kanishka Singh, Sandra Maler Organizations: Britian, Rights, Random, Thomson Locations: Windsor Castle , Berkshire, Iran, New York, British, New Jersey, Victory, Washington

☆ Opinion: Iranian women know which battles to fight. They’ve been doing it for decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Mahnaz Afkhami | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Editor’s note: Mahnaz Afkhami was the minister of women’s affairs in Iran’s government before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her most recent book is “The Other Side of Silence: A Memoir of Exile, Iran, and the Global Women’s Movement,” published by the University of North Carolina Press. Iranian women have been deprived of the rights that they know and for which they have worked. This may be the first women-led counterrevolution in history — and it’s one in which men and women have participated together. Join us on Twitter and FacebookIn every area of endeavor that does not need government engagement, the women of Iran have succeeded.

Persons: Mahnaz Afkhami, ”, CNN —, Mahsa, Mahnaz, Mahsa Amini, Ruhollah Khomeini, “, Mohammad Khatami’s, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Organizations: Women’s Learning, Foundation, Iranian Studies, Global, University of North Carolina Press, CNN, Getty, Green Movement, Protesters, Twitter, Facebook, Islamic Locations: Iran, Kurdish Iranian, Islamic Republic, Tehran, Qom

☆ Risking revival of unrest, Iran rulers tighten curbs on dissent
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Police on Sunday announced that the morality police force has intensified its crackdown on women flouting the compulsory dress code. Security forces crushed months of unrest during which protesters from all walks of life called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic and women took off and burned the compulsory headscarves in fury. "The Islamic Republic feels threatened. By redeploying the morality police, the regime is fuelling the people's revolution," said Atena Daemi, a prominent human rights activist in Iran. "People are very angry due to repression, rights violations and worsening economic problems.

Persons: Mahsa, Amini, Atena Daemi, Mohammad Khatami, Parisa, Michael Georgy, Angus MacSwan Organizations: West Asia News Agency, REUTERS, Islamic, Police, Sunday, Thomson Locations: Tehran, Iran, WANA, DUBAI, Islamic Republic, Republic

☆ Iranian foundation offers land to Salman Rushdie's attacker - state media
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Feb 21 (Reuters) - An Iranian foundation has praised the man who attacked novelist Salman Rushdie last year, leaving him severely injured, and said it will reward him with 1,000 square metres of agricultural land, state TV reported on Tuesday through its Telegram channel. Some Muslims saw passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous. Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable." The man accused of attacking the novelist has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges. Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Michael Georgy and Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Alireza Akbari: the British-Iranian executed by Tehran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Iran has executed British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported on Saturday, after sentencing the former Iranian deputy defence minister to death on charges of spying for Britain. - According to a caption in a video aired by Iran's state news agency IRNA on Thursday, Akbari moved to Britain after being briefly detained and released on bail in 2008. Reuters could not verify if Akbari had moved to Britain in 2008, or when he returned to Iran. - In the audio recording, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture. In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination, but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.

CNN —Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami has urged the current government to be more lenient with protesters, amid ongoing nationwide demonstrations representing the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic in decades. The anti-government demonstrations were sparked by the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman in September. Khatami, pictured in 2006, called on Tehran to "take a softer approach and listen to" anti-regime protesters. Public figures in Iran have solicited the government to listen to the grievances of anti-regime protesters. Middle East Images/APOther Iranian public figures have also recently called on the government to take action to listen and protect protesters.

☆ Analysis: Iran's unrest sounds death knell for once vibrant reformists
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

It highlighted the main problem facing reformists in a system where Khamenei, 83 and in power since 1989, wields ultimate power. "People feel reformists helped hardliners by promising reforms that were impossible with hardliners in power," a former official who served in the Khatami administration told Reuters. The reform movement is dead." That view has been echoed in the streets where protesters have grouped reformists with hardliners as part of the problem. The fact is that the reform movement is dead, its has been dead for some time," he said.

☆ Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye following attack, agent says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Wylie described the author's wounds as "profound," and noted the loss of sight of one eye. Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable." He is being held without bail in a western New York jail. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The people of Iran are in open revolt, this time led by courageous young women protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the morality police, and the law requiring they wear hijab. Most significantly, this current uprising over the murder of a Kurdish 22-year-old is being led by the young women of the TikTok generation. Pro-regime chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” have been a staple of the rhetorical diet fed to the public. To that end, pro-Palestinian sympathy was ingrained in Iran’s propaganda via school textbooks, television programs, sports, cartoons, billboards and more. In 1979, the people of Iran yearned for a democratic revolution; instead, they got an Islamic dictatorship.

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