Iran - The African Mirror

Apr

2023

Exclusive: Iran exploits earthquake relief mission to fly weapons to Syria

IRAN has used earthquake relief flights to bring weapons and military equipment into its strategic ally Syria, nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli and Western sources said. The sources told Reuters that the goal was to buttress Iran's defences against Israel in Syria and to strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters is the first to report this development. After the Feb. 6 earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey, hundreds of flights from Iran began landing in Syria's Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia airports bringing supplies, and this went on for seven weeks, the sources said. More than 6,000 people died in all of…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Calm Down: how a Nigerian singer and a Cameroonian dancer inspired a powerful protest in Iran

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ON 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge. This is the choreography for the first verse of the Afrobeats hit Calm Down by Nigerian singer Rema (Divine Ikubor). Author ANANYA JAHANARA KABIR, Professor of English Literature, King's College London The girls were following people across the world who’ve made this dance challenge go viral for over a year by uploading videos of themselves dancing to it. With one difference, though: they were dancing in Iran, where it is forbidden to dance in public, especially without the mandatory…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

UK sanctions ‘global violators of women’s rights’

NEWS

BRITAIN announced a package of sanctions against what they described as 'global violators of women's rights' based in Iran, Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. The asset freezes and travel bans were introduced on International Women's Day, applying to four individuals, including military figures accused of overseeing rape. An Iranian government institution was also sanctioned. "These sanctions send a clear message that the perpetrators of abhorrent gender-based violence must be held accountable," foreign minister James Cleverly said in an emailed statement. "We are increasing our efforts to stand up for women and girls, and will use all the…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Protests break out in Iran over schoolgirl illnesses

WORLD

WORRIED parents protested in Iran's capital Tehran and other cities over a wave of suspected poison attacks that have affected schoolgirls in dozens of schools, according to Iranian news agencies and social media videos. The so-far unexplained illnesses have affected hundreds of schoolgirls in recent months. Iranian officials believe the girls may have been poisoned and have blamed Tehran's enemies. The country's health minister has said the girls have suffered "mild poison" attacks and some politicians have suggested the girls could have been targeted by hardline Islamist groups opposed to girls' education. Iran's interior minister said on Saturday investigators had found "suspicious…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Iran reroutes plane carrying soccer star’s wife, blames UK over unrest

WORLD

IRANIAN authorities rerouted a flight bound for Dubai and prevented the wife and daughter of former national soccer team captain Ali Daei, who has supported anti-government protests, from leaving the country, state media reported. Amid a concerted clampdown, Tehran also said the arrests in Iran of citizens linked to Britain reflected its "destructive role" in the more than three months of unrest. People from across Iran's social spectrum have joined one of the most sustained challenges to the country's ruling theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, relying heavily on social media platforms - which the government is trying to shut…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Iran carries out second execution linked to wave of popular protests

WORLD

PARISA HAFEZI THE Islamic Republic hanged a man in public who state media said had been convicted of killing two members of the security forces, the second execution in less than a week of people involved in protests against Iran's ruling theocracy. Nationwide unrest erupted three months ago after the death while in detention of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's mandatory dress code laws. The demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the worst legitimacy challenges to the Shi'ite clerical elite…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Iran state body reports 200 dead in protests, Raisi hails ‘freedoms’

WORLD

PRESIDENT Ebrahim Raisi hailed Iran's Islamic Republic as a guarantor of rights and freedoms, defending the ruling system amid a crackdown on anti-government protests that the United Nations says has cost more than 300 lives. A top state security body meanwhile said that 200 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest, a figure significantly lower than that given by the world body and rights groups. The protests, in their third month, were ignited by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police enforcing strict mandatory hijab rules.…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Biden vows to ‘free Iran’ in West Coast campaign speech

WORLD

TREVOR HUNNICUTT U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to "free" Iran and said that demonstrators working against the country's government would soon succeed in freeing themselves. "Don't worry, we're gonna free Iran. They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon," Biden said during a wide-ranging campaign speech in California, as dozens of demonstrators gathered outside holding banners supporting Iranian protesters. Biden did not expand on his remarks or specify what additional actions he would take during the remarks at MiraCosta College near San Diego. The White House's National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Seven weeks of demonstrations…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Khamenei adviser says Tehran ‘capable of building nuclear bomb,’ Al Jazeera reports

WORLD

PARISA HAFEZI IRAN is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar's al Jazeera TV on Sunday. Kamal Kharrazi spoke a day after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, vowing to stop Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapon." Kharrazi's comments were a rare suggestion that Iran might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking. "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Belgium debates contentious prisoner swap treaty with Iran

WORLD

PHILIP BLENKINSOP BELGIAN lawmakers debated a prisoner exchange treaty with Tehran that an exiled Iranian group opposes and says will release the mastermind behind a plan to bomb one of its rallies. Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne urged the foreign relations committee of Belgium's lower house to back an accord that intelligence services believed could avert an increased threat against Belgian interests. "People's lives are at stake," the minister said, adding one threat that had materialised was the detention of a Belgian man in Iran since February. Many lawmakers spoke about the possibility of an exchange to secure the release…