Harry's Place

What’s fascinating here is not so much that the Iranian government has banned dolls of the Simpsons cartoon characters. It’s that Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, secretary of policymaking at Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (shudder), approved the sale of Spiderman and Superman dolls.
“They help oppressed people and they have [...]

You may have seen the bizarre photos from a ceremony in Iran marking the 33rd anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return from exile.

I suppose comment is superfluous, although I understand George Galloway was moved to tears.
But I can’t help wondering why the two soldiers carrying the cardboard Khomeini are wearing dark glasses. Is it to keep [...]

Hat tip Potkin Azarmehr

You’ll have read that the recent Stop The War Coalition rally drew about 200 supporters only.
As the rally had been called to defend Assad, as you might imagine, a large proportion of those attending were Syrian Baathists. As you can see,  they ended up fighting with supporters of the Iranian Green Movement.

Hands Off the People of [...]

That’s the only thing I can conclude after seeing two recent reports on the website of the Iranian regime’s English-language TV station.
According to one report:
Iran’s interior minister has downplayed the European Union’s new sanctions against the country, saying the new embargo will backfire on Europe’s troubled economy.
“The sanctions [imposed] by the European Union will not [...]

A snow sculpture at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tehran University honors Iran’s Green Movement.
(Hat tip: EA WorldView)

Aboohoo!
Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster’s English-language outlet, has been forced off the air in the UK after Ofcom revoked its licence for multiple breaches of the broadcasting code.
The controversial broadcaster had been threatened with being banned from broadcasting in the UK last year, after the channel aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek [...]

Haaretz reports:
Armed Hamas men broke into a gathering of some 30 Shi’ite worshippers in the Gaza Strip last Friday and brutally attacked them, Haaretz has learned.
The assault was part of a broader crackdown on Shi’ite organizations, including charities, that has been sparked in part by Hamas’ fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
The worshippers had [...]

This is a guest post by Daniel Brett
Last year was a turbulent and violent year for Iran’s persecuted and impoverished Ahwazi Arab and Mandean communities who populate the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan. The latest Ahwaz Human Rights Report, published this week, detailedan increase in violent repression by the Iranian regime against these ethnic groups amid the [...]

Iran’s president Ahmadinejad– completing the Cuban leg of his latest Latin American tour– reported, after meeting Fidel Castro, that he was happy to find the semi-retired Cuban leader “safe and sane.”

Here in the US, the phrase “safe and sane” traditionally has been used to promote caution for celebrants of Independence Day on the Fourth of [...]