The Latest from Iran (18 October): Today’s Two Bombings
Iran: Khamenei, Bahari, Hajjarian, and the “Semi-Normal”
Iran: The Supreme Leader Lives — The Picture (17 October)
The Latest from Iran (17 October): Back to Semi-Normal

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

UPDATE 21 October: And just in case you’re still doubting, the Supreme Leader’s website has posted an audio and photo album from yesterday’s meeting with female scholars.

UPDATE 1645 GMT: Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website has posted a photograph and full report of the Supreme Leader’s meeting with thousands of female scholars and teachers. Khamenei declared that Islam show its “respect and dignity for women and women’s talents” in the family, society, and national and international activities. He repeated his criticism of Western academia, specifically the humanities, for its teaching and worldview in contrast to an Iranian approach based on Qu’ranic principles. (Cross-posted from Latest Iran Updates, 20 October)

UPDATE 20 October 1615 GMT: The Supreme Leader did meet the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Ezatullah Zarghami, at the end of last week. Previously we had reported that the meeting was scheduled but, amidst the rumours about Ayatollah Khamenei’s health, had no confirmation that it took place. (Cross-posted from Latest Iran Updates, 20 October)

Well, it’s the morning after the pictures that were supposed to end all speculation about the fitness and health of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The images of the Supreme Leader with President Ahmadinejad and the visiting President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, are most ordinary for a ceremonial photographs, and their message is that, after an extraordinary five days of rumour, possibility, and anxiety, all is ordinary with Iran’s leadership.

Inevitably, Internet users (including Enduring America’s staff) pored over the pictures to find inconsistencies and flaws that might point to a regime cover-up. Did the event even occur?
Read the rest of this entry »

The Latest from Iran (18 October): Today’s Bombings
NEW Iran: The Great Supreme Leader Health Mystery
Iran: The Supreme Leader Lives — The Picture (17 October)
The Latest from Iran (17 October): Back to Semi-Normal

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Little did we know, when we titled yesterday’s updates “Back to Semi-Normal”, how appropriate the label would turn out.

The most prominent semi-normal was the apparent reappearance of the Supreme Leader after recent rumours about his poor health. We’ve followed yesterday’s special updates with an analysis this morning of the political significance beyond the pictures of his meetings with Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade.

Then there was the semi-normal, which will dominate “Western” coverage today, of the release of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari on $300,000 bail from Evin Prison. Bahari had been held since June on allegations that he had passed sensitive information to “Western” agencies plotting velvet revolution in Iran; the authorities put him on show after the first Tehran trial in August to “confess”.

If this is semi-normal for Bahari, who is not “free” but still awaits a formal judgement and sentencing, the event is even more semi-normal because it obscures a wider political move by the regime. In the post-election conflict, far more significant is the suspended five-year prison sentence handed down to Saeed Hajjarian, the reformist political leader who has been at the centre of the crisis since his arrest in June.

Read the rest of this entry »