Iran: protesters arrested over torn Khomeini picture

December 15th, 2009

Several people have been arrested in Tehran over the tearing up of a picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,  during anti-government demonstrations last week. State television broadcast footage of what it claimed were opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of Khomeini during an anti-government student-led demonstration. All of those arrested are currently being held in detention although Iranian authorities have refused to give names or numbers. Read more here

Iran: after the revolution

January 30th, 2009

The celebrated photographer and Pulitzer prize-winner Kaveh Golestan was one of the great defenders of free speech in Iran. He reflects in this essay, first published in 1994, on the fallout of the revolution
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Iran: after the revolution

January 30th, 2009

When Ayatollah Khomeini arrived in Tehran on 1 February 1979, a brief period of freedom for Iranians came to an end. Yassamine Mather
looks at the development of the Islamic Republic’s suppression of dissent
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Editor’s pick 2008: Kenan Malik

December 29th, 2008

The twentieth anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s death sentence on Salman Rushdie (right) takes place in February 2009. In this article for Index on Censorship magazine, Kenan Malik looks at the changes in liberal attitudes to free expression and offence from the Satanic Verses controversy to the present day.
Read here