Tabeer
Recently Golshifteh Farahani, one of Iran’s most famous actresses, posed nude in a photo shoot for the French magazine Le Figaro as a symbolic protest against strictures against women in Iranian society. The picture on her Facebook page has garnered over 14,000 likes as of this posting and over 1500 shares. The comment thread on the picture is a lively debate between Iranians regarding women and their society. I have translated some of the comments which I feel are general to the debate.
Yesterday al-Jazeera reported the defection in Syria of Sheikh Abdul Jalil al-Saeed, who was said to be the state appointed director of public relations for the Grand Cleric Ahmad Hassoun. Hassoun denied that al-Saeed was ever employed by the state office and claimed that in fact that they never had a public relations office.
On December 28th, Iranian Vice president Mohammed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz should the West apply sanctions against Iran’s oil exports, saying that “If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz.” On January 9th, 2012, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi contradicted Rahimi’s threat. Key quotes from Persian-
Iran has presented what it claims to be the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft that went down while flying over Iranian airspace. The BBC has video footage.
Aside from the potential security implications of classified technology like this falling into Iranian hands and the potential for Iranian reverse engineering or a sale to China or Russia, the way Iran presented the drone is of note.
Under pressure from Turkey and Qatar, Hamas has decided to completely abandon its Political Bureau in Syria. The Political Bureau has been in effective operation since 2001 and has become responsible funding and logistics for the organization. The decision comes after months of denials from Hamas regarding any decision to leave Syria. What’s more, according to the Wall Street Journal, Hamas has been quietly divesting from its various investments in Syria, which suggests that this move may not be temporary.
The PCPO is one of the only established polling agencies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and thankfully they have conducted regular polling of Palestinian society for several years. Their online material dates back to 2005, which allows us to gain a great deal of insight as to shifts in Palestinian public opinion over the last six turbulent years. Many of their questions are individual data points but I have assembled appropriate data from their polls into charts that can demonstrate long-term trends in Palestinian opinion.
But the most important and perhaps unexpected shift in Palestinian opinion has been a general shift away from Hamas and towards Fatah, as the charts below indicate.
In response to the attack on the Iranian embassy by Iranian students, the United Kingdom has closed down the Iranian embassy in London and expelled Iranian diplomats from British soil.
A quick followup on my previous post about women’s issues in post-revolution Egypt- Mona Eltahawy mentions in this article how the Nour Party, which competing for seats in the upcoming Egyptian elections and is ideologically oriented around the Salafist ideology, avoids depicting the faces of female candidates.
About Me
Blogger and student of politics and culture of the Middle East, specializing in issues of public diplomacy.-
