RFE/RL's Radio Farda breaks through government censorship to deliver accurate news and provide a platform for informed discussion and debate to audiences in Iran.
Iranian monarchist groups are voicing anger over reports that FIFA intends to ban the so-called Lion and Sun flag, often used as a symbol of resistance to the theocratic rule that took over the country in 1979. The soccer association says the flag is a "political" symbol and is therefore forbidden.
The world soccer governing body FIFA reportedly plans to again prohibit fans from displaying Iran's pre-revolutionary flag at the 2026 World Cup, renewing a controversy that shadowed the tournament in Qatar four years ago.
The public spectacle of hundreds of couples marrying in Tehran surrounded by armored vehicles and antiaircraft guns on May 18 demonstrates a new level of patriotic messaging from the country amid a fragile cease-fire with the US and Israel.
An armed Iranian state TV presenter fired at a United Arab Emirates flag during a broadcast amid signs of growing public militarization in Iran. It came as US President Donald Trump issued threats of renewed attacks on Iran if it didn't reach a deal to end the nearly three-month-long conflict.
Iran's appointment of parliament speaker and chief US negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as special envoy for China signals Tehran is playing its most valuable political card on two fronts at once.
Iran's publishing industry is staging a virtual book fair amid compounding wartime crises: physical damage to bookshops from US-Israeli strikes, an Internet blackout, and a paper shortage worsened by sanctions.
Some Iranians in exile who are advocating a return of the monarchy in Tehran have been displaying symbols associated with the notorious secret police, SAVAK, used by the former shah to repress political opponents before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Iran has executed at least 29 prisoners since the start of the war, including two on the same day on May 13, including a cybersecurity specialist hanged on espionage charges and a protester convicted of killing a security officer.
The brother of imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says doctors cannot yet offer a definitive prognosis on her condition, days after Iranian authorities released her on bail amid a health crisis that her family says nearly killed her.
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran it will face "a much higher level and intensity" of strikes if it fails to agree to a peace deal that the two sides are reportedly closing in on.
Iran announced the hanging of three more men on May 4 as a wave of executions continued amid the backdrop of Tehran's war with the United States and Israel. Before being hanged on the weekend, another two members of Iran's Kurdish minority issued audio statements from prison.
Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to intensive care and is "on the brink of death," her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
Iran supplies about 90 percent of the world's saffron. But since Iranian authorities shut down Internet access at the start of the war two months ago, growers have been cut off from their usual clients in Europe and China. That has meant a windfall for Afghan saffron dealers.
Weeks of US and Israeli air strikes, sanctions, and restrictions have hit Iran hard, but it could be geology that eventually pushes it into making concessions in its ongoing standoff with the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced strong support for Iran in its conflict with the United States as he greeted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for talks in St Petersburg on April 27.
More than a week after the United States announced a naval blockade on Iranian ports in an effort to put pressure on Tehran to reach a peace deal, analysts say the effects are mixed. Iran's oil exports are being affected but are also still being sold in Asia, one expert says.
Speaking with RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Mansoureh Shojaee, an Iranian women’s rights activist based in the Netherlands, says the regime is coercing women into "revenge-driven" militancy amid war with the United States and Israel.
The prospects for a new round of face-to-face peace talks between the United States and Iran remained unclear amid confusion over the US negotiators' plans and uncertainty over whether Tehran would agree to take part.
Iran's powerful parliament speaker said there has been "progress" in talks with Washington but that "fundamental" differences remain, while US President Donald Trump rejected what he called "blackmail" by Tehran after it again closed the Strait of Hormuz.
The brother of jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that her life is "in serious danger" following a heart attack she suffered in prison last month.
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