Sara Sadek is an affiliated researcher and coordinator at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo. She obtained an MA in Refugee Studies from the University of East London. Since 2005, she has worked on various research projects on Iraqi and Sudanese communities in Egypt, contributing to a report on Iraqis in Egypt and recently producing a paper on challenges of integration for Iraqis in Arab states for the Henry L. Stimson Center’s forthcoming volume Transnational Challenges.
Authorities in Iran have sentenced four Iranian ethnic Azerbaijanis to long jail terms for “peacefully defending their rights,” the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports.
Afghanistan’s leading daily newspaper Hasht-e Sobh has blasted the Iranian government for blocking Afghanistan’s accession to the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) and using its leverage within TRACECA to “blackmail” the Afghan government and seek political concessions from Kabul.
Israel’s latest announcement of its settlement plans in the West Bank prompted much international hand-wringing, led by anodyne counsel from Washington.
This essay looks at sectarianism from the perspective of minority studies. The author argues that if sectarianism is understood as a struggle for power over national truths and national resources, then a persistent overemphasis on labeling minority/majority categories could contribute to the form and force of sectarian discourse and politics.
The Iranian authorities yesterday arrested Ahmad Montazeri, the son of one of the founding fathers of Islamic Republic, to serve a six-year jail term for releasing tapes that shed further light on the regime’s mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, the Iranian media reports.
Iran’s behavior has not changed since President Donald Trump put the country “on notice,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said at a public conference at the Brookings Institution earlier today. “From my perspective, the major export of Iran is actually malign influence across the region,” he explained.
The top religious leader of Iran’s Sunni minority has written to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to express his community’s concern over reports of a “secret order” issued by the country’s Judiciary to speed up the execution of Sunni death-row prisoners.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, contributors Randa Slim, Alex Vatanka, Paul Salem, and Antoun Issa provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the next round of Syria talks in Geneva, Iranian war games directed at President Trump, the appointment of a new U.S. National Security Advisor to replace Michael Flynn, and Israeli PM Netanyahu’s trip to Australia.
The Amnesty International Report 2016/17 released yesterday blasted the Iranian regime’s record of human rights abuses, particularly acts of torture and imprisonment of political activists after unfair trials, discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, and an alarming number of executions.
Hamid Baghaei, a vice president to former controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared his candidacy for the May 2017 elections.
