Modern Diplomacy
Published 3 months ago
On January 8, 2021, in a televised speech, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei announced a ban on importing American, British, and French vaccines. He said, “If the Americans had been able to produce the vaccine, this coronavirus scandal would not have occurred in their country, killing about 4,000 people per day. At the same time, they are basically distrusted, and sometimes these vaccines are meant to be tested on other nations.”
Officially, the regime puts the coronavirus death toll at 60,000. But, the head of the Tehran City Council, for example, has warned that the regime’s statistics only cover the Behesht Zahra Cemetery in Tehran. The Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has announced that the number of deaths in only half of Iran’s cities is at least 200,000 based on hospital and morgue statistics. Therefore, a major catastrophe is unfolding in Iran but it is being intentional
Trump Administration, in its last week, widens Iran sanctions with blacklist of wealthiest religious foundation for "corrupt ownership" over much of economy
The US Treasury Department building in Washington, DC. (Photo: Associated Press)
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – The US announced on Wednesday that it was imposing new sanctions on the Deputy Head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Abdul Aziz al-Muhammadawi, also known as Abu Fadak.
Muhammadawi replaced Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as head of Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH), following Muhandis’ death last January in a US drone strike, targeting Gen. Qasim Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-QF.)
As explained in the State Department press release announcing the new sanctions, KH was established in 2006. US-led forces were then still fighting in Iraq, after toppling Saddam Hussein and his regime three years before.
Temporary marriages and sex tourism in Iran
Sex tourism and sex trafficking in Iran are increasing. One contributing cause is the practice of sigheh. Sigheh (also known by its Arabic name “nikah mut‘ah”) allows men to marry a woman for a pre-determined period of time, have intimate relations with her, and then leave her without consequences. While sigheh is often justified using moral terms, in practice it is a legal loophole for prostitution. The problems associated with sigheh are rampant, but there is almost no research or data about this legalized form of sexual exploitation and about the lives of its victims in Iran.
Celebrating Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rebel Poet of Bengal
Kazi Nazrul Islam. Unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In November of 1922, the young poet Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976) was arrested in Calcutta, India, accused of sedition by the British government. He had recently published the poem “Anandomoyee Agomone” (“The Coming of Anandamoyee”), invoking the Hindu goddess Durga, who is beloved and celebrated with particular verve across Bengal. In the poem, however, Nazrul summons the warrior goddess to fight against imperial rule, denouncing the “butchery” of colonization, describing the ways in which Indians were “whipped” and “hanged,” and calling on Bengali youth to sacrifice their lives to overthrow the British.