Shia Islam | Shiite Muslims

Why Tehran may announce a fake voter turnout

Banned from the streets, the protests in Iran continue. This week's elections will reflect just how much – or how little – popular support the Islamic Republic still enjoys

What was behind the Balochistan strikes?

Tit-for-tat attacks between neighbours Iran and Pakistan are linked to separatists fighting for independence of the mineral-rich Balochistan region that spans their borders

How the Sunni-Shia split shaped the Islamic world throughout history

Toby Matthiesen's new book, "The Caliph and the Imam", explores both the origins of the Sunni-Shia divide, what the two branches of Islam have in common and how the split has shaped the Islamic world

Between sympathy and rejection

Palestinians living in Saddam Hussein's Iraq were courted until his overthrow in 2003, after which they suffered widespread harassment. Ever since the onset of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, however, Iraqis have been keen to show their solidarity

The Iraqi Christian turned radical

It was an Iraqi with Christian roots – Salwan Momeka – who staged the burning of the Koran in Stockholm last week. In doing so, he wanted to get even with his countrymen. Birgit Svensson reports from Baghdad

Iran: Defiant Shia cleric takes in stray dogs

"Save Islam" – or just the mullahs?

Are the Shia clergy disappearing as a pillar of Iranian society, degenerating into a mere power apparatus? Nationwide attacks, vilification and the murder, or attempted murder, of mullahs are becoming more frequent. Every turban wearer is seen as representing and symbolising the hated regime. By Ali Sadrzadeh

What the Islamic Republic's propaganda tells us

Challenging one of the Islamic Republic's most identifiable symbols – the hijab – with some breathtaking, iconographic feminist art, Iran's activists have wrested ownership away from the clerics with regard to who represents the nation, defines its present and shapes its future. Essay by Kevin L. Schwartz & Olmo Goelz

Protests drive Iran's Saudi deal

On 10 March 2023, the world woke up to the breaking news that Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia had forged a deal to restore diplomatic relations within two months and refrain from interfering in each other's domestic affairs. Ali Fathollah-Nejad and Amin Naeni examine Iran's motivations

Iraq's wounds are slow to heal

20 years after the U.S. invasion, the country between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is only just beginning to recover from the aftermath. But the road is paved with obstacles. Birgit Svensson reports from Iraq

Iran's 'death committee' president

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi is overseeing an unyielding crackdown. The current situation grimly echoes his role in a purge of political prisoners in 1988