The death of a young woman in Iranian morality police custody sparked months of protests and a violent crackdown by the government. A year later, a more subdued defiance endures.
The protests that have gripped the country since September may have diminished to some extent recently, but demonstrators in Iran reached by NPR insist the protests will not die out or fade away.
Taraneh Alidoosti, the 38-year-old star of the Oscar-winning 2016 film The Salesman was released from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison nearly three weeks after her arrest.
The real-life "Spider Killer" murdered 16 women in Iran between 2000 and 2001. The case inspired Holy Spider, which has resonated abroad during a time of amplified state violence in Iran.
The executions are Tehran's main response to protests that have swept the country since September, and are seen as a sign that Iran's clerical leadership intends to continue a violent crackdown.
Voria Ghafouri, a prominent player who wasn't chosen to go to the World Cup, is an outspoken critic of Iran's authorities. Reports of his arrest came ahead of Friday's Iran-Wales World Cup match.
The country's theocracy, which came to power 43 years ago, faces one of its stiffest challenges amid weeks of widespread protests after the death of a woman arrested by the country's morality police.
"Jin, jiyan, azadi!" — "Woman, life, freedom!" — has become the rallying cry for people in Iran and beyond who are protesting the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody.
Thursday's announcement of new U.S. sanctions follows pressure from activists for the U.S. to support the protests, following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of Iran's so-called morality police.
Iranian American scholar Pardis Mahdavi was once arrested in Tehran for lecturing about Iran's sexual revolution. She wonders if the country's current wave of protests might result in regime change.
As protests intensify in Iran over the arrest and death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, the country's top diplomat promises an investigation into what happened but downplays the demonstrations.
