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About Afshin Shahi

Afshin Shahi is a lecturer in Middle East Politics and International Relations at Exeter University. He tweets @AfshinShahi

Articles by Afshin Shahi

So what keeps Iran’s Supreme Leader awake at night?

Afshin Shahi 28 February 2013

The biggest threat to the survival of the Islamic Republic might not come from sanctions imposed by the west, but from growing divisions that are disintegrating the regime from the inside.

The plight of Afghan refugees in Iran

Afshin Shahi 1 August 2012

Decades of war have led to generations of Afghan refugees in Iran. Their treatment under the current regime is worsening, but why now?

In defence of a 'racist'

Afshin Shahi 5 April 2012

A Swansea student's racist comments abusing footballer Fabrice Muamba have landed him a hefty prison sentence. But to what end? A past victim of racism argues that Liam Stacey's punishment will only worsen British race relations.

Is political Islam on the losing side of the Arab Spring ?

Afshin Shahi 6 January 2012
Islamic political narratives flourish in opposition but will suffer in the long term

Ahmadinejad’s Messianism

Afshin Shahi 30 May 2011
Winds of change in the conservative camp of the Iranian regime can be detected in a series of rows about the paranormal.

Military intervention against Gaddafi might shake the regime in Iran

Afshin Shahi 16 March 2011
If major western capitals reach a consensus with the Arab world to intervene in Libya, Tehran may well perceive this as a threat against its own survival.

February 14 in Iran: the silence of fear has been shattered

Afshin Shahi 17 February 2011
Since the new year, almost every eight hours someone has been executed in Iran. The authoritarian backlash against the major uprising of 2009 has held Iranians in a climate of fear, but the protests this week mark a new chapter for the Green Movement.

Hearts and minds lost in Iran over US renaming the Persian Gulf

Afshin Shahi 14 January 2011
The US Navy's decision to refer to the Persian Gulf as the “Arabian Gulf” has added a new dimension to a decades old disagreement between Iran and some of the Arab states.

The failure of British multiculturalism and the virtue of reciprocity

Afshin Shahi 8 December 2010
Multiculturalism has failed to create an inclusive society, while the ghettoisation of Britain is hindering cultural and intellectual fusion. Afshin Shahi argues that we must look again at the balance of rights and responsibilities of minority groups.

Iran's new wave of social engineering

Afshin Shahi 29 September 2010
At a time when the Islamic Republic is facing grave internal and external challenges, it is intensifying its thirty year old programme of social engineering, argues Afshin Shahi.

Collective persecution of the Bahais in Iran

Afshin Shahi 23 August 2010
Many countries use national security as the pretext for violating human rights, but why should Iran single out the Bahais for this kind of persecution

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Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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