Defection from Iran’s security forces is possible but perilous, experts say

Located in the Zagros Mountains, the Khorramabad Valley was inscribed as Iran’s 29th World Heritage site on July 10, during the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Paris.

Human presence in the valley dates back 63,000 years. The site is described as a key piece of the puzzle in understanding early human evolution and the migration from Africa to Eurasia.

Much of the area remains unexplored, offering potential for future archaeological excavations and discoveries.

Khorramabad Valley is located in Lorestan Province, which boasts over 5,000 historical sites—more than 2,600 of which are nationally registered in Iran.

Fereydoun Biglari, head of the Paleolithic Department at Iran’s National Museum who led excavations at one of the caves underscored the historical importance of the sights, according to remarks cited by Archaeology News magazine.

“All five sites yield strong evidence for Neanderthal occupation and offer valuable insight into their material culture, subsistence strategies, and interactions with early Homo sapiens who migrated to the Zagros around 45,000 years ago,” Biglari said.

Khorramabad was also one of the major cities in western Iran during the Sassanid era. The Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, also known as Shapurkhast Fortress, is a surviving monument from that period and serves as a symbol of the city. The city also served as a capital for the Hazaraspid and Al-e Hasanuyah dynasties.

Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts also provided an update on the status of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, saying it is on track to be added to the UNESCO list.

“The UNESCO resolution also referenced the status of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle. The deficiencies previously identified by international experts are being addressed, and with the necessary requirements being met, this prominent fortress is expected to be included alongside the Khorramabad Valley and inscribed as a World Heritage site in next year’s session,” said Reza Salehi Amiri in an interview with state TV on July 10.

The last addition to Iran's World Heritage List came in 2023, when the country’s caravanserais were inscribed.

“Tehran, as the beating heart of the Islamic world, must reflect its identity in the city’s face,” said Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, head of the Committee to Support the Islamic Revolution of the Palestinian People.

“Naming a street after Hassan Nasrallah symbolizes Tehran’s bond with the resistance movement," he told reporters.

The street, located in District 6 in central Tehran, was initially named after Khalid Islambouli following Sadat’s assassination in 1981, angering the Cairo government for decades.

Egyptian officials had long viewed the gesture as a provocation and a major obstacle to normalization.

Iran hailed Islambouli as a “martyr of the resistance” for his role in killing the Egyptian leader who had signed a peace treaty with Israel.

The decision to rename it after Nasrallah comes less than a year after his death on 27 September 2024, when an Israeli airstrike destroyed Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut, killing the Iran-backed group’s long-time leader.

Thaw after 45 years

Tehran's decision to change the controversial street name comes more than a month after the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Cairo, signaling progress toward healing one of the region's deepest rifts, which has lingered from the 1979 Revolution in Iran and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Relations between the Sunni Muslim heavyweight and the Shi'ite theocracy has been in a deep freeze ever since.

Following Araghchi’s June 2 meeting with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the top Iranian official himself wrote in an Arabic post on X that diplomacy between Iran and Egypt had entered a new phase.

Egypt is a close US ally and maintains official relations with Israel. For Iran, mending the 45-year rift with Egypt could signal a softening of its revolutionary-era, anti-American posture.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously called for the Egyptian people to rise up and overthrow Anwar Sadat after he normalized ties with Israel.

Activists are urging citizens and business owners to halt the import and purchase of Iranian goods, with some deploying the social media hashtag "Boycott Iranian goods: a national demand".

More than half a million Afghans have been deported from Iran in the weeks after its 12-day conflict with Israel ended.

Iranian state-affiliated media have promoted unverified accusations that Afghan migrants were involved in espionage for Israel.

The Red Cross now warns that as many as one million more could be forced out by year’s end.

“We should not financially support a regime that humiliates, tortures, and discriminates against Afghan migrants,” wrote one Afghan user, Niloofar Yousefi.

“Until this injustice ends, we will raise our voices through this boycott.” She urged Afghan merchants to stop importing Iranian goods altogether.

In 2024, Iran accounted for between a quarter and a third of Afghanistan's $10.8 billion in total imports, World Bank figures show, making it the country’s largest trading partner by value.

Trade figures underline what’s at stake economically for Iran. Between March and June 2025 alone, Tehran exported $520 million in non-oil goods to Afghanistan. Over the course of 2024, that number reached $3.1 billion, placing Afghanistan among Iran’s top five export markets.

In the city of the Afghan city of Herat, a physician, Dr. Alireza Hashemi, announced he would stop prescribing Iranian-made medications in protest of Tehran’s treatment of Afghan nationals.

Another social media user, Nasim Kamgar, posted a video of a young Afghan child describing abuse at the hands of Iranian border guards.

“This is not our right,” she wrote, adding that Taliban policies have left Afghan migrants increasingly vulnerable to mistreatment abroad.

Iranian officials have insisted that only undocumented migrants are being deported, but both Afghan news outlets and international aid groups have reported otherwise.

Multiple cases have surfaced in which migrants with valid visas or residency papers were expelled—some even had their passports and identity cards torn up by Iranian border forces.

With public anger mounting and the boycott movement gaining traction, Iran’s economic ties to Afghanistan now face unprecedented strain—intensifying a rift between the two countries as hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans face the threat of forced return.

The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), an Iranian-American advocacy group, found Mahallati in Shiraz, where he is listed as a senior researcher at the Majd Research Center.

His biography on the center’s website claims he is a “full professor of Religious Studies and Peace Studies at Oberlin College”—though the college dismissed him in 2023.

Return under false credentials

In May 2025, Mahallati co-organized and participated in the Sixth Annual Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Tehran.

He moderated a panel and gave a talk titled “The Complex Nature of Human Conflicts... A Qur’anic Perspective.” The program listed him using his former Oberlin title.

Mahallati was removed from Oberlin after AAIRIA launched a campaign outlining his role in whitewashing the 1988 executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran.

The group also highlighted his antisemitic and anti-Baha’i rhetoric during his time as a UN envoy, and multiple allegations of sexual abuse, including rape and harassment at Columbia University in the 1990s.

The US Department of Education launched an investigation into Oberlin in 2023 for allegedly tolerating antisemitism on campus.

Following his removal, Oberlin scrubbed his profile from its website.

New platform, familiar faces

Another speaker at the Tehran event was Ali Akbar Mousavi, previously listed as a senior advisor and postdoctoral researcher at George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution.

His university profile now leads to a "Not Found" error.

The conference listed Mousavi as speaking on “Technology for Peace and Transformation in Conflict Management.”

Iran International contacted George Mason for comment but received no reply.

Lawdan Bazargan, AAIRIA’s director, said: “The Islamic Republic has long weaponized the language of ‘peace’ and ‘friendship’ to sanitize its image while continuing repression and destabilization at home.”

“Figures like Mahallati and Mousavi lend academic legitimacy to this propaganda and should be held accountable," she added. "US institutions shouldn’t allow regime apologists to whitewash crimes as dialogue.”

Academic silence, state rhetoric

In what appears to be a rebranding effort, a 2024 website promoting Mahallati’s writings again lists him as a “full Professor of Religion in Islamic Studies” at Oberlin. The site provides no contact information.

Iran International contacted Oberlin’s VP of communications, Josh Jensen, and chief of staff David Hertz to ask whether the school has warned Iranian institutions or taken steps to stop Mahallati from using its name. No response was received.

Despite a three-year campaign by AAIRIA, Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar and her staff refused to meet with Iranian-American advocates.

Though billed as a peace conference, the University of Tehran event included incendiary rhetoric.

Iranian science minister Hossein Simaee Sarraf called for Israel’s destruction: “It is hoped that... all Muslim nations and people of conscience will unite to overcome this savage and bloodthirsty regime,” he said.

Dr. Charles Randall Paul, founder of the US-based Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, also addressed the conference via Zoom. He did not respond to press inquiries.

Oberlin has largely ignored the Mahallati scandal since his removal. After student journalist Gigi Ewing graduated, the campus paper dropped coverage.

Ewing and her colleagues had earlier published a 2021 editorial titled “Evidence Against Mahallati Irrefutable."

The European Council said the designations target actors “responsible for committing serious human rights violations and abuses on behalf of Iranian state bodies outside of Iran,” including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary executions.

"Today’s listings confirm the EU’s concerns about transnational repression by Iranian state bodies through the use of proxy agents, in particular involving criminals and organized crime networks targeting dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory," it said in a statement.

Among those listed is the Zindashti Network, a criminal group linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), which the EU accused of carrying out assassinations of Iranian dissidents overseas.

The group's leader, Naji Ebrahim Sharifi-Zindashti, an Iranian narcotics trafficker and organized crime figure, was also sanctioned alongside five of his alleged associates.

The Council said the group was involved in the killings of Iranian dissident Masoud Molavi Vardanjani in Turkey and Saeed Karimian, the owner of Iran-focused satellite broadcaster Gem TV.

The EU also sanctioned Mohammad Ansari, identified as the leader of Unit 840 of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, for allegedly ordering the assassination of journalists critical of the Islamic Republic.

Reza Hamidiravari, an intelligence ministry officer said to oversee Zindashti’s state-backed operations, was also named.

Those designated face EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans. EU individuals and entities are also prohibited from making funds or resources available to them.

Last January, the US Treasury’s OFAC and UK government sanctioned Naji Ibrahim Sharifi‑Zindashti, leader of the Zindashti Network, along with 11 associated individuals for orchestrating assassinations, kidnappings, and murder‑for‑hire plots against Iranian dissidents. The sanctions hit Iranian officials involved in threats to kill Iran International TV journalists on British soil.

“The Iranian officials designated are members of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Unit 840, which was exposed in an ITV investigation into plots to assassinate two television presenters of Iran International news on UK soil,” the UK government said in a statement at the time.