SPECIAL REPORT

Nearly three years after the 2022 killing of Mahsa Jina Amini ignited the largest protests in Iran’s modern history, women’s civil resistance has evolved into a sustained movement quietly but irrevocably transforming society, an investigation by Iran International shows.

Taliban fighters are systematically using sexual violence, including rape, against captive women in Afghanistan to punish them for their societal roles and intimidate women into submission, according to accounts shared with Afghanistan International.

Two years after Iran's 2022 protests, escaped dissidents tell Iran International about bureaucratic hurdles and asylum denials.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan - two pariah powers squeezed by the United States and weary from confronting it – have made unlikely common cause.

Iran International has learned that IRGC's Quds Force has established three assassination squads, known as the German Network, tasked with targeting Iranian dissidents abroad and Jewish citizens across Europe.

Severe humiliation and abuse in schools are driving Iranian students to contemplate or attempt suicide, interviews conducted by Iran International reveal.

The Iranian state’s sprawling military, state-owned banks, and companies dominate about 80% of the economy, creating a system where many citizens depend on public sector jobs.

In late 2020, Tehran set in motion a chilling assassination plot targeting an Iranian defector who was living under the protection of the US witness protection program, according to a months-long investigation by Iran International.

Harrowing testimonies from Iranian dissidents across multiple provinces expose the systematic and widespread weaponization of sexual violence by security forces to stifle protests in 2022, according to a year-long investigation by Iran International.

Ali-Reza Asgari, the once distinguished Iranian Major General in the regime’s powerful paramilitary force, has been found living in the United States under a new identity, according to exclusive findings by Iran International.

In early August 2020, an industrial production workshop in the Shadabad area of Tehran was reportedly set ablaze by an individual named Masoud Rahimi, accompanied by eight others.

The Iranian government formed an undisclosed alliance with the International Crisis Group during the Obama administration and used the prominent think tank to lobby the US government on its behalf about nuclear issues, an investigation by Iran International shows.

An investigation by Iran International shows three Iran experts who worked closely with Robert Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, were members of an influence network formed by Tehran. The joint reporting project with Semafor is based on thousands of emails from diplomats.