👋 Welcome to the first issue of Iranophilia - This newsletter covers everything relating to contemporary Iran, including current events, culture, and sports. It will be sent out once every two weeks and be entirely in English (though some of the links may be in Persian). Thank you for signing up!

✍️ Observations of Iran - I wrote an extended blog post about my own observations of Iran. The most important observation is the rapid level of social change happening beneath the surface. Take a moment to check it out if you haven’t already.

CURRENT EVENTS

🔌Ongoing blackouts - People across Iran has been facing blackouts throughout the winter. These typically last 2 hours and happen once or twice a week per neighborhood (though not everyone is impacted). This is the first year this crisis has started. Put together with frequent mandatory work and school closings due to air pollution, the blackouts have been incredibly disruptive to life (and industrial production).

Why Are These Happening?

The vast majority of Iran’s electricity production comes from natural gas. While peak electricity consumption is during the summer, peak natural gas consumption is during the winter - because it is used both for electricity and warm up homes.

This year, there is not enough natural gas production to support both heating and electricity. The temperature in much of Iran’s northwest goes well below freezing in the winter, meaning that cuts for heating could be extremely dangerous. Mandatory electricity cuts during peak hours are used to make up the shortage.

Why Is There Not Enough Natural Gas?

Iran is one of the world’s top producers of natural gas. However, in the past decade, there’s been very little growth in supply, but a huge spike in demand. This increase in demand is due to both growing industrial usage and extending natural gas pipelines network to the point that it currently reaches even the most remote villages in the country.

While there are still large untapped natural gas reserves (though these are not infinite) left in the country, Iran has not been able to substantially increase how much gas it is taking out of these fields.

There were some attempts to get foreign corporations to extract natural gas from some of Iran’s fields after the signing of the JCPOA, but these fell apart due to the reimposition of American sanctions (as well as some domestic opposition). Iranian companies have struggled both due to technological barriers and lack of sufficient capital.

In the past there have been deals where Iran has either imported natural gas with Turkmenistan or done gas swaps (Turkmenistan gives gas to Iran’s northern provinces and Iran exports an equivalent amount to Persian Gulf states). However Turkmenistan has stopped all natural gas exports to Iran due to payment disputes.

What Can Be Done?

The Iranian government has been encouraging households to reduce natural gas consumption voluntarily by bringing down their thermostats by 2 degrees. It may adopt policies in the future to reduce subsidies on natural gas over a certain consumption limit.

It’s unlikely domestic natural gas production can be brought up quickly in short term. Until that happens, there’s been discussions to find ways to import natural gas from either Turkmenistan or Russia.

📝 Negotiations with the US? 

Ever since the election of reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian in July, there’s been speculations of a return to direct negotiations with the United States over sanctions and Iran’s nuclear program. These speculations have increased since the election of Donald Trump as the US president.

Ali Abdolalizadeh, the head of Pezeshkian’s presidential campaign, recently reiterated that the administration intends to enter direct negotiations with Trump. There have also been speculations by some close to the administration that the Supreme Leader has given them permission to do this.

It is not clear how true this is. There was harsh criticism of Abdolalizadeh’s claims in parliament and in conservative newspapers. Regardless of what happens with the US though, Iran has been holding talks with the EU about restarting negotiations.

There’s been mixed signals in the United States about the incoming administration’s appetite for negotiations. During a confirmation hearing for becoming Secretary of State, Marco Rubio harshly criticized the Iranian government, but did appear to leave the door open to negotiations (somewhat surprising given his previous hawkish positions)

🤝 Iran Russia Agreement - After years of negotiations, Iran and Russia finally signed a 20 year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement that aims to significantly increase areas of mutual cooperation.

Specifically, this include provisions for increased military, security, and energy related cooperation as well as working together to bypass US sanctions. The English text of the agreement can be read here.

MORE HEADLINES

• Controversial right wing law maker Mehdi Koochakzadeh raised eyebrows with a angry outburst in parliament saying he did not want a cent of his tax money to go help the “bastards” in Los Angeles - after the Iranian foreign ministry expressed willingness to give help with the fires in the city.

• A large fire broke out in the Tajrish bazaar in Northern Tehran. Videos from social media show local shopkeepers working together with firefighters to extinguish the fire. Thankfully it was prevented from spreading to adjacent areas and a major catastrophe was avoided.

• Ebrahim Nabavi, a well known Iranian satirist and writer, passed away from suicide at the age of 66. Nabavi left Iran in 2003 after being arrested twice and never returned. He was known for his political satire criticizing the government (and occasionally the opposition). Some reformists expressed sorrow at his passing - something harshly criticized by conservatives.

CULTURE

Fajr Film Festival - The 43rd Fajr Festival - Iran’s biggest official film festival (roughly equivalent to the American Academy Awards) will start February 1. There’s been some criticism of the event in recent years because it is supervised by the Ministry of Culture, but it remains one of the most important annual cultural events and is watched closely by fans of Iranian cinema across the world.

The opening film of the festival will be the war film Sayyad (The Hunter) directed by Javad Afshar. A full list of films can be found here. I will have more details about the festival coming issues of the newsletter.

Banderati Festival - The first ever Banderati Music Festival was held in the port city of Chabahar in Sistan Baloochestan province this week.

The music festival focused on the local culture of the province, though it included some performers from other areas. The festival organizers didn’t post too many official videos, but clips from the performances could be found on X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Outrage over a Shroud - There was significant outrage after the TV show “Black Box” broadcast on IRIB’s Ofogh station invited Hadi Amel, a well known wrestling commentator, and asked him to open up a box that contained a shroud and picture of an announcement of his own funeral.

Amel later posted a video online where he stated the episode had been filmed months ago and he had asked that the shroud part not be broadcast. This generated a lot of outrage about the show still choosing to show that part. Defenders of the show point out this is a reoccurring segment with other guests too.

SPORTS

Taremi spreads the bandari spirit - Inter Milan and Team Melli football start Mehdi Taremi had an assist and goal in the Italian Super Cup Final between Inter Milan and AC Milan. In his goal celebration, he did a bandari dance - a move which inspired countless video remixes and jokes online.

League Still on Break - The Persian Gulf Pro League remained on break this week, but teams were busy with transfers, including Esteghlal finally succeeding to buy Joel Kojo, the Ghanaian born player for the Kyrgyzstan national team (a player they had been after since the summer).

Sepahan Wins Super Cup - Sepahan beat Persepolis to win their first ever Iran Super Cup (player between the winner of last year’s league and Hazfi cup)

ACROSS THE WEB

• Controversial Documentary (Persian language): The full version of “Not So Bad Kids” a 20 minute documentary made by a conservative Iranian group was released online. The film openly depicts changes in Iranian Gen Z culture, including taboo topics like out of marriage relationships and the existence of LGBT - though it ultimately concluded with ways they believe the Iranian government can still connect with them.

  Some clips from the documentary had gone viral in previous weeks, including one in which students appear to recognize BTS stars and Billie Eilish more than the country’s own leaders.

• Reform or Resistance Debate (Persian language): The channel Azad hosted an almost 2 hour long debate between reformist academic Sadegh Zibakalam and dissident cleric Mohamad Taqi Akbarnejad over whether the Islamic Republic is reformable and what the best path forward is for the Iranian people.
  Azad is an excellent channel that hosts discussions and debates between a variety of different figures inside Iran, from conservatives to reformists is dissidents.

• My Pictures and Videos: Two threads showing some of my favorite pictures and videos that I took from Iran in the past month.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

If the Squid Games universe was based in Iran, not Korea, what are some childhood games that would be used in the competition?

Thank you for reading this issue of Iranophilia. If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please have them sign up here.

You can support my work on this newsletter and other projects on my Patreon.

I’d love to read your comments and suggestions about the newsletter, topics to cover, and anything else. I read every email.