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Removal of the heart: how Islam became a matter of state in IranSome academics argue the Safavid Shahs gave Iranian Shiism a rule-fixation and abandonment of spirituality it has never lost
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Polling gives a dark forecast for Iranian president Hassan RouhaniRouhani is losing ground as his fundamentalists opponents push slogans oddly similar to those of Donald Trump and the Brexiteers
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The lure of conspiracy theories in Iranian politicsDo documents support the claim from BBC Persian that the United States helped Ayatollah Khomeini gain power in 1979?
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'A kind of death': life on the US Treasury blacklistThe United States in 2009 listed Kassim Tajideen as a financier of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Lebanese party, leaving him shut out from banks with no legal redress
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In from the cold: Iran x Cuba – reviewPlayful seriousness abounds in this exhibition at New York’s Rogue Space gallery
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A grand but faulty vision for Iran's water problemsMassive water transfer schemes are no solution to Iran’s growing problems with drought
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Desperate remedies: inside a neurosurgery ward in IranFor the very sick, it doesn’t matter whether sanctions or government mismanagement is more to blame for the state of its health service. A doctor-in-training gives us an inside look
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Why so many Iranians have come to hate the hijabOver the years the state crackdown on women’s dress has become more of a show to placate the country’s hardline base. Our correspondent shares stories from her personal repertoire illustrating the point
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North American professors' plea to President Rouhani: the full letterCancer and other chronic diseases are reportedly sweeping Iran’s prisons and inmates are routinely denied access to proper medical care. A group of prominent professors urge the President to intervene quickly
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The tricky triangle of Iran, Russia and IsraelOn the complex regional chess board, Iran wants better relations with Moscow even as the Russians have extended their intelligence co-operation with Israel in Syria
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Discount ticket on the bus to reform: Iran's runoff electionsThe reformists used to give up when their candidates were disqualified or defeated in the first round - now they ask voters to go tactical. The remaining parliamentary seats are up for grab next week
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Deciphering the Iranian leader's call for a 'resistance economy'As with the nuclear agreement, supreme leader Ali Khamenei and President Rouhani may have more in common than in dispute over the economy and foreign investment
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Untangling Iran's web of sanctions after the nuclear dealA former US negotiator doesn’t want European companies to be afraid of doing business with the Islamic Republic. Just do your due diligence and keep records, says Richard Nephew
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Herbal life: traditional medicine gets a modern twist in IranIranians have long used traditional remedies to cure all kinds of ailments - pennyroyal to soothe, chicory to purify, marjoram to lift the spirits. But a rapid recent growth in traditional medicine has led to problems with regulation
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On the shoulder of giants in southwest Iran – in picturesPhotographer Sabyl Ghoussoub always wanted to take pictures of the country, but he was’t interested in veiled women, clerics or the underground scene in Tehran. The road less traveled led to Dezful
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Hard talk or tunnel vision? Iranian TV needs to wise upIrib’s monopoly has gone, but burying its head in the sand only harms state broadcasting as a whole, argues Rohollah Faghihi. Even conservatives agree
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Iranian group gets help from Islam to save juveniles from executionAs 160 under-18s wait on death row in the Islamic Republic, an NGO is raising blood money and public awareness to halt executions of juvenile offenders
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Sanctions, western misunderstanding and religion: 100 Iranians share their viewsHow does it feel to live in the Islamic Republic, long-maligned by the world? Are its people misrepresented, and if so how do we remedy that? Here 100 people living in the country and across the diaspora share their views
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A sanctuary for stray dogs grows in Iran thanks to social mediaAnimal lover Maryam Sanei has set up a hospice for unwanted pooches. A draft law penalising those who harass stray animals was referred to the President’s office last month
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Playing on the big screen this Iranian new year – in picturesOur correspondent joined the crowds queuing in the Tehran winter for the Fajr Film Festival. These are the movies Iranians will be watching over Nowruz
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Images from a colonial childhood in IranBritish filmmaker Miranda Pennell introduces The Host, her personal account of oil, empire and family
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Iran's leader picks Ebrahim Raeisi to head powerful foundationAppointment will strengthen links between Ayatollah Khamenei’s office and the Imam Reza shrine, and perhaps help shape the leadership succession
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Universally Iranian: artists without borders – in picturesArtists who have left the country discuss some of the lures and pitfalls of being branded Iranian
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Waiting for Trump: watching US elections in TehranIranians ponder the possible implications of the US presidential election on the future of the nuclear agreement
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Five lessons from Iran's 2016 electionsObservers who portrayed the elections as a battle between ‘reformists’ and ‘hardliners’ have tied themselves in knots – especially after reporting earlier that nearly all reformists had been disqualified by the watchdog Guardian Council
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Zibakalam on Iranian elections: ‘we had to choose between bad and worse’Prominent reformist analyst Sadegh Zibakalam acknowledges checkered past of new conservative allies, including former intelligence ministers linked to the death of dissidents and intellectuals
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‘Through a religious prism’: Iran's clergy view upcoming elections with warinessDespite a restricted field of candidates, conservatives in Qom fear the reformists will use the success of the nuclear deal to ‘sneak back’ into politics. The clerical establishment is no mood to concede an inch
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How Iran's elections are going greenCandidates and voters are talking about the environment like never before, dispelling notions that no-one other than a few enlightened members of the upper classes care about the issue
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'Secret leadership': who will oversee Iran's overseers?The constitution of the Islamic Republic doesn’t allow for clerical supervision of the supreme leader. And that may be a good thing, argues Amir Faress
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More than an ornament: Iran's 'female statesmen' and electionsRules impeding the progress of female politicians in the Islamic republic remain firmly in place and the battle to change them advances slowly
‘I am Lake Urmia’: a social media campaign takes on the environment in Iran