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I first heard him in the early 80s when I was living in the Islamic Republic of Iran. A group of friends had dinner meetings where we would talk about everything from philosophy to politics to arts. This woman was in love with Freddie Mercury, so she would be talking to me about him and I would be talking to her about the Doors, and that became one way of connecting. You have to know that musical cassettes were forbidden in Iran. You could go to jail. But we all had the underground cassettes, the underground videosalso the underground vodka.

When I watched Freddie Mercury, he was like a snake, as if he had no bones. That was one of the things that mesmerized me, that he sang with his body. It seemed as if he had sprouted out of the earth. You know his song Im Going Slightly Mad? It was the way he said it: Im going slightly mad. But the tone was definitely not just slightly, and I felt that way so much in the Islamic Republic. There were so many reasons to be going slightly mad, to try to evade the reality that was worse than madness.

Imagination has been my way of survival. I learned from childhood, especially when I was sent to England at the age of 13, that everything that life gives you can be taken away. Look at Ukraine. Ukraine is very obvious, but a tornado or an earthquake can take away everything you call home. I realized that I need something that will not be taken away from me, no matter where I live.

That is how we connected to the world in Iranthrough forbidden music, art, books. These imaginative spaces gave us room to breathe. So to let Freddie Mercurys music take over me was a way of not feeling that that claustrophobic reality was all that I had. It was a way out to another world.

I mention in [my book] Reading Lolita in Tehran a concert we went to, the Gipsy Kings, where two men would come onstage, and every time the audience tried to move with the music, they would tell them to sit down and not react. The musicians could not have any expressionsthey had to just sing. The audience would get excited, and these men would come and say, Sit down, sit down. You can imagine what that would do to Freddie Mercury.

This article appears in theJune 2022issue of Washingtonian.

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Senior Managing Editor

Bill OSullivan is senior managing editor; from 1999 to 2007, he was a features editor. In another lifetime, he was assistant managing editor. Somewhere in the middle, he was managing editor of Common Boundary magazine and senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity. His personal essays have been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays. He teaches at the Writers Center in Bethesda.

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Azar Nafisi on How Freddie Mercury Helped Her Survive Life in Iran - Washingtonian

DUBAI, June 18 (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday told the United Arab Emirates that Tehran gave a high priority to improving ties with its neighbours, Iranian state media reported, a day after the UAE voiced concern over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The UAE's envoy at the United Nations' nuclear watchdog on Friday said he hoped Iran would work with the body to provide reassurances to the international community and the region about Tehran's nuclear programme. read more

In a phone call with his UAE counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian "pointed to the priority of neighbours in Iran's foreign policy and called for more consultation ... to expand bilateral ties," state media said.

In 2019, U.S.-allied UAE started engaging with Iran after years of tense relations. read more

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled since March and Tehran has restricted the International Atomic Energy Agency's ability to monitor the Iranian nuclear programme after a dispute with the U.N. watchdog. read more

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Reporting by Dubai newsroomEditing by Paul Simao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Excerpt from:
Iran responds to UAE concerns over Tehran's nuclear plans - Reuters

A prominent Iranian analyst, often referred to as an expert on US affairs, says political threats against Tehran are changing and taking a military form.

Mehdi Motaharnia, told Didban Iran website on June 18 that threats coming particularly from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the region are no longer political in nature and can be characterized as military.

Speaking in the cryptic language of Iranian analysts, Motaharnia added that "these threats are coming through Israel's security tunnel." He added that Tel Aviv's moves are becoming increasingly elaborate and that they can change the situation in the region and push it toward a collision.

Motaharnia said indications show that a military confrontation is not only "possible" but "probable".

He argued that US President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia is meant to tackle the Arab-Israeli problem and bring about meaningful strategic changes, including bringing Saudi Arabia closer to Israel. All this, he said will have serious repercussions for Iran.

In fact, Israel this week called for a regional alliance against Iran under the aegis of the United States.

Iranian analyst, Mehdi Motaharnia

It could also lead to Iran's further isolation and create an anti-Iranian alliance. Motaharnia said that a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting will be also held during Biden's visit to the region, and this is likely to lead to a regional order against Tehran.

Meanwhile, the former editor of hardline daily Kayhan, Mehdi Nasiri also said on the same day that the Islamic Republic is moving toward a war.

Nasiri wrote in an article: "Evidence including the suspension of nuclear negotiations in Vienna and the escalation of tensions between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) might indicate that the Islamic Republic is interested in war and such a war is likely to start."

Nasiri added: "If such a war starts, it could lead to major humanitarian and economic catastrophe for Iranians who still have not recovered from the scars of the 8-year war with Iraq in the 1980s."

Former editor of conservative Kayhan daily, Mehdi Nasiri

Nasiri warned Islamic Republic officials that this war is in contradiction with Iran's national interests and that they have no right to impose such a conflict on the people even if they believe it would be an anti-imperialist move. "They have no right to start a war based on ideological and religious justifications without first seeking the consent of the Iranian people."

In a blunt statement by someone living in Iran he said: "While clerics and others in the government are living an aristocratic life, they have no right to impose war and aggression on the people and bring about poverty and misery with the pretext of resistance."

Nasiri added that if leaders believe most Iranians support an aggressive and belligerent foreign policy, they should prove this by holding a referendum.

The warnings about the Islamic Republic's interest in a probable war come while according to a report published by reformist daily Sharq, there is no consensus among Iranian and US officials whether "an agreement is within reach," or all the chances for a deal have been lost.

The report said that the realities on the ground point to the fact that currently there is no chance for a deal, adding that during the past 10 days since the IAEA Board of Governors condemned Iran's lack of cooperation with the agency and Irans reaction to the IAEA resolution have been discouraging. The report stressed that chances for an agreement have been practically reduced to nil.

Sharq's report said, "The nuclear agreement (JCPOA) is dead, but the Raisi administration lacks the courage to bury it."

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Pundits In Tehran Say Iran May Be Headed For War -

Tehran (AFP) Outside his butchery in the south of Iran's capital, Ali cuts up a sheep carcass for customers who, like him, have seen inflation and subsidy reform devour their purchasing power.

"My sales have fallen significantly -- almost by half," Ali, 50, told AFP.

"What can I say? I am a butcher and you may not believe me, but sometimes I don't eat meat for a week," he added. "Everything has gone up in price."

Inflation is making an unwelcome comeback globally -- stoked by high energy and food prices, driven largely by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a major wheat producer, and by related sanctions on Moscow.

But Iran has been wrestling with rampant price growth for years, exceeding 30 percent annually every year since 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund.

That was the year US president Donald Trump yanked Washington out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and began reimposing biting sanctions, sending the currency into a tailspin even before he unilaterally banned Iran's oil exports.

Negotiations over the last year or so have sought to bring the US -- under Trump's successor Joe Biden -- back inside the deal and convince Tehran to re-adhere to nuclear commitments it has progressively walked away from.

But those ever-delicate efforts have been deadlocked since March, and an escalating spat between Iran and the UN's nuclear watchdog could reduce chances of reviving the agreement.

After dividing the cuts of meat, Ali hands Asghar, a retired government employee, a plastic bag containing enough for him and his wife.

"The price of everything has gone up, including meat," lamented Asghar, 63.

"We used to buy more. Now everyone is buying less -- everyone is under pressure."

Economic analyst Saeed Laylaz believes price growth in Iran has exceeded 40 percent annually since 2018 -- higher than that calculated by the IMF.

It has lately been fuelled further, he says, by "the sharp increase in global inflation" driven by fallout from the war in Ukraine and by Iran's cash-strapped government in mid-May enacting the "radical reform" of slashing subsidies.

The expert, who has in the past advised Iranian presidents, said the main policy shift by the government of President Ebrahim Raisi was to abolish a subsidised exchange rate for imports of household essentials -- wheat, cooking oil and medicine.

Introduced in mid-2018, this "preferential" rate was fixed at 42,000 rials to the dollar, cushioning citizens from the savage black market depreciation of the local currency that stemmed from the US withdrawing from the nuclear deal.

But with the exchange rate on the black market exceeding 300,000 rials to the greenback and global food prices soaring, the arrangement became unaffordable.

"It is estimated that if Iran wanted to continue reckless spending of hard currencies this year like the previous years, the country would have needed $22 billion dollars at the preferential rate," he said.

"Even in the event of reviving the nuclear agreement... the government had no choice but to cancel the preferential rate," he added.

Red meat prices have risen 50 percent, chicken and milk prices have doubled, spaghetti has tripled and cooking oil prices have quadrupled since early May, according to figures published by Iranian media.

Hundreds of Iranians have taken to the streets of several cities to protest against the spiralling prices, on top of months-long demonstrations by professionals and pensioners demanding wages and pensions be adjusted for inflation.

On Tuesday, Labour Minister Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki stepped down in the hope of "strengthening cooperation within the government and improving the provision of services to the people," according to government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi.

But reformist newspaper Etemad linked his resignation to "heavy criticism" from the protesting pensioners.

In Tehran's marketplaces, attention is focused on the consequences and effects of inflation, rather than its causes.

President Raisi, an ultra-conservative who took office last August, pledged from the outset that the painful subsidy reform would not affect bread, fuel and medicine prices.

Demand for bread is therefore increasing.

"The queues at the bakeries have become longer because the price of rice has risen, and people are resorting to bread," Shadi, a housewife wearing the Islamic chador told AFP near a traditional bakery in southern Tehran.

Inside, the baker Mujtaba agrees.

"People... are no longer able to buy rice, cooking oil, spaghetti and tomato paste," said the 29-year-old, his face drenched in sweat as he took a break from preparing dough.

The subsidy reform has so far done little to steady the black market exchange rate, which slipped to an all-time low of more than 330,000 to the dollar on June 12, and hopes for a restoration of the nuclear deal have receded.

2022 AFP

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Inflation, subsidy reform hit stomachs in isolated Iran - FRANCE 24 English

The Arab world did not always view the Shi'ite regime in Iran through sectarian lens, despite the fact that the majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni.

Former Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian Revolution, used to be seen as the leader of the protest against the Shah's oppression, Western hegemony and Israel's influence.

3 View gallery

Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

(Photo: AP)

Later, the Iran Iraq war undermined Iran's reputation in the Arab world, but during Tehran's campaign in assisting Lebanon in its war against Israel in 2006, it has managed to repair the damaged image.

But, since then Iran has widened its rift with the Sunni world by backing Shi'ite political parties in Iraq and Lebanon, instead of viewing the Middle East as the home of the united Arab nation.

Iran's condescension has not remained unanswered, and the loss of political power by some Shi'ite parties in recent elections can be seen as a direct result of the anger leveled at Tehran, which has been brewing in Arab countries for quite some time.

In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon who is not angered by Hezbollah - which up until a few weeks ago had a majority in the Lebanese parliament - and the recent election results are proof of that.

Hezbollah is also immersed in sectarianism in its political alliances. The party demonstrates a lax position towards Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, who was suspected of having ties with Israel among other foreign interests affairs, when he was a general in the military.

The Iran-backed organization has no such tolerance of Lebanon's Sunni leaders, as was evident by the death sentence given to former Sunni Imam Ahmad Al-Assir, who dared to criticize Iran. He was accused of causing civilian deaths in sectarian fighting and attacking the military in Sidon - the third-largest city in Lebanon - in 2013.

But such policies have consequences. Iran and Hezbollah have paid dearly for viewing Lebanon as an extension of Iraq and Syria, and not a sovereign state that it thrives to be.

Iran was also harshly defeated in other geopolitical arenas when it sought to exploit those countries for its own interests.

For instance, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was tasked by Tehran with the responsibility of executing Iran's orders in Iraq and Yemen. He appointed Sheikh Mohammed Kawtharani as Lebanon's representative in Iraq, who then was in position to decide the fate of local politicians.

As a result, like in any other authoritarian government, it became utterly corrupt and Kawtharani's brother, Adnan, took advantage of the situation to advance his business dealings.

Alongside this, Iran has also set up drug and arms smuggling networks, which rely on Lebanese cannabis and Syrian stimulant drugs such, and it is hard not to see this as further humiliation of Sunnis

Sunni men, women and children are still displaced in their own lands, with the best among their youth incarcerated, while Hezbollah occupies their cities.

Iran seeks to sow chaos and is focused only on its own interests instead of considering the entire Arab nation as one - irrespective of factional affiliation. Until it adopts a different policy, it stands to lose even the support of Shi'ite Muslims.

Yasser Abu Hilala is a Jordanian journalist and his article was published by the Van Leer Institute's Ofek program

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Iran is the divisive force in the Middle East - Ynetnews