Taban

Devastating news. An award-winning Iranian scientist at the University of Cambridge was killed in a train crash in Spain while on her way to collect a prize for her research. Dr. Marta Shahbazi was one of at least 69 people who lost their lives.

What’s interesting about the 2026 Greco-Roman World Championships, apart from Iran scoring more than Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan combined, is Khuzestan’s continued dominance. In Iran, Greco-Roman is called "Koshti Farangi," which literally means foreign (European) wrestling, and the interest came from regions without a strong freestyle tradition, unlike Mazandaran, which has the strongest freestyle culture in the entire country. Out of the 10 wrestlers below, 5 are from Khuzestan, and all 5 won medals, including 2 of Iran's 4 golds.

False. The video that’s being circulated below is the faceoff between Iranian kickboxer Ziba Bahmani versus Rankeen Ibrahim from Iraq. The Iranian fighter wins that match.

Sassanian coins found in China 🇨🇳 In this 1965 paper, Japanese historian Okazaki Takashi argues that Sassanian silver was effectively the international currency of the Silk Road. The coins followed the Silk Road through Xinjiang, Qinghai and Shaanxi into Shanxi and Henan. Three coins of Peroz I even appeared in a Guangdong tomb dated 497, probably arriving by sea. 10 coins in Turfan (4 of Shapur II, 5 of Ardashir II and 1 of Shapur III, found in 1955 inside the ruined city of Gaochang), several in the Astana tombs, 947 in Wuqia, over 100 in Xining, and a Peroz coin plus Byzantine gold in Chang'an's elite tombs.

Iconic Iranian singer Aref reflecting on how much he admired Viguen as a symbol of musical excellence, and how much inspiration he drew from him for his own flawless musical record. In loving memory of them both, two pillars of Iranian music. 🖤

Demonic bitch

Iranians react to the return of the Persian Gulf islands following the end of British occupation in 1971. The people interviewed were primarily from the southern province of Khuzestan, from the cities of Ahvaz, Abadan, and Khorramshahr, and expressed overwhelming joy at the success of Iran’s Imperial Navy in reclaiming Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs. The local tribes of the south, whose livelihoods were closely tied to Iran’s maritime presence, were especially proud to witness the country’s flag once again raised over the islands in the ever-Persian Gulf.

Established in the aftermath of World War I, as famine and disease ravaged Iran, the Pasteur Institute of Iran was founded to produce biopharmaceuticals and conduct research on infectious diseases. Abdol-Hossein Farmanfarma personally donated the land and oversaw its establishment during his tenure as Iran’s prime minister in 1920. Over the decades, it grew into one of the leading centers for vaccine research and production in Iran and the Middle East. Today, the 106-year-old institute was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.

There’s something deeply depressing about the destruction of Mobarakeh Steel Company in Isfahan, and the loss goes far beyond economics. Iran’s century-long fight to build its own industrial base, but keep getting knocked back, is what makes this attack feel especially personal. MSC wasn’t just a regular company. It was the largest steel producer in Iran and across the MENA region, responsible for more than half the country’s total output. In an economy that runs on oil, a single company pulling roughly 1% of GDP is hard to overstate. Steel is the backbone of Iran’s economy after hydrocarbons, and MSC was its spine. Iranians didn’t suddenly wake up to a steel industry. We spent the better part of a century trying to build one. Early attempts in the 1920s collapsed due to logistical issues. A major German-backed project (the Demag-Krupp consortium) was killed by World War II and British pressure on Reza Shah to cut ties with Germany, including demands to expel German nationals from Iran, which he initially refused, but ultimately led to the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. Decades of Western refusals. The West denied financing, blocked projects, and even seized our machinery after the war, with the remaining equipment left to rust in German storage. The breakthrough only came in 1965, when Iran turned to the Soviet Union to build its first real steel plant in Isfahan, after being rejected by the West. That plant became the foundation for everything that followed. What grew from it was built on Iran’s own terms. No coking coal, but plenty of natural gas, so the industry developed around direct reduction and electric arc furnaces rather than the coal-heavy Western model. That “compromise” became something Iran was genuinely good at. MSC was the fullest expression of Iranian development. Its steel runs through construction, infrastructure, automotive, oil and gas, petrochemicals, machinery, energy systems, transportation, and dozens of downstream industries. Without it, large parts of the Iranian economy degrade and start depending on imports, which negatively impacts the lives of millions of Iranians.

Rest easy, King of the Hearts. 🤍

Relentless waves of devastating news. Rest in peace, Aref. 🖤

This particular Nowruz message from Hayedeh feels especially befitting this year

One of the most heartbreaking videos from the war. A schoolboy in Iran killed when a metal pole, torn loose by the airstrikes, falls and strikes him in the head. “We thought he was lying on the ground out of fear, waiting for someone to come and help him… But he was gone.”