Security guards clash with visitors in northern Iran over compulsory hijab

“After three months without any news, concern about the condition of Prof. Ahmadreza Djalali is greater than ever. The MPs therefore want to obtain more information from the Iranian ambassador,” parliament chair Freya Van den Bossche and committee chair Bogdan Vanden Berghe said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Djalali, a disaster medicine specialist affiliated with the Free University of Brussels, was detained in April 2016 during a professional visit to Iran. In 2017 he was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and complicity in the killing of two Iranian nuclear scientists, accusations he and his family have consistently denied.

Earlier this year, he suffered a heart attack while held in Tehran’s Evin prison. After the Israeli bombing of that facility, he was transferred with other detainees to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. From there, according to accounts shared by his family, he was taken away separately. Since June 23, there has been no trace of him.

Pressure builds in Belgium

Last week, the committee and parliament speaker Van den Bossche met Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, to discuss his situation. Following that meeting, MPs unanimously agreed to summon the Iranian envoy.

Djalali’s case has drawn international concern, with European institutions and human rights organizations urging Tehran to halt his death sentence and release him on humanitarian grounds.

For Belgian lawmakers, his disappearance has heightened alarm not only about his health but also about the Iranian authorities’ treatment of dual nationals, many of whom remain imprisoned under contested charges.

More than 104,000 general practitioners are officially registered, but at least 30,000 are not active in the field, Nour News, an Iranian outlet affiliated with Supreme National Security Council, reported Thursday.

“The number alone demonstrates the loss of educational, financial and human capacity in a country that constantly faces shortages of specialists and unequal access to health services,” the outlet wrote.

It criticized authorities for repeatedly expanding medical school admissions as a response to shortages, arguing this has produced “a surplus of manpower without efficiency.”

Concerns about the lack of specialists have grown in recent years.

Interest in six key specialty fields has declined to the point that “the absence of applicants in these core disciplines will confront Iran’s healthcare system with serious challenges,” Abbasali Reis-Karami, head of Tehran University of Medical Sciences warned in July.

Training each general practitioner, according to Nour News, costs the government “tens of thousands of dollars,” yet many leave medicine altogether or turn to unrelated jobs.

No effective strategy has addressed the shortage of specialists, the outlet added, citing the most recent residency exam where only 10 percent of emergency medicine slots were filled, alongside 32 percent in anesthesiology, 22 percent in pediatrics, and 15 percent in infectious diseases.

An increasing number of Iranian doctors and nurses are leaving the profession or emigrating, mainly due to very low wages, raising concerns about a serious shortage of healthcare workers.

Iranian medical and government officials have repeatedly warned in the past few years about the inevitable deterioration of the healthcare system and its possible collapse if the same trends continue.

Israel carried out hundreds of air raids in Syria during the civil war from 2011 onward, aiming to disrupt shipments of advanced weaponry from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Hezbollah in Lebanon and other allied groups.

At the time, observers in Iran questioned why their Russian allies, which controlled much of Syrian airspace, did not intervene to shield Tehran’s forces and proxies.

Now, Yossi Cohen reveals in his new book that he secured Putin’s green light after traveling to Moscow to personally make the case for the strikes.

“I visited the Kremlin to explain, in detail, how and why we had to hit that route because of the weapons finding their way to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, within Syria, and to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he wrote.

According to Cohen, Putin accepted the logic of Israel’s position and suggested setting up a direct channel between the militaries to avoid misunderstandings.

“Putin followed my logic, proposed that our respective deputy chiefs of staff open up a red line every time we intended to attack, and gave his blessing,” he revealed.

The former spy chief underscored that Moscow’s acquiescence was not merely symbolic, but essential to Israel’s freedom of action in Syria.

“That permission, to strike at the interests of his partners in Iraq as well as Syria, was essential, since the Russians operate S300 and S400 air defense systems that can strike at aircraft flying at up to thirty kilometers, or 98,000 feet, high,” Cohen explained.

“We cannot risk the beautiful F-35s the Americans give us, so we cannot be shy about our best interests.”

Russia entered the Syrian conflict in 2015 to support President al-Assad, aligning itself with Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and other Shi’ite militias that were backing Damascus in its fight against Islamic State and various Sunni rebel factions.

The Israeli strikes intensified under al-Assad’s embattled government, which relied heavily on Tehran and its allied militias for survival. At the time, Russia had deployed advanced S-300 and S-400 air defense systems and exercised significant control over Syrian airspace, making Moscow’s consent critical for Israeli operations.

Post-Assad Syria

After al-Assad was overthrown by the forces of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani in December 2024, Iran and Russia confronted steep losses of influence in Syria. Tehran’s deep investments in militias and infrastructure largely unraveled, while Moscow saw its grip on Damascus loosen.

Russia’s prized naval foothold at Tartus came under pressure after Syrian authorities moved to terminate the lease, forcing Moscow to scale back operations and withdraw several warships. At the same time, equipment was relocated from the Khmeimim air base, where access is now subject to restrictions imposed by rebel factions controlling the surrounding area.

The turmoil has only deepened in the months since. Clashes between Syria’s new Islamist rulers and the Israeli-backed Druze minority in the southern province of Sweida—compounded by Israeli strikes on Syrian government forces—have pushed Damascus into an uneasy recalibration of its ties with Moscow.

Earlier in the year, the Syrian authorities were actively seeking to sideline Russia, but the threat posed by Israel has since compelled them to consider expanding Russian military involvement as a counterbalance.

The missile launches were visible from Tehran and the nearby northeastern cities of Gorgan, Sari and Semnan. Unverified videos shared online appeared to show trails of smoke from the launches arcing upward in the sky.

Mehdi Barari, deputy governor of Semnan for political, security and social affairs was quoted by state broadcaster IRIB as confirming the tests.

"The luminous objects observed in the sky over several provinces, including Semnan, this evening were related to missile system tests in another part of the country," IRIB cited him as saying, adding that he indicated there was no cause for public concern.

Sepah Pasdaran News, an official telegram channel of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shared imagery of the nighttime trails in the sky without explicitly claiming responsibility. Missile tests are relatively rare in Iran.

Israel said it degraded and destroyed much of Iran's arsenal it is surprise 12-day campaign against the Islamic Republic in June. Tehran counters that its capabilities weathered Israeli attacks and missile attacks deterred its foe.

Iran's missile program has long been a key point of contention with Western powers and its arch-enemy Israel, who say the weapons pose a threat.

Tehran on Wednesday ruled out any talks with the United States on its missiles, accusing Washington of blocking prospects for nuclear negotiations by insisting on military curbs Iran deems a non-starter.

"The United States is in no position to make decisions about Iran’s national defence capabilities," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to preserve its independence at any cost, stand on its own feet, and firmly resist the excessive demands, aggression, and acts of hostility by foreign powers -- including the United States and the Zionist regime."

Commentators disagree on labels—uprising, movement, revolution—but most accept that the protests of 2022 and their afterlife have marked a foundational rupture. They drew in multiple strata of society, altered daily life and public discourse and forced the Islamic Republic into retreats that once seemed inconceivable.

The chant “Woman, Life, Freedom,” first voiced at Amini’s burial in the town of Saqqez in Iran's Kurdistan province, condensed demands for autonomy, dignity and equality into three words that spoke across class and region.

A society long fragmented by divide-and-rule tactics has moved toward solidarity. Women and men, Kurds and Persians, Baluch and Azeris, urban and rural citizens stood together in 2022, building a pluralism not seen in recent memory.

The movement challenged not only gender discrimination but the state’s entire normative order, and it did so through radically non-violent means. In compelling the regime to cede ground—above all on the legally-mandated hijab—it achieved changes that would once have been described as revolutionary in themselves.

Inside homes, younger generations have renegotiated relations with parents in ways that blunt the state’s intrusion into private life.

The state’s grip on the streets has been broken; unveiled women now walk freely in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, and countless smaller cities. Equality and bodily autonomy, once dismissed as Western imports, have moved to the center of Iranian discourse.

An even more draconian hijab and chastity law passed by parliament was frozen by Iran's Supreme National Security Council in May out of concern it would spark unrest.

Not easy

But the obstacles remain—and repression is still lethal.

In 2022 at least 552 protesters were killed, thousands more jailed, and executions have mounted since. The ruling elite retain an effective coercive apparatus, even if their confidence has been shaken by war and domestic unrest.

Economically, decades of corruption, sanctions, inflation and environmental degradation have pushed both state and society into survival mode.

Families channel scarce energy into endurance, leaving less room for organized protest. A potential revolution’s strength—its horizontal, decentralized nature—has also limited its ability to produce leadership or coherent organization.

Opposition forces remain fragmented, particularly in the diaspora, and coordination inside Iran has faltered as street protests ebbed.

Even so, the balance of change is striking.

In just three years, the movement has embedded demands that no future order can ignore. Its art, slogans, and public faces have entered common life.

No credible opponent of the regime positions themselves against it; all align with or inherit from it.

Hopes for future

Looking forward, much will depend on four interlinked tasks.

Daily civil resistance appears to be institutionalized, above all the unveiled presence of women in public life.

Economic grievances and livelihood protests have yet to be joined to clear political demands. If and when they are, a broader front against misrule would come to life.

Fragmented opposition forces need to converge on a clearer vision for post–Islamic Republic Iran. And international sympathy must be translated into targeted support that strengthens civil society without dragging it into destructive conflict.

The Islamic Republic’s institutions still stand, but their legitimacy has been stripped to the bone. Voter participation has sunk to historic lows, public trust has collapsed, and governance has narrowed to the sheer mechanics of survival.

Those in power are now fixated on endurance rather than service. In this vacuum, civil society advances on a different track.

Three years on, “Woman, Life, Freedom” remains the principal engine of transformation. Street protests may have wound down, but the changes in culture and imagination look irreversible.

The revolution is unfinished, but it endures in daily defiance, in a pluralist solidarity that defies the state’s order, and in a vision of citizenship rooted in universal rights.

That, already, is an achievement historic in scale—one whose ultimate destination may yet be a secular, democratic Iran.