Oil contract workers protest outside Iran’s presidential office

Mehr news agency said Iranian negotiators presented several conditions to Telegram during talks held this week. The terms include assisting judicial authorities with domestic legal requests, removing content reported by users, blocking posts that promote ethnic tensions or terrorism, and ensuring user data is not shared with foreign intelligence services.

The discussions are being led by the communications ministry under a directive from the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which authorized talks with foreign platforms, Mehr said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, said no vote had been taken by a government committee on lifting bans on Telegram, YouTube and Instagram. It said decisions on foreign platforms must follow a 32-point plan approved by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The plan, which earlier led to the unblocking of WhatsApp and Google Play, requires foreign companies to accept Iran’s digital sovereignty and comply with domestic law.

Lawmakers have said all parts of the plan must be completed before Telegram’s case can move forward. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said each stage should be implemented in order before reviewing the app’s status, according to Fars.

Telegram has been blocked in Iran since 2018 after officials said it was used to organize protests. Despite the ban, millions of Iranians continue to use the app through virtual private networks.

A recent government survey found that only 2.4 percent of users are “very satisfied” with internet quality and that more than 80 percent rely on VPNs to access blocked platforms. Officials say restrictions are needed for national security, while critics say censorship has hurt small businesses and public communication. Telegram has not commented publicly on the reported talks.

The sharp rise, officials say, reverses ten years of gradual decline in traffic deaths and reflects the country’s worsening vehicle safety, outdated road networks, and weak enforcement of driving standards.

The figure broke a ten-year record, with fatalities exceeding 20,000 for the first time since 2011, Abbas Masjedi, head of the Legal Medicine Organization, told Dideban Iran.

“Unfortunately, last year, for the first time in ten years, we recorded more than 20,000 deaths caused by traffic accidents,” Masjedi said. “During the previous decade, the figure always stayed below that mark. After the pandemic, travel increased again, and the number of deaths rose as a result,” he said.

Nearly half a million people, Masjedi added, were injured in crashes last year, with 7 to 10 percent suffering permanent disabilities. He described the losses as “a heavy burden on the national healthcare system and public funds,” estimating that the lifetime cost per serious injury could reach 90 billion rials (nearly $90,000).

100%

Road safety analysts attribute the surge not only to driver error but also to systemic failures – notably the poor quality of domestically produced vehicles and long-neglected accident-prone roads. Studies have shown that Iranian-made cars routinely fail crash safety standards, turning even minor collisions into deadly incidents.

Large sections of Iran’s intercity network, particularly the northern and southern corridors, lack basic safety features such as guardrails, lighting, and warning signs, according to the Legal Medicine Organization. Urban centers like Tehran, where traffic density is among the highest in the region, also account for a growing share of fatal accidents.

Preventive spending urged

Masjedi urged authorities to redirect more funding from emergency response to prevention, including upgrading road infrastructure and improving vehicle safety.

“Investment in prevention is worth every rial,” Masjedi said. “If we fix these dangerous points and improve vehicle quality, we can save thousands of lives each year.”

The latest figures highlight the human and economic toll of road accidents in Iran, where transport safety has long lagged behind international standards despite repeated government pledges to reduce fatalities by 10 percent annually.

Enthusiasm for Western-style festivities has quietly grown in Iran over the past decade.

Despite frequent crackdowns, cafés and restaurants in Tehran and other cities have increasingly hosted Christmas and Valentine’s events, with shopfronts displaying seasonal decorations once unseen in the Islamic Republic.

Halloween observance has gathered pace along with its popularity with children and teenagers.

"This year, all the cafes and restaurants in Mehrshahr have decorated for Halloween in such a way that it feels like I should just wait for the kids to show up at our door soon and say 'Trick or treat!'" one user posted on X, referring to a district in norther Iran.

In 2023, the government-run Borna News outlet reported that some private elementary schools in affluent north Tehran had held discreet Halloween gatherings.

Parents told the outlet that teachers had requested pumpkins and other items to hold Halloween parties on school grounds. The report added that much of the paraphernalia was imported, but some was produced in “underground workshops.”

So when Iran’s Chamber of Guilds announced an official ban on “any and all Halloween festivities” this week, it sounded almost comical to many.

The directive warned that “ceremonies, gatherings, advertising or the sale” of items related to Halloween were prohibited in all public and business venues.

The move, it said, aimed to protect “cultural, religious, and social values.”

Reports on social media suggest that many cafés and restaurants quickly cancelled their planned Halloween events after the warning.

In the southern city of Ahvaz, Mohammad Lari described taking his child to an amusement park that had organized a Halloween-themed play event.

“I took the kid to one of those play venues. A bunch of wild people showed up, upsetting the kids and families because of the Halloween theme,” he wrote on X, in apparent reference to morality police. “People got so upset it would’ve turned into a fight if there weren't a few sane people around.”

The Chamber’s notice came only days after cafés and small shops in Tehran’s traditional bazaars had filled their windows with ghost masks and orange décor.

Many had already launched Halloween-themed menus and cakes before the ban took effect, hoping to take advantage of consumer demand for a fresh new holiday as sanctions and mismanagement have driven up costs of living and hit sales.

Backlash and online ridicule

The announcement triggered an immediate outcry online, reviving debates over the state’s priorities as hardships mount.

Mihan Media, a dissident Instagram account, mocked the order, describing it as "a move that perfectly captures the Islamic Republic’s fear of plastic pumpkins and fake spiderwebs."

"The regime, ever vigilant against witches, ghouls and Western consumerism, seems to have concluded that a few teenagers in costume pose a greater threat to Iran’s moral order than corruption, inflation or repression."

“While the world laughs at imaginary monsters," it added," the Islamic Republic is busy chasing imaginary cultural ones — proving that nothing frightens it more than joy itself.”

On X, many used irony to highlight the country’s economic hardship.

“They say holding Halloween celebrations is forbidden and will be dealt with," user Alireza Yahyaei wrote.

"In a country where buying a home is impossible (for many), even if one saves for it for a century, and food inflation is at 100%, is there even a need for Halloween? The nightmare the world celebrates in one night, we live every day!”

Others pointed to Iran’s cultural contradictions. Sadegh Maktabi, a teacher, wrote: “Iranian society is the strangest collage in the world; one day it celebrates the birth of Hazrat Zaynab (graddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad), the next morning it honors Cyrus (the Great), and at night it celebrates Halloween."

"Islamism, nationalism and Westernism, all together,” he added.

Under a new law Iranians will be able to enter their details on a Foreign Ministry’s portal called Porseman to check whether they are “problem-free” to travel to Iran, top envoy Abbas Araghchi said according to state media.

Those cleared receive a green tick indicating they have no outstanding legal or security issues. Araghchi went further, saying that if a person with a green tick is arrested, “those who arrested them will be prosecuted.”

He described the plan as part of an effort to “decriminalize the mindset” of Iranians abroad and encourage smoother travel home.

The statement immediately drew ridicule online.

Iranian journalist Hossein Bastani wrote on X that the idea was absurd, asking where the Foreign Ministry could “take action” against more powerful armed organs of state power like the Intelligence Ministry or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Competing state bodies staffed variously by clerics, security men, spies and conservative bureaucrats vie hotly for influence in the Islamic theocracy.

US diplomats have frequently criticized the foreign ministry as beholden to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the IRGC.

Authorities are not the authorities

Analysts interviewed by Iran International said the Porseman portal may be subject to the vagaries of Iran's divided system.

Patrick Clawson, director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the initiative ignores the fundamental problem: that “the authorities are not the authorities.”

Different agencies in Iran, he said, often act without coordination or oversight, meaning a traveler could be cleared by one branch of government and still detained by another.

That lack of hierarchy, Clawson added, has long frustrated both diplomats and negotiators dealing with Tehran.

“You could have eight agencies saying you’re fine,” he said, “and the ninth one arrests you.” Clawson dismissed Araghchi’s claim of prosecuting the Revolutionary Guard as political theater, calling it another example of how little power the foreign minister actually holds in Iran’s decision-making structure.

'No green tick will protect you'

Alex Vatanka, head of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, said the Islamic Republic has spent years trying to convince Iranians abroad to visit and invest, but trust is almost nonexistent. The foreign ministry can make assurances, he said, but “if another branch of the system decides you’re a target, no green tick will protect you.”

That fear is not unfounded. Lebanese academic Nizar Zakka and Australian researcher Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who both described their ordeals in interviews with Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran— were invited to Iran by senior officials for conferences and academic exchanges, only to be later arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges.

Their cases remain emblematic of how one arm of the state can extend invitations while another turns those same visitors into hostages.

Vatanka believes the initiative stems from desperation to attract tourism and foreign currency as Iran’s economy falters.

“They look at Turkey, the UAE, even Saudi Arabia making billions from tourism, while Iran—with all its history and culture—gets almost nothing,” he said.

“But Iran treats people as currency. Hostage-taking has been part of its political toolbox since 1979, and that’s not something a website can fix.”

Former US diplomat Alan Eyre said the timing of the Porseman rollout also reflects President Masoud Pezeshkian’s attempt to project normalcy after a bruising year marked by snapback sanctions, a 12-day war, and deepening isolation.

“They’re trying to show Iran is open for tourism and investment,” Eyre told Iran International, “but the executive branch is weak and can’t control the security forces that actually run things.”

Eyre said the effort fits a familiar pattern: after international crises, the clerical establishment launches cosmetic outreach to soften its image abroad. But, he added, “beneath that surface message of safety, you still have a system that arrests its own citizens and uses them as bargaining chips.”

The US State Department has long advised US citizens not to travel to Iran, citing risks of arbitrary arrest, detention, and hostage-taking, and the current Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory remains in place.

For now, Porseman offers reassurance only on paper. In practice, the same system that issues a green tick cannot resolve the uncertainty that defines travel to Iran — a country where returning home still carries unpredictable risk.

Meysam Gholami, acting head of the state-run Research Institute of Cyberspace told a national cyber conference that an opinion poll found 2.4% of respondents were “very satisfied” and 17% “somewhat satisfied” with internet in Iran.

By contrast, 41% said they were “not very satisfied” and 38% “not satisfied at all,” with 2% declining to answer, according to remarks carried by Iranian media.

Gholami said about 61% of users reported using free VPNs and circumvention tools. He added that 10% keep VPNs “almost always” on, 53% switch them on for specific tasks, and 14% said they do not use VPNs.

He warned that widespread use of no-cost tools can degrade performance and raise privacy risks.

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  81% of Iranian internet users bypass censorship with VPNs - Parliament

The official also cited access and usage gaps. Roughly 23% of Iranians aged over 15 -- about 15 million people-- do not use the internet at all, he said.

Average daily screen time in Iran stands at about 7 hours 10 minutes across phones, games and media, compared with a global average of roughly 6 hours, Gholami added, describing the figure as a cultural and public-health concern.

Gholami urged a “data-driven, non-political” approach to digital policy, saying survey results suggest domestic services do not fully meet user needs where VPNs are most frequently switched on.

He also flagged emerging security issues from connected devices in homes, saying some smart appliances can transmit detailed data to manufacturers, and called for stronger privacy safeguards.

Iran’s government has long maintained controls on major foreign platforms and says restrictions are necessary for national security.