Inside Iran

Iran’s foreign policy: what the west should know

The Islamic Republic's international agenda can baffle westerners. Sadegh Kharazi, a former Iranian ambassador to France, describes the principles that underpin it

Inside Iran

It is the country the west fears most - and knows least about. In our exclusive reports, Iranian writers describe the extraordinary contradictions of life under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "Loving Government" - and reveal how Iran sees the west. Maziar Bahari, a leading journalist, begins with a drive across downtown Tehran

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From shahs to sanctions – a timeline

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“Economics is for donkeys”

While oil prices remain high, Iran can afford its contempt for economic orthodoxy

Living with a revolution

Iranian photographers capture the sharp disparity between public and private life in the Islamic Republic

''The shah's plan was to build bombs''

Akbar Etemad, the shah's chief atomic energy adviser, tells Maziar Bahari about the unlikely birth of Iran's nuclear programme

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Battle of the blogs

Internet campaigners for civil liberties and women's rights pay a high price for their "online crimes"

Power games

In Iran, wrestling is more than just a sport. Dominic Byrne visits a Tehran "house of strength" to find out why

Another Afghanistan

The Wasted Vigil
Nadeem Aslam Faber & Faber, 384pp, £17.99