• Amir Pourmand / ISNA via AP

    Alireza Mafiha, second left, leans his head on the shoulder of a security officer moments before his execution along with Mohammad Ali Sarvari, second right, in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 20, 2013. Iran publicly executed two men on Sunday after posting a video on YouTube in December 2012 showing them robbing and assaulting a man with a machete on a street in Tehran. Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani called it a "moharebeh" crime, which Iran's legal code defines as "defiance of God", or the state, and is punishable by hanging.

    Scene from an Iranian execution: Condemned man lays his head on hangman's shoulder

    Just before nooses were put on their necks, Alireza Mafiha, 23, laid his head on an executioner's shoulder. Mohammad Ali Sarvari, 20, stood alongside him. The execution of the two young men in a Tehran park on Sunday is described by Thomas Erdbrink of The New York Times:

    The condemned stood shoulder to shoulder, motionless, in front of two police trucks with two nooses hanging from extendable cranes, about 15 feet high. Black-clad executioners were inspecting the remote controls they would use to hang the men, both in their early 20s, who were convicted of stabbing a man in November and stealing his bag and the equivalent of $20.

    Sunday’s execution in Park-e Honarmandan (Artists Park), near the crime scene, was part of a heavy-handed offensive by Iranian authorities, who say they are trying to prevent rising crime rates from getting out of hand by setting harsh examples. In recent weeks, public executions have been stepped up, and in several large cities the police have been rounding up what they call thugs and hooligans. Read the full story.

  • Iran urges baby boom

    Vahid Salemi / AP

    Iranian teachers Akram Shafizadeh, left, and Saba Mirvahabi, hold young children in a kindergarten in Tehran, Iran, July 28. In a major reversal of once far-reaching family planning policies, authorities are now slashing birth-control programs in an attempt to avoid an aging demographic similar to many Western countries that are struggling to keep up with state medical and social security costs.

    Vahid Salemi / AP

    Iranian nurse Zahra Akbarzadeh, left, gives one-day-old baby girl Setayesh to her mother, Tayyebeh Sadat Bidaki, at the Mehr hospital, in Tehran, July 29.

    After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, families were strongly encouraged to contribute to a baby boom demanded by leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who wanted fast population growth to contribute to a "20 million member army" in support of the ruling theocracy. In 1986, toward the end of the eight-year war with Iraq, census figures show the population's growth rate reached 3.9 percent - among the highest in the world at the time and in line with Persian traditions that favor big families.

    But the leadership just as quickly hit the brakes in the 1990s, fearing a galloping population could overwhelm the economy. Iran became a regional leader in family-planning options, including offering free or subsidized condoms and other contraceptives, and issuing religious edicts in favor of vasectomies. One clinic in Tehran promoted its vasectomy services in huge letters atop a water tower.

    Banners at public health care centers urged smaller families as a path to a better life. By 2011, the most recent period for which figures are available, Iran's population growth had fallen to one of the lowest in region - 1.3 percent.

    Read the full story from the Associated Press.

    Vahid Salemi / AP

    After swimming, Iranian children nap in their kindergarten in Tehran, July 28.

     

  • Iranians celebrate festival of fire

    Atta Kenare / AFP - Getty Images

    An Iranian woman holds a firecracker in Tehran on March 13 during the Wednesday Fire ritual, or Chaharshanbeh Soori..

    Vahid Salemi / AP

    Joyful Iranian men dance around a firework, in the Pardisan Park in Tehran during Chaharshanbe Soori, or Wednesday Feast.

    Vahid Salemi / AP

    An Iranian woman jumps over a bonfire, in the Pardisan Park in Tehran during Chaharshanbe Souri, or Wednesday Feast.

    Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

    At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

    Launch slideshow

    Chaharshanbe Soori is the ancient Festival of Fire celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Iranian year. Iranians jump over burning bonfires while throwing firecrackers to celebrate arrival of spring and the upcoming holiday of Nowruz.

    The origin of the festival comes from pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism era and has been discouraged by conservative Islamist rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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  • Water gun fight in a park? Iran sees dark designs

    The AP reports from TEHRAN, Iran:

    Iran is trying to put down a new wave of civil disobedience — flash mobs of young people who break into boisterous fights with water guns in public parks. A group of water fighters was arrested over the weekend, and a top judiciary official warned Monday that "counter-revolutionaries" were behind them.

    Milad Beheshti / AP

    Iranian youths take part in a water fight at the Water and Fire Park in northern Tehran, Iran, in a picture taken on July 29 and made available today. Iran is trying to put down a new wave of civil disobedience - flash mobs of young people who break into boisterous fights with water guns in public parks.

    Police swooped in to arrest a number of people who had gathered on Friday in a Tehran park to hold a water fight, the acting commander of Iran's police Gen. Ahmad Radan said, quoted in newspapers on Monday.

    Radan said the group had been planning the water fight through the Internet and had "intended to break customs." He vowed police would act to prevent future attempts and that participants would be put on trial.

    Milad Beheshti / AP

    A group of water fighters was arrested over the weekend, and a top judiciary official warned Monday that "counter-revolutionaries" were behind them. Throughout the summer, Iranian police have been cracking down. Picture taken July 29.

    Hard-liners see the water fights as unseemly and immoral, breaking taboos against men and women simply mixing, much less dousing each other with water and playing in the streets.

    But authorities see a darker hand as well, worrying that the gatherings could weaken adherence among young people to Iran's cleric-led Islamic rule or even build into outright protests against the ruling system. Iran's leadership has been very wary of any gathering, whatever their nature, since the massive protests against the 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read the full story.

    Milad Beheshti / AP

    In the first incident, in July, hundreds of young men and women held a water fight in Tehran's popular Water and Fire Park, spraying each other with water guns and splattering bottles of water on one another. Police detained dozens of those involved. Picture taken July 29.

     

     

  • Raheb Homavandi / Reuters

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, attends a parliament session during which lawmakers are expected to pass the vote of confidence for four new ministers, in Tehran on August 3. Ahmadinejad's candidate for oil minister, Rostam Qasemi, is seen in a light blue suit at upper right. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

    Political machinations in Iran

    Reuters reports:

    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's candidate to be Iran's new oil minister looked set to win a vote of confidence on Wednesday, easing a power struggle between the president and a hostile parliament.

    Ahmadinejad proposed Rostami Qasemi only after it became clear that a close ally he had installed as caretaker minister in June, Mohammad Aliabadi, was considered by many lawmakers to lack experience. Perhaps more important, he was seen as too close to a president they accuse of trying to grab more power. Read the full story.

    See more images of Iran on PhotoBlog.

  • AP

    Iranian protestors move a garbage can which is set on fire, during an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 14, in this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran. Eyewitnesses report that sporadic clashes have erupted in central Tehran's Enghelab or Revolution square between security forces and opposition protesters. The demonstrators were chanting "death to the dictator," referring to the country's hardline president that the opposition believes was reelected through fraud in 2009.

    Iranian opposition protesters demonstrate in Tehran

    By Elena Grothe

    Images are just starting to move of the protest going on in Tehran today. Full story here.

  • Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters

    A Shiite man covered in mud uses his mobile phone during the Ashoura religious festival in Khorramabad, 305 miles southwest of Tehran on December 16, 2010.

    Iranian man covered in mud commmemorates Ashoura

    By Jonathan Woods, msnbc.com

    Mourners cover themselves in mud to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in the 7th century battle of Kerbala.