On 26 April, an explosion took place at the Shahid Rajaei port, the country’s largest commercial port, killing at least 70 people and injuring over 1,000 others. Reports suggest that many unregistered migrant workers from economically marginalized provinces were likely among the victims. These individuals, whose work often goes unrecorded in official employment systems, are especially difficult to identify and reach during recovery efforts. Several workers remain missing. Officials blamed the explosion on negligence, including mislabelling of cargo and unsafe storage of combustible material. Following the incident, journalists reported increased restrictions on coverage, while the Tehran prosecutor’s office filed charges against several media outlets and social media users for allegedly sharing ‘unauthorized information’ about the blast.

Sources: Associated Press, Business and Human Rights Resource Center, Iran International, The Guardian

On 5 July, presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, representing the reformist political faction, won the second round of the Iranian presidential election with 53.7 percent of the vote. He defeated his hardline opponent, Saeed Jalili. Voter turnout reached 49.8 percent, higher than the record low 39.93 percent registered in the first round. This snap election was called following the sudden death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on 19 May. Initially, 80 candidates, including four women, registered for candidacy. However, Iran’s Guardian Council, responsible for overseeing the elections and vetting candidacies, approved only six male candidates.  Two candidates withdrew prior to the first round, leaving four contenders in the race. Since no candidate secured the required 50 per cent of the vote in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Pezeshkian and Jalili. Pezeshkian's swearing-in ceremony took place on 30 July.

Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, IRNA, Mehr News Agency, Al Arabiya

Women and girls in Iran have been subjected to a violent crackdown by the country’s police as part of a new hijab enforcement campaign announced by authorities on 13 April. The UN and media outlets reported that women and girls across the country were being harassed and detained, with some alleging that they had been beaten and sexually assaulted. Surveillance cameras were reportedly being used to identify individuals not complying with the mandatory hijab laws and hundreds of businesses were forced to close for not enforcing the laws. On 21 April, the Tehran head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the creation of a new hijab law enforcement body, which would, he said, police the dress codes ‘in a more serious manner’ in public spaces. Commentators have indicated that the campaign is the most serious attempt by the state to impose its authority on this issue since the Mahsa Amini protests of 2022 and 2023.      

Sources: United Nations, Iran International, The Guardian, The Washington Post, International IDEA

On 1 March, Iran held parliamentary elections for all 290 seats of its Islamic Consultative Assembly, although contests for 45 of these seats will go to a second round in April or May, due to the fact that the winning candidates had failed to secure 20 per cent of the vote. The first round was dominated by members of the conservative, hardliner political faction, who clinched 200 seats, with many candidates from the reformist faction prevented from running. Despite there having been 1,713 female candidates, only 11 were elected in the first round. Voters also selected candidates for 88 seats of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a deliberative body tasked with appointing the country’s Supreme Leader, and hardliners dominated this poll, too. Voter turnout was 40.64 per cent, the lowest since the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979.   

Sources: The Iran Primer, Al Jazeera, Stimson Center, Wilson Center, Voice of America, Newsweek, International IDEA