The John Batchelor Show

SOCCER STADIUMS AS PROTEST VENUES AND THE ETHNIC FACTOR Colleague Brenda Shaffer. Shafferdescribes how soccer stadiums, particularly for the Azerbaijani team "Tractor," have become venues for ethnic and anti-regime protest. She notes the regime's brutal crackdown on athletes supporting the movement. Shaffer observes a shift in the opposition from seeking reform to demanding total regime change. She predicts the ethnic factor will be decisive in the Islamic Republic's potential collapse, warning that a transition to a Persian-nationalist military dictatorship would further alienate minority populations. NUMBER 41940 TEHRAN

BROKEN PROMISES AND LINGUISTIC DISCRIMINATION Colleague Brenda Shaffer. Shaffer details how the Islamic Republic initially promised ethnic minorities linguistic and cultural rights to secure power in 1979, only to violently suppress them once established. She explains that this oppression continues today through the policing of non-Persian names on birth certificates and the banning of minority language education. Shaffer argues this linguistic discrimination fuels current unrest, exemplified by Mahsa Amini, whose Kurdish identity was suppressed by state mandates. NUMBER 21911 QAJAR IN URMIA

BROKEN PROMISES AND LINGUISTIC DISCRIMINATION Colleague Brenda Shaffer. Shaffer details how the Islamic Republic initially promised ethnic minorities linguistic and cultural rights to secure power in 1979, only to violently suppress them once established. She explains that this oppression continues today through the policing of non-Persian names on birth certificates and the banning of minority language education. Shaffer argues this linguistic discrimination fuels current unrest, exemplified by Mahsa Amini, whose Kurdish identity was suppressed by state mandates. NUMBER 21870 TEHRAN

IRAN IS MORE THAN PERSIA: A DIVERSE MOSAIC OF ETHNIC MINORITIES Colleague Brenda Shaffer. Brenda Shaffer discusses her book, Iran is More than Persia, arguing that Iran is not a monolithic Persian state but a diverse mosaic where ethnic minorities comprise roughly half the population. She explains how the 20th-century shift to Persian nationalism marginalized groups like the Azerbaijanis, Kurds, and Baluch. Shaffer notes that current anti-regime protests involve these previously pacified groups, highlighting the regime's failure to fully subjugate peripheral regions like Sistan-Baluchistan. NUMBER 11890 TEHRAN

 THE SAM ALTMAN MELODRAMA Colleague Gary Rivlin. The shock firing of Sam Altman by the OpenAI board over trust issues, Microsoft's intervention, and the rapid rehiring that solidified the race for dominance. NUMBER 161955