Helmet to Heels®: Inside Iran

Iran: You Don’t Negotiate with a Snake

Rouzy — Fri, 01 May 2026 23:25:29 GMT

You don’t reason with something whose incentives are fixed. You don’t compromise with a force that survives by your submission - or calls for your death, as political leaders in the Islamic Republic of Iran have done for forty-seven years.

Sir Winston Churchill famously said, “you cannot reason with a tiger when your head …

Iran Peace Talks: Send a Madman to Catch a Madman

Rouzy — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:39:06 GMT

White House Pool Photo

This morning I woke up to a text from Tehran: “Look, we were never fans of the Islamic Republic. But Trump drew the line so badly that now all Iranians — regime and everyone else — are basically on the same side against this madman.”

Meanwhile to the East across the Iranian-Pakistani border, New York Times reports: “An American del…

'I brought two American flags with me to Iran. Someone just offered me $500 for one of them!'

Suzanne Kianpour — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:46:12 GMT

“US wins gold. Great omen.” While they await news of either American bombs or a nuclear deal that would allow the regime that massacred its own people in the streets last month to survive, people inside Iran are escaping their anxiety with the Winter Olympics, one with an American flag so popular others are comping at the bit to buy it - even in an era …

When the Internet Goes Dark, the Truth Gets Louder

Suzanne Kianpour — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:20:46 GMT

When Masoud Pezeshkian publicly acknowledged that Iranians are exhausted and that the government must listen to them, the timing mattered as much as the words themselves. This was not a philosophical reflection or a campaign-era abstraction. It came amid a widening wave of protests—simultaneous, dispersed, often leaderless—stretching across major cities and smaller, less visible towns. The speech was not ahead of events. It was a response to them.

Iranian presidents rarely speak in the language of fatigue. They speak of endurance, resistance, sacrifice. To admit exhaustion in the middle of active unrest is to admit that the state is reacting, not directing. It is an acknowledgment that pressure is no longer contained at the margins.

The Aftermath of a Helicopter Crash That Killed the President of Iran

Suzanne Kianpour — Tue, 28 May 2024 10:59:05 GMT

In January 2023, I published a piece I’d been asked to write for Politico Magazine, The Women of Iran Are Not Backing Down. I learned it was live via what was then still called Twitter - a tweet from Richard Branson. Before I knew it, this essay had gone viral, eclipsing anything I’d ever done at the BBC - including that time we got Hillary Clinton to …