Despite pledges to allow education in minority languages, Iranian authorities banned publication of a Kurdish language instruction book, and threatened the authors and publisher.
After Kurdish guerillas attacked an Iranian border patrol, Tehran blamed Turkey for failing to prevent "terrorist" infiltration—even as Turkey is building a security wall along the frontier.
Hardliner Ebrahim Raeesi reluctantly accepted Hassan Rouhani's victory after a bitter campaign, with cultural rights for Kurds and other ethnic minorities a critical dividing line.
Overlooked by the world media, Ahwazi Arabs filled the streets of Iran's southern oil heartland to protest air and water pollution, and the lack of basic services.
The Central Bank of Iran formally dropped its use of the US dollar as Trump slapped new sanctions on the Islamic Republic in response to its latest missile test.
Iran's government and companies close to the elite Revolutionary Guards have signed major economic contracts with Syria, gaining control of large areas of the country.
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran expressed urgent concern for eight imprisoned activists believed to be on life-threatening hunger strikes.
Baluchi militants attacked Iranian security forces in the country's east, pledging to coordinate their struggle with that of the Ahwazi Arabs in the oil-rich southwest.
Ahwazi Arab militants claimed responsibility for two pipeline blasts in Iran's Khuzestan province, amid growing unrest over the ecological impacts of oil exploitation.
Thousands from various Iranian cities took part in a protest against the clerical regime's policies at Pasargade, site of the tomb of Cyrus the Great, outside Shiraz.
International outrage over the mounting wave of executions in Iran reached another milestone when 12 drug convicts were hanged at Karaj Central Prison outside Tehran.
Ahwazi Arab farmers in Iran's Khuzestan province protested outside the state sugar refinery to oppose the company's confiscation of 1,000 hectares of agricultural land.
