About THE FRAME

Most analysis of Iran stops at the surface. To understand the country, you have to look at the logic of its survival and the lives shaped by it.

The Frame is a publication by Mehdi Parpanchi.

Mehdi Parpanchi is an Iranian journalist, broadcaster, analyst, and editor based in Washington, D.C. He is currently an Executive Editor at Iran International, where he founded the network’s U.S. operation and leads its Washington-based coverage. Before that, he served as Iran Service Director at Radio Farda and was a lead presenter at BBC Persian, where he covered Iranian politics and regional affairs for more than fifteen years.

The Frame looks at Iran not only as a headline, a nuclear file, or a battlefield in regional politics, but as a political system with its own logic of survival. It also looks at the lived reality of Iranians: repression, inflation, sanctions, surveillance, exile, and the daily compromises of survival. Too much outside analysis treats Iranians as background characters in a story about the regime. This publication does not.

It offers the nuance that rarely makes it into the headlines. Through essays, analysis, and occasional news wrap-ups, The Frame aims to make sense of developments in Iran with clarity, context, and seriousness.

Beyond rhetoric. Beneath the headlines.

Subscribe for essays and updates on Iran, its politics, its crises, and its people.

Let’s look at the full picture.