Kowsar (or Kosar) is a medium-range, land-based anti-ship missile made by Iran. It can defeat electronic jamming systems and "cannot be thrown off course", according to Iranian officials.

The Kowsar designation apparently (Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance 2006) is used to refer to two different missiles: Iranian-produced versions of the PRC C-701 and the TL-10A.

Some news reports indicate that this was the missile used on July 14, 2006 in the 2006 Lebanon War when Hezbollah fired two at Israeli warships. One of the missiles hit the corvette INS Hanit, causing heavy damage and the deaths of four Israeli servicemen. The other missile hit an Egyptian merchant ship causing heavy damage; it is reported that all the crew survived.

Chinese government sources have stated that the missile was not a C-802/Noor. The Hanit did suffer major damage to its steering and some to its engine from the missile hit, and had to be removed from the area, but the damage was lighter than initially feared. Using hits by the Harpoon missile — which has a warhead approximately 1.5 times larger than the C-802, and is generally considered able to cripple a corvette-sized vessel with a single hit — as a reference point, it seems likely that the missiles used by Hezbollah were not Noor missiles, and were the smaller Kowsar. The Kowsar missiles are classed as being able to sink a fast attack craft with one hit, which is more in line with the reported damage.

Masoumeh Alinejad aka Masih is an Iranian journalist and writer.

Alinejad is well known for her criticism of Iranian authorities. She was a parliamentary reporter for ILNA and a journalist at Hambastegi Daily and Etemad Melli Daily. Several of her articles were followed by harsh criticism from conservative parties in Iran. In 2008, former Iranian head of parliament apologized after an article by Alinejad was published in Etemad Melli Daily on economic problems in Iran.

She was a Parliamentary correspondent for ‘ Hambastegi‘ Daily and ‘Iranian Labour News Agency’ (ILNA), for four years prior to her ban from Parliament in 2005. Her ban from Parliament brought worldwide media attention as she had exposed a significant increase in deputies’ salaries had not been made public.^{[citation needed]} The Nobel Prize winning lawyer, Shirin Ebadei offered to defend her in court action.

She has published three books in Persian:

-Tahasson, which describes the political turmoil/challenges created when the ‘Sixth Iranian Parliament’ went on strike.
-Taje-e-Khar,(The crown of thorn) a Novel and that is now being translated into English.^{[citation needed]}
-I am Free, which deals with Women issues in Iran published in Germany because of the banning by the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry in Iran.
Winner of the first annual ‘Omid Journalism Award’ from the Mehdi Semsar Foundation. (Iranian - French Organization): she was arrested as an activist for producing leaflets critical of the Government in 1994.

Nikahang Kowsar, also known as Nik Kowsar (Persian: نیک‌آهنگ کوثر‎, born 1969) is an Iranian-Canadian cartoonist, journalist, and blogger, currently living in Washington DC, US. Kowsar was also a reformist candidate for the second term of city council of Tehran in 2003, an election won by the conservative candidates of Abadgaran.

He studied Geology in the University of Tehran, and joined Gol-Agha, an Iranian political satire magazine as a cartoonist in 1991. He worked for Hamshahri from 1992 to 1998, and was a member of Newspapers such as "Zan", "Aftab-e Emrooz", "Sobh-e Emrooz", "Akhbar-e Eghtesadi", "Azad", "Bahar", "Bonyan", "Doran-e Emrooz", "Nosazi", "Hayate No", "Abrar-e Eghteadi", "Hambastegi", "Farhang-e Ashti". Most of these papers were banned by Saeed Mortazavi. He was arrested in Feb. 2000 for drawing a cartoon and spent 6 days at the Evin Prison in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's nickname comes from a cartoon portraying "Professor Crocodile", a "reptilian academic who was shown strangling a journalist with his tail". The cartoon was drawn by Nikahang Kowsar and satirized freedom of expression in Iran, and a speech given by Mesbah Yazdi in the previous day. Mesbah Yazdi was known as Professor Mesbah (Persian: استاد مصباح) among his supporters. "Mesbah" rhymes with the Persian word for crocodile, "Temsah" (Persian: تمساح), and the cartoon labeled the crocodile as "Professor Temsah", who repeats the words used by Mesbah Yazdi in the previous day. Nikahang Kowsar was arrested and spent seven days in prison for the depiction. In 2001, he sent an apology letter to Mesbah, and the cleric had said that he had accepted it, but later in 2003 Kowsar received a death threat, from and Islamist assassin group.

Iranian Canadians or Persian Canadians are Canadians of Iranian/Persian national background or descent. Their numbers are estimated as 121,510 from the 2006 Canadian census and the main communities can be found in Southern Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec; the vast majority, however, live in the northern suburbs of Toronto such as Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Markham, and Thornhill, and in the municipalities of Vancouver such as: North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam. An estimated total of 46,255 Iranians currently reside in the Greater Toronto Area, 29,265 in the Greater Vancouver Area, 9,535 in the Greater Montreal Area, and the remainder are spread out in the other major cities in Canada based on the 2006 Canadian Census. However, these numbers only represent the people who immigrated from Iran and filled out the census survey. There are an estimated 50,000 more Iranians who did not fill out the survey and were born outside Iran including Canada.^{[citation needed]} Estimated numbers for Toronto are around 65,000, in Vancouver they range up to 40,000 and in Montreal there are not more than 15,000.