PayvandNews – Ashraf Qandehari-Bahadorzadeh was a humanitarian and the co-founder of the Kahrizak nursing home, south of Tehran. She had devoted her life to helping those in need and was praised and honored for her charity works. She joined the founding committee of Kahrizak in 1972 and helped building the charity complex as we know it today. The late Ashraf Qandehari-Bahadorzadeh In …

RFL/RE – Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won rave notices ahead of winning his second Oscar, for the taut “neorealist” suspense film The Salesman, but the reviews have been more mixed for his long-distance acceptance speech. By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL Farhadi’s reaction to this year’s best-foreign-film honor — delivered live in Los Angeles by the world’s first female space tourist, Iranian-born engineer Anousheh Ansari, …

PayvandNews – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has hailed Iran’s ability to achieve what it has described as an impressive economic recovery after the removal of multiple-year sanctions against the country. “Iran’s government hasn’t met expectations on economy” cartoon by Hamed Bazrafkan, Ghanoon daily The IMF in an annual report on Iran’s economic performance said that higher oil production and …

Iranhumanrights.org – A former member of Parliament and Iranian-Kurdish rights activist, Jalal Jalalizadeh, has strongly criticized the Islamic Republic’s refusal to recognize the constitutional right of ethnic minorities to preserve their languages. Jalal Jalalizadeh Eighty-eight civil rights activists have meanwhile sent a letter to President Hassan Rouhani demanding the implementation of that right. The government’s refusal to enforce Article 15 of the Constitution “shows …