RFL/RE – Iran’s Special Clerical Court has tightened restrictions against former President Mohammad Khatami, barring him from all public events for three months.

VOA – President Donald Trump is likely to decertify the nuclear deal with Iran and turn it back to Congress for possible renewed sanctions, senior U.S. officials said Thursday. Trump is expected to announce his plans in a speech next week in which he will say the agreement is not in the U.S. national interest, the officials said. This would not …

CHRI – Mahdieh Golroo: “I have lost hope along with the years of my youth.” Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has blocked formerly imprisoned civil rights activist Mahdieh Golroo from attending Alzahra University in Tehran despite being accepted as a graduate student. “I saw the letter from [President Hassan] Rouhani’s Intelligence Ministry at the University Evaluation Organization (UEO),” said Golroo in an interview …

CHRI – The sentences of a lifetime in exile issued against Mohammad Ali Shamshirzan and Hamid Arayesh of the Sufi order in Iran known as Gonabadi Dervishes has been illegally changed to life in prison unless the two “repent,” a source with knowledge about the case informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Four other dervishes—Kazem Dehghan, Mohammad Ali …

CHRI – In February 2016, a senior member of Iran’s ruling Shia Muslim clergy, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, welcomed the head of the Nation of Islam, American Minister Louis Farrakhan, as a guest of the Islamic Republic in what was later billed as one of the most open displays of religious hypocrisy by the Islamic Republic. “Such blight complicity and duplicity should put to rest the …

Al-monitor – The mourning ceremonies of Muharram are age-old traditions among Shiite Muslims around the world, especially those in Iran. The rituals commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein ibn Ali and his companions in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala. In recent years, however, the ceremonies have prompted concern among Iranian clerics and religious intellectuals over what they consider to be deviations from core principle. In Iran …

PayvandNews – As in other authoritarian states, the Iranian media landscape is greatly shaped by outlets with close links to the security and intelligence establishment. Media outlets with links to security organizations are usually launched with a defined approach and clear goal in mind. They work not only to advance the agendas of their patrons but also to weaken critics of …

RFL/RE – The presidents of Iran and Turkey say their countries will take steps to ensure that borders in the region remain unchanged following last week’s independence referendum in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. “We will not accept changing borders in the region,” Iranian President Hassan Rohani said in Tehran on October 4 at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, …

RFL/RE U.S. officials say President Donald Trump will likely deliver an Iran policy speech next week, just days ahead of the October 15 deadline to certify whether Tehran is adhering to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with global powers. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, on October 4 said the White House has tentatively scheduled the speech for …

CHRI – Iranian pop singer Arya Aramnejad has been indefinitely banned from engaging in any musical activity by Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry and offered bribes in exchange for cooperating with the govern style=”border-style: none; border-color: inherit; border-width: 0px; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 0.17s ease-in-out; background: transparent;”ment of President Hassan Rouhani, he …