Radiofarda – For Iran 2018 was a year marked by real threats from within and perceived threats from outside coupled with an economic crisis highlighted by a constantly rising double-digit inflation, unemployment, widespread financial corruption, mismanagement, and lack of trust in the country’s inefficient banking system.

Radiofarda – The research center of Iran’s Parliament (Majles) has warned against “uncontrollable inflation” before the end of the current Iranian year in late March.

Radiofarda – Hundreds of university students in Tehran gathered on Saturday to express their anger at a bus crash that killed and injured dozens of their peers on December 25.

Radiofarda – Firebrand cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda says if Tehran joins international conventions against money laundering and funding terrorism it will pave the way for “Sedition 2019”; a new codename for hardliners to raise alarm about a perceived U.S. threat to topple Iran’s rulers.

Al-Arabia – Although they are not allowed to study in their mother tongue, a video of female Arab students in Ahwaz dancing to an Arabic song at their school surfaced on social media, which grabbed the attention of many as it was seen as a challenge to the authorities who ban singing and dancing in public to begin with.

Iran-HRM – A group of family members of the arrested National Steel Group workers held a protest rally on December 29, 2018, in front of the Governorate of Khuzestan to demand their loved ones’ release.

Iran-HRM – Iranian authorities have transferred Mehdi Farahi Shandiz, teacher and political prisoner in Karaj Central Prison, to solitary confinement. Farahi Shandiz has been kept in solitary confinement for an entire week for unknown reasons. There’s no news of his conditions.

Iran-HRM – A 25-year-old woman identified only as Noushin, 25, was hanged in Iran, the state-run Young Journalist Club reported on December 22, 2018.

RFL/RE – The daughter of one of the founders of the Islamic republic has warned that, while still strong, the system her late father helped establish some 40 years ago is weakened and could someday collapse.

HRANA – The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 29th, 2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).