Iranian police have arrested a couple for “outraging public decency” after they got engaged in front of a crowd at a shopping mall.Video of the public proposal in the western city of Arak appeared on social media on March 8, showing the pair standing amid rose petals in a heart shape on the floor. Sobhan Hassanvand✔@Hassanvand Man publicly proposes to …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Hassan Rohani has called for what he called “decisive” action by Pakistan in the wake of a deadly suicide attack in a border area. During a telephone call on March 9, Rohani told Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that inaction by Islamabad could jeopardize relations between the countries, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. Twenty-seven members …

gatestoneinstitute -People, especially the younger generation, are not interested in the shopworn anti-American discourse seasoned with empty pseudo-Islamic slogans. The anti-American discourse sounds even more hollow when the Islamic Majlis publishes claims that some 15,000 children of senior Islamic Republic officials, including many mullahs, are in the United States for further studies and that hundreds of top Khomeinist officials are either …

Iran Human Rights- A prisoner was executed for murder charges on February 13, 2019, at Qazvin Central Prison (Also known as Chubin-Dar Prison). According to a report published by Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a man identified as Ali Shakouri, was executed at Qazvin Central Prison on February 13, 2019. Ali was from Tarzilu village, near Urmia city in northwestern Iran.  …

CHRI – To the editors at the National Geographic, March 8, 2019 National Geographic has failed to report on the death of a prominent wildlife conservationist in Iran in an article about wildlife conservation in Iran. The conservationist, Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami, died in Iranian custody in Tehran’s Evin Prison in February 2018. I am writing to register my dismay over …

CHRI – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry is pressing new charges against prominent Azeri ethnic rights activist Abbas Lesani, claiming he has been organizing protests from inside the prison in the city of Ardabil where he is incarcerated. Since January 15, 2019, the 57-year-old activist has been serving a 10-month prison sentence in the capital of Ardabil Province, 373 miles northwest of …

CHRI – Education Minister Claims Strikers Wrongly Teaching Students How to Protest Thousands of teachers went on strike throughout Iran for the third time in less than a year March 3-5, 2019, to demand fair pay, the release of their imprisoned colleagues and free, universal education. “The most important reason for the strike is that the government does not feel obligated to implement Article 30 of …

Al-Monitor – “I remember that it was the first of Esfand,” the former senior Iranian official recalled, referring to Feb. 20 in the Iranian calendar, “I was at the Supreme National Security Council with Mr. Rouhani, and I told him that we won’t have any vacation for Nowruz this year. He asked: ‘What do you mean?’ I responded that I …

Al-Monitor – Excluding spending for state-owned enterprises, the Iranian government’s proposed budgetfor the coming fiscal year (beginning March 21) is set at 4,700 trillion rials ($111.9 billion). The education budget, which covers the expenditures of elementary to upper secondary schools, amounts to 458 trillion rials ($10.9 billion). While public spending has risen by 40% overall in the proposed budget, the educational system’s allocated resources have only increased by …

Radiofarda – A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has chastised parliament for debating a law to equalize the amount of “blood money” paid to male and female victims or their heirs. Iran, Qom — Grand Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani, undated. According to Islamic law, “diyah,” or “blood money” is paid as financial compensation to the victims or their heirs in cases of …