Radiofarda – Conspicuous tweets by two environmental journalists in recent days reveal possible pressures on social media influencers to refrain from public criticism of unfair arrests and trails. The journalists abruptly changing their previous positions came out supporting the verdict against Morad Tahbaz, a jailed Iranian-American ecologist. This has given rise to concerns over pressure on journalists to drop reporting …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s US-sanctioned Mahan Air airline transferred “illicit cargo” to Syria using a civilian airliner with hundreds of passengers on board under slain commander Qassem Soleimani’s supervision, according to a Mahan Air pilot. Mahan Air pilot Amir Assadollahi told a website affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday that he once flew a passenger plane carrying …

VOA – Video footage earlier this month of Iranian police with a burning car carrying Afghan refugees has received wide condemnation inside Afghanistan and renewed debate about the plight of Afghans in Iran.  On June 3, a car carrying 13 Afghan migrants was set ablaze in Iran’s central Yazd province, killing three and injuring four. The video went viral on …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A man was hanged in public in the Iranian northwestern city of Firuraq on Thursday, June 11. This is the first recorded public execution in Iran in 2020. According to Azarbakhish website, on the morning of Thursday, June 11, 2020, a man was executed in public in the Iranian northwestern city of Firuraq, West Azerbaijan. He was …

CHRI — Last summer, the actress and human rights activist Nazanin Boniadi visited the Northern french cities of Calais and Dunkirk where she met asylum seekers from around the world, including her birth country of Iran, and documented their experiences in her new short film, “Stateless.” “I met a bright and charming eight-year-old Iranian boy, Arvin, who is in the docufilm with his …

Al-Monitor – According to Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, the coronavirus continues to spread across several Iranian provinces as normal life resumes in the country. Harirchi, who himself became famous across the world after displaying coronavirus symptoms during a press conference and who later tested positive, said June 17 during a visit to the Kurdistan province of Iran that in the last …

Al-Monitor – Wildfires broke out in southwestern Iran during the last week of May and clawed their path up north and west, spreading across much of the Zagros Mountains and leaving behind a trail of irreparable destruction to the already endangered environment. The flames have died down, but there is a heated debate among Iranians about the wildfires. Were they a natural disaster or the …

(AP) — Iran test fired cruise missiles in a naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean, state media reported Thursday . The report by the official IRNA news agency said the missiles destroyed targets at a distance of 280 kilometers (170 miles). It said the tests took place during a naval drill by Iran’s navy in …

Shabtabnews – In a open letter The International Religious Freedom requests signatures on a letter addressed to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to support the religious prisoners of conscience in Iran. The full text of the letter and the means of signing the letter can be seen below: Dear IRF Roundtable Participants,Please see below from Baha’is of the United States …

Radiofarda -Another brutal “honor killing” has shaken Iran for the third time in less than a month, with the Islamic government trying to do damage control and avoiding blame for its policies of light punishment for the guilty perpetrators. Referring to the latest honor killing said to have been committed with an ax, Kerman province’s deputy police chief says, contrary …