Radiofarda – The “Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice” in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi Province has enforced a ban on women riding bicycles in public places. The capital city of the province is Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city with a shrine considered by Shiites as the holiest religious venue in the country, where their eighth Imam, Ali bin Mousa al-Reza …

Radiofarda – Iranian conservatives have been justifying the Chinese government’s suppression of Uyghur Muslims in China and keeping silent in the face of systematic violence against Chines Muslims in Xinjiang Province. During the past days two tweets by Ali Motahari, a former member of the Iranian Parliament, about the situation of Uyghur Muslims in China has stirred a lot of …

Radiofarda – In exclusive video-taped interviews sent to Radio Farda by citizen-journalists from Iran, residents of Karaj — the capital city of Alborz Province — say the situation with COVID pandemic is more critical now and allege that the government is hiding the true numbers. Alborz Province is currently experiencing a second and more intense wave of the pandemic. Even according to …

VOA – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest warning that China would destabilize the Middle East by deepening ties with U.S. foe Iran is raising questions about how far Beijing will go to boost its partner Tehran in an emerging deal that would heighten U.S.-China tensions.  “China’s entry into Iran will destabilize the Middle East. It’ll put Israel at risk. …

VOA – Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared Wednesday a day of mourning in Lebanon after a powerful blast devastated the port in the capital city of Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross said in a morning statement that more than 100 people were dead and at least 4,000 injured. Officials said they expected the number of victims to rise as crews …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Mostafa Salehi, detained for participating in late 2017, early 2018 protests was hanged at dawn today in a prison in Isfahan, central Iran. Mostafa Salehi was one of the protesters arrested during the nationwide protests in 2017-18 in the city of Kahrizsang, in Isfahan province. He was accused of killing a member of the Revolutionary Guards …

Iran-HRM – Based on information compiled by the Iran Human Rights Monitor, at least 21 porters (or back carriers) have been shot dead by revolutionary guards since March 20, 2020. This is an average of four porters per month and one porter every week getting killed by the IRGC. This figure does not include the cases where porters lost their …

Iran-HRM – A young woman was executed on August 2, 2020, in the Central Prison of Mashhad, the state-run media reported today. The woman identified only by her first name, Mehri, had already served six years on the death row. According to the state-run Khorasan daily the executed woman was accused of murdering her husband. With this execution, the total …

Al-Monitor – A fire erupted at an Iranian industrial facility this morning, state TV reported, marking the latest in a wave of unexplained blasts at civilian and military sites across the country.  “The fire broke out at the industrial area of the Jajrud district in the Pardis county this morning. … There were no casualties. … Firefighters are trying to contain …

BBC – Maryam’s voice trembles as she tells what happened when her husband attacked her in public. “People’s reaction was like it was normal to see a man beating his wife. There’s no law, there are no safe houses, and even the police can’t do much. Some families also act like they’re so modern and they say, ‘Oh it’s a …