Iranwire.com – Although the ruling clerics of Iran have been promoting their values and beliefs for more than 40 years, they are increasingly expressing their concern about the decline of these beliefs among Iranians. Recently, a quarterly journal affiliated with the Ministry of Islamic Guidance described lifestyles in the city of Tehran into five categories – unrestricted, unfavorable, deviant, religious, favourable, …

Iranwire.com – The brother and father of Navid Afkari, a wrestler executed in September, have been arrested by intelligence agents. A source told IranWire that Hossein Afkari and his son Hamid were cleaning the area around Navid’s grave when they were detained on the morning of December 17 and taken to an undisclosed location. Navid Afkari was executed in secret …

VOA – Iran has transferred a women’s rights activist from Tehran’s main prison to a notorious women’s jail on the capital city’s outskirts, according to a relative, making her the latest detained female dissident to face harsher treatment from Iranian authorities in recent months. Saba Kord Afshari, a campaigner against Iran’s compulsory hijab or veil for women in public, was …

Iran-HRM – The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, censuring the grave and systematic violation of human rights in Iran. The 67th resolution by the highest UN body was adopted by 82 affirmative votes. The UN General Assembly resolution expresses serious concern “at the alarmingly high frequency of the imposition and carrying-out of the death penalty, [….] …

Iran-HRM – Four Arab activists living in the port of Mahshahr, in southwest Khuzestan Province, have been accused of secessionism. The four Arab activists were only involved in collecting aid for victims in flood stricken areas. On Tuesday, December 15, 2020, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported from Ahvaz of the arrests of four citizens in the Port of Mahshahr. …

Iran-HRM – Mohammad Ashtiani has been denied medical treatment in the Central Prison of Karaj. Political prisoner Mohammad Ashtiani Araghi, 57, is in dire health conditions. He suffers from high blood pressure, Asthma, and hernia. He has been deprived of having access to his medications. This is particularly dangerous for his health considering the pandemic. Authorities of the prison’s clinic …

Amnesty – Abusive policing and excessive reliance on law enforcement to implement COVID-19 response measures have violated human rights and in some instances made the health crisis worse, Amnesty International said today.  In a new briefing, COVID-19 Crackdowns: Police Abuse and the Global Pandemic, the organization documented cases in 60 countries where law enforcement agencies committed human rights abuses in the name of tackling the virus. This includes cases where people were killed …

Al-Monitor – The Trump administration on Wednesday issued a new round of Iran-related sanctions, targeting four companies based in China and the United Arab Emirates accused of facilitating the export of Iranian petrochemical products.  According to the US Treasury Department, the blacklisted companies provided Hong Kong-based Triliance Petrochemical with shipping services or financial transactions. Triliance itself was designated in January …

Al-monitor – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised to avenge the blood of his most favored military commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike outside Baghdad’s international airport in January. Khamenei the revenge on those who ordered the assassination and executed it is “definite,” but he did not specify any timing. The Soleimani killing, directly ordered by President Donald Trump, pushed Iran …

AP – At the start, Iranian officials downplayed COVID-19 — denying the mounting toll of infections, refusing to close mosques, making half-hearted gestures at locking down businesses. That was then. This is now: Even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has worn disposable gloves while planting a tree for state media, and he prayed in an empty mosque to mark the …