Iranwire – Amid escalating political tensions in Iran, a poll published by the Islamic Republic News Agency reveals what political factions and government authorities in Iran know too well: the Iranian people do not trust the government or the country’s political system. All sides of the entrenched political battle — whether officials from the administration of Hassan Rouhani or people …

Iranwire – In a recent announcement, senior Afghan officials declared they have identified 34 human trafficking networks operating in the first nine months of 2020, and arrested 60 people on human trafficking-related charges. The Afghan Justice Minister Fazl Ahmad Manavi said some of the defendants have since been sentenced to several years in prison. Although Afghans have represented the world’s …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s intelligence and security forces have summoned and detained at least 100 Kurdish citizens in what appears to be an escalating crackdown Iran’s Kurdish minority. Since January 6, Iranian authorities have targeted scores of Kurdish people including activists, environmentalists, writers, university students, and ordinary individuals with no track record of activism. Nine of the detainees are women. The …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – 300 days after their arrests, Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi, two elite Sharif University students, continue to be held in Evin Prison’s Ward 209 without being charged or access to a lawyer. A letter from the Islamic Republic’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) shows how he attempted to cover-up breaches of their human rights …

Al-Monitor – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday again suggested Saudi Arabia and Israel should be involved in renewed international engagement with Iran over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Speaking during a virtual event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, Macron also offered his services as an “honest broker” to renewed talks, as the US administration of …

Payvandnews – A rise in temperature of the water has had a negative effect on the ecosystem so that 90 percent of coral reefs in this region have been bleached and are dying, IRNA quoted Davood Mirshekar, deputy chief of the Department of Environment for marine ecosystems, as saying on Wednesday. Monitoring coral reefs in the Persian Gulf and the …

RFL/RE – French President Emmanuel Macron has renewed his call for dialogue with Russia despite what he called its “huge mistake” in jailing opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, and offered to be an “honest broker” in talks between the United States and Iran. Amid lasting tensions between the West and Russia, Macron has long pushed for a working relationship with Moscow …

Iranwire – Official figures in Iran reveal that 364 babies were born to girls under the age of 15 in the year 2020. In its latest report, the Statistical Center of Iran also recorded 17,823 births to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 in the same period. The report also published figures for child marriages, stating that the …

Iranwire – A quarterly report by the Statistical Center of Iran has shown child marriage in Iran hit record heights last summer even as the overall rate of new marriages slowed.  In the three months from June 21 to September 21, an average of 100 children under the age of 15 were married off every 24 hours. The picture is …

VOA – The pro-democracy group Freedom House has released a report detailing how countries such as China, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, and Turkey systematically employ violence and intimidation against exiles and diasporas to silence dissent beyond their borders. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.