Iranwire – “Jews have the same rights as Muslims in the Islamic Republic!” This was one of the many claims made by Homayoon Sameh Yeh Najafabadi, a Jewish MP and representative of the Jewish community in the Iranian parliament, in a recent interview with the state-controlled Young Journalists Club. During the discussion, the chair of the Tehran Jewish Committee insisted his community …

Iranwire – Two Baha’i citizens of Shiraz who were recently released from Adelabad Prison contracted COVID-19 while inside, with one now fighting for his life in hospital. Behrouz Farzandi Ardakani and Ghassem Masoumi were among seven Baha’is detained in the city in April in recent fresh crackdowns on the religious minority group. The group were variously held in solitary confinement …

iranwire – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied a published story about Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s wife being subjected to a travel ban. On Sunday, May 16, the Telegram channel Saham News, which is linked to house-arrested reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, said that Maryam Imaniyeh had been blocked from traveling abroad. The missive came weeks after a taped interview with Zarif …

amnesty – The horrifying murder of a 20-year-old gay man in Iran has shed new light on how the criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and gender non-conformity perpetuates systemic violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI), said Amnesty International in a detailed analysis issued to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersex-phobia and Transphobia. …

mei.edu – Iran will hold presidential elections on June 18 and despite considerable efforts by the authorities, the battle at the ballot box is set to be a lifeless affair. A solid majority of Iranian voters have by now entirely lost hope that voting makes any difference. Actual turnout could be as low as 20% as compared to the 73% recorded …

amgreatness – More than 2,500 rockets have landed in Israel over the past week. Some Arab Israeli citizens are terrorizing Jewish Israelis. Apparently, as the rockets fall, these citizens are to be Arab Islamic nationalists first, and Israelis last—even if they wisely prefer to live on the Israeli rather than the Palestinian side of Israel’s hated wall. The usual Hamas …

reuters – Scenes of devastation in Gaza are likely to make it harder for Israel to win its biggest diplomatic prize: recognition by Saudi Arabia. But so far, the other rich Gulf states that invested in opening ties with Israel last year are showing no public sign of second thoughts. Arab officials have come together to condemn what they describe …

Shabtabnews – In an open letter a group of organizations and individuals who are scholars, NGO leaders, human rights advocates, religious freedom activists, and practitioners, urge the United States Soccer Federation to remove Volkswagen as a presenting sponsor due to Volkswagen continuing to operate a plant in Xinjiang, the Uyghur Region of China. The letter ends with stating : “Given …

Iranwire – Saturday, May 15 was the fifth and last day for presidential hopefuls in Iran to register as candidates. Three prominent reformist figures, Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, Eshagh Jahangiri and Masoud Pezeshkian, put their names down on the day. Out of 14 people on the reformists’ unofficial shortlist, three have already withdrawn. Vetting by the Guardian Council is now under …

Iranwire – Two recently-published studies in Iran’s quarterly Journal of Tax Research have emphasized the relationship between nepotism, sanctions and tax evasion in Iran. The first, entitled The Impact of Economic Sanctions and Political Relations on the Tax Gap, took in the eight-year tax records of some 120 companies active on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The second, Estimating the Rate of Tax …