Iran-HRM – Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested by security forces at his home and taken to an unknown location. Salehi’s relatives announced the news on Instagram.   Salehi’s home was searched, and his personal belongings were confiscated upon his arrest. According to the message, which was posted on Sunday, 12 agents raided Toomaj Salehi’s home and after inspecting there, …

Iran-HRM – Farzaneh Zilabi, a lawyer representing workers in their dispute with a sugar company in southwest Iran, has been sentenced to prison and exile. The Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz sentenced Farzaneh Zilabi to one year in prison and two years ban on traveling abroad. Zilabi’s lawyer, Nasser Zarafshan, said she has been convicted of “spreading propaganda against the regime”. …

amnesty – Iranian authorities have failed to provide accountability for at least 72 deaths in custody since January 2010, despite credible reports that they resulted from torture or other ill-treatment or the lethal use of firearms and tear gas by officials, said Amnesty International following yesterday’s reports of yet another suspicious death in custody.   The findings, which are based …

Al-Monitor – Human rights groups and the family of Kurdish political activist Yasser Mangouri said he has died after being summoned by members of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Mangouri’s arrest occurred on July 17, but his death was officially conveyed to his family over 50 days later. According to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the body has yet to …

RFL/RE – The head of the UN atomic watchdog has called on Iran to provide explanations for the presence of uranium particles at several undeclared sites and to adhere to its legal obligations with regard to its nuclear program. The lack of progress in clarifying the International Atomic Energy Agency’s questions concerning the correctness and completeness of Iran’s safeguards declarations “seriously …

Iranwire – More than 1,500 people are dying every day from Covid-19, in stark contrast to Iran’s official figures, a member of Iran’s parliamentary health committee has said. Official statistics put the number of daily deaths between 400 and 500, but Masoud Pezeshkian says the actual figure is more than 1,500. On Tuesday, September 14, a group of doctors criticized the …

Iranwire – In the summer of 2017, an Australian academic was the guest of honor at a newspaper office in Tehran. For those who follow the Iranian mediascape, the daily Kayhan is a familiar name. Once mocked by the travel guide Lonely Planet for being “slightly to the right of Genghis Khan”, Kayhan doesn’t just parrot the official positions of the Iranian regime; it effectively makes …

Iranwire – The Iranian quarterly Geopolitics has published a wide-ranging report examining the decline of public trust in and engagement with official institutions of the Islamic Republic. It comes against a backdrop of recent policy failures, but also a divide between people and clergy that has steadily grown over 40 years. Pro-democracy movements have flourished in the last decade despite – or perhaps …

Iranwire – The Islamic Republic of Iran is experiencing wide-ranging, crippling international sanctions at a time when a significant portion of its budget still depends on oil revenues. The Center for Strategic Studies, which falls under the Office of the President of Iran, has published a report on potential methods to circumvent sanctions so as to keep selling oil. Iran holds about …

gatestoneinstitute.org – European plans to forge closer ties with Kabul are, though, being severely undermined by the conduct of the new Taliban regime which, rather than living up to its promise to mend its ways, instead appears to be reverting to its old, uncompromising approach. Recent reports claim that at least four elite Afghan counterterrorism agents have been hunted down …