Friday , 29 March 2024

Monthly Archives: October 2021

Ex-Referee Blows the Whistle on Match-Fixing in Iran

Iranwire – A former Iranian football referee has broken his silence about corruption in the beautiful game and the influence of what he termed the country’s “football mafia”. On Tuesday, October 26, Vahid Salehi made a series of shocking claims on Islamic Republic Radio about his former colleagues “selling” penalties at league competitions, making back-room deals with sports moguls and fiddling their …

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Eyewitnesses: Iranian Border Guards Gunned Down Afghan Women and Children

Iranwire – Afghan refugees trying to enter Iran have been indiscriminately shot at by border guards and many have been killed, IranWire has been told. Two eyewitnesses said that at the time of their attempted crossing in mid-August, the survivors and the wounded were arrested by IRGC agents and sent back to Afghanistan. When they crossed over, both said, Iranian border …

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Baquer Namazi Undergoes Brain Surgery in Prison

Iranwire- Iranian-American Baquer Namazi, who has been detained in Iran since 2016, underwent surgery on Tuesday, October 26 to clear a life-threatening blockage in an artery to his brain. Prior to the operation, Namazi’s son Babak had pleaded with Iranian authorities to lift the travel ban on his father so he could receive medical care overseas. Babak’s brother Siamak Namazi is also jailed in Iran after being arrested in …

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Iran: A Prison for Free Expression

VOA – “It was this black box and nobody talked about it,” Amir Soltani says of Evin Prison. When he was growing up in Tehran, Soltani’s school was directly behind the notorious Iranian prison where journalists, activists and political prisoners are held. When several of his friends were imprisoned and later released, they returned with stories of humiliation, flogging, torture …

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A woman hanged in Qazvin, another faces imminent execution

Iran-HRM – A woman was hanged in Qazvin and another faces imminent execution in Sanandaj, the capital of the Iranian Kurdistan province. The authorities of the Central Prison of Qazvin hanged a 31-year-old woman at dawn on Wednesday, October 27. Susan Rezaei-pour was on the death row after being convicted of killing her husband six years ago. She had acted …

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Raisi Government to Launch Religious “Vice-Prevention” Courses, Paramilitary “Community Patrols”

CHRI – Two months after the inauguration of ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s state-run Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice organization has announced plans to launch religious college-level courses dedicated to the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice”, according to Iran’s Islamic government’s interpretations. The courses also promise to train students to work as “ethics instructors in public councils and …

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UN Expert: Death Penalty Used as a Political Tool in Iran

CHRI – In a speech to the UN General Assembly for his fourth annual report, Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, criticized three vague criminal charges in Iran that carry the death penalty and are often used against political opponents or political protesters. Following is the UN’s press release on the …

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US unveils sanctions targeting Iran’s drone program

Al-Monitor – The Biden administration sanctioned several Iranian companies and individuals on Friday in connection with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ drone program, including an Iranian commander believed responsible for the deadly attack this summer on the Mercer Street commercial vessel.   A statement from the Treasury Department described the use of lethal unmanned aerial vehicles by the IRGC’s elite Quds Force in attacks …

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Iran’s plan to get rid of the subsidized exchange rate

Al-Monitor – There are signs that Iran will officially get rid of its official subsidized exchange rate — at 42,000 rial to one US dollar — by the end of the current Iranian year on March 20, 2022. If implemented correctly, the move could actually help the Iranian economy find a new balance, but the question is whether political and …

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USCIRF Releases New Report on Religious Minorities in Afghanistan

Shabtabnews – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom today released the following new report: Afghanistan Factsheet – This report catalogues deteriorating religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country on August 15, 2021. Afghans who do not adhere to the Taliban’s harsh and strict interpretation of Islam, as well as those who follow …

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