Iranwire – The main Friday prayers service has been held Tehran for the first time in 20 months after being suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes despite warnings earlier in the week by Health Minister Bahram Einolaahi that Iran is on the brink of a sixth major wave of Covid-19 cases.  Organisers of the ceremony at Tehran University said that …

Iranwire – The deputy mayor of Tehran has confirmed a “social headquarters” is to be established by the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters with the help of mosques and Friday imams. The purpose of the base, Amin Tavakolizadeh told Payam-e Ma newspaper, was to pursue “social sponsorship”. “In addition to taking care of the physical aspects of the city,” he said, “more attention …

Iranwire – Four Iranian Baha’i citizens from Shiraz, Negar Ghaderi Sadi, Moin Misaghi, Hayedeh Forootan and his son, Mehran Mosalanejad, are still being held in solitary confinement in Shiraz Police Detention Center 201 a month after their arrests. So far, the authorities have not given a clear answer to the detainees’ families on either the charges or why they have been kept …

Al-Monitor – The air force of the Iranian army launched a major drill on Oct. 21 involving several bases nationwide, the latest in a series of muscle-flexing gestures by the Islamic Republic in recent weeks. According to the Iranian army’s air force commander, Brig. Gen. Hamid Vahedi, the exercise was testing combat preparedness for bombardments and using domestically developed weapons, laser missiles and …

Iranwire – Davood Rahmani, better known as Haj Davood, a notorious human rights violator and torturer who served as head of Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj from 1981 to 1984, has died in Iran. News of the prison official’s death and burial at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery was announced on Wednesday, October 20. During his reign of terror at Ghezel Hesar, …

Iranwire – Supervision of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and institutions under his control is one of the issues both opponents and proponents have changed their positions on over time, depending on their political interests. One of those to have pivoted is Ali Khamenei, who used to support supervision of the Supreme Leader, right up until he became …

Iranwire – It has been more than two months since Ebrahim Raisi and his administration took office. That may not be long enough to form an accurate assessment of the government’s performance so far, but one can say with relative confidence that not only has there been no sign of an improvement in Iran’s economy, there is also good reason to expect the situation will deteriorate even …

Iranwire – Security agents have arrested two labor activists near Rasht in Gilan province and taken them to an undisclosed location, an Iranian workers’ union has reported. The arrests followed workers’ protests across Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces, with over 3,000 workers demanding to be paid. Some said they had not been paid their wages for 15 months. ”The workers and their families are in a …

CHRI – A prominent defense attorney in Iran bit off part of his tongue after being forcibly given an injection that brought on seizures while detained by the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned after viewing medical records. Payam Derafshan—a former chairman of the Iranian Bar Association’s Lawyers’ …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoners Soheil Arabi and Behnam Mousivand started a hunger strike since Tuesday after they were violently taken to the quarantine ward of Rajai Shahr Prison. According to reports, the order to beat and the forcible transfer of the prisoners was issued by Allah Karam Azizi, the director of Rajai Shahr Prison. On October 6, the two activists refused to …