Iran-HRM – Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence have launched a spree of arrests of the residents of Baneh, in Kurdistan province. Security forces in Baneh have arrested at least 18 Kurdish citizens in Baneh, in Kurdistan province, and taken them to an unknown location. The security forces ransacked the residences of the arrestees and confiscated some of their personal belongings. The …

Al-Monitor – An Iranian diplomat said today that his country’s goal during upcoming nuclear discussions is to remove sanctions.  “The main purpose of these talks from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s standpoint is to remove the illegal sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation by the US government,” deputy foreign minister Ali Baqeri-Kani told the semi-official Press TV.  Baqeri-Kani is Iran’s chief negotiator …

RFL/RE – Former empress Farah Pahlavi first published her memoirs two years before the events of 1979 collapsed her world, deposing her husband, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and bringing an end to Iran’s monarchy.Pahlavi was 38 when she penned her accounts of her charmed life as a queen, known to Iranians as Shahbanou, to whom the idea of an Islamic …

Iranwire – Two teachers have been arrested in Tehran during nationwide rallies calling for better education and for the rights of educators and students to be upheld. Teachers took to the streets in more than 50 cities on November 11 as part of a planned action organized by the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Unions. Later, union spokesman Mohammad Habibi announced that two …

Iranwire – At a time when the officially-recorded death toll from Covid-19 in Iran is still at more than 100 a day, a group of Qom seminary students staged a protest against vaccination in the holy city. On Thursday, November 11, pictures of the gathering in front of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association building were posted online. The group reportedly then moved …

Iranwire – Two Christian converts have been ordered to start serving prison sentences in Bushehr, southwestern Iran. Article 18, a London-based organization advocating for the religious rights of Iranian Christians, and Mohabbat News, a Christian news agency, reported that Sasan Khosravi and Habib Heydari were ordered to report to Bushehr Prison on November 11 after being sentenced by a Revolutionary Court on June 22. They …

Iranwire – Young Iranians, shot in the heads and necks by police firing birdshot and live ammunition. Children hauled out of classrooms by plainclothes agents with stun guns. An order, issued to police via walkie-talkies, that was tantamount to “shoot to kill”. The second day of hearings at the Aban Tribunal, which aims to shed light on crimes committed by the …

Iran-HRM – Prisoners are dealt with as slaves by the authorities of the Central Prison of Karaj, said a prisoner released from this prison. Food and other stuff are provided just enough to keep the prisoner alive. The prisoner said: Food is little and very low in quality. The bread is not edible, at all. The bread is a piece of …

CHRI – One of the few remaining defense lawyers in Iran willing to take on human rights cases, Nasser Zarafshan is an expert at navigating the Islamic Republic’s judicial system, which criminalizes dissent and imprisons lawyers like Zarafshan for doing their job. Usually tried under trumped-up “national security” charges, his cases often involve individuals who’ve been targeted by the state’s sprawling security establishment …

Al-Monitor – Iran is deporting thousands of Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban, including more than 28,000 in the last week of October, the UN’s migration agency said.   The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday that Iranian and Pakistani authorities have sent back more than 1 million Afghan migrants this year, as others are still trying to escape the …