VOA – Human rights groups report Iranians gathered Friday to mourn a man reportedly shot and killed by security forces after honking his car’s horn in celebration, following the Iran national team’s loss and elimination from the 2022 World Cup tournament. The Oslo-based advocacy group Human Rights in Iran posted video on its Twitter account showing hundreds of mourners gathered …

Amnesty – At least 28 people, including three children, could face execution in connection with nationwide protests as the Iranian authorities use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the public and end the popular uprising. At least six people have already been sentenced to death in sham trials. View Report in English DOWNLOAD …

Al-Arabia – Women in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan on Friday joined nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, in what a rights group called a “rare” move for women in the staunchly conservative Sunni Muslim province. Online videos showed dozens of women on the streets of the provincial capital Zahedan holding banners that declared “Woman, life, freedom” — one of the main slogans of …

Iranwire – Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric has again used his Friday sermon to urge the country’s Shia leadership to listen to the Iranian people, whom he said are “tired of discrimination, pressures and poverty”, instead of repressing them. Molavi Abdolhamid, the Friday prayer leader in the eastern city of Zahedan, made the comments on December 2 amid a bloody …

Iranwire – Faizeh Abdipour, an Iranian university student and human rights activist who was detained last week for her involvement in the ongoing protest movement, has been transferred to the central prison in the northern city of Gorgan, IranWire reports. Abdipour, who is also a member of the Gonabadi Dervish religious community, is facing charges of “spreading propaganda” against the …

Iranwire – Benita Kiani Flavarjani was playing with her cousin in their grandfather’s home in the central Iranian city of Isfahan when they heard the sound of gunfire. Curious to know what was happening outside, the two kids went to the balcony, where Benita’s head was hit by some 20 metal pellets fired by police. Now, the 5 ½-year-old girl …

Iranwire – Iran’s Football Federation has sacked four members of the national beach football team who had expressed support for protests that have swept the country for 2 ½ months.  Saeed Piramoon, Mohammad Ahmadzadeh, Moslim Mesigar and Mustafa Kiani have not been invited to the team’s latest training camp, in yet another example of the Iranian government’s interference in sports. …

Iranwire – More than 150 professors and other academic staff at an Iranian university are calling on the authorities to allow banned students back to class, amid a fierce state crackdown on nationwide protests that have rocked the country for 2 ½ months. The academic staff at Gilan University, in the northern city of Rasht, said in an open letter …

Iranwire – Iranian police arrested a member of Iran’s persecuted Baha’i religious minority on Tuesday and took him to an unknown location, IranWire understands.  Armed forces raided the workplace and home of Homayoun Khanlori, a business owner and theater actor, in the northern city of Rasht. Agents confiscated Khanlori’s personal electronic devices before then detaining him.  Khanlori owns a company selling and installing …

VOA – With major street protests erupting in Iran and China in recent weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is facing questions about its response to the unrest roiling two of the most significant U.S. adversaries. To date, the administration’s responses to events in both China and Iran have been mostly measured, though distinct. In the case of Iran, where …