Iranwire – In the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran, the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, home to a Sunni Baluch minority, has become a major thorn on the side of the Islamic Republic regime. The protesters have not retreated after a horrifying massacre in the provincial capital of Zahedan on September 30 in which dozens of people were killed. …

Iranwire – When 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of morality police on September 16 it united Iranians, especially women – who are oppressed each day more than the day before – under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”. People took to the streets the length and breadth of Iran to demand women’s rights and freedom. Even so, the patriarchal …

VOA – A $1.7 trillion spending bill the U.S. Congress passed last week includes a measure seeking accountability for people working for or on behalf of the government of Iran to harass and surveil Iranian citizens. The Masih Alinejad Harassment and Unlawful Targeting Act is named after a VOA Persian television host and critic of the Iranian government who was …

Iran-HRM – Reza Rasai, a 34-year-old man from Sahneh County, Kermanshah Province, West Iran, had participated in recent nationwide rallies. He joined supporters of a Kurdish spiritual leader, Seyed Khalil Alinezhad on November 18, 2022, to commemorate his anniversary. The peaceful gathering was violently attacked by the Revolutionary Guards-IRGC, followed by Iran’s intelligence forces. The IRGC’s Intelligence Chief of Sahneh …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – At least 476 people including 64 children and 34 women, have been killed by security forces in the current nationwide protests. The death toll increase relates to recently verified cases from the first two months of the protests. Furthermore, at least 100 protesters are currently at risk of execution, death penalty charges or sentences. This …

RFL/RE – Former Iranian soccer player Ali Daei, who has backed protests following Mahsa Amini’s death, said on December 26 that an airplane from Tehran to Dubai had been rerouted and his family ordered off. Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s …

RFL/RE – Jadi Mirmirani, considered to be one of Iran’s leading technologists and a defender of digital rights, has said that he has been sentenced to six years in prison for comments he posted on social media. Mirmirani announced his sentencing in a video address posted to his Twitter account, and said he hopes the ruling will be overturned on appeal. The …

RFL/RE – Iran’s chief prosecutor has warned women who have rejected wearing a hijab while participating in recent nationwide anti-government demonstrations to follow the country’s mandatory head scarf law “for their own safety and health.” Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Shari’a law and the laws of the Islamic republic have made the head scarf mandatory for women and added, “we cannot …

VOA – Iran on Monday blasted Britain’s “non-constructive role” a day after the Islamic republic announced the arrest of a U.K.-linked “network” involved in the three months of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death. Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s …

Al-Monitor – At the start of 2022, US officials said negotiations with Iran were in their “final stretch,” optimistic that a restored nuclear deal was within reach. One year on, that same deal looks doomed.  President Joe Biden said as much in a newly surfaced video from early November, telling a member of the public that the nuclear accord he campaigned on restoring was …