Iranwire – The Sunni prayer leader of Zahedan has urged Iran’s Shia leadership to respect freedom of expression, amid renewed anti-government protests in the southeastern restive city. Hundreds of people took to the streets of Zahedan and other cities across Sistan and Baluchestan province after Friday prayers on February 3, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei …

Iranwire – Many Iranian cities were once again the scene of overnight protests, as the Islamic Republic is marking the 44th anniversary of the revolution that brought Iran’s clerical rulers to power. Defying an ongoing brutal crackdown by security forces on more than four months of nationwide protests, angry demonstrators took to the streets of several Tehran neighborhoods late on February …

Iranwire – A powerful earthquake struck the northwestern Iranian city of Khoy and surround villages on January 28, killing at least three people, injuring more than 1,000 and forcing hundreds to seek shelter from freezing winter conditions. Khoy, with a population of around 200,000, was particularly affected, but local reports say dozens of villages in West Azerbaijan province were also …

Iranwire – The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran has made an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced centrifuges enriching uranium to up to 60-percent purity, close to nuclear weapons grade, at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP). In a confidential report to member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency …

VOA -An Iranian director who was arrested last summer, weeks before his latest film was released to widespread acclaim, has gone on a hunger strike to protest his continued detention amid more than four months of anti-government protests. Jafar Panahi, whose films have thrilled critics and won numerous international prizes, issued a statement saying he would refuse food or medicine …

Babak Zarin, Majid and Amir Reza Khoshmanzar given Moharebeh for disabling CCTV Iran-HRM – Majid Khoshmanzar, 49, a senior employee of the Traffic Control Center at Mashhad’s Municipality, and his son, Amir Reza Khoshmanzar, a boxing champion, along with another citizen in Mashhad, Babak Zarin, were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence during nationwide protests in October 2022. Iran’s Judiciary …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Considering the volume of reports of protesters being shot in the head and face by security forces in most Iranian cities, leading to many, including a significant number of young women, being blinded, Iran Human Rights considers the inhumane and unlawful act to have been systematically carried out by the Islamic Republic to crush protests. …

CHRI – The UN and international human rights organizations should urgently demand that the Iranian judiciary release political prisoner Farhad Meysami, a civil and women’s rights defender whose life is in danger, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Meysami has reportedly lost 53kgs (117lbs) from a hunger strike he began on October 7, 2022, in Rajaee-Shahr Prison in Karaj. …

RFL/RE – Iran blames Israel for a drone attack on a military factory near the central city of Isfahan, the semiofficial ISNA news agency said on February 2, vowing revenge. In a letter to the UN chief, Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, said a primary investigation suggested Israel was responsible for the attack on January 28. The attack came …

Iranwire – An Armenian Christian woman was brutally detained during a protest in the Iranian capital in October 2022, at the peak of the ongoing demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women’s rights. The young woman was released on bail after spending 40 days behind bars during which she was subjected to verbal humiliation and sexual harassment. As a part of …