BBC – Iran formed a secret committee last year to punish celebrities who backed the current anti-government protests, leaked documents seen by the BBC show. In a letter dated 22 September, just six days after the unrest began, the committee sent the economy ministry a list of 141 well-known figures. It told the ministry to investigate their tax returns and …

Iranwire – Iranian police say they have filed a legal case against two female actors, Katayoun Riahi and Panthea Bahram, who have recently appeared in public without a mandatory head covering. The two actresses are accused of “removing hijab in public and publishing pictures on the internet,” Tehran police said in a statement on April 24.  Riahi and Bahram are …

Iranwire – Over the past seven months, Iranian security forces have “killed, tortured, sexually assaulted and disappeared children” as part of a brutal crackdown on protests and dissent by people demanding fundamental change in the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. The authorities have also arrested and detained minors without notifying their families, sometimes for weeks, and interrogated and prosecuted …

Iranwire – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately release Keyvan Samimi, a 74-year-old dissident journalist who was arrested last week before he was scheduled to speak at a virtual conference. In a statement on April 24, the New York-based media freedom watchdog also urged the authorities to drop any charges against Samimi …

Iranwire – The strike movement is spreading in Iran, where workers from the oil sector and other industries are protesting inadequate wage rises amid spiraling inflation. According to the Council for Organizing Protests of Oil and Gas Contract Workers, at least 30 companies in oil and gas projects, refineries, mines and steel factories are now being hit by strikes, which …

Iranwire – An unknown number of Iranian students and teachers were taken to medical centers for treatment on April 24 after multiple girls’ schools were targeted by chemical attacks. The attacks were reported in at least three provinces: Kurdistan, Hamadan and Alborz.  According to reports, two teachers from a school in Karaj, near Tehran, were hospitalized at the special care …

Iranwire – For the first time, more than 40 political, social and human rights activists inside and outside Iran, some from inside the Islamic Republic’s prisons, joined a two-day virtual seminar to try to answer the question: How to save Iran? Twenty-three participants live in Iran, and eight of them are in prison. Those living in Iran delivered their speeches …

CHRI – Five months after the first report of a chemical attack on a girls’ school in Iran, students across the country are continuing to report chemical odors in their classrooms and symptoms associated with chemical inhalation, including respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, fainting, and eye irritation. “What we know at this time is that since November 2022, schoolgirls all over …

Al-Arabia – The UK and European Union on Monday toughened their sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as part of new restrictions on Tehran for alleged human rights violations. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced a travel ban and assets freeze on four individuals and the IRGC “in its entirety.” Brussels added eight individuals, including a hardline lawmaker, …

Iranwire – Every day, authorities across Iran are announcing new measures to enforce mandatory hijab laws, triggering criticism from lawyers and human rights activists. The police commander of the north-eastern province of Golestan recently said that car owners who don’t abide by the Islamic Republic’s dress code will receive warnings by SMS. He said the vehicle will be impounded after …