Iranwire – Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, in his ongoing series of Friday prayers sermons in which he criticises Iran’s government, has urged the Shia leadership not to attribute the country’s problems solely to “the enemy.” “Instead of confronting people and attributing everything to ‘the enemy,’ try adopting a more constructive approach,” Molavi Abdulhamid, the outspoken Sunni Friday prayer leader of …

Iranwire – In the aftermath of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, several lawyers have faced arrest and received prison sentences for various reasons, though Marzieh Mohebi’s verdict has taken an unexpected turn in the judicial system. A court in the northeastern city of Mashhad issued a ruling for Mohebi – granting authorities the power to confiscate her properties – in …

VOA – Two major labor unions in Iran are strongly condemning the Revolutionary Court of Tehran’s sentencing of Reyhaneh Ansari-Nejad, a retired worker and dedicated labor activist, to a four-year prison term. Ansari-Nejad was sentenced for “participating in an organizational session” and alleged affiliations with dissident groups and French spy organizations. The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Mill Labor Syndicate and the …

gatestoneinstitute.org – [T]he weak and possibly compromised administration of U.S. President Joe Biden appears to have enabled and empowered the autocrats of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, all of whom seem to be working overtime to create a new authoritarian world order with themselves at the helm. Iran, which has already declared a new world order, is, even beyond …

RFL/RE – Iranian media outlets reported on July 27 that a legal case has been filed against the online book retailer Taghcheh because its female employees failed to observe the compulsory hijab law as the government continues to tighten its enforcement of dress code regulations. The announcement of the case came hours after Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili, Iran’s minister of culture and Islamic …

RFL/RE – Temperatures in Iran are hitting record highs, rivers and lakes are drying up, and prolonged droughts are becoming the norm, highlighting a water crisis that is turning much of the country’s territory to dust.The desertification of Iran is occurring at a staggering pace, with officials last month warning that more than 1 million hectares of the country’s territory …

Iranwire – Judge Ebrahim Ramezani, presiding judge of Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Court of Appeals in the city of Birjand and a cleric described by former prisoners as “extremely fanatical and narrow-minded,” plays an active role in violating human rights in the Iranian province of South Khorasan. Prisoners of conscience in this province call him the “Rubber Stamp” because …

Iranwire – Iranian judiciary officials have sentenced a young protester to 15 years in prison on several charges – including lowering the Islamic Republic’s flag in the Kurdish city of Saqqez. After enduring 35 days of detention in Sanandaj, Javanpour was ultimately transferred back to Saqqez, where he was handed the staggering 15-year prison sentence. The Revolutionary Court of Saqqez, …

Iranwire – The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic has announced plans for a large-scale shake up within the ministry.  “After two years of earnest efforts, 400 Hezbollah youth are set to join this ministry by the end of summer with the aim of bringing significant transformations to the ministry,” said Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili, referring to …

Iranwire – Women and girls in Iran continue to defy mandatory headscarf laws during the traditional mourning month of Muharram, despite an intensifying clampdown on violations of the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women. Muharram will culminate in Ashura on July 28, the holiest day on the Shia calendar, when worshipers traditionally gather for large demonstrations of high-scale mourning …