VOA – Yalda Moaiery has traveled to some of the most dangerous countries in the world in her 23-year career. She photographed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has covered conflict and natural disasters from Pakistan to Somalia. But it was while photographing protests in her home country of Iran last September that Moaiery was arrested, beaten and sent …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Mohammad Seifzadeh, a veteran lawyer and one of the founders of the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, has been sentenced to a year behind bars for a letter he signed to António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, calling for a reaction against the Islamic Republic’s execution machine. Judicial and security authorities started the extrajudicial …

Al-Monitor – A Kuwaiti oil official said on Thursday that the Gulf state will begin drilling in al-Durra disputed gas field, further complicating the dispute with Iran that also involves Saudi Arabia. Oil Minister Saad Al Barrak told Sky News Arabia that Kuwait will start drilling and begin production in the Durra field without waiting for the demarcation of its maritime border …

Al-Monitor – The Iraqi dinar has fallen below the official exchange rate with the US dollar after new dollar restrictions on a group of Iraqi banks, leading to new protests in the country. The dinar is currently trading at 1,570 to the dollar on the street. This is around 17% below the official rate of 1,300 dinars to the dollar, Bloomberg reported …

RFL/RE – Ahmad Zeidabadi, a prominent Iranian political activist, has been sentenced to a year of punitive imprisonment and 50 lashes in a case he says is linked to speeches he gave during the 2009 presidential election. Zeidabadi, who has previously served time as a political prisoner, disclosed on his Telegram channel that the charges in the case heard in a court in the …

Iranwire – A group of Iranian political and social activists, along with former female political prisoners, have condemned the opening of a legal case against Maryam Akbari Monfared, who has been behind bars for 13 years for protesting the killing of her four siblings by the Islamic Republic in the 1980s. The statement says the judicial system has filed six …

Iranwire – In a powerful display of support for the women-led protest movement in Iran, hundreds of “art performance protesters” are expected to rally in central London on September 13 while holding posters depicting Mahsa Amini. The participants will be wearing white clothes in solidarity with the victims of the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on the months-long nationwide protests that …

Iranwire – The manager and another employee of a bank have been arrested in Tehran province for allegedly failing to enforce mandatory headscarf laws on a client, amid an intensifying clampdown on violations of the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women. According to Morteza Tahmasbi, the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of the city of Damavand, the two arrested “ignored” …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have arrested actress Shohreh Qamar over content she posted on her Instagram page, local media report. The judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency announced on July 26 that the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office has filed a legal case against Qamar over content that “spread psychological insecurity in society.” Hours later, Fars and Tasnim news agencies, known for their proximity …

Iranwire – Iranian women athletes who participated in last year’s nationwide protests or took stands against the Islamic Republic’s compulsory headscarf rules have been forced to back down from their beliefs under the pressure of the Ministry of Sports and Youth as well as the security and intelligence agencies, IranWire has learned.  Through interviews with relatives of several athletes and …