iranintl – Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan launched an unprecedented attack on the regime in Iran, likening Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler. Erdan was speaking to the UN Security Council Monday afternoon, as Israel expands its ground invasion of Gaza, backed up by relentless bombardment of the enclave to “eradicate” Hamas. “Ismail Haniyeh –the leader of …

Iranwire – Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and activist, has been on a hunger and medicine strike since her arrest on October 29, her husband says. Sotoudeh was arrested during the burial ceremony of Armita Garavand, a 16-year-old girl who was assaulted at a Tehran metro station a month ago for not wearing a headscarf.  Sotoudeh’s husband, …

Iranwire – The 2023-2024 water year, which started on October 1, was hardly four weeks old when Iran’s Lake Urmia, once the Middle East’s largest lake and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, was reported to have gone dry. Studies show such an occurrence had not happened in 12,000 years. On October 9, as  secretary of the Headquarters to Revive Lake …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities are exerting increased pressure on university students following nationwide protests that erupted in September last year. The United Students Telegram channel reported that a large group of students were barred from entering the campus of Tehran’s Al-Zahra University this week, without justification.  Legal expert Mohsen Borhani highlighted that most disciplinary actions launched against students are based …

Iranwire – The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic has upheld a 16-month prison sentence for Osman Esmaili, a prominent labor activist from the northwestern Iranian city of Saqqez. According to the official notice received by Esmaili and seen by IranWire, he is required to present himself at the Second Branch of Saqqez Prosecutor’s Office within the next 10 days.  …

Iranwire – Narges Mohammadi, the Iranian human rights activist who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is being denied access to medical services while in Tehran’s Evin prison, her family says. According to Mohammadi’s Instagram page, which is managed by her relatives, she has been prevented from being transferred to a hospital due to her refusal to wear a headscarf. …

Iranwire – Power shortages have become increasingly common in Iran, despite the country being among the world’s top crude oil producers.  A lack of investment in new capacity and plant maintenance leaves electricity production far below demand, forcing the authorities to regularly impose unannounced power cuts during the summer and the winter. Increasingly frequent power cuts are not only impacting …

Iranwire – Many questions have arisen regarding the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the October 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas terrorist group. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, evidently concerned about potential Israeli and US reactions, initially denied any involvement of the Iranian government. However, he later threatened other governments of continued actions by militia groups supported by Iran. This article …

RFL/RE – In a major show of defiance, Iranians have staged new anti-government demonstrations in several cities to protest the death of Armita Garavand, who succumbed over the weekend to injuries suffered in an alleged confrontation with Iran’s morality police in the Tehran subway over a head-scarf violation. Hours after the student’s funeral on October 29, which was marked by …

VOA – Hundreds of billboards featuring evocative poems that have been installed around the Iranian capital are contributing to an increase in road accidents, police were cited on Monday as saying. Tehran municipality has put up some 600 billboards displaying excerpts from the work of contemporary Iranian poets on overhead pedestrian bridges and flyovers across the city. The neat calligraphy …