VOA – Iranian authorities have arrested a prominent lawyer and human rights defender as she attended the funeral of a teenage girl who died after a disputed metro incident, her husband said Monday. The arrest of 60-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh took place Sunday in Tehran during the funeral of 17-year-old Armita Garawand, who died a day earlier after nearly a month …

Iran-HRM – Executions in Iran have become increasingly rampant under Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s President, as the government fears outbreak of protests by a disgruntled public. Since January, the Iranian regime has executed more than 600, including political prisoners and women. October saw a drastic increase in the use of death penalty. Here is an infographic to show the …

CHRI – Following the beating and arrest of peaceful activists detained at the funeral yesterday of Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old who died last week after a reported violent assault by the Iranian government’s forced-hijab enforcers, the international community must urgently demand the immediate release of all those detained, as well as accountability for this outrageous violence. Among those detained is …

Al-Arabia – Iran said Monday attacks on US forces in Iraq and elsewhere in the region were a result of “wrong American policies” including support for Israel in its war against Hamas. US forces have come under repeated attack in Iraq and Syria since Hamas gunmen poured across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people and seizing 239 …

iranintl – Iran’s government has proposed a 20 percent pay raise for civil servants next calendar year (starting March 21), despite a rampant inflation of over 46 percent. Experts say the low increase proposed by the government reflects its need to reduce expenditures and to avoid a higher budget deficit, which is at least 50 percent. According to a report …

iranintl – Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on targets in Syria and Lebanon Sunday evening, affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran’s IRGC forces. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the operations through posts on X, claiming that they had struck Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon. The attacks came only hours after Hezbollah announced that its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah would deliver a …

Iranwire – Mahsa Yazdani, the mother of a young man killed in Iran during last year’s nationwide protests, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of “insulting sacred entities” and “defaming the leader of the Islamic Republic.” “What will happen to my three-year-old brother? Who is accountable for all this cruelty?” Yazdani’s daughter, Mitra Zahedi, asked in …

iranwire – IranWire has launched a new series of podcasts, Under the Sky, about members of the LGBTQ community in Iran. The podcast series, hosted by Shaya Goldoust, focuses on issues related to sexual and gender identity.  It has already published five episodes – titled Unrequited Love, Cancer, Hossein’s Love, Relationship and Acceptance – which are available on IranWire’s website, social …

Iranwire – Armita Garavand, a 16-year-old Iranian girl who was fatally assaulted at a Tehran metro station nearly a month ago for not wearing a headscarf, was buried amid tight security on October 29. The number of plainclothes officers and police forces deployed at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery outnumbered the mourners, the Hengaw human rights website reported.  Two of Armita’s …

Iranwire – Toomaj Salehi, a popular Iranian rapper who is serving a long-term prison term for supporting protests that rocked the country last year, is taking legal action over the torture he endured while in detention. An October 28 post on Salehi’s official account on the social media platform X, which is managed by his family, says his lawyer will …