iranintl – The victory of hardliners in Iran’s March 1 low-turnout parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections will have implications for Tehran’s foreign policy and the selection of the next Supreme Leader. Turnout hit a record low, with just 41% of eligible voters casting ballots, according to government figures many consider inflated. During the last parliamentary contest in 2020, there …

iranintl – US President Joe Biden faced criticism on Tuesday as the Hamas chief visited Tehran and praised Israel’s “political isolation” – just a day after the UN Security Council voted against Israel. The Biden administration abstained from using its veto power Monday as members of the UN’s most powerful body voted to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The …

iranintl – A member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Relations Committee has said that the current “weak government” is the result of the presence of “a corrupt deviant group”. Morteza Mahmoudvand, a parliament member from Khorram Abad, informed reporters that most of Iran’s problems stem from this corrupt faction within the government. He pledged to substantiate this claim with …

iranintl – The European Union is set to remove ArvanCloud from its list of human rights sanctions, according to a source close to European diplomats. The firm was sanctioned in 2022 for its role in Iran’s Internet censorship. Following this action, ArvanCloud filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice and simultaneously pressured European governments through political channels to revoke this …

Iranwire – When the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 25-6 to establish the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran in November 2022, it was history in the making. Two months earlier, Mahsa Amini’s death in custody had sparked nationwide street protests and presented the starkest challenge yet to the Iranian government’s 43-year grip on power. Crowds were …

Iraniwre – The recent arrest of a Kurdish political refugee couple in Türkiye has sparked fears of their deportation to Iran, with human rights groups urging international intervention. Reshad Mohammadi, a Kurdish activist from Kamiyaran, and his wife, Azhin Fahmideh Hosseini, were arrested by Turkish police recently, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.  Their current location is unknown, …

Iranwire – The Islamic Republic recently executed three individuals, including a woman, on drug-related charges amidst a surge in capital punishment in the country. On the morning of March 25, a 36-year-old man named Abbas Aghaei, from Tabriz, faced the death penalty at Tabriz Central Prison. His conviction stemmed from drug-related charges, as reported by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights …

RFL/RE – Some 930,000 Iranian children and adolescents were forced to abandon their education in the recent academic year, the Statistical Center of Iran reported, in a potential indication of rising poverty in the Islamic Republic. According to official data, there are 3,6 million individuals of school age in Iran. In an analysis of the latest data from the Statistical Center, Tejarat …

Iranwire – Judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic have denied Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi’s lawyer’s request to dismiss his temporary detention order. According to a post on Salehi’s X social media account, run by his relatives abroad, one reason cited for the denial is the “corruption on Earth” charge in his indictment.  This serious charge carries the potential punishment of …

Iranwire – Border forces of the Islamic Republic in the western Kermanshah province have shot and seriously injured six kolbars amid an escalation of violence against the transborder porters.  According to a report by the Kurdpa news agency, six kolbars were injured on March 26 in a shooting incident at the Nowsud border crossing.  The identities of four of the …