Health and Hygiene

Iranwire – The Iranian House of Cinema has expressed “great concern” about the health condition of two jailed filmmakers – Jafar Panahi and Mozhgan Ilanlou – and urged the Islamic Republic to release them immediately. The official guild of Iranian cineastes made the plea in a statement on February 3, two days after Panahi, one of the country’s best-known filmmakers, announced he …

Al-Arabia – Social media images purported to be of an emaciated jailed Iranian physician who went on hunger strike in support of demonstrations against the compulsory wearing of the hijab have caused outrage and warnings that he risks death. Farhad Meysami, 53, who has been in jail since 2018 for supporting women activists protesting against the headscarf policy, began his …

RFL/RE – In late November, three Iranian doctors traveled to the country’s western Kurdistan region, the epicenter of ongoing antiestablishment protests, to help treat wounded demonstrators. But within days of their arrival, the medical professionals were arrested on security charges. Before they were released on bail last month, the three men were tortured in custody, informed sources told RFE/RL. The …

CHRI – The UN and international human rights organizations should urgently demand that the Iranian judiciary release political prisoner Farhad Meysami, a civil and women’s rights defender whose life is in danger, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Meysami has reportedly lost 53kgs (117lbs) from a hunger strike he began on October 7, 2022, in Rajaee-Shahr Prison in Karaj. …

RFL/RE – Iranian political activist Arash Sadeghi, who is already in prison serving a 19-year sentence despite being diagnosed with cancer, has been handed another sentence of more than five years for his participation in protests over the death of a young woman in police custody. Ramin Safarnia, Sadeghi’s lawyer, said on Twitter on January 25 that his client was also banned from living …

Al-Arabia – Bernard Phelan, a Franco-Irish citizen detained in Iran, must be released immediately and provided access to urgent medical care, the Foreign Ministry in Paris said on Thursday. “The denial of medical access by Iranian authorities is unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told journalists, adding France was very concerned about Phelan’s poor health condition.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Following the arrest of MirYousef Younesi, father of elite jailed student Ali Younesi, three of his colleagues have been arrested and forced to pose in front of camera watching Sima Azadi (Mojahedin-e-Khalgh’s television channel). While intensifying state repression, the Islamic Republic is also dehumanising and spreading hate against political groups and linking detainees to them …

Iranwire – Health workers play a critical role in society, for example by serving at the frontlines in protecting people from the covid pandemic, and this has included hundreds of Iranian Baha’i doctors and nurses. But these Iranian healthcare workers are not in Iran; instead, they live in countries around the world, treating their patients, where they are admired and …

Iranwire – France’s government says it is “extremely worried” about the health of a 64-year-old French-Irish citizen who is on hunger and water strike in an Iranian prison. The French Foreign Ministry said on January 17 that Bernard Phélan’s health is “fragile” and “requires appropriate medical monitoring, which is not provided in his place of detention.” The ministry said it was working …

Iranwire – An Iranian student and political activist who has recently been released from custody last week described the living conditions in the prison where she was incarcerated as “horrific.” Leila Hosseinzadeh is among more than 18,000 Iranians who have been detained in connection with the anti-government protests that have swept Iran over the past four months. Hosseinzadeh was released …