Human rights

Iranwire – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Iranian authorities to immediately release Seyed Mostafa Jaffari, a journalist who was re-arrested this week, and stop “arbitrarily locking up members of the press for reporting on matters of public interest.” “Journalists must be able to work without fear that they will be subject to arrest and detention for covering …

Iranwire – Over the past 44 years, the religious and political missionaries of the Islamic Republic have relied on the deep belief of a significant portion of the Iranian people in the Third Shia Imam. Every year, millions of Iranians observe Ashura on the 10th day in the month of Muḥarram, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar, as …

Iranwire – Late June to late July of this year has been one of the more difficult months for the Baha’is in Iran. And even since March, in an escalating situation with a Ministry of Intelligence official, Baha’is in Tehran have been denied of the right to bury their dead in a Baha’i-owned cemetery in the city. After days and sometimes after …

CHRI – The forced psychiatric hospitalization of jailed rapper Saman Yasin in Iran shortly after he demanded due process and justice for his case highlights the Iranian government’s continued weaponization of medical treatment in order to suppress dissent, in flagrant violation of international and Iranian law. Yasin was also previously tortured to force him to confess to a crime, according …

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have banned a film festival that put out a publicity poster featuring an actress who was not wearing a hijab, state media reported on July 23. The ban comes after the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) released a poster for its Short Film Festival featuring Iranian actress Susan Taslimi in the 1982 film The Death Of …

Iranwire – Jailed human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has responded to a new round of pressure by the government of the Islamic Republic to impose mandatory hijab on women, calling it a conspiracy by the country’s theocracy to subjugate women. “Contrary to claims by the theocracy, covering women’s hair was not meant to ‘protect women’s dignity’ and ‘control men’s sexual …

RFL/RE – Judges in Iran have diagnosed three prominent actresses sentenced for not wearing the hijab as mentally ill, anti-family, and antisocial, prompting top psychologists in the country to condemn the “abuse of psychiatry and psychology in the judiciary.” The heads of four leading psychiatry boards in the country went public with their criticisms after actresses Azadeh Samadi, Leila Bolukat, and Afsaneh …

BBC – It was the middle of the night when the phone call came. Gazelle Sharmahd was woken up by her mother, who told her that her father, Jamshid, was calling from his jail cell in Iran. Gazelle hadn’t been allowed to talk to her father, an Iranian-German businessman, for two years. “We didn’t even know if he’d already been …

Iranwire – Iranian security forces have shot and killed a resident of the south-western city of Izeh who had been involved in last year’s nationwide protests, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. Seyyed Mostafa Ahmadpour died during a clash with armed forces on July 20.  Government-affiliated media outlets confirmed Ahmadpour’s death, describing him as one of the “instigators of …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – An unidentified man was executed for murder charges in Ahar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ahar Prison in East Azerbaijan province on 18 July. His identity has not been established at the time of writing. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. At the time of writing, …