Human rights

Iranwire – Iranian intelligence and security forces have summoned dozens of university students across the country in recent days, amid an intensifying clampdown on dissent in the lead-up to the anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protest movement. Students of multiple universities, including Amir Kabir, Allameh Tabatabai, Khajeh Nasir, Tarbiat Modares and Ferdowsi, were handed the summonses or notified by …

Iranwire – A man and two women have been sentenced to one year in prison each, 74 lashes and a fine for “disturbing public order, harassment and appearing in public without proper religious hijab,” local media reported. The trio can appeal the sentence, which was issued on August 14, according to Hamshahri newspaper. The report said that the case stems …

Iranwire – The Iranian judiciary has sentenced Iranian film director Saeed Roostaei to six months in prison on the charge of “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic, Etemad Online reported.  The news website removed the report hours after its publication, citing no reasons. According to the article, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Roostaei on August 14 over “the …

Iranwire – Two Kurdish twin sisters aged 21 were arrested in the western city of Sanandaj on August 13, according to a rights group based in France.  The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said that Zaryan and Zilan Molaei were detained during a raid by government forces on the family’s house and taken to an undisclosed location. The two students were …

Iran-HRM – September 16 marks the anniversary of the murder of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini and the beginning of nationwide protests last year, during which nearly 750 protesters were brutally killed by security forces. Security institutions have already started threatening, summoning, and detaining families who seek justice for their children, demanding that they refrain from attending the gravesites of their lost …

RFL/RE – Iran has reportedly arrested nine more members of the Baha’i faith, the country’s largest non-Muslim community, shutting down and confiscating more than 40 pharmacies and warehouses belonging to the detainees. The Intelligence Ministry of the Islamic republic announced on August 13 that a Baha’i family and its associates, who were involved in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic business, have been …

Iranwire – Ahead of the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16, there has been a notable escalation in the pressure being exerted on the families of the protesters killed by security forces.  Amir, the father of Mehrshad Shahidi, a 19-year-old man who lost his life in the central city of Arak in October 2022 after having been …

Iranwire – Saman Pashaei, an Iranian university lecturer who has been in detention for more than a month, is facing intense pressure to confess to crimes he has not committed, his brother says. Pashaei, who is also a former member of the national wrestling team, was arrested on July 2 by agents of the Saqqez Intelligence Department and held incommunicado …

Iranwire – Images of the body of a young man who had been shot in the head on October 8, 2022, from a distance of half a meter, were quickly shared on social media. He was behind the wheel of a green Kia Pride on Bahman 6th Street in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan province, when his car was …

VOA – An Iranian journalist handed a two-year jail sentence after interviewing the father of the woman whose custody death sparked months of protests said Sunday she had been released from prison. After her release from Tehran’s Evin prison, Nazila Maroufian defiantly posted a picture of herself on social media without a headscarf, flouting the Islamic republic’s strict dress code …