Human rights

Iranwire – A series of chemical attacks against girls’ schools were reported in at least a dozen cities across Iran on Monday. Reports and videos on social media reveal that students were poisoned at schools in Isfahan, Sanandaj, Ravansar, Saqqez, Bukan, Diwandrareh, Urmia, Gilangharb, Tabriz, Dezful, and Mahdasht. Since November 2022, more than 13,000 students have suffered symptoms including nausea, …

Iranwire – Female students at multiple Iranian universities protested mandatory hijab rules as the authorities continued to harass and suppress women who flout the Islamic Republic’s dress codes. Images published on social media show female students at Tehran University’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences staging a sit-in on April 16. The protesters held placards with slogans such as “No …

Iranwire – As IranWire has reported, hundreds of Iranians have sustained severe eye injuries after being hit by pellets, tear gas cannisters, paintball bullets or other projectiles used by security forces amid a bloody crackdown on mainly peaceful demonstrations. Doctors say that, as of now, at least 580 protesters have lost one or both eyes in Tehran and in Kurdistan alone. …

VOA – Dozens of schools in several provinces of Iran have been targeted by gas and chemical attacks that began in November, but now two officials in President Ebrahim Raisi’s government are asserting the spate of school poisonings was “the mischief of the students.” “The few cases of poisoning that occurred in [the] girls’ schools were very limited. The mischief …

Iranhr.net – For over four decades, Iran has been one of the few countries to carry out executions publicly. Public executions have been repeatedly criticised by the international community and domestic civil society in Iran. Both the UN Secretary General and the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran have expressed concern about the continued …

RFL/RE – People who encourage women to remove the hijab will be prosecuted in criminal courts and will have no right of appeal against any conviction, Iran’s deputy attorney general, Ali Jamadi, was quoted as saying on April 15. His comments come as an increasing number of women have been defying Iran’s compulsory dress code, appearing unveiled in malls, restaurants, …

Iranwire – The office of a prominent Iranian Sunni cleric who has been missing for four months accused the Islamic Republic of hypocrisy, saying that it is organizing rallies in support of the Palestinians while cracking down on its own people. A statement published by Molavi Abdulghaffar Naqshbandi’s office called the state-sanctioned annual rallies marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day on April 14 a …

Iranwire – Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric again used his Friday sermon to preach religious tolerance and to criticize the policies of the country’s Shia leadership, amid popular calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The ideologies of those “closed-minded individuals who hold positions of power” have “hindered progress and led to irrational decisions,” Molavi Abdulhamid, the Sunni Friday …

Iranwire – Iranian lawyers are challenging the authorities’ claim that removing hijab in public, including in private cars, is a “crime” that should be punished, amid heated debate over mandatory headscarf rules. All women in Iran must conceal their hair with a headscarf and wear loose fitting trousers under their coats while in public. But a growing number of women …

Shabtabnews – In an open letter the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR) on the 50th day Mr. Vahid Beheshti’s hunger strike  urged “the UK Government to implement the views of a large section of the general public who are endangered by the threats posed by the IRGC, and also the views of the majority of MPs, who on …