Human rights

Iranwire – The father of a jailed Iranian protester has expressed concerns over his condition in custody, saying his son has been held in solitary confinement for the past 10 days. Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh is being denied his right to contact his family and receive visitors, his father Jafar Noor Mohammadzadeh said in an interview with the Emtdad news website …

Al-Monitor — Several Iranian cities were rocked once again this week by a new wave of what has been called mysterious poisoning of mostly schoolgirls.   The new wave of gas attacks followed a brief respite during Iranian new year holidays, for which schools are closed for two weeks starting from late March. The cities targeted, according to opposition outlets and some …

RFL/RE – Iran’s parliament has adopted proposals to toughen penalties for perpetrators of violence against women, and the changes could be voted into law within months, state media reported on April 10. Discussions in parliament led to the adoption of the general principles of a draft bill on “preventing harm to women and improving their safety against misbehavior,” IRNA reported. …

Iranwire – The Iranian judiciary says it has charged well-known civil rights activist Sepideh Qoliyan with “insult” after she shouted slogans against the Islamic Republic’s leader upon her release from prison last month. Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on April 11, judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said that prosecutors sent Qoliyan’s indictment to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have arrested journalist and women’s rights activist Jina Modaresgorji and summoned another reporter, Maryam Vahidian, to a Revolutionary court amid a crackdown on the media and freedom of expression. On April 10, Modaresgorji was “kidnapped by unidentified agents who used violence during her arrest” in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, journalist Farzad Saifikaran wrote on …

Iranwire – It is a cruel twist of fate that Ahmedreza Radan, who served as the head of Tehran Police 16 years ago, is now leading the charge in the crackdown on women with loose hijab, a top priority for the Islamic Republic’s special police units. As commander of Iran’s police force, Radan boasts of using the latest equipment to …

Iranwire – On April 9, a wave of poisonings hit three girls’ schools in Iran’s north-western Kurdish city of Saqqez. Students’ families and other residents gathered outside one of the schools to protest the incidents, pulling down the Islamic Republic’s flag from the building and chanting slogans against the country’s clerical leaders. As a notification was sent to local media …

Iranwire – Iranian women are passionately continuing their disobedience movement against the draconian hijab laws despite the high price that the protesters have paid in the past seven months.  In videos from public spaces in Iranian cities during Nowruz holidays, we see crowds of women without hijab and women who are dancing to the music in the streets.  By removing …

VOA – As schools in Iran reopen after the new year holiday, female students are again being targeted by chemical attacks. It is not immediately clear who is responsible for the poisonings, but some Iranians suspect that their own government is the likely culprit. The attacks have targeted schools across the country and students are poisoned by unknown substances that …

Shabtabnews – In a statement IOPHR while expressing support for the forty-five day hunger strike of of human rights activist Mr. Vahid Beheshti, the director of the popular news channel, DorrTV, outside of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, urged the British government as soon as possible and before Mr. Vahid Beheshti’s health suffers irreversible risks, to succumb to …