Human rights

Iranwire – An Iranian Baluch fuel carrier was killed on March 7 after a chase with the border forces of the Islamic Republic in southeastern Zahedan.  Haalvsh news agency which covers news in the Baluch-dominated areas in Iran has identified the victim as Behzad Najafi.  Haalvhsh reported police forces chased Najafi’s vehicle which caught fire after being struck by gunfire. …

Iranwire – Border forces of the Islamic Republic in the western Kurdistan province have shot and seriously injured five kolbars amid an escalation of violence against the transborder porters.  Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported that the forces on March 6 directly fired at the kolbars near the border of Hengejal and threatened them with death before forcing them to call …

CHRI – Peaceful Protesters Subjected to Excessive Force, Torture, Rape, and Arbitrary Executions  Call to Action: UN Human Rights Council Members Urged to Extend Fact-Finding Mission and Special Rapporteur Mandates March 8, 2024 – Grave human rights violations perpetrated by the government of Iran since the outbreak of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in September 2022, which include atrocities that …

Iranwire – The Islamic Republic is responsible for the “physical violence” leading to Mahsa Amini’s death in September 2022 and committed crimes against humanity during the suppression of protests, a United Nations fact-finding mission has said in a report. The UN panel “has established the existence of evidence of trauma to Ms Amini’s body, inflicted while in the custody of the morality …

Iranwire – The United States has denounced the desecration of over 30 graves of the Baha’i religious minority in a Tehran cemetery, condemning the Islamic Republic’s persecution of the community. “We condemn the destruction of 30 graves by authorities at the Khavaran Cemetery near Tehran this week. Baha’is in Iran continue to face violations of funeral and burial rights,” the State Department …

Iranwire – Authorities of the Islamic Republic detained at least 325 women in 2023 amid an escalated enforcement of mandatory hijab laws. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization, in a March 8 report, detailed the professions of several arrested women. According to it, the detainees include 18 students, 17 journalists and media activists, ten artists and actors, and seven teachers. The …

Iranwire – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, currently imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison, has called on the international community to unite in “criminalizing gender apartheid.” She criticized the Islamic Republic’s “malicious, deceptive, and misleading” use of religious principles to exacerbate gender inequality. Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, highlighted the systematic oppression faced by women in …

Iranwire – An incarcerated Iranian cleric known for his criticism of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said he has been under pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit.  The cleric, Mohammad Taqi Akbarnejad, a Qom seminary lecturer, has been lodged in Qom prison for 20 days.  “For 14 days following my arrest, I was held in solitary confinement at …

Iranwire – Dozens of Iranian Kurdish political activists who were arrested on a boat earlier this week en route to Italy are at risk of being sent back to Iran where they could face severe punishment, IranWire reports. On the evening of March 4, a video was received by IranWire showing Milad Arsanjani, a former political prisoner, discussing his arrest along with more than …

RFL/RE – Dozens of Iranian activists at home and abroad have called on the international community to boycott the Islamic republic for committing “gender apartheid.” In a statement marking International Women’s Day on March 8, more than 40 activists and groups hailed the growing defiance against the mandatory head covering in Iran as an “achievement” of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, which …