Human rights

Iranwire – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the two-year suspended prison sentence imposed without any trial on an Iranian journalist and called for an end to such “travesties” of justice. Nazila Maroufian, a reporter with Didban Iran and Rouydad24 websites, was arrested on October 30 after interviewing the father of Mahsa Amini, whose death in the custody of morality …

Iranwire – Armita Abbasi, a 20-year-old woman from Karaj, near Tehran, went on trial on January 29 after being tortured and sexually assaulted in detention, triggering a Twitter storm from her supporters. Armita had multi-colored dyed hair and an eyebrow piercing. She wrote about her life, cats and dreams on Instagram until she was arrested in October 2022 for joining …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s intelligence forces have arrested at least four Sunni clerics in Kurdistan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces over the past 24 hours, according to multiple opposition news outlets.  In the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, two clerics identified as Ebrahim Karimi Nanala and Loqman Amini were detained and “taken to an unknown location,” the Paris-based monitor, Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported on …

RFL/RE – Iranian security forces have clamped down on protests over the government’s mismanagement of its response to a strong earthquake over the weekend that killed at least three people and injured hundreds in the northwestern city of Khoy. Videos published on social media show security forces used a water cannon to disperse people who had gathered in front of the regional …

Shabtabnews – This week USCIRF is holding a Conference on Women and Religious Freedom . For the schedule please see below link: IRF-2023-schedule-v2Download

Iranwire – Iranian authorities shut down a restaurant in the southern city of Mahshahr on January 30 after a woman sang at its opening ceremony, state media reported, amid more than four months of nationwide protests demanding more freedoms and women’s rights. “Following the publication of a clip on the Internet showing a woman singing illegally in a restaurant in …

Iranwire – The Iranian parliament plans to add an article to the Islamic Penal Code that would criminalize “expressing opinions on social networks,” state media reported, in an attempt to further limit freedom of speech. The main targets of the proposed Article 512 are influential people in Iran. The draft legislation says that people who hold “a social, political, scientific …

VOA – Iranian authorities have imposed a travel ban on leading filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, local media reported Monday, after he expressed support for protests that have gripped the Islamic republic for months. Iran has seen a wave of demonstrations that erupted after the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd, following her arrest for allegedly …

RFL/RE – At least 527 people have been killed in Iran since the beginning of the anti-government demonstrations more than four months ago, said a report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on January 29. Among them were 71 minors and 70 members of the police and other security forces, according to the group’s tally. In total, nearly …

Iranwire – An Iranian court sentenced two bloggers to 10 ½ years in prison each on January 29 for publishing a video of themselves dancing in Tehran’s central Azadi Square, amid a fierce crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. Amir Ahmadi and his partner Astiaj Haghighi were also banned from carrying out online activities and from leaving Iran for two years after …