Human rights

Iranwire – Mehdi Narimani, a young man imprisoned in Greater Tehran Penitentiary for not being able to pay his wife’s dowry, had his 30th birthday on Wednesday, March 3. Three days later he died due to medical neglect. The young inmate was unwell and had been given the wrong medication by prison staff. When he lost consciousness, the lack of resuscitation …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared has been abruptly transferred from the women’s ward of Evin Prison to the Prison of Semnan. Reports from the women’s ward of Evin Prison indicate that her cellmates intervened to prevent her relocation. But prison guards violently broke into the ward and forcibly took her out. Maryam Akbari Monfared has been in prison since December …

Amnesty – Joint letter by Iranian and international human rights organisations, calling for the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council. View report in English DOWNLOAD PDF

CHRI – Use of Solitary Confinement Not Supported Under Iranian law Key Findings: Civil rights activists have filed a lawsuit in Tehran against those who order or enforce solitary confinement in Iran’s detention centers and prisonsThe practice of placing detainees in prolonged solitary confinement is routinely used in Iran to isolate and weaken detainees in order to extract false “confessions”Iranian law does …

Iranwire – Orders targeting Iran’s Baha’i religious minority and instructing local security agencies and government departments to “conduct strict controls” on the Baha’is were revealed this week by two human rights groups. The directives were issued by a “high-level government commission” for the city of Sari, in the country’s northern Mazandaran province, and a copy was received by the League …

aa.com – The US said Tuesday it has not changed its judgment that there is a genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region.  “We are unaware that these atrocities have ceased,” said State Department Spokesperson Ned Price at a press briefing. He recalled that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and incumbent Secretary …

RFL/RE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has demanded the “immediate release” of aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals detained in Iran. Johnson raised the case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rohani, and said her “continued confinement remains completely unacceptable” and that she must be allowed to return to her family in Britain, …

Iranwire – British soldiers introduced football to Iran in 1908, but it took 62 years before women could get anywhere near the sport. Women’s football began in Iran in 1970. The first sparks were ignited when women first joined men in playing for local and street teams in various cities, serving as goalkeepers and sometimes playing other positions too. It is worth noting that at that time, football …

VOA- A U.N. report on the human rights situation in Iran presents a bleak picture of a society living under a system of brutal political repression and rampant violations of fundamental freedoms.  The report has been submitted to the U.N. human rights council.  In his presentation to the council, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran …

VOA – The family of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran after being abducted in 2007, says it is encouraged by the Biden administration’s latest vow to press Tehran for answers on his fate, but also wants U.S. officials to do more than make public appeals for Iranian authorities to act. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken …