Human rights

(AP) — Deep in the lush valleys of northern Iran, where the Alborz Mountains crumble toward the sea, Ali Rahimi takes up his grisly work. Day in and day out, Rahimi, a 53-year-old volunteer cleric in the city of Ghaemshahr, puts on his hazmat suit and receives the deceased; disinfecting, washing and shrouding the dead bodies in white cloth. The …

shabtabnews – On the one year anniversary of death of Dr Noor Ali Tabendeh IOPHR put out a statement commemorating the human right’s record of Dr Tabandeh. Dr. Tabandeh was a prominent Jurist, an expert in Islam, a freedom fighter, a mystic and the spiritual leader of eight million Gonabadi Sufis in Iran and around the world. He is widely …

VOA – Iran has taken another punitive action against the outspoken family of a protester killed by security forces who crushed nationwide anti-government demonstrations last year, handing the protester’s uncle a suspended prison sentence for criticizing the nation’s Islamist rulers. In a Monday interview with VOA Persian from Iran, an informed source said Mehrdad Bakhtiari, uncle of slain activist Pouya …

Iran-HRM – Prison guards raided Ward 5 of the Great Tehran Penitentiary, confiscating personal belongings of inmates. Sunday, December 20, 2020, prison guards raided Ward 5 of the Great Tehran Penitentiary and confiscated personal belongings of inmates, including their samovar, curtains, chairs, clocks and sports shoes, an informed source said. The raid on Ward 5 of the Great Tehran Penitentiary …

HRW – We, the undersigned human rights and humanitarian organizations, call on all stakeholders to ensure people in Iran have swift, unencumbered, and equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable Covid-19 vaccines. We particularly call on the government of the United States to provide assurances to financial institutions that they will not be subject to US sanctions for facilitating transfers …

RFL/RE – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 21 journalists worldwide were singled out for murder in reprisal for their work in 2020, more than double the previous year’s figure of 10.Overall, at least 30 journalists were slain while on duty this year, the New York-based media freedom watchdog said in a report released on December 22.“It’s appalling that the murders …

Iranwire.com – We may yet remember 2020 as the year that apathy died. During the pandemic, billions of people have been compelled to live, breathe and engage, with a directness that for many was totally unprecedented, with the impact of political choices and top-down decisions made in the countries they call home. Crises such as this have a way of …

Iranwire.com – BBC Persian journalists have told United Nations experts they continue to receive death threats from Iranian agents, and that a campaign of harassment and intimidation has increased over the last year. On December 18, lawyers for the BBC Persian journalists filed an Urgent Appeal with three UN experts detailing the death threats and other harassment, including the freezing of assets …

Iran-HRM – Soghra Khodadadi, the new warden of Qarchak Prison, has threatened to attack political prisoners in this prison, again. On Sunday, December 13, the anti-riot guards in Qarchak Prison accompanying Soghra Khodadadi raided political prisoners in Ward 8 of Qarchak Prison. They beat them up with stun guns and batons and abandoned them in the ward without any medical …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoners Mohammad Amirkhizi and Payam Shakiba were transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to Rajaishahr Prison in Karaj on Saturday, December 19, 2020. The two prisoners had been abruptly moved from the political prisoners’ ward in Rajaishahr Prison to the Intelligence Ministry Ward 209 in Evin Prison in July 2020, along with political prisoner Majid Assadi. All …