Human rights

Iran-HRM – Inmates in a northwest Iran prison staged riot on Wednesday over fears of contamination amid a coronavirus outbreak. Inmates in wards 1,2,3 and 4 of Urmia Prison started to protest when a prisoner identified as Hojjat Kazemzadeh set himself ablaze to protest the authorities’ prevention of his release despite his one-year sentence. Prison guards beat and brutalized the …

Iran-HRM – Iranian security forces on Monday, November 23, arrested Elham Samimi, a student at Tehran University.The security forces had previously inspected her home on October 16 and confiscated her personal belonging and those of her guests and relatives. Elham Samimi is a student of anthropology at Tehran University. The Iranian Students Trade Union Council reported that the state security …

Amnesty – On 24 November, Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali learned that prosecution authorities ordered for his death sentence for “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) to be carried out. In a brief phone call the same day to his wife, he said he had been transferred to solitary confinement in section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran. He is at imminent …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – In a joint letter to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, ten international rights organisations demand immediate action to save the life of Ahmadreza Djalali. The full text of the letter and list of signatories are as follows: H. E. Josep Borrell High Representative of the Union for Foreign …

Al-Monitor – An Australian-British academic imprisoned in Iran has reportedly been released. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was freed in exchange for three Iranian prisoners, the BBC reported on Wednesday, citing Iranian state media. Moore-Gilbert, a professor of Middle East politics at Melbourne University, was arrested in 2018 when leaving Iran following a conference. She was accused of being a spy, which she …

Shabtabnews – In an open letter IOPHR requests “Urgent External Action to stop the Imminent Execution of Dr Ahmad Reza Djalali.” The letter draws attention the fact that Dr Djalali, was sentenced to death because he refused to cooperate with the Iranian intelligence services, by refusing to spy on crisis control centres in Europe. As result the letter urges EU …

Shabtabnews – On 19th November 2020, IOPHR held a webinar on the “Legalisation of Child Marriage and the Oppression of Women Under Iran’s Ruling Regime in the Last Four Decades.” This event which was hosted by IOPHR in association with the International Religious Freedom Roundtable and Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s multi-decade oppression of women …

Shabtabnews – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report: Issue Update—Promoting Religious Freedom and Countering Violent Extremism in Tajikistan—This update describes Tajikistan’s official campaign to control and restrict Islamic practice, ostensibly an effort to combat the spread of terrorism and violent extremism but, in reality, represents harsh and counterproductive religious freedom restrictions. …

iranwire.com – Iran has failed to control the coronavirus pandemic, a new report by the country’s Ministry of Health has revealed. The ministry’s Research and Technology Department has outlined that during clinical trials for drugs to treat Covid-19, hospitals and research centers also focused on traditional and herbal medicine, a controversial move given that most research worldwide focused on conventional medicine. The research …

iranwire.com – In 2015, a joint meeting was held between members of the Iranian Mandaean community and Ali Younesi, Iran’s then Special Assistant to the President for Ethnic and Minority Affairs. It was hoped that through these discussions, the state-sponsored discrimination against one of the most little-understood ethnoreligious minorities in Iran might finally come to an end. Ganzora Najah, head of the …