Human rights

Shabtabnews – In a virtual International Religious Freedom Roundtable with Ambassador at Large Sam Brownback, Mr. Hamid Gharagozloo, the U.S. representative for IOPHR spoke about the fact that death threats against Dr. Azmayesh, Mr. Ahrari, dissidents and activists outside of Iran continue on a daily basis. The IOPHR Statement also stated that “several prisoners have been threatened with death and …

Radiofarda – Outspoken former lawmaker Ali Motahari on Wednesday said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official has admitted to him that Iran remains silent about the suppression of Chinese Muslims — mainly Uyghurs — because of economic dependence on China. Speaking to Asr-e Iran news website, Motahari said he asked the official about the reason of Iran’s silence a while back. …

VOA – Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian journalist who has been jailed in her country since 2015 for human rights advocacy and who told supporters last month she was showing coronavirus symptoms, appears to have recovered from them, according to her husband. In a written message sent to VOA Persian on Tuesday, Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, living in exile in Paris, …

Iran-HRM – There have been several attacks on political prisoners in Iran’s jails in the past few days. The attacks were carried out by common prisoners incited and hired by prison authorities. On Tuesday, August 4, in Evin Prison, several financial convicts attacked and brutalized prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubifar and Behnam Mousivand without any justification. They threatened to kill the latter. …

nytimes.com – Mehrdad Oskouei’s latest documentary, “Sunless Shadows,” is a startling, raw confrontation with Iran’s patriarchy. A poignant follow-up to his 2016 “Starless Dreams,” about teenage girls in a Tehran juvenile detention center, the new movie focuses on a group of adolescent girls and older women imprisoned for murdering male relatives. (Both documentaries are part of a virtual Oskouei retrospective at the …

consequenceofsound.net – Yet another Iranian band faces prison time for playing heavy metal. Death metal act Arsames were reportedly arrested last month and charged with “15 years in jail for being in a satanic metal band and being against the Islamic government,” according to official government documents (via Metal Injection). The members of Arsames are currently out on bail and awaiting …

Radiofarda – The “Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice” in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi Province has enforced a ban on women riding bicycles in public places. The capital city of the province is Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city with a shrine considered by Shiites as the holiest religious venue in the country, where their eighth Imam, Ali bin Mousa al-Reza …

Radiofarda – Iranian conservatives have been justifying the Chinese government’s suppression of Uyghur Muslims in China and keeping silent in the face of systematic violence against Chines Muslims in Xinjiang Province. During the past days two tweets by Ali Motahari, a former member of the Iranian Parliament, about the situation of Uyghur Muslims in China has stirred a lot of …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Mostafa Salehi, detained for participating in late 2017, early 2018 protests was hanged at dawn today in a prison in Isfahan, central Iran. Mostafa Salehi was one of the protesters arrested during the nationwide protests in 2017-18 in the city of Kahrizsang, in Isfahan province. He was accused of killing a member of the Revolutionary Guards …

Iran-HRM – Based on information compiled by the Iran Human Rights Monitor, at least 21 porters (or back carriers) have been shot dead by revolutionary guards since March 20, 2020. This is an average of four porters per month and one porter every week getting killed by the IRGC. This figure does not include the cases where porters lost their …