Social and Political

Radiofarda – In a letter to the Islamic Republic head of the judiciary, political prisoner Farhad Maysami, has protested against the appointment of a new warden for Tehran’s notorious prison, Evin. Explicitly accusing the newly appointed warden of “violating prisoners’ rights” in an “unprecedented manner,” Maysami has called upon Ebrahim Raeesi (Raeisi) to dismiss Gholamreza Ziyaee. The new warden Ziyaee …

Radiofarda – Japan has decided to dispatch its own self-defence troops to the Strait of Hormuz area instead of joining the U.S.-coalition to protect merchant vessels passing through key Middle Eastern waterways, the Asahi newspaper reported. The decision is in line with a previous Japanese media report that Japan would not join its most important ally in the security mission …

Radiofarda – Nobody can imagine how I loved Iran, but I will never go back to the country, says a Russian journalist who was detained October 2 after arriving in Iran. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Intelligence agents stormed her room in a hotel in Tehran and took her away. During her arrest, Yulia Yuzik was given only one minute …

Radiofarda – Iran’s powerlifting silver medalist in Asia, Amir Mohammad Shahnavazi says, he has decided not to return to his country and will stay in France in protest to corruption. In a video published on Shahnavazi’s Instagram account, he has argued that since several officials of the Islamic Republic are “incompetent” and “thieves”, “eating away Iran, like leprosy,” he has …

Radiofarda – President Hassan Rouhani has called on Iranian university students to lend their energy and rigor to the campaigns ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran. Rouhani made the remarks during an eventful presence at a ceremony October 16, to mark the beginning of the academic year in Iran, while angry students on campus were demanding an opportunity …

Al-Arabia – A global dirty money watchdog said on Friday it had given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to comply with international norms, after which it would urge all its members to apply counter-measures.“If before February 2020, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will fully …

Radiozamaneh – On September 11, an investigative report on Open Democracy by Sina Zekavat raised serious concerns in the Iranian community. The article claimed that the Iranian state’s intelligence apparatus might be using Wikipedia pages to exert their influence and censor content. Several questions were brought up about the cooperation between Persian Wikipedia editors who are volunteers and Iranian officials. The Wikimedia …

Al-Monitor – The arrest of an operator of a popular Telegram channel on Oct. 14 shocked many Iranian dissidents abroad. Rohollah Zam, the administrator of Amad News, was residing in France as a political refugee when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization announced his arrest and shortly thereafter aired a video confession. Many dissidents and observers abroad wondered how someone could be apprehended by the …

By Muhammad Sahimi (source: LobeLog) Ethnicities in Iran On September 25, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)-a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby group-held a “summit” in New York that was attended by, among others, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, and Sigal Mandelker, the outgoing Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial …

Radiofarda – More than 200 students at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran have been taken to the hospital for food poisoning at the university’s canteen since Tuesday October 15, Iranian media reported. The students have staged a sit-in in front of the University in protest to the situation, the reports said. A student union official told the …