Social and Political

Al-Monitor – Excluding spending for state-owned enterprises, the Iranian government’s proposed budgetfor the coming fiscal year (beginning March 21) is set at 4,700 trillion rials ($111.9 billion). The education budget, which covers the expenditures of elementary to upper secondary schools, amounts to 458 trillion rials ($10.9 billion). While public spending has risen by 40% overall in the proposed budget, the educational system’s allocated resources have only increased by …

Radiofarda – A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has chastised parliament for debating a law to equalize the amount of “blood money” paid to male and female victims or their heirs. Iran, Qom — Grand Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani, undated. According to Islamic law, “diyah,” or “blood money” is paid as financial compensation to the victims or their heirs in cases of …

Radiofarda -Radio Farda’s Hannah Kaviani has interviewed Jonathan Franks the spokesperson for Michael White’s mother, Joanne White. Michael White, 46, has been held since July, and is the first known American to have been detained in Iran since Donald Trump became president two years ago. Hannah Kaviani got in touch with Franks through a crowdfunding campaign trying to raise money …

Radiofarda – Reports on social media say that two women in Kangavar, western Iran have been arrested for removing their headscarves in public. Image grab from a video showing two women in Kangavar, Kermanshah province walking in the street without headscarf. Undated Hijab or head scarf with all-body cover is obligatory for women in Iran. But since December 2017 there …

RFL/RE – The United States has urged the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran over its recent ballistic-missile test and launches of two satellites, saying they violate the world body’s resolutions.Acting U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen on March 7 condemned “Iran’s destabilizing activities” in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and called on Tehran “to cease immediately all …

VOA — Britain will hand diplomatic protection to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to underline the government’s belief that Iran has behaved unjustly in its treatment of her, foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday. Hunt said while the move, a little-used way for governments to seek protection on behalf of their nationals, was unlikely to be a “magic wand,” …

VOA – U.S. lawmakers are making a renewed bipartisan effort to pressure Iran into freeing at least four Americans and a U.S. permanent resident viewed by Washington as hostages of the Islamic Republic. A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing Thursday in which family members of some of those perceived as hostages in Iran briefed lawmakers on the status …

HRW – Ebrahim Raeesi Oversaw Mass Executions in 1988Print Ebrahim Raeesi, a candidate in the 2017 presidential elections, addresses his supporters during a campaign rally at Imam Khomeini Mosque in the capital, Tehran, on May 16, 2017.  © 2017 Getty Images (Beirut) – The appointment of a former judge responsible for mass executions to be head of Iran’s judiciary reflects the deteriorating …

CHRI – On the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8, Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi shared her thoughts on the state of women’s rights in Iran in an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Mrs. Ebadi has long been a defender of women’s rights in Iran, working to address the widespread …

CHRI – Seat for Imprisoned Lawyer Was Left Empty at the Council’s Meeting Last Month The husband of imprisoned human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh has received a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron inviting Sotoudeh to be part of an advisory council created to advise the Group of 7 (G7) countries on gender equality issues. Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, received the letter …