Social and Political

Radiofarda – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has elaborated on his disappointment with Europe during an October 17 meeting with a group his website has described as Iran’s “academic elites and prominent scholars.”

Radiofarda – Indictments have been issued against the directors of two Iranian newspapers for publishing reports on Iraqi pilgrims travelling to holy sites in Iran for sex tourism.

Radiofarda – Turkey’s top refiner, Tupras, is in talks with U.S. officials to obtain a waiver allowing it to keep buying Iranian oil after Washington reinstates sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s energy sector in November, industry sources said.

Iran-HRM – New reports indicate the Iranian judiciary is resorting to issuing heavy sentences against protesters and political prisoners. The General Prosecutor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province said that a court had sentenced six people to prison for writing slogans on walls and ripping up images of Iranian officials, according to the state-run ISNA news agency. 

RFL/RE – The United Nations envoy for Syria is stepping down after gains this year by Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces in reasserting control over much of the country, eclipsing prospects for an international peace deal ending Syria’s seven-year civil war.

Radiofarda – A decision by Iranian authorities to allow a small group of selected women to watch an October 16 soccer match between Iran and Bolivia at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Stadium was welcomed by the country’s reformist press as a step forward and a victory for Iranian women, who have been banned from men’s sports events.

VOA – senior Israeli minister says Israel will keep fighting to oust Iranian forces from Syria, even after Russia delivered an advanced air defense system to the country earlier this month.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Before it could assemble for the first time in 12 months, the National Front of Iran again had to cancel a meeting due to threats of detainment from security forces, who have been impeding the group’s gatherings for the past three years.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – In the latest of a long string of power abuses at Urmia Central Prison, more than 50 special forces responded to prisoner objections with severe beatings, breaking prisoners’ bones, and sending a number of them to solitary confinement on the night of October 15th.

PayvandNews – Iran has allowed an organized group of women to attend a men’s soccer match at a Tehran stadium for the first time in decades, after years of campaigning by activists against a ban on female attendance.