Social and Political

Al-Arabia – Demonstrations in Ahwaz province in southwest Iran continued after midnight Friday following a segment aired by the Iranian state TV that ignored the Arab origins of the city, which is mostly Arab-populated.

Radiofarda – The Iranian year that ended on March 20 was marked by the escalation of public dissent, unprecedented street protests in many cities, and bolder demands from labor unions.

Radiofarda – Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s military adviser Hossein Dehghan has likened defiant former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “the door of a mosque, which may not be burnt or thrown away,” an allusion to the fact that Ahmadinjad is part and parcel of the Islamic regime in Iran regardless of his harsh criticism of Khamenei and his government.

Radiofarda – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has once again urged the international community to squeeze Iran economically and politically, The Wall Street Journal reported on March 29.

Iran-HRM – Security forces on March 29, arrested 26 of Arab nationality residents peacefully protesting insult by the state TV in Ahwaz, capital of Khuzistan Province in south west Iran.

Iran-HRM – Exact statistics do not exist on the area of Iran’s forests, but current stats do indicate a process of destruction in Iran’s forests. Over the past five decades, the country’s forest area has dropped from about 18 million hectares to 12.4 million hectares while the northern forest area has dropped from about 3.4 million hectares to 1.8 million …

Al-Arabia – In the rich, transcendent city of Riyadh, shrapnel from a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday night killed an Egyptian resident and injured other civilians.

Amnesty – Eight detainees from Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish minority began a hunger strike on 27 March in protest against the torture and other ill-treatment to which they say they are subjected. One of the men, Abbas Dehghan, has allegedly been threatened with his wife being raped in front of him if he does not “confess”. The men require medical care …

Amnesty – At least 11 women from Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish religious minority have been arbitrarily detained in inhumane conditions, without access to their lawyers, since 20 February following the violent dispersal of a protest held by Gonabadi Derivshes in Tehran. Some urgently need medical care for injuries sustained from beatings at the time of their arrest.

CHRI – Iran’s cyber police, known as FATA, and the Intelligence Ministry have summoned rights activists in mainly Kurdish-populated provinces of the country and accused them of protesting against the state.