Social and Political

RFL/RE – FIFA has given permission for the display of banners supporting protests in Iran and rainbow items at the World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar — but only after the Middle Eastern country was eliminated from the competition. Since the start of the World Cup on November 20, stadium security staff organized by Qatari authorities had confiscated items with …

RFL/RE – Hossein Sadeghi, the father of imprisoned Iranian activist Arash Sadeghi, has again warned about his son’s deteriorating state of health and called on countries around the world to press Tehran to release him. Arash Sadeghi, who has been imprisoned several times, is suffering from bone cancer and his father says the prison authorities have prevented him from accessing …

RFL/RE – Sunni clerics of the southern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan have released a video calling on authorities of the Islamic republic to stop a deadly crackdown on protests that has “no justificiation.” The video, released on November 29, shows the signatories of the statement together in a mosque. According to the statement, the Sunni clerics of the southeastern …

Iranwire – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Iran’s clerical regime is “fundamentally” misunderstanding Iranian citizens by blaming foreign actors for the ongoing wave of demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women’s rights. “What’s happening in Iran is first and foremost about Iranians, about their future, about their country. And it’s not about us,” Blinken told CNN on …

Iranwire – Iranian security forces have arrested at least five children in a western Kurdish town over the past days, according to a Norway-based human rights organization, amid a heavy-handed state crackdown on nationwide protests. “In the past 11 days, at least 25 Kurdish citizens, including five children, have been arrested or abducted by the Iranian government forces in Abdanan, …

Iranwire – IranWire has recently obtained a voice note from a female inmate in Urmia prison, in northwestern Iran, saying that a 22-year-old woman committed suicide soon after being release from custody. The young woman, identified as Afsaneh,was arrested during recent anti-government protests, the source said. While in prison, she kept yelling at the other inmates she had been repeatedly …

Iranwire – Iran says it has sentenced four people to death for allegedly “cooperating” with the Israeli intelligence service, local media report. “This network of thugs was stealing and destroying private and public property, kidnapping people, and obtaining fake confessions”, the judiciary said on November 30. It said the suspects were arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the …

Iranwire – Iran has reportedly indicted at least three Iranian doctors with “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth”, charges that carry death sentences. According to the Campaign of Baluch Activists, a doctor identified as Ibrahim Rigi was arrested in the eastern city of Zahedan on October 13 while he was returning from the hospital he was working. He is …

VOA – Iraq’s new prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, met Iran’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during his first important trip abroad since being named to head the government by the Iraqi parliament. Sudani told journalists in Tehran after meeting Khamenei, that Iraq would not allow any attacks on its neighbor from inside its territory and that …

CHRI – At least three juveniles are among 15 individuals in the Iranian city of Karaj who are facing charges that could carry the death penalty in Iran’s “Islamic Revolutionary Court” system, which has a documented history of denying defendants due process while handing down politically motivated sentences, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “The government of …