Social and Political

RFL/RE- The teachers’ union in Iran’s Fars Province has warned that the health of jailed teacher activist Mohammad Ali Zahmatkesh is deteriorating due to a hunger strike. Referring to significant weight loss and a severe drop in blood pressure after 12 days on hunger strike, the union warned that the life of the retired teacher, who has been under arrest since May …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The Arabs are also saying that they want Biden to understand that, over the years, the Gulf states have changed for the better, and that if he wants to maintain America’s strategic partnership with its Arab allies and friends, it is important in this culture that he show respect. The Arabs are telling Biden: Stay away from the …

Iranwire – As is often the case in Iran, the country is in the grip of a series of events that are both shocking, and somehow not entirely surprising. Since Friday, July 8, at least 11 well-known public figures have been arrested. They include Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister and trenchant critic of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; six of …

Iranwire – In recent days, internet security experts, who are also members of the Baha’i community, have warned that hackers affiliated with the Islamic Republic have been using an app called Ahl-e Baha (“People of Baha”) to spy on Baha’is and to steal their personal information. The Islamic Republic’s policy towards Iranian Baha’is has, since 1979, been to silence them …

Iranwire – On Saturday a judge in Tehran convicted and handed the death sentence to Keyvan Emamverdi, a literature student accused of drug-raping dozens of women. The sex attacker was not, however, convicted of rape or “violent adultery” – the term used in the Islamic Penal Code – but of corruption, which in Iranian law is punishable by death. In …

CHRI – Less than a month after the intelligence chief of the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was replaced, a crackdown on dissent is being ramped up in the country. “The new intelligence chief is clenching the state’s iron fist to crush the increasing attempts we’ve been observing at opposing repressive state policies and holding Iranian officials accountable,” said Hadi Ghaemi, …

Al-Monitor – Iran is preparing to send armed drones to Russia for use in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, according to declassified US intelligence revealed by the White House on Monday. “Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs [drones], including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline,” US National Security …

Al-Monitor – A dissident Iranian filmmaker was arrested after he attempted to inquire about two other imprisoned Iranian filmmakers. Jafar Panahi visited a court in Tehran to inquire about the case of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, Iranian filmmakers who were recently arrested over protests.  Panahi has been very vocal on Instagram about his differences with the direction of the …

Shabtabnews – IOPHR in a letter warned the US Congress about Belgian-Iranian Judiciary Cooperation. The letter stated ” the government of Belgium, which is one of the allies of the United States of America, has submitted a bill to its parliament, which lays out a legal framework of cooperation between the Belgian judiciary and the judiciary of the Islamic Republic …

Iranwire – The hated “Deep State” led by Khamenei in Iran, isolated and despised as a consequence of its continuous failure to provide any kind of solace to the suffering lives of millions of Iranian people – 80 percent of whom are now living below the “poverty” and “extreme poverty” lines – has now resorted to more violence and repression …