Social and Political

RFL/RE – A dramatic rise in the price of flour in Iran is leading to concerns that the authorities’ recent decision to end subsidies for imported wheat could come at the cost of social unrest.Since the Iranian government ended subsidies for imported wheat on May 1, the cost of flour has soared by around 500 percent and is expected to …

Iranwire – Iran’s current Speaker of Parliament and ex-Mayor of Tehran travelled to Turkey in the past to support Ghasem Soleimani and the IRGC’s Quds Force, a hardline senior cleric has revealed. Mehdi Taeb, head of the pro-IRGC propaganda outfit the Ammar Headquarters and brother of Hossein Taeb, who oversees the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, made the remarks in a leaked audio file published by …

Iranwire – Another Swedish citizen has been newly arrested in Iran in the latest sign the Iranian regime may be trying to use hostage diplomacy to pervert the course of justice in the Hamid Nouri trial. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that an as-yet unnamed Swedish man in his 30s had been detained the previous week. The man was …

VOA – Iran has arrested almost 40 teachers nationwide leading up to and since May 1 protests, Human Watch Rights has said, calling for their release. Quoting the reformist Emtedad news website, the watchdog said that as of May 1 Iranian authorities had arrested 38 teachers. At least 17 of them are still detained, including Mohammad Habibi, the Iranian Teachers Trade Association’s …

HRW – Imprisoned human rights defender Behnam Mousivand has been hospitalized at Taleghani hospital in Tehran since April 29, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) reported. According to Hrana, Mousivand was on a hunger strike from April 19 to May 5 to protest his detention conditions. On the day Mousivand began his hunger strike, Rajai Shahr prison officials reportedly beat …

Al-monitor – Clashes between Iraqi security forces and a Yazidi militia known as the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) may represent one of several new fronts in escalating tensions between Iran and Turkey in Iraq.  Turkey expands anti-PKK operations in Iraq and Syria  Turkey has intensified air, drone and artillery attacks against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets beyond the remote, northern …

RFL/RE – Ali Shahvari grew up in a traditional and religious Muslim family in Iran. He was devoted to his country to the extent that he twice volunteered to fight on the front lines in the devastating Iran-Iraq War. But after one of his brothers was killed and another wounded in the 1980-88 conflict, he turned to drugs. Two decades …

Iranwire – At the end of April the US State Department published a report by Congress that revealed the net worth, as American officials understand it, of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and eight of his family members. The report estimated the Assad family net worth to be US$1 to 2 billion. The report remains incomplete because the State Department believes Al-Assad and …

Iranwire – Schools, universities, government offices and banks have closed their doors in the southwestern province of Khuzestan due to intense pollution and the air being thick with dust. According to observers, the level of particle pollution in the cities of Ahvaz and Shush currently has recently stood at 25 times the safe level. At the same time, a Ministry …

Iranwie – Behnam Mousivand, a jailed Iranian human rights advocate who went on hunger strike two weeks ago, has now been sent to hospital in a dire physical condition, fellow activists report. Atena Daemi, a children’s rights campaigner and recently-released prisoner of conscience, has been to hospital to visit Mousivand. She tweeted that he was running a fever, unable to speak and …