Social and Political

Iranwire – Friday, February 11, is the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Iranian government has staged tens of abductions, forced disappearances and assassinations of its opponents in other countries around the world. The Islamic Republic has always denied that it carries out trans-national attacks – but this position is undermined by both the frequency of the …

Iran-HRM – Mohammad Habibi, a spokesman for the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA), said that Ministry of Education has issued some directives aimed at “terrorizing” teachers and preventing them from attending protest rallies. On his Twitter account Habibi published the pictures of two directives recently issued by the Ministry of Education. بخشنامه هایی برای ایجاد رعب و وحشت در میان …

CHRI – Mona “Ghazal” Heydari was 17 years old when her husband, Sajjad Heydari, decapitated her and paraded her head on a street in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province—at times smiling at a camera. “Now do you have anything more to say?” he said while carrying the girl’s severed head in his hand by her hair in a …

Al-Monitor – “The precise, radar-evading and pinpointing missile is capable of dealing maximum blows on the Zionist regime in any potential confrontation,” read an editorial in hard-line newspaper Khorasan Feb. 10. The piece outlined the features of the “Kheybar-Shekan,” a new long-range missile unveiled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Wednesday. The Persian name for the missile means “the smasher of Kheybar,” …

Iranwire – Article 18, the human rights organization that advocates for freedom of religion or belief, with a special focus on Christian converts in Iran, published a report on February 1, 2022, on the summons of Ahmad (John) Sarparast, Morteza Hajeb Mashhudkari and Ayub (Farzin) Pourrezazadeh on charges of “activities, propaganda, and deviant educational initiatives contrary to holy Sharia [law], …

Iranwire – Gold-plated baby bottles and pacifiers, strollers costing 30 million tomans ($710) and baby bedrooms decorated by interior designers; these are among the sismuni, or items for newborns, that have become fashionable among affluent people in Iranian society. An IranWire citizen journalist, who has gone shopping for baby supplies, has written about Instagram pages items selling “luxury” baby items. …

Iranwire – A controversial historian and filmmaker has revived long-running speculation about the death of Ahmad Khomeini, the youngest son of the founder of the Islamic Republic, in 1995. In a tweet on February 5, Hossein Dehbashi appeared to challenge the theory that Ruhollah Khomeini’s son died due to “excessive drug use,” indirectly suggesting that he could instead have been …

VOA— The White House publicly pressured Iran on Wednesday to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement quickly, saying it will be impossible to return to the accord if a deal is not struck within weeks. “Our talks with Iran have reached an urgent point,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, noting that the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Rob …

CHRI – An Iranian-born German citizen, U.S. resident and political dissident, Jamshid Sharmahd, who was abducted by Iranian agents in Dubai and forced to return to Iran in 2020, is at risk of being executed there while being denied the right to defend himself in court. Sharmahd, 66, is one of several Iranian dissidents that have been illegally abducted by Iranian agents and …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Cousins Behzad and Yousef Tahmtan were executed on charges of murder in Ardabil Central Prison. On 16 May 2018, Babak Rezaei was wrongly executed for murders Behzad Tahmtan received the death penalty for. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Ardabil Central Prison on the morning of February 6. …