Social and Political

gatestoneinstitute.org – In another blow to the US, after many years of Iran trying to be a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), SCO members finally agreed in September to elevate Iran’s status from “observer” to “full member,” even though the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, had placed the Islamic Republic on its terrorism financing …

Al-Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said Friday that Iran’s nuclear activities put the region in a dangerous place. Iran’s accelerating nuclear activities were very concerning, Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters during a briefing in Washington. “We think we’re entering a dangerous phase,” he said, a day after meeting with his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Thursday. As for talks between …

RFL/RE – A man arrested for murder when he was 17 is set to be executed in Iran on October 16 despite efforts by human rights groups to persuade Tehran not to carry out the execution. The execution of Arman Abdolali was postponed earlier this week, but Amnesty International said at the time that he remained in “imminent danger of …

RFL/RE – Since she was first jailed in 2018 for covering labor strikes at a local sugar factory, journalist and activist Sepideh Gholian has become somewhat of an expert at exposing the torture tactics she has witnessed in prisons throughout Iran. Now the 26-year-old’s experiences, drawn from her incarceration at detention facilities and four notorious penitentiaries around the country, has …

Iranwire – In the past few years, many Iranian journalists working for foreign media outlets have reported threats and intimidation to themselves and their families by the Islamic Republic. In the latest instance, a journalist with Radio Farda living in Toronto, Canada has revealed an open attempt by the security agencies’ attempts to lure him back to Iran. Behrang Rahbari described the …

Iranwire – An Iranian cyber-network linked to the IRGC has been pulled from Facebook for posting content encouraging Iranians to “praise the military and criticize opposing factions”. In its latest report on coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), the social media giant said it had removed some 93 accounts, 14 pages, 15 groups and 194 Instagram accounts in September that were targeting domestic audiences, …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s National Organization for Civil Registration said about 791 babies were born to child mothers aged 10-14 in the last six months.According to the state-run ISNA news agency, this statistic is related to the period between March 21, 2017 to October 7, 2010. Sistan and Baluchestan province has the highest number of the Iranian child mothers with 248 …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s security forces shot and killed a Kurdish man in a mountainous border region where he was working as a porter. Security forces in Sardasht, west Iran shot and killed Zhian Alipour a Kurd border porter on October 14. He was shot at close range in the back by military forces in a base in Sardasht. The slain …

RFL/RE – EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell is waiting on responses from Washington and Tehran before calling a meeting of negotiators on the Iranian nuclear deal, his spokesman said. “We are awaiting the Iranians’ response,” spokesman Peter Stano said. “A meeting will be called if all parties are in agreement and are all ready,” he said. “There is an urgent …

Iranwire – Two Tehran police officers have been subjected to disciplinary action after a video of them subjecting a woman to excessive force during an arrest was posted online. The clip shared on Thursday showed the two officers, one male and one female, shoving a screaming woman into a waiting van with such force that her head hit the body of the …