Social and Political

Shabtabnews – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the announcement that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, who has “arrested and detained members of the Baha’i religion without charges,” and the Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation, which was created to “confiscate and manage property, including that originally belonging to religious minorities such as …

iranwire.com – On the evening of November 18, 2020, news sources reported that two kulbars had been killed by border guards at the Oshnavieh border. Local sources have identified the kulbars as Wasim Fardinzadeh, a resident of Pirutabad (Pardavi) Oshnavieh, and Hakan Mohammadzadeh, a resident of the village of Karikan in the Kuhsar district of Salmas. According to the Hengaw website, …

iranwire.com – Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital and Evin Prison are located, respectively, in the southernmost and upper northern areas of Tehran. In a sense, the two facilities are far closer than they appear on a map. Security agencies in Iran have fostered a strong administrative link between the two: one that now requires just a handful of signatures to transform a …

iranwire.com – Last month a feature-length documentary, Nasrin, was released that covers life and struggles of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the world-renowned Iranian human rights lawyer imprisoned in Iran for her defense of civilian activists. For the next ten days, in partnership with the creators, IranWire has made the English-language film available online to Persian-speaking audiences outside of North America. To mark the release, we …

iranwire.com -In some cultures, the giraffe is a symbol of confusion and indeterminate identity. It has a long neck, but is not a camel. Its skin is covered with dark spots, but it is not a leopard. It has antler-like protuberances on its head, but it is not a deer. On reviewing the statements of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published …

Iran-HRM – World Children’s Day rings hollow for children in Iran who enjoy zero rights The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989, to underline the importance of recognition of the rights of children. This international convention lists the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children which need to be …

President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are under fire for suggesting that Iran could continue talks with the United States after President-elect Joe Biden takes office. In a video recently released by Iranian media, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Esmail Ghaani criticizes the idea of speaking with the United States. Ghaani, who took over the Quds …

RFL/RE – The UN’s atomic watchdog says Iran has again breached its nuclear deal with major powers by firing up advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges installed underground at its Natanz site. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi told a press conference on November 18 that centrifuges in a buried part of the Natanz site, which the agency revealed in …

iranwire.com – Petty crime rates have increased in many parts of Iran in line with rising unemployment and poverty, especially since the outbreak of coronavirus. While the government has yet to take any meaningful action to prevent more families from sliding into hardship, police and the Revolutionary Guards have adopted an enforcement-based approach. Over the summer, the Iranian Armed Forces-linked …

IRAN-HRM – The Department of Islamic Culture and Guidance in the city of Ramhormoz issued a directive banning reporters and journalists in this city from covering news of suicides. The measure comes in the wake of suicides of six high school students in Ramhormoz, in Iran’s Khuzestan Province in a short period of time. After a 15-year-old student took his …