Social and Political

Radiofarda – 150 Iranian political and civil rights activists issued a statement on Thursday protesting the execution of the young athlete Navid Afakari in an Iranian prison, with the signees drawing parallels between his hanging and the brutal massacre of protesters during the November 2019 uprising against Iran’s clergy-dominated establishment. The activists issued the letter following the recent execution of …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “The important point about these missiles is that they are fully equipped with homing. It means they are of the fire-and-forget type. We fire the missile and the data is on the missile itself, it has various navigation systems built in.” — Iran’s Navy chief, Adm. Hossein Khanzadi, Associated Press, June 8, 2020. “We are open about the …

VOA- An Iranian political prisoner who has been beaten multiple times by security agents to the point of needing to use a wheelchair has been beaten again for complaining about his treatment, according to his lawyer. Speaking to VOA Persian from Iran on Monday, lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh said his client Khaled Pirzadeh had been beaten earlier in the day by …

VOA – The U.S. Department of Justice has announced criminal charges against three Iranian men for their alleged participation in state-sponsored identity theft and hacking by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization.  The men are all residents and citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, U.S. authorities said Thursday in a press release. Officials also say the …

thelancet.com – The incidence of violence against women has increased worldwide since lockdowns to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 were implemented.1 Iran already had high levels of violence against women, with a reported 8000 so-called honour killings between 2010 and 2014.2Honour killings are common in some cities in Iran. About 20 percent of all murders and 50 percent of family murders …

thejakartapost.com – The men in the audience clapped and the women ululated as the band finished singing: it would have been commonplace except the venue was in Iran and the group on stage were all women. (L to R) Oud player Noushin Yousefzadeh, kasser drummer Negin Heydari, pippeh drummer Malihe Shahinzadeh, and drummer Faezeh Mohseni practise together at a home …

Radiofarda – U.S. President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose U.S. sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, four sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the executive order was expected to be issued in the coming days and would …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s execution of Navid Afkari – an athlete – was not the first of its kind. Since its inception in the late 1970s, the Iranian regime has executed numerous athletes for their political beliefs. Iran executed 27-year-old champion wrestler Afkari on Saturday, drawing widespread condemnation, including from the United States and the European Union. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News …

Radiofarda – Babak Paknia, an attorney involved in Navid Afkari’s legal case, dismissed as “unfounded” the Fars provincial judiciary’s statement on carrying out the death penalty against the young athlete. Following the outcry over the 27-year-old national wrestling champion’s hanging on Saturday in the notorious Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Fars’ judiciary published a statement insisting that it had respected all …

Radiofarda – The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRO) has released an audio file from a court hearing of Navid Afkari, a decorated Iranian wrestler who was executed in an Iranian prison on Saturday. In the brief audio file, the 27-year old national champion asks the judge to show a film related to his alleged killing of a security guard …