Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

RFL/RE – Iran says it has successfully launched its second military satellite as talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers reach a critical point.“Iran’s second military satellite — named Noor-2 — has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometers …

RFL/RE – Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui is no stranger to state censorship. The prominent director has had to fight restrictions during his decades-long career, first under the one-party state of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and then under the current theocratic regime, which has enforced stricter censorship rules on artists and their work. Yet, a decision by authorities to prevent the …

Iranwire – On Sunday, March 6, Facebook flung the official page of the Tehran-sponsored Al-Alam TV channel off its platform. The official Arabic-language arm of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) had had a presence on the site since 2010. The permanent ban came without warning, but at a time when tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter have purged …

Iranwire – The sixth wave of coronavirus in Iran appears to have reached its peak a week earlier than predicted and is now subsiding. The official daily number of fatalities, which stood at 241 on February 27, fell to 172 at the end of the week. Persian new year, or Nowruz, arrives on March 21. The Nowruz holidays are traditionally a time …

CHRI – On the eve of International Women’s Day, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) celebrates women everywhere who are at the vanguard of the struggle for human rights despite crushing adversity. In Iran, courageous women, including lawyers, activists, journalists, and mothers of the victims of state violence, are demanding justice, freedom, equality, and basic civil liberties for …