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

Iran-HRM – A young popular dissident poet has died in hospital – sparking impromptu protests and vigils from hundreds of people in in Ahvaz, the capital southwestern Khuzestan province. Hassan Heydari, a young popular dissident poet, died in the city’s Shafa hospital under suspicious circumstances a month after his arrest by Iranian authorities. Hassan Heydari was initially arrested last year …

Iran-HRM – Soheil Arabi, a political prisoner held in Evin Prison, has gone on hunger strike to demand treatment for Arash Sadeghi who has been denied medical access and hospital transfer by the authorities. He announced the hunger strike from Tehran’s Evin prison in a letter on November 7, saying that he had started a dry hunger strike since November 14 and …

RFL/RE – Omar Khayyam is considered a giant of Persian poetry. His poems have been part of Iran’s school curriculum for years. Yet students will reportedly no longer be able to read his rubaiyat in textbooks under a new plan. Omar Khayyam, the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet (left), may be replaced in Iranian textbooks by Mohsen Hojaji, a 25-year-old …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Hassan Rohani, in a thinly veiled appeal to hard-liners, says staying in a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers will allow Tehran to restart weapons sales and purchases abroad. In an address on November 11 in southwestern Iran, Rohani noted that “by continuing the nuclear deal, we will reach a huge political, defensive and security goal.” …

VOA – European Union foreign ministers on Monday debated ways to keep the Iran nuclear deal intact after the Islamic Republic began enrichment work at its Fordo site in a fresh act of defiance that seems likely to spell the end of the painstakingly crafted international agreement. At talks in Brussels, the EU powers that signed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal …