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RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have stepped up their monitoring of commercial and recreational venues, shutting dozens of cafes, restaurants, and other businesses across the country they say were failing to comply with the mandatory head-scarf law. Anger over the hijab law has boiled over since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 in police custody over an alleged hijab …

Iranwire – Last week, Iranian media reported the opening of the first women’s emergency center in the city of Piranshahr.  Farzin Rezazadeh, the head of the Emergency Department in West Azerbaijan province, vowed to launch a second such center in the near future, with women occupying all technician positions, except for the ambulance driver. Meanwhile, Jafar Miyadfar, the head of …

Iranwire – Well-known civil rights activist Sepideh Qoliyan, who is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for “insulting” the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, says she won’t respond to a summons to answer a complaint filed by a state TV employee. The judiciary summoned Qoliyan to appear at the Kachoi Judicial Complex in Tehran on July 19 to answer a complaint …

Iranwire – Renowned Iranian painter and actor Khosro Hassanzadeh passed away on July 2 after drinking bootleg alcohol, amid a recent surge in cases of fatal alcohol poisoning in the country. Hassanzadeh was born in Tehran in 1963 to a working class family. He studied painting at the Faculty of Art and Persian Literature of Tehran’s Azad University, while being …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO – At least 354 people including six women were executed in the first six months of 2023. 20% of all executions were Baluch minorities. 206 people were executed for drug-related charges, a 126% rise compared to the same period last year. Underlining the accelerated speed of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s execution machine, Iran Human Rights …