A simmering battle between the government of President Hassan Rouhani and hardline religious figures over music concerts is playing out in northeastern Iran. Most recently, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli questioned the the ...
Recording of Ayatollah Montazeri’s Plea to Stop the Executions is Taken Off Website An audio file of Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri—the once successor to Iran’s first supreme leader—bitterly criticizing the Islamic Republic’s mass execution of political prisoners in ...
Soheil Arabi, whose death sentence for “insulting the prophet” was struck down by Iran’s Supreme Court in 2015 but remains imprisoned for posting comments critical of the Islamic Republic on social media, is ...
Women’s rights activists and environmentalists joined forces in the city of Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdistan Province, after a local anti-pollution initiative encouraging people to ride bikes or walk instead of using their cars ran ...
The weekly Ya Lesarat, the official publication of the ultraconservative vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah, has been suspended by Iran’s Press Oversight Committee for printing a sexual smear campaign about actors’ wives. “Using ...
Campaign Pledges Three Years Ago to Free Political Prisoners Now Ring Hollow Dozens of human rights lawyers who have been imprisoned for years in Iran for defending civil rights and political prisoners, remain behind bars three years ...
Ninety-two university student groups have issued a joint letter to President Hassan Rouhani criticizing the persistent “atmosphere of fear and intimidation” in Iran’s universities following a spate ...
The seven-year prison sentence of reformist newspaper editor Ehsan Mazandarani has been reduced to two years on appeal, his brother-in-law Sam Hosseini told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “We are happy that the Appeals ...
One hundred fifty young girls and boys were arrested for attending an “inappropriate mixed-gender” birthday party near the city of Tehran, according to an announcement by the police commander of western Tehran province. The arrests are the latest in ...
Case Exposes Judiciary’s Lack of Independence Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has directly interfered in the case of imprisoned Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran...
Charges and Whereabouts of Robin (Reza) Shahini Unknown Iranian-American Robin (Reza) Shahini, the latest victim of a string of arrests and prolonged detainments of dual nationals who have travelled to Iran, was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organization in the city of Gorgan, 255 miles ...
At a June 23, 2016 public meeting with poets chosen and invited by his administration, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said: "I have heard that some publish their poetry on the Internet. For example, someone wrote something that is worthless, but imagine that ...
Iran’s anti-vice squads, also referred to as the morality police, are particularly busy in the hot summer months when Iranian women wear lighter clothes and are less observant of the mandatory hijab. ...
Rassoul Bodaghi, a senior member of the Iranian Teacher’s Association who has been repeatedly harassed by security agents since he was conditionally freed from prison a few months ...
Iranian cartoonist Touka Neyestani reacts to the June 12, 2016 shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 patrons were killed and 53 more were injured. The perpetrator, Omar S. Mateen, who was also killed in the incident, had called ...
Iran’s Parliament has ratified an amended law that reduces the working hours of female employees with certain family obligations by eight hours ...
“In this society, lawyers who bear witness to injustice and speak the truth get punished.” Constant pressure and harassment by Iran’s Judiciary and security establishment have forced a human rights lawyer ...
The wife of Hashem Zeinali, a 70-year-old man who was given a lashing and prison sentence after peacefully demanding information about his missing son while standing outside ...
Charging the prominent Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli, who also holds Canadian citizenship, with “disturbing public opinion and spreading falsehoods” is “shocking,” an expert on the Iranian legal system told the International Campaign ...
Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, imprisoned since 2013, has vowed to continue the hunger strike she began on July 5, 2016 until her demand for early ...
Hashtag #FreeNarges Skyrockets in Iran despite Official Ban on Twitter More than 100,000 Iranians took part in a Twitter campaign in solidarity with the imprisoned human rights defender ...
Ahmad Karimi Najjar, a political prisoner currently serving the seventh year of his 16-year prison sentence in Iran’s Rajaee Shahr Prison, could be eligible for conditional release, but the Judiciary is refusing ...
This commentary was originally published in the World Politics Review. Hadi Ghaemi There is a crackdown underway in Iran. But it is no longer just a crackdown on dissent. Rather it is ...
A Judicial official has threatened Narges Mohammadi, a leading human rights defender who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for her peaceful activism, in ...
Judicial officials are refusing to review the case of political prisoner Mohammad Ali (Pirooz) Mansouri who is legally eligible for conditional release after spending nine years in Iran’s Rajaee Shahr and Evin ...