Hardliners in Iran Moving to Shut Pro-Rouhani Forces Out of Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
Ahmad Jannati, head of Iran’s powerful Guardian Council, in charge of ...
Assembly / Association
Ageing Imprisoned Human Rights Lawyer Should Be Released on Medical Grounds, Wife Says
The wife of the prominent lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh, who has been imprisoned since April 2011 for his work defending human rights and political prisoners in Iran, is hoping the appeal for his release from ...
Ailing Imprisoned Journalist Could Face New Charges for Speaking Out against Prison Conditions
Imprisoned journalist Saeed Razavi Faghih has been threatened with retribution for writing letters complaining about abuse inside Rajaee Shahr Prison and could be facing new trumped-up charges. “About a month ago one of the prison authorities threatened my brother and some other prisoners that he ...
Teachers Union Chief to Go on Trial for Peaceful Labor Activities
No Access to Counsel or Family Visits during 7-Month “Temporary Detention” After nearly seven months of “temporary detention” without access to his lawyer or family visits, Esmail Abdi, Secretary ...
Reformist Journalist Begins Serving Prison Sentence for Her Writings on Facebook
The well-known reformist journalist Reyhaneh Tabatabaie surrendered herself to Evin Prison authorities on January 12, 2016, to serve a one-year prison sentence. Tabatabaie’s imprisonment follows a string of arrests of journalists and ...
Sunni Detainees Still Held a Year After Arrest, Reports of Torture and Forced Confessions
A year after the arrest of more than two dozen Sunni Muslim men in southeast Iran, some of them still remain in detention and have reportedly been subjected to torture aimed ...
Detained Poet Describes Being Transported in a Cage and Watched “Like a Murderer”
Two-Day Ordeal Included Solitary Confinement and Incarceration with Criminals The poet Hila Sedighi, who was arrested and held for two days amidst an intensifying crackdown on independent artistic and cultural figures in ...
Journalist Resumes Hunger Strike to Protest His Continued Detention
After two months of detention, the prominent reformist journalist and political activist Issa Saharkhiz has resumed his hunger strike, in protest against his ongoing detention at Evin Prison. Mehdi Saharkhiz, told the ...
Popular Telegram Messaging Application Survives Censorship Vote in Iran
State Filtering Body Refuses to Block the Service An official Iranian state censorship body has resisted calls by hardliners in Iran to block the Telegram messaging service, the most popular social media application ...
Soccer Star Arrested for Online Photos With Women despite Evidence His Account was Hacked
Legal Expert Decries Refusal to Release Sosha Makani on Bail till Investigation is Completed Sosha Makani, Persepolis soccer club goalkeeper and member of the Iranian national soccer team at the 2014 World Cup, ...
Judiciary Claims No Knowledge of Student Not Heard from Since His Arrest Almost 17 Years Ago
The mother of a student who has not been heard from since soon after his arrest in Tehran in 1999 has dismissed the Iranian Judiciary’s claim that there was no evidence he was ever arrested. Saeed ...
Persecution of Christian Converts Continues under Rouhani
Christian is Arrested and Taken to Unknown Location Despite President Hassan Rouhani’s pledges during his election campaign in 2013 that “All ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel justice,” the targeting of Christian ...
Judge’s Tirade Bodes Poorly for Independent Music Producers in Iran
An Appeals Court judge has admonished collaborators of a popular music site for ignoring repeated warnings that they were operating illegally and having ties with Iranian singers abroad opposed to the Islamic Republic. Mehdi Rajabian, musician/founder of ...
Highest Ranked Woman in Iran’s Government to Sue Extremist Publication
The Iranian government’s most senior female official plans to take legal action against an extremist publication for comparing her to a prostitute. The weekly Ya Lesarat, the mouthpiece of the shadowy, semi-official vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah...
Activist’s Health Worsens in Prison As She Awaits Appeal Hearing
A prolonged delay in hearing children’s rights activist Atena Daemi’s appeal against her 14-year prison sentence is causing a serious deterioration in her health, particularly as she has not been able to leave prison for the ...
Retired Professor, 71, Held in Disease-Ridden Ward, Daughter Says
The daughter of prisoner of conscience Mohammad Hossein Rafiee fears her elderly father is in danger of attracting serious diseases, including HIV, because of a health epidemic in Ward 8 of ...
Death Sentence Against Spiritual Center Founder Rejected
Family Hopes for Taheri’s Release at End of Prison Term in 2016 With the lifting of the death sentence against spiritual leader Mohammad Ali Taheri, his family is hoping ...
Popular Iranian Poet Arrested for Third Time amidst Hardline Crackdown against Artistic Community
The well-known Iranian poet Mohamadreza Haj Rostambegloo was released on bail from Karaj’s Central Prison last week, following his third arrest by the authorities in Iran in the last six years. His mother, Maryam Soltani, told ...
Kurdish News Editor Released on Bail after 60 Days in Prison
Hassan Sheikh Aghaei, the editor of a Kurdish-Persian news site, was released on two billion rials (about $67,000) bail on December 6, 2015, after 60 days in detention in Mahabad Prison, 30 days of which he ...
No Bail Set or Appeals Court Date as Child Rights Activist Waits in Prison
Imprisoned children’s rights activist Omid Alishenas has been refused bail while waiting for the Appeals Court to hear his case. “Seven months have passed since Omid was sentenced in the preliminary court but the Appeals Court ...
Rouhani and Judiciary Clash over Ban on Publishing Images of Former President Khatami
The Rouhani administration and the hardline-dominated Judiciary in Iran are engaged in an increasingly direct confrontation over the ability of Iranian media to publish images of the former (1997-2005) reformist President Mohammad Khatami. With claims and counterclaims ...
After 20-Day Hunger Strike, Imprisoned Teacher Activist Released on Temporary Medical Leave
The teachers’ union activist Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi was allowed to leave Evin prison on December 16, 2015, on temporary medical leave after a 20-day hunger strike to protest his nine-year prison sentence. Two days earlier, Mahmoud ...
Underground Music Distributors Await Appeal Decision for Six Years in Prison
Two musicians and a filmmaker who were jointly sentenced to six years in prison and fined 200 million rials (about $6,650) each for “insulting the sacred” and “propaganda against the state,” are awaiting a ruling by ...
Cartoon 131: Choice, Force, and Infiltration
After nearly four decades of tight control on state media such as the Iranian radio and television programming, Friday prayer pulpits, educational curriculum, unabated censorship of the press, books, films, all artistic forms, and the Internet, ...
Commentary: Khamenei’s New Letter to Western Youth is Case Study in Hypocrisy
Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has written a letter addressed to youths in Western countries and, as he did in an earlier similar letter, he scolded the West on a number of issues of ...