Holding a public referendum in Iran on the fate of the Islamic Republic is an idea that has recently been gaining favor among Iranian political activists and civil rights advocates, both inside the country and abroad. Proponents of a referendum want action on what is perceived as the ...
Intelligence agencies in Iran are increasingly using state-funded entertainment productions to spread state propaganda and improve their image among the public, according to research by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi boasted about the substantial role of the state’s security establishment in the production ...
Iran’s judicial system allows detainees and prisoners to be subjected to harsh and inhuman interrogations without access to counsel and with impunity for interrogators and other judicial officials. First-hand accounts of being interrogated in Iranian prisons and detention centers have been documented by the UN and human ...
Shirin Neshat film still from "Land of Dreams" signed and numbered limited print edition available for purchase on ...
Ten months after being arrested in Iran, a French national has been charged with “espionage” and “propaganda against the state,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran has learned. Benjamin Briere, 35, appeared at a hearing in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on ...
Arash Ganji, a translator and secretary of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA), must serve five years of an 11-year prison sentence that was upheld by the Appeals Court in Tehran on ...
Widespread Shutdown of Internet Described as Violation of International Law In response to the killing by state security forces of couriers and protesters in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province since unrest broke out in the area on February 22, 2021—and the intermittent shutdown of the internet ...
Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society Shuttered after Tehran Court Grants Motion by Interior Ministry March 4, 2021—An Interior Ministry motion to disband the Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society (IAPSRS) was granted by a court in Tehran on March 3, 2021. ...
As the world marked International Mother Language Day in 2021, non-Persian native languages remained under attack in Iran, where non-Persian-speaking ethnic minorities are subject to state and institutional discrimination and the official teaching of mother languages is restricted and monitored by the Iranian government. “For years, the state ...
Two imprisoned student activists continue to be persecuted for peacefully protesting unjust policies and practices in Iran, including so-called "virginity tests." Charged with “assembly and collusion against national security” for peacefully participating in protests, Saha Mortezaei must now serve six years in prison after her sentence was ...
A group of international human rights groups including the Center for Human Rights in Iran today published a joint statement expressing serious concerns over a renewed crackdown on Afghan civil society, including a wave of kidnappings and murders of journalists and activists. "The people of Afghanistan are squeezed ...
Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Iran sentenced writer, translator, and the secretary of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers' Association, Arash Ganji, to 11 years in prison. Ganji was convicted of conspiracy, membership of an illegal organization and propaganda after he ...