18 Sufis on Strike in Iran’s Great Tehran Penitentiary Issue Three Demands
Eighteen Sufi dervishes of the Gonabadi Order are on hunger strike in Iran’s Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) including Zafarali Moghimi, who is in ...
Free Expression
Secretary General: Iran Engages UN But Intensifies Crackdown on Freedom of Assembly and Speech
Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary general of the Iranian judiciary's High Council for Human Rights. Following are the summary, introduction, and recommendations of the report of the ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh Sacrifices Family Visits To Protest Prosecutor’s Demand She Wear Full Hijab
Detained human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has given up her family visitation right in protest against a prosecutor’s demand that she receive visitors fully draped in a ...
Iranian Activist Hengameh Shahidi Refuses to Hire New Lawyer Against Judge’s Orders
Detained Iranian political activist and journalist Hengameh Shahidi has defied a judge’s order by refusing to hire a new lawyer. “I have been trying ...
Iran is Jailing and Threatening Human Rights Attorneys
Seven human rights lawyers have been arrested in Iran since January 2018 as the state escalates its assault against its own legal profession and its flagrant violations of basic rights of freedom of expression and due process. “The authorities in Iran arrested these lawyers for the same reason all the other human right defenders are ...
Let My Daughter See Her Sick Father, Pleads Narges Mohammadi’s Mother
The mother of imprisoned human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has urged Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi to allow the ailing political prisoner to go on furlough...
Three Detained Women’s Rights Activists Should be Immediately Released
No Information on Charges or Where Hoda Amid, Najmeh Vahedi or Rezvaneh Mohammadi are Being Held, Families Denied Contact September 11, 2018—The three women’s rights activists arrested by Iran’s security forces since September 1—the lawyer Hoda Amid, the sociologist Najmeh Vahedi, and the gender studies student Rezvaneh Mohammadi—should be ...
Detained Sufis Kept in Solitary and Dangerous Wards for Refusing to “Express Remorse” for Peaceful Prison Protests
A number of detained Sufi dervishes of the Gonabadi Order have been kept in solitary confinement or transferred to a ward with dangerous inmates because of participation in a protest...
Detained Civil Rights Activist Refusing to Break Hunger Strike
Farhad Meysami Thin and Pale after More than a Month on Hunger Strike Farhad Meysami, the 48-year-old physician who has been detained in Iran’s Evin ...
Husband of Imprisoned Human Rights Lawyer, Arrested for Speaking Out, Must Be Released Immediately
State Harassment, Arrest of Family Members to Silence Dissent Intensifies in Iran September 4, 2018—Reza Khandan, the husband of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, should be immediately ...
Tehran Penitentiary Guards Launch “Brutal” Attack on Imprisoned Sufi Muslims
Guards in Iran’s Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) attacked and beat detainees inside Ward 3 of the prison on August 29, 2018, and moved some ...
University Student Sentenced to Seven Years Imprisonment in Iran as Another is Ordered to Attend Friday Prayers
As Iran continues to imprison university students for attending protests, a judge in the city of Semnan, 140 miles east of Tehran, has ordered one ...
“I Didn’t Choose This:” Iranians Respond to FM Zarif
Iran's FM Mohammad Javad Zarif received backlash by Iranian users on Twitter when he told state TV that Iran is facing international isolation solely because it "chose to live life differently" than other nations. #من_انتخاب_نکردم ...
Four Christians in Iran Appeal Prison Sentences For Alleged Missionary Activities
Four Christians in Iran, including two converts, have appealed their prison sentences for alleged missionary activities, arguing that they’re innocent of the charges. “It is our expectation that the ...
Detained Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Refuses to Appear in Court, Begins Hunger Strike
Sotoudeh Facing Seven “National Security” Charges as Judiciary Continues to Build Case Against Her Prominent defense attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh has gone on hunger strike and refused to appear in court to protest her unjust detainment ...
Journalist Recounts “Inhumane” Living Conditions at Tehran Penitentiary
An Iranian journalist who was detained at Iran’s Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (GTCP) has written about the jail’s “inhumane” conditions, ...
Iranian Journalist Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison For Criticizing Ultra-Conservative Cleric in a Tweet
Amir Mohammad Hossein Miresmaili, a former journalist and satirist for the Jahan Sana’at (Industry World) newspaper in Iran, has been sentenced to a decade in prison after allegedly disparaging a Shia ...
Intelligence Agents Raid Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Home, Taking Pins as Evidence
“They’re going to use the pins as criminal evidence, as if they had found bombs” Iranian security agents raided the homes of detained human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh...
Imprisoned Iranian Mystic Mohammad Ali Taheri Expects to Be Freed “This Week”
Shiite mystic Mohammad Ali Taheri, who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2011, expects to be freed on parole “soon,” according to his lawyer ...
Unpaid Workers Arrested at Protests Against Iran’s Biggest Sugar Production Company
After security forces attempted to violently repress protests at the Haft Tappeh sugarcane company in southeastern Iran, at least five workers were charged with national security crimes, the Center ...
Mass Conviction of Sufi Protesters “Unprecedented in Iran’s Judicial History”
Twenty Sufi Muslims, all members of Iran’s Gonabadi Order, have been issued heavy prison sentences by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran since July 2018 for allegedly attended ...
Prolonged Detention of Environmentalists “None of Your Business,” Iran’s Judiciary Tells Vice President
The chief of Iran’s Department of Environment, Vice President Isa Kalantari, has told state media that the judiciary has warned him to stop enquiring about environmentalists...
Judicial Official Refuses to Lift Iran’s Ban on Twitter Despite Growing Use by State Officials
Iran's hardline prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri. After several state officials called on President Hassan Rouhani to make ...
19 University Students in Iran Issued Long Prison Sentences as One More is Tried in Tehran
Iranian students clash with riot police during an anti-government protest around the University of Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2017. Media reported that illegal protest against the government is ...
Kurdish Death Row Prisoner Transferred to Different Prison, Raising Fears He Could be Executed
A Kurdish man who has been sentenced to death in Iran despite serious concerns about how his case was handled has been transferred hundreds of miles to a prison near Tehran ...