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...
Free Expression
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 Twitter ...
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 going on ...
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 ...
Mother of Detained Activist Hears Her Son Being Beaten Over the Phone
“Why is a Lonely, Elderly Mother Being Targeted Like This?” The mother of Farhad Meysami, a civil rights activist who has been detained in Iran since July 2018, says she has received phone calls that sounded like her son was ...
Imprisoned Iranian Activist Rushed to Hospital, Husband Calls For Her Release
Prominent Rights Defender Has Lost 16 Pounds in Short Time Span The husband of prominent Iranian political prisoner Narges Mohammadi has called on Iran’s judiciary to release ...
Rouhani’s Telecom Minister Has Not Fulfilled Most of the Nine Pledges He Made Since Starting His Post
Since Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi was approved by Iran’s Parliament as the minister of Information and Communications Technology on August 20, 2017, internet control, censorship and surveillance ...
Judiciary’s Intensifying Crackdown on Defense Attorneys in Iran Must End
Seven Human Rights Lawyers Detained or Blocked from Working in Iran in Less Than a Year August 14, 2018—An intensifying state crackdown on human rights defenders in Iran, in which the authorities have denied attorneys the ability to represent their clients and jailed them for attempting to do so, ...
Iran’s Authorities Should Denounce Threat to BBC Made by Iranian News Agency
Mizan News Agency “Incites Violence Against Our Journalists” Says BBC August 9, 2018—The inflammatory statements against the BBC that were published on August 7, 2018 by the ...
State TV of Iran Must End Its Use of Families to Discredit Journalists, Dissenters
State Broadcasts of Family Members Used to Silence Activists (New York, August 9, 2018) – Iranian authorities should immediately stop harassing and threatening the families of activists and journalists as a means ...
Iranian Parliamentary Group Reports Drop in Support For Strict Hijab
Conservative-Dominated Parliament Compiles Data Showing Failure of State’s Hijab Policy Iran’s Parliamentary Research Center (PRC) has released a report showing decreasing support among the Iranian public for strict observation of the hijab, the ...
Desperate Families Call on Iranian State Heads to Release Detained Environmentalists
Detainees Held For Six Months Without Access to Counsel The families of environmentalists who have been detained in Iran for the past six months—many in solitary confinement and without counsel—have sent ...
Imprisoned Teacher Denied Hospitalization Amid Two-Month Hunger Strike
After refusing food for nearly two months, imprisoned teacher Rouhollah Mardani’s health is deteriorating in Evin Prison in Tehran, a relative told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on August ...
Conflicting Reports on Iranian Opposition Leaders’ Freedom From House Arrest
A member of Iran’s Parliament has denied reports that the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has ruled to end the seven-year-long house arrests of political opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi, ...
Kurdish Activist Facing Prison Time in Iran For Criticizing Supreme Leader
Kurdish political activist Mokhtar Zarei was summoned and taken into custody in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, on July 21, 2018, for criticizing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a letter, a close associate informed ...
Rapper Detained For More Than a Month Without Lawyer in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province
Rap artist Shah Baloch, real name Emad Bijarzehi, has been detained in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar without counsel since June 20, 2018, for singing about ...
Iranian American and US Permanent Resident Released on Bail From Iran’s Evin Prison
Karan Vafadari and Afarin Neyssari Awaiting Appeal in Tehran Two years after being sentenced to long prison sentences without due process in Iran, Iranian American Karan Vafadari...
Detained Teachers’ Rights Activist Denied Months of Salary Due to “Fault of Others”
Detained teachers’ rights activist Mohammad Habibi is being denied his monthly state salary despite not being convicted of any crime, the Center for Human Rights in Iran ...
Political Prisoner Narges Mohammadi’s Sister Banned From Travel as State Continues to Harass Her Family
From her cell in an infamous Iranian prison, imprisoned human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has condemned Iran’s judiciary for preventing her sister from traveling to France to visit ...
Iranian Judiciary Closes Acid Attack Cases With No Convictions But Promises Victims Compensation
Nearly four years after a series of acid attacks on women in the Iranian city of Isfahan, the judiciary has closed the cases without any convictions while ...
Iranian Love Story: Arash & Golrokh
Even as a political prisoner in Iran, Arash Sadeghi is still putting the needs of others above his own. In his love letters to his wife, Golrokh, he imagines a free and fair world where they can be in ...