Wave of Baha’i Arrests in Iran Raises Alarm at Faith’s UN Office
The Baha'i International Community (BIC) at the United Nations has expressed alarm over a spate of arrests of Baha’i faith members in three Iranian provinces by agents of the ...
Free Expression
Two Confirmed Killed and 48 Injured in May 2018 Protests in Kazeroon
Bullets fired by police in the city of Kazeroon, Fars Province, killed two men—Ali Mohammadian and Azad Omid Reza Yousefian—during protests there in May 2018 the Center for Human Rights in ...
Who Are the Dual and Foreign Nationals Imprisoned in Iran? (Updated)
At least 21 (15 dual nationals, five foreign nationals and one foreign permanent resident) were known to be held in Iran (imprisoned, under house arrest, or prohibited from leaving the country) as of July 2022 ...
Sufi Bus Driver Sentenced to Death in Iran Says He Confessed to Killing Policemen While Under Torture
A Sufi bus driver who was sentenced to death in Iran for running over three policeman says he was forced to confess after being tortured while ...
Iranian Canadian’s Widow Maryam Mombeini Hospitalized Two Months After Being Banned From Leaving Iran
The wife of an Iranian Canadian academic who died in Iranian custody under suspicious circumstances in February 2018 was hospitalized for three days after exhibiting symptoms of a nervous breakdown. “My mother had been in Pars ...
Baha’i Leader’s 10-Year Prison Sentence Extended Despite Judicial Ruling That He Is Too Ill to Be Incarcerated
Afif Naeimi, the seventh and last imprisoned member of Baha’i leaders in Iran known as the Yaran, returned to Rajaee Shahr Prison near Tehran on April 23, 2018, at the end of his medical leave despite suffering from life-threatening ailments. His wife Shahla Khalaji informed the Center for Human ...
Despite Facing Prison, Rights Lawyer Mohammad Najafi Still Seeking Justice For Deceased Detainee
“The authorities…told me that they are trying to grind me into oblivion.” Mohammad Najafi, a human rights lawyer facing years behind bars in Iran for publicly arguing ...
Iran’s Telegram Ban Reveals New Authority By Judiciary to Directly Order Online Content to Blocked
Iran’s ban on the widely used Telegram messaging app has revealed a new state tactic for blocking access to or “filtering” ...
Eight Internet Freedom Organizations Call on Iran to Lift Ban on Telegram
The undersigned organisations call on the Rouhani administration to challenge the order and call on the Judiciary to revoke the order and end this egregious violation of freedom of expression rights ...
Six Lawyers in Iran File Petition Challenging Ban on Popular Telegram App
Six Iranian lawyers have presented a legal challenge to a recent judicial order blocking access in Iran to the widely used Telegram messaging and social media app, Telegram. On May 7, ...
Iranian Opposition Leader Under House Arrest Declines “Limited” Lifting of Restrictions
Zahra Rahnavard Demands Unconditional Freedom For Herself and Fellow House Arrest Detainees Zahra Rahnavard, an Iranian opposition leader who has been under house arrest since February 2011, has ...
Iranian Lawyers: Rouhani Government Can Challenge Judiciary’s Ban on Telegram Messaging App
Iranian President Has Refused to Directly Counter Ban on Widely Used Social Network Two lawyers in Tehran told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that the Iranian president has the ...
Reformists Look On as Former Rouhani Campaign Manager Ordered to Serve Two-Year in Prison For Poem
High School Teacher Prosecuted For Satirical Poem About Shia Imam A former campaign manager for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been ordered to serve a two-year prison sentence for reading a satirical poem...
Rouhani’s Citizens’ Rights Charter: A Harmful Distraction
This report is essential reading for policymakers and officials charting a forward path with the Islamic Republic. It provides an in-depth review of the Citizens’ Rights Charter and analysis of the political dynamics affecting human rights in Iran. The report establishes that the charter has no ability to impact the rights situation in Iran and ...
In a Desperate Move to Squash Internet Freedom, Iran Blocks Telegram
Ban Unlikely to Stop Most of Telegram’s 40 Million Users in Iran April 30, 2018--The Iranian Judiciary has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the country’s most used messaging app, ...
Latest State Action Against Telegram in Iran Slows Access, Doubles Cost for Iranians
The latest move by the authorities in Iran against the messaging app Telegram, used by some 40 million Iranians, has resulted in disruptions in access, slower speeds and higher costs for ...
Indictments Issued Against Dozens in Connection With December 2017 Unrest in Iran
Students protesting in front of entrance to Tehran University. Some Charged with “Crimes Against ...
More than 10 Onlookers Arrested in Area Where Former King’s Remains Allegedly Found
Arrests include former political prisoner Kamran Ayazi and Maryam Shariatmadari More than 10 people were arrested on April 25, 2018 south of Tehran, where construction crews discovered a mummified body, said to be possibly the ...
13 Labor Activists Summoned in Iran Ahead of International Labor Day
A week before International Labor Day, when labor rights groups typically hold demonstrations around the world, at least 13 labor activists have been summoned in Iran’s Western provinces of ...
Lawyer Who Exposed Cover Up of Client’s Death in Custody Could Be Imprisoned For Years in Iran
Human rights attorney Mohammad Najafi is facing charges from three different courts and years of imprisonment in Iran for publicly arguing that local police concealed the true ...
Iranian Hardliners Continue Attacks on Former Environmental Official Kaveh Madani
Western-Educated Water Management Expert Left Iran After Being Arrested by IRGC’s Intelligence Organization Hardline media outlets in Iran with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have continued smearing the former deputy head of the Department of ...
Former Iranian Environmental Official Reveals He Was Spied on Since Returning to Iran
Kaveh Madani: State Supporters “Created Many Problems For Me” In a resignation letter posted on his Twitter account, the former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment (DOE) Kaveh Madani revealed that he ...
Q&A: Abjeez Sisters Band Calls on Iran to End Ban on Women in Stadiums
Melody (left) and Safoura Safavi of Abjeez. The world pop band “Abjeez,” Persian slang for “sisters,” was born out of a desire by ...
Music Video: Iranian Sisters Urge Men to Join Protest Against Iran’s Ban on Women in Stadiums
“Stadium” Released Amid International Campaign to End Iran’s Discriminatory Ban April 24, 2018—The world pop band Abjeez, led by Iranian-born sisters, has released a new music ...
Iranians Criticize Rouhani Officials For Blaming the Victim in Video of Morality Police Assaulting Woman
Several Iranian public figures have criticized Rouhani admin officials for blaming the victim in a video of a woman being assaulted ...