Iranian-Canadian Academic Dies in Custody While Under Interrogations
A third detainee, 63-year old Iranian-Canadian professor Kavous Seyed-Emami, has died in custody in Iran, barely 17 days after his arrest and while under interrogations ...
Free Expression
Follower of Sufi Order Expelled From Iranian University After Refusing to Sign Pledge
Sepideh Moradi Sarvestani Sepideh Moradi Sarvestani, a member of the Gonabadi Dervish Sufi order, was expelled from Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University on February 3, 2018, for refusing to formally pledge not to engage in ...
Two Female Political Prisoners To Begin Refusing Food and Water Over Sudden Transfer to New Prison
Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee(left) and Atena Daemi Imprisoned civil rights activists Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Atena Daemi have pledged to escalate their week-long hunger strike into a ...
Rights Group: Security Agents Killed At Least 20 in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in 2017
At least 20 ethnic Baluchis were killed and 19 wounded after being shot by law enforcement agents who were allegedly pursuing suspected traffickers in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province in 2017, ...
UK Resident Detained in Iran by IRGC For More Than a Year Without Charge or Access to Counsel
Mohammad Reza Hashemi-Nabi, a permanent resident of the UK, has been held in solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin Prison for more than a year without access to a lawyer, his ...
Authorities Ignore Potential Cancer Diagnosis For US Resident Nizar Zakka, Deny Him Medical Care
"Evin Prison officials are using medicine as a weapon" US permanent resident Nizar Zakka is being denied medical attention in Evin Prison despite ...
“This is Slavery” 30 Sugar Plant Workers Arrested in Iran For Demanding Unpaid Wages
Police arrested more than 30 protesters on the fourth day of a strike by hundreds of workers on February 4, 2018, at a major sugar plant near the city ...
Imprisoned Iranian-American Art Dealer Accuses IRGC of Judicial Interference
Karan Vafadari: “I don’t think we will be justly ...
Iranian Hardline Cleric Says Protesters Should be Sentenced to Death
A Friday prayer leader in Tehran has called for the death penalty to be issued to citizens who participated in the weeklong protests that erupted across Iran in December 2017. ...
Shirin Ebadi: Bill That Restricts Protests to Designated Areas in Iran Adds “More Limits” to Freedom of Speech
A proposed bill aimed at designating public spaces in Iran for protests will lead to “more limits” on the people’s right to voice their demands, Nobel Peace Prize laureate ...
29 Arrested in Tehran for Public Protests Against Forced Hijab
Police in Tehran have turned 29 people over to the judicial authorities for taking part in a growing campaign against forced hijab, the hardline Tasnim news agency reported on February 1, 2018. The detainees’ ...
Hardline Judge Keeps Iranian-American and Wife in Jail by Imposing $27 Million Bail
Family Meets Bail for Wife, but Judge Still Refuses to Release Her The judge presiding over the case of imprisoned Iranian-American gallery owners Karan Vafadari and his wife Afarin ...
170 Iranian MPs Demand Ban on Foreign Social Media Apps
A few weeks after major protests erupted across Iran in December 2017, the majority of the country's lawmakers signed a letter calling for a state ban on foreign social media apps to drive Iranians towards state-approved domestic alternatives. Their ...
Parliamentary Delegation Visiting Evin Prison Told 4,534 Were Arrested in Iranian Protests
More than a month after thousands of people were arrested in Iran after weeklong protests erupted across the country beginning in December 2017, 11 Members of Parliament (MPs) were allowed to ...
“Girls of Revolution St” Protest Ignites Debate on Iran’s Compulsory Hijab
Iranian women protest their country’s hijab law by waving their headscarves in public. Several ...
Opposition Leader Mehdi Karroubi Urges Supreme Leader to “Create the Grounds For Reform”
In a letter written under house arrest, opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has warned Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to heed the signs of ...
Iranian-American Zoroastrian Denounces 27-Year “Unjust” Prison Sentence in Letter From Prison
Update: The couple's sentence was later reduced to 15 years for Karan Vafadari and 10 years for Afarin Nayssari. In a letter from Evin Prison obtained by the Center ...
300 Iranian Women’s Rights Advocates Voice Support For Protests, Demand Equality
More than 300 Iranian women’s rights’ activists have expressed support for the recent anti-government protests in Iran and demanded an end to state policies that discourage women from entering the workforce. ...
Iranian Pastor’s Wife Sentenced to Five Years in Prison For “Acting Against National Security”
Judge Ahmadzadeh Has Sentenced 16 Christians to Prison In Less Than A Year Shamiram Isavi, the wife of Victor Bet Tamraz, who formerly led Iran’s Assyrian Pentecostal Church, has been sentenced ...
Iranian-Kurdish Activist Sentenced to Death Says He Was Wrongfully Convicted of Drawing a Weapon
Iranian-Kurdish political activist Ramin Hossein Panahi will appeal the death sentence he was issued on January 25, 2018, by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, the capital ...
Iranian Sunni Cleric Faces Travel Restrictions: “It All Comes Down to Intolerance”
Iranian Officials have imposed travel restrictions on one of the ...
Activists Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee Beaten and Transferred to Different Prison
Political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee were beaten by agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran’s Evin Prison and transferred ...
40 Iranian MPs Call for Immediate Release of Detained University Students
Forty Iranian lawmakers have written to President Hassan Rouhani and Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani urging them to immediately release student detainees who were arrested during the weeklong protests that hit several ...
More than 150 Detained Iranian Protesters Have Requested “Pills,” Reports Committee
Credible Sources Report That Detainees Told to Request Pills to Speed Up Release More than 150 people detained in the protests that broke out in ...
Detainees Arrested in Iranian Protests Facing Charges That Carry Death Penalty
Some detainees arrested in the protests that broke out in Iran’s Hamadan and Khuzestan provinces in December 2017 are facing charges that are punishable by death, the Center ...