Over the past few days, Iranian authorities have inexplicably delayed and cancelled two cultural events in Tehran. The first was a well-publicized group exhibition of paintings commemorating the birthday of the beloved female poet, Forough Farrokhzad, scheduled to open in Tehran’s Vista Gallery on Friday, January 10. The exhibition, which promised to be a rich ...
Azam Sadat Hosseini, Spokesperson for the coastal city of Behshahr’s City Council in Mazandaran Province in Iran, has been removed from her position because of her participation in the social network Facebook, officially banned in Iran but used by several Iranian officials, including the president, Supreme Leader, and foreign minister. Since her election to the ...
In an exclusive interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar analyzed the various problems with the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by Hassan Rouhani last November, saying it is a “hodge podge of things” that both repeats and contradicts the Constitution, and it needs a ...
Iranian users are experiencing inconsistent filtering of various Internet and mobile application technologies as Iranian authorities determine their communications policies. On December 26, 2013, the Secretary of Iran’s Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content on the Internet told Fars News Agency that blocking Tango, Viber, WhatsApp, and other mobile communications applications remain ...
The Iranian Judiciary has announced charges against the seven Internet specialists arrested in December 2013, accusing them of collaborating with hostile foreigners and insisting on the harshest punishment available. One month after the IRGC Intelligence Unit arrested several Internet specialists in the city of Kerman, the Head of the Kerman Province’s Judiciary has stated the ...
After more than four years of denying that Basij and other security forces took direct shots at the 2009 post-election protesters, last week’s statements by the unnamed Commander of District 117-Neynava of IRGC’s Tehran Region, admitting for the first time that the men on top of a Basij base in Tehran shot at the protesters, ...
Ghasem Sholeh Sadi, lawyer and former Member of the Parliament and political prisoner, told the International Campaign for Human Rights that he is somewhat optimistic about the consequences of the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by President Hassan Rouhani in November. ...
Forty days after the arrest of Qoran scholar Seyed Ali Asghar Gharavi, 68, his family was allowed to visit with him at Tehran’s Evin Prison. Gharavi has been in solitary confinement since his November 10, 2013, arrest, after Bahar Newspaper published his article, “Imam: Political Leader or Spiritual Role Model?” raising scholarly questions about the ...
Lawyer and member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center Mahnaz Parakand discussed necessary steps for implementing human rights protections in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Before thinking to design a Citizenship Rights Charter, we must implement the Iranian Constitution, even with all its shortcomings. Many of the articles ...
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer Khalil Bahramian, who has represented many political prisoners, said the draft Citizenship Rights Charter is just a distraction for the public. ...
Over the past few days, influential Iranian leaders have unleashed a fresh wave of verbal attacks and threats against the 2009 post-election protesters and their leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The threats and attacks have included a hardliner cleric’s volunteering to hang Mousavi and Karroubi, as well as others stating that the chant ...
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer Farideh Gheirat said that the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by Hassan Rouhani in November is almost exactly like the Iranian Constitution in substance, just with different phrasing. Gheirat added that there was no need to draft a new Charter that was ...
President Hassan Rouhani’s draft Citizenship Rights Charter, currently before the Guardian Council, may win approval, lawyer and head of the National Iranian Bar Associations Union Bahman Keshavarz told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
In a interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Narges Mohammadi, human rights activist and spokesperson for the Defenders of Human Rights Center, acknowledged that the Citizen Rights Charter was a positive step, but noted that the draft document contained many serious shortcomings that needed to be addressed. ...
Two weeks after a Euroepan Parliament delegation met with Nasrin Sotoudeh in Tehran to present the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the human rights lawyer’s home has been ransacked and looted in the family’s absence. ...
In a letter addressed to Hassan Rouhani, Iran's President, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed appreciation for the draft Citizenship Rights Charter, but expressed deep concern over the ...
Former Iranian President Seyed Mohammad Khatami's foreign travel ban has received fresh attention since Nelson Mandela's funeral. Mohammad Khatami, president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, introduced the idea of a Dialogue Among Civilizations as a response to Samuel P. Huntington’s theory of ...
Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran in an exclusive interview that the draft Citizenship Rights Charter published by Hassan Rouhani in November to solicit input from analysts is redundant and ineffectual, and “is in fact a tool to distract those who ...
Tragic news about the deaths of the wife and the mother of an exiled political prisoner as they were on their way back from visiting him in Masjed-e Soleyman Prison has shocked Iranians worldwide. Nahid Rahmani, mother, and Ziba Sadeghzadeh, wife, of Amir Reza (Payman) Arefi, were on their way back from their monthly trip ...
The IRGC Intelligence Unit has arrested two individuals active on Facebook, in a continuing wave of arrests against Internet and social media users and professionals. Mohammad Amin Akrami and Mehdi Rayshahri Tangestani are the latest detainees of IRGC, according to Kaleme Website. ...
In a letter addressed to Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati, a group of Iranian musicians, music principals, and supporters have asked him to end the suppression of musicians and music professionals and to ensure that artists are not imprisoned for producing artistic works. ...
Tehran University Political Science Professor Sadegh Zibakalam publicly challenged Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani’s recent remarks stating that Western countries’ criticism of Iran’s human rights record is in opposition to Islam. “Contrary to what is routinely said, I believe the criticisms raised against us about human rights has nothing to do with ...
IRGC forces arrested three men involved in the production, distribution, and promotion of Iranian underground music in October, a source with knowledge of the arrest told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Musician Mehdi Rajabian, his brother, and Yousef Emadi, who managed BargMusic, were arrested on October 12 in the Northern city of ...
Just days after Iran’s Police Chief threatened the country’s officials with “legal and judicial consequences” if they continue to cross the regime’s red lines by using Facebook, a governor in the southeastern province of Fars has opened his own Facebook page. With only 326 followers, and labeled “managed by fans of Dr. Seyed Mohammad Ahmadi,” ...
In an open letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, nine prominent reformist figures have asked for his immediate action to end “the misunderstandings left over from the 2009 elections.” The letter emphasizes the importance of forgiveness by both sides of the disputed election, the release of political prisoners, and ending the house arrest of Mir ...