“When people tell you that nothing will ever really change, just remember that however clever and intelligent they sound, they have kind of been proved wrong on many occasions in the past,” Steve Crawshaw, co-author of Small Acts of Resistance, tells us. ...
During his 2013 presidential campaign, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani promised to uphold the “rights of the people” enumerated in the country’s constitution. Millions of his supporters demanded social and political rights, including the release of political prisoners from prison and house ...
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani should take concrete steps to curb widespread human rights abuses by the government of Iran and reinstate the rule of law in the country, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. ...
A group of Iranian political and human rights activists, academics, and students inside and outside Iran wrote a letter this week to US President Barack Obama asking him to engage with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to “work towards the elimination of sanctions and the lowering of tensions between Iran and the United States.” The letter ...
Prisoner of conscience Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been on a hunger strike since Sunday, August 11, to protest the prison authorities’ lack of attention to his and other sick prisoners’ conditions, and to support Abolfazl Abedini, a prisoner on hunger strike since July 28. Ronaghi’s mother expressed concern about her son’s hunger strike and told ...
Eighteen months since imprisoned journalist Issa Saharkhiz was transferred to a hospital for severe health issues, Iranian officials have yet to excuse him from serving his sentence or to release him on furlough, causing him to remain a prisoner in the hospital, his son told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
On August 11, President Hassan Rouhani appointed Elham Aminzadeh to the post of Vice President for Legal Affairs, touting her “scientific, legal, and legislative qualifications and credentials.” Though some activists have welcomed her appointment after much criticism of Rouhani’s all-male cabinet, many are concerned about her history of denying human rights abuses. ...
Children of the Jacaranda Tree, by Sahar Delijani, is a stunning debut novel set in post-Revolutionary Iran. Told in interconnected, alternating perspectives, the book follows three generations of men and women, some linked by family, others brought together by the tide of history that forces its way into their lives. ...
Peyman Roshanzamir, a blogger and web designer from Ahvaz who was sentenced to 17 months in prison in 2011, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that security forces went to search for him at his father’s house last week, aiming to take him to Karoon Prison. ...
Imprisoned journalist Fariba Pajouh, arrested July 10, is being held in solitary confinement without charges, a member of her family told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
In reaction to the Medical Examiner’s Office’s final opinion stating that Sattar Beheshti’s cause of death could not have been blows while in detention, his mother recently demanded for his body to be exhumed to determine his real cause of death. ...
Imprisoned lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh defended himself against charges of “writing letters and signing group statements in prison” in a July 17 appeals court session, his wife told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Calling the his trial courts “unqualified” to try him, Mohammad Seifzadeh had not attended any of his previous five court sessions, ...
The Head of the Iranian Medical Examiner’s Office said on Tuesday, July 9, that according to his organization’s final report, the blows dealt to blogger Sattar Beheshti during his interrogation were not fatal and could not have caused his death, Mehr News Agency reported. Dr. Ahmad Shojaee also told Mehr that in the Medical ...
Security forces arrested journalist Fariba Pajouh on July 10 in Tehran, though a family member of hers told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the reasons for her arrest are unclear. ...
One month after the arrest of three Christian converts in Isfahan, their conditions remain unknown and there is no news about their fate. According to reports from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran’s sources, since the May 29 arrests of Mohammad Reza Farid, Saeed Safi, and Hamid Reza Ghadiri, their families have been ...
A lower court ruling in the Kahrizak case issued yesterday indicates that the three suspects in the case were permanently dismissed from judicial positions, and further dismissed from government employment for five years. To the astonishment of observers, Saeed Mortazavi, the prime suspect in the case, was acquitted from the charge of “participation in murder,” ...
In recent years, many Iranian musicians have left Iran in search of the freedom to create without censorship or fear of punishment for their work. Some have ended up in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region, which is known for its relative stability and security. There they can perform and release music without having to get government ...
The lawyer for Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died in November 2012 while in the custody of the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA), said her client’s case has not been forwarded to court and objected to the eight-month delay in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Political activist Saeed Madani has been sentenced to six years in prison in exile in Bandar Abbas. Mansoureh Ettefagh, the wife of the social researcher and visiting professor, expressed shock at the harsh sentence and the charges themselves in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Imprisoned lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was released from Evin Prison on furlough on Sunday, June 23. Journalist Jila Baniyaghoub was also released from Evin Prison on the same day after completing her one-year prison sentence. ...
On the fourth anniversary of the death of Neda Agha Soltan in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections, her mother told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “There was supposed to be a court trial held, but in the past four years there hasn’t been a trial. The case file is still ...
While the polls were open in Iran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran spoke to four voters about their votes, the state of the polling stations, and their expectations for the election. ...
As Iranians cast their votes for president today, authorities are blocking foreign Persian-language television stations, shutting down university campuses, and denying permissions and visas to some poll workers and foreign reporters. ...
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned that this week Iranian officials have refused the visa applications of many foreign reporters who had applied to travel to Iran for coverage of the June 14 presidential election. Four reporters from different countries told the Campaign that despite applying for visas up to two ...
Iranian authorities should immediately stop censoring newspapers and news websites, arresting political activists, and muzzling foreign journalists within the country, ahead of the June 14 presidential election, the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. ...