Cartoon 103: Jason Rezaian’s Continuos Detention
"Temporary detention orders" for Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran correspondent, have been extended for two more months. Jason Rezaian, ...
Issues
Cartoon 102: The Breadwinner’s Plight
Bread Prices rose 30% nationwide this week. Cartoonist Touka Neyestani's take on the plight of family "breadwinners" in Iran....
Nasrin Sotoudeh Detained for Several Hours on Human Rights Day
On December 10, 2014, Iranian intelligence agents detained renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, before releasing her several hours later. The detention marks the second time in less than two months that Sotoudeh has been detained for her activities in ...
Cartoon 101: Please Put Me On Trial
An open letter signed by the Karroubi family and published on November 29, 2014, states that during their last meeting with Green Movement leader Mehdi Karroubi, he “explicitly ...
Opposition Leader Under House Arrest Demands Public Trial
(December 2, 2014) The head of the Iranian Judiciary should immediately end the nearly four-year house arrest of former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, and leading dissident Zahra Rahnavard, and grant them a fair trial, the International ...
Illegal Addition of New Charges Makes Death Sentence for Soheil Arabi More Likely
In an arbitrary and illegal act, new charges that carry a death sentence and which do not allow a pardon were added and the death sentence of Facebook user Soheil Arabi was confirmed by the Supreme Court in Iran. ...
Mohammad Ali Taheri on Hunger Strike to Protest Three Years of Solitary Confinement
A student of Mohammad Ali Taheri, the founder of Interuniversal Consciousness Theory, who has been in prison since 2011, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Taheri has embarked on a dry hunger strike (refusing both food ...
Scholar’s 18-Month Prison Sentence for Questioning Nuclear Program Commuted to Fines
A Tehran appeals court has reduced the 18-month prison sentence originally handed down to Sadegh Zibakalam, a Tehran University professor and political analyst, for his public questioning of Iran’s nuclear program and his criticism of the trial process in a ...
UN Resolution on Human Rights in Iran Passes by 78-35 Margin
On November 18, 2014, the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee adopted a Resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran with a vote of 78 in favor, 35 against and 69 ...
New Report Reveals State’s Growing Efforts to Control Internet Access in Iran
The Rouhani administration should use all its authority to end the government’s initiatives to restrict Iranians’ access to the Internet, immediately cease state efforts to monitor users’ online accounts, and end the prosecution of individuals for their peaceful online activities, ...
Is UN Engagement Having an Impact on Iran’s Human Rights? Absolutely.
To critics who question the ability of UN processes to change the behaviors and policies of the leadership in the Islamic Republic of Iran, an English language media interview with a top Iranian official has provided a revealing answer. ...
Ghoncheh Ghavami’s Lawyer Says New Charges Looming Against Her Are Illegal
New charges may be brought against Ghoncheh Ghavami, the young woman who was arrested outside a sports stadium in Tehran in June 2014 for trying to attend a volleyball match and who remains in prison. ...
Leading Iranian Figures Support Nuclear Negotiations and Hope for an Agreement
November 12, 2014—As the P5+1 negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program between the world powers and Iran approach the November 24 deadline, it is important that the negotiators on both sides of the table take note of the voices of their ...
National Email
Developing national email providers has also been a component of government efforts to control and access online content and activities. In 2012, Reza Taghipour, Minister of Telecommunication in the Ahmadinejad administration, wrote letters to his deputy and the Central ...
The National Browser
The Iranian government has employed two means to ensure the widespread use of its national SSL security certificates (and thus achieve their root certification). One is through the Iranian web browser, Saina, which is provided by state agencies and into ...
National SSL Certificates
National (government-issued) SSL security certificates are also a central component of Iran’s National Internet. SSL certificates ensure that the connection used in any Internet transmission is encrypted and thus secure. When they are issued by a legitimate source, they do ...
Conclusion
In 2013, Reporters Without Borders named Iran one of the world’s five worst enemies of the Internet, along with China, Syria, Bahrain and Vietnam. This report by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has shown that if ...
The National Operating System
The other means employed by the Iranian government to spread the use of its SSL security certificates is through the national operating system, “Zamin” (or Earth). Zamin was jointly developed by the Information Technology Organization and the Iran Telecom ...
National Search Engine And National Social Networks
As part of the National Internet, the Iranian government has also developed services such as a national search engine and national social networks, which are designed and implemented largely by the Ministry of Telecommunication’s Information Technology Company. Hadi Malek, research ...
The Rouhani Administration and Internet Freedom
While Hassan Rouhani campaigned for the presidency in Iran on a platform explicitly promoting Internet freedom, one year into his presidency there has been little progress to date on this front. In fact, as this report has shown, development of ...
Seeking International Technology Firms’ Compliance
In spite of all the authorities’ efforts to censor the Internet and punish those who seek to use it for social or political activism, the government has yet to achieve full control over the Internet and its use. Recognizing that ...
Security Agencies and the Prosecution of Online Activists
In addition to the Iranian state’s efforts to develop the technological infrastructure of Internet control, the Judiciary and security organizations have also pursued the identification and prosecution of online activists. This is done through a variety of organizations, some of ...
National Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
One of the principal ways that Iranians have been able to maintain access to the global Internet has been through the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which allow users to circumvent government filters by providing encrypted links to networks ...