Cartoon 76: Punishing Families
Imprisoned activist Bahareh Hedayat has been experiencing serious health issues that could potentially leave her sterile if left untreated, her husband told ...
Currently Imprisoned
January 17, 2014
Iran Should Release Imprisoned Activist for Urgent Medical Treatment
The Iranian Judiciary should immediately release imprisoned student activist Bahareh Hedayat before continued imprisonment and lack of adequate medical treatment for her chronic reproductive system problems cause irreversible damage to her health, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The Judiciary and ...
January 15, 2014
Culture Minister Asks Judiciary to Provide More Freedom of Expression
Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati publicly stated that the Iranian Judiciary should join the Rouhani administration in providing more freedom of expression to Iranian media and artists, drawing strong criticism from Iran’s Prosecutor General and Spokesperson for the Judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni ...
January 10, 2014
Four Christian Converts Arrested in Karaj on New Year’s Eve
Plainclothes officers arrested four Christian converts in a village outside of Tehran on Tuesday, December 31, 2013, a source close to Iran’s Christian converts told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Sara Rahiminejad, Majid Sheidaee, Mostafa Nadri, and George Issaian were violently arrested ...
January 8, 2014
Judiciary Official Urges “Maximum Punishment” for Detained IT Professionals Even Before Trial
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, ...
January 3, 2014
Religious Scholar Ali Asghar Gharavi Awaits Trial in Dire Health
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 ...
January 2, 2014
Officals and Clerics Verbally Attack and Threaten 2009 Protestors and Leaders
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 ...
December 22, 2013
Cartoon 72: Collective Punishment
The wife and the mother of an exiled political prisoner died in a car crash as they were on their way back from visiting their relative in Masjed-e Soleyman Prison. Nahid Rahmani, mother, and Ziba Sadeghzadeh, wife, of Amir Reza (Payman) Arefi, were returning from ...
December 19, 2013
Ebadi: Citizenship Charter Is Redundant Distraction from Justice
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, ...
December 18, 2013
Wife and Mother of Illegally Exiled Political Prisoner Die in Car Crash After Prison Visit
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) ...
December 16, 2013
Iranian Artists Launch Online Petition to Minister of Culture Denouncing Crackdown
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 ...
December 11, 2013
IRGC Forces Arrest Music Distributors, Pressure Them to Confess on Television
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, ...
December 9, 2013
One Week After Arrest, Detained Internet Technologists Appear Handcuffed on TV
Iranian state television has shown images of several men they claim have been in contact with and funded by “espionage networks,” charged with “offering reporter training seminars in Turkey and Malaysia,” “internet activities aiming for a ‘soft overthrow’ of the Iranian regime,” and “contact with ...
December 6, 2013
Sattar Beheshti Murder Case Closed
A Tehran court has closed the case against the interrogator accused of murdering blogger Sattar Beheshti, determining it was not murder but rather “quasi-murder.” Gohar Eshghi, Beheshti’s mother, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she is protesting the court’s decision to ...
December 5, 2013
Kurdish Sunni Prisoners in Critical Health After 30 Days on Hunger Strike
Six Kurdish Sunni prisoners on death rowat Ghezel Hessar Prison in Karaj have been on a hunger strike since Monday, November 4, a human rights activist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molaei, Jamshid Dehghnai, Jahangir Dehghani, Seyed Hadi ...
November 26, 2013
Eight Netizens Arrested While Iran Contemplates Unblocking Facebook and Twitter
According to a Kerman Province Judiciary statement, the Prosecutor for the General and Revolutionary Courts of Rafsanjan has said that eight individuals have been arrested for publishing “blasphemous content in cyberspace.” ...
November 22, 2013
Mansour Farhang: Zarif and the Pursuit of Rights and Respect (Commentary)
Mr. Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, has produced a YouTube video in which he asks all countries, particularly his negotiating partners in Geneva, to trust the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. To the extent that this appeal is viewed as public diplomacy intended to ...
November 19, 2013
UN Shows Strong Support for Human Rights in Iran with 83-to-36 Vote
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee vote today overwhelmingly supporting human rights in Iran, and urges the Iranian government to comply with UN human rights mechanisms and take concrete steps to address the ongoing violations ...
November 19, 2013
Doctors Call on Rouhani to End House Arrest of Mousavi, Karroubi, Rahnavard
In an open letter addressed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, 193 faculty members of Iranian medical universities have demanded his serious efforts to end the house arrests of Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi. ...
November 18, 2013
Evin Prisoners Need Medical Care
After months of effort by imprisoned journalist Saeed Matinpour’s family to obtain medical treatment for him, the Prosecutor’s Office has maintained its silence, his wife told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “The prisoners at Evin face gradual death conditions and the officials ...
November 15, 2013
25 NGOs Urge UN Third Committee to Pass Iran Human Rights Resolution
As the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee prepares to vote on the resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran, 25 human rights organizations have joined together to urge member states to vote in favor of the resolution. ...
November 12, 2013
Cartoon 67: House Arrest: 1,000 Days
On November 12, 2013, opposition figures and 2009 presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, an author and political activist, will have spent 1,000 days under house arrest or detention without charge or trial. No governmental agency or body ...
November 12, 2013
1,000 Days Under House Arrest
Three major opposition figures in Iran have been under house arrest or detention for 1,000 days with no charges against them, notwithstanding President Hassan Rouhani’s promise to release political prisoners, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. ...
November 11, 2013
Newly Disclosed Medical Examiner Report Confirms Sattar Beheshti Died of Internal Bleeding
The Medical Examiner’s report on the cause of death for Sattar Beheshti, a blogger killed during interrogations in a police detention center in November 2012, states that Beheshti died from internal bleeding, hemorrhaging in his lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain, a source with knowledge of ...
November 8, 2013
Cartoon 66: The Bite of Injustice
The daughters of dissidents Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, who have been under extrajudicial house arrest since February 2013, visited their parents for Eid al-Ghadeer on October 23. As they were leaving, security guards attacked them and demanded that they strip naked, Nargess Mousavi ...