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January 11, 2016

Netflix Opening to Iran Ends State Broadcasting’s Decades of Monopoly

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s near total monopoly on the broadcast of film and television series has effectively ended following the January 7, 2016, decision ...

January 7, 2016

Popular Telegram Messaging Application Survives Censorship Vote in Iran

State Filtering Body Refuses to Block the Service An official Iranian state censorship body has resisted calls by hardliners in Iran to block the Telegram ...

January 7, 2016

Soccer Star Arrested for Online Photos With Women despite Evidence His Account was Hacked

Legal Expert Decries Refusal to Release Sosha Makani on Bail till Investigation is Completed Sosha Makani, Persepolis soccer club goalkeeper and member of the Iranian ...

January 6, 2016

Judiciary Claims No Knowledge of Student Not Heard from Since His Arrest Almost 17 Years Ago

The mother of a student who has not been heard from since soon after his arrest in Tehran in 1999 has dismissed the Iranian Judiciary’s ...

January 4, 2016

Persecution of Christian Converts Continues under Rouhani

Christian is Arrested and Taken to Unknown Location Despite President Hassan Rouhani’s pledges during his election campaign in 2013 that “All ethnicities, all religions, ...

January 3, 2016

Judge’s Tirade Bodes Poorly for Independent Music Producers in Iran

An Appeals Court judge has admonished collaborators of a popular music site for ignoring repeated warnings that they were operating illegally and having ties with Iranian singers abroad ...

December 31, 2015

Highest Ranked Woman in Iran’s Government to Sue Extremist Publication

The Iranian government’s most senior female official plans to take legal action against an extremist publication for comparing her to a prostitute. The weekly Ya Lesarat, the mouthpiece ...

December 30, 2015

Activist’s Health Worsens in Prison As She Awaits Appeal Hearing

A prolonged delay in hearing children’s rights activist Atena Daemi’s appeal against her 14-year prison sentence is causing a serious deterioration in her health, particularly as ...

December 29, 2015

Cartoon 132: Santa and the New Visa Waiver Restrictions

Touka Neyestani ponders who will be caught by the US's new visa waiver restrictions (H.R. 158), which unfairly and indiscriminately target Iranian and three other nationalities ...

December 28, 2015

Retired Professor, 71, Held in Disease-Ridden Ward, Daughter Says

The daughter of prisoner of conscience Mohammad Hossein Rafiee fears her elderly father is in danger of attracting serious diseases, including ...

December 24, 2015

Death Sentence Against Spiritual Center Founder Rejected

Family Hopes for Taheri’s Release at End of Prison Term in 2016 With the lifting of the death sentence against spiritual leader ...

December 24, 2015

Popular Iranian Poet Arrested for Third Time amidst Hardline Crackdown against Artistic Community

The well-known Iranian poet Mohamadreza Haj Rostambegloo was released on bail from Karaj’s Central Prison last week, following his third arrest by the authorities in ...

December 24, 2015

Kurdish News Editor Released on Bail after 60 Days in Prison

Hassan Sheikh Aghaei, the editor of a Kurdish-Persian news site, was released on two billion rials (about $67,000) bail on December 6, 2015, after 60 days ...

December 21, 2015

Rouhani and Judiciary Clash over Ban on Publishing Images of Former President Khatami

The Rouhani administration and the hardline-dominated Judiciary in Iran are engaged in an increasingly direct confrontation over the ability of Iranian media to publish images of ...

December 12, 2015

Underground Music Distributors Await Appeal Decision for Six Years in Prison

Two musicians and a filmmaker who were jointly sentenced to six years in prison and fined 200 million rials (about $6,650) each for “insulting the sacred” ...

December 11, 2015

Cartoon 131: Choice, Force, and Infiltration

After nearly four decades of tight control on state media such as the Iranian radio and television programming, Friday prayer pulpits, educational curriculum, unabated censorship of ...

December 11, 2015

Elections for Assembly of Experts Puts Spotlight on Future of Leadership in Iran

Although Iran’s Assembly of Experts has the power to select or depose the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, it has never been seen as an ...

December 11, 2015

Mother Puts All Hope in Appeals Court to Free Son

“How can a young man who worked hard for Rouhani’s presidential campaign, ‘wage propaganda’ and ‘act against the state’?” That is ...

December 10, 2015

Ground Shifts as 70 MPs in Iran Introduce Bill to End Executions for Drug Crimes

More than 70 Members of the Iranian Parliament have presented a bill that, if ratified by the full legislature and approved by the Council of Guardians ...

December 10, 2015

Arrested Journalists Held Incommunicado for Over a Month while Officials Make Baseless Claims

More than a month after his arrest, the prominent reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz has not contacted his family and judicial authorities have ...

December 8, 2015

Students Plead with Rouhani to Release Political Prisoners

President Hassan Rouhani and other senior government officials were met with students expressing frustration over the continuing repression in Iran and demanding the ...

December 4, 2015

Ninety Journalists Call for Release of Four Arrested Colleagues

Ninety Iranian journalists have signed a statement calling for the release of four of their colleagues arrested a month ago by Iran’s Revolutionary ...

December 4, 2015

Kurdish Filmmaker’s Appeal Request Accepted; Colleagues Voice Support

Documentary filmmaker Keyvan Karimi’s request for an appeal against a six-year prison sentence for “insulting the sacred” has been accepted, ...

December 2, 2015

Tehran Symphony Orchestra Leaves Stage rather than Bow to Demand to Ban Female Members

The Tehran Symphony Orchestra cancelled a performance that had been planned for the closing ceremony of an international wrestling event on November 29, ...

December 1, 2015