Telegram CEO Rejects Iranian Government’s Claims of Censorship-on-Demand
The head of Telegram, the most popular social media network in Iran, has again categorically denied making any concessions to Tehran regarding censorship. ...
Recent
January 15, 2016
Teachers Union Chief to Go on Trial for Peaceful Labor Activities
No Access to Counsel or Family Visits during 7-Month “Temporary Detention” After nearly seven months of “temporary detention” without access to his lawyer or ...
January 13, 2016
Reformist Journalist Begins Serving Prison Sentence for Her Writings on Facebook
The well-known reformist journalist Reyhaneh Tabatabaie surrendered herself to Evin Prison authorities on January 12, 2016, to serve a one-year prison sentence. Tabatabaie’s imprisonment ...
January 13, 2016
Sunni Detainees Still Held a Year After Arrest, Reports of Torture and Forced Confessions
A year after the arrest of more than two dozen Sunni Muslim men in southeast Iran, some of them still remain ...
January 11, 2016
Detained Poet Describes Being Transported in a Cage and Watched “Like a Murderer”
Two-Day Ordeal Included Solitary Confinement and Incarceration with Criminals The poet Hila Sedighi, who was arrested and held for two days amidst ...
January 11, 2016
Journalist Resumes Hunger Strike to Protest His Continued Detention
After two months of detention, the prominent reformist journalist and political activist Issa Saharkhiz has resumed his hunger strike, in protest against ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...