Middle East
Publisher: The Daily Beast
27 Dec 2014
A Daughter’s Plea Free My Father from Prison in Iran
My father, an Iranian blogger, is being psychologically tortured and imprisoned all for blogging about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At this very moment, my father, Mohammad Reza Pourshajari, also known as Siamak Meher, is being detained in Karaj Prison in Iran. He was arrested by security forces two months ago in Orumieh and was held in solitary confinement for 14 days by the Ministry of Intelligence. He was subjected to harsh investigation and psychological torture. His interrogators repeatedly threatened him with the death. Once transferred to Karaj Prison, he spent an additional 15 days in solitary confinement.
Publisher: Hrana
23 Dec 2014
22 Activists in Uremia were Tried
the trial of protestors against the situation of Uremia Lake was held in branch number one of the revolutionary court with chief judge Chabok, on Tuesday, December 16. Their allegation is announced as collusion against the national security and propaganda against the regime. Need to be mentioned, these people were arrested in a protest to lack of effective action from the government to prevent Uremia Lake from drying out.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
23 Dec 2014
Prison Sentence for Young Facebook User Increased from 15 to 20 Years
A Tehran Revolutionary Court has increased the sentence of a 21-year-old Facebook user from 15 to 20 years in prison for his postings on Facebook. The case was originally appealed in the hope that the severe 15-year sentence would be reduced. However, the appeals court remanded the case to the lower court because one of the charges, insulting the sacred, was not addressed in the original ruling.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
20 Dec 2014
Imprisoned Lawyer Denied Urgently Needed Medical Treatment
Despite the severely deteriorating health of imprisoned Iranian lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, the Tehran Prosecutor refuses to grant him permission to receive medical care outside the prison, due to the prominent lawyer s steadfastness about his beliefs, Soltani s daughter told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign that her father suffers from heart disease and fluctuations in blood pressure, and that requests for his transfer to a hospital have been denied for the past month.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
11 Dec 2014
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 protest of the Iranian Bar Association s suspension of her legal license.
Publisher: Hrana
7 Dec 2014
Ali Tabarzadi arrested in Tehran
Publisher: IBTimes
7 Dec 2014
Iran’s Internet Repression Draws Yet Another Division Between Hardliners And Rouhani Supporters As Arrests Increase
Inmates at Ward 350 of Evin Prison in northwestern Tehran endure brutal conditions, regular beatings, sexual harassment, even torture. The Ward has become home to an increasing number of Iran's most prominent cyberactivists and intellectuals this past year, including Soheil Arabi, a 30-year-old man arrested in 2013 and charged with sabb al-nabbi, or "insulting the Prophet." Arabi's charge stems from a reference to the Prophet Muhammad in a Facebook post. He found out in November his government is going to kill him. The country's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed down by a lower court.
Publisher: Persian2English
5 Dec 2014
Women’s Rights Activist Held Captive by the IRGC for Protesting Against Recent Acid Attacks in Iran
Despite conflicting reports from Iranian security, judicial and military officials, the perpetrators of the recent acid attacks on women in Isfahan have not been arrested let alone identified. Instead, Mahdieh Golroo, who along with other [women s rights and] civil society activists had protested in front of the Iranian Parliament against the acid attacks, was arrested by Iranian authorities and thrown in prison on October 26th
Publisher: The Guardian
25 Oct 2014
Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh detained at protest against acid attacks on women
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
21 Oct 2014
Sotoudeh Stages Sit-in to Protest Ban on Her Legal Practice
Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh began a sit-in on October 21, 2014, at the Iranian Bar Association in Tehran to protest a ruling that puts a three-year ban on her legal practice, and in protest against the general state of legal representation in Iran. One day before starting the sit-in, in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, she said that the protest will be of unlimited duration, until the Iranian Bar Association takes action on her demands.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
14 Oct 2014
New Videos Confront Iran’s Rights Violations through Personal Stories of Persecution
Impact Iran, a coalition of human rights organizations, in partnership with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, today launched a new video, "Promises Made, Promises Broken." The video is part of a series aimed at drawing attention to Iran's second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on October 31, 2014. A new video will be released each week leading up to the review.
Publisher: NYTimes
11 Oct 2014
Iran’s Jailing of Activist Offers Hint of Liberty Under Rouhani
In a country that has virtually no tolerance for activism, Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, an Iranian-British national, provided a nearly textbook example of how to get arrested in Tehran, activists say. Yet if Ms. Ghavami, who began a hunger strike last week to protest her indefinite detention, was guilty of anything, activists say, it was a na ve enthusiasm that Iran was changing.
Publisher: lalehsr
27 Sep 2014
A number of recently detained cyber activists identified amid continued crackdown
In the wake of the continued crackdown on Internet freedom, a number of activists who were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards for their activities on social media and messaging outlets have been identified. According to CHRR, Omid Moghadam, Kourosh Najdad, Habib Dehghani, Mehdi Ghanbari and Hadi Ghanbari are among 11 individuals active on Facebook and social networks recently detained in Fars province. There is no news on the situation of these activists who were arrested by IRGC forces.
Publisher: Al Jazeera
25 Sep 2014
Family of detained UK citizen in Iran plea for her release
Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old United Kingdom-Iranian citizen, has been in prison in Tehran since June 29 after being arrested for trying to enter a stadium to view a men s volleyball game. Now her brother has come to New York in the hope of bringing her case to the attention of Iran s President Hassan Rouhani, in town for the United Nations General Assembly. Iman Ghavami, a 28-year-old genetic researcher, hopes to meet with Rouhani - although he knows that s unlikely - or, at least, to draw attention to his sister's plight.
Publisher: weekly standard
Author: Stephen Schwartz
16 Sep 2014
More arbitary Repression in Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran remains the worst global example of capricious interference by Muslim theocrats in the personal and spiritual lives of its citizens. On September 9, as reported by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), seven young Iranians went on trial. Their supposed crime? Producing a dance video of the Pharrell Williams s pop hit "Happy" and uploading it to YouTube.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
11 Sep 2014
More Than Two Months in Solitary Confinement for Protesting Exclusion of Women in Stadium
A young woman s detention in solitary confinement continues after her June 30, 2014 arrest, following her earlier arrest and release outside a Tehran sports stadium when she tried to attend a volleyball game. Ghoncheh Ghavami s lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaee, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he is unaware of his client s charges despite the fact that Ghavami has been in solitary confinement at Evin Prison for more than two months and her temporary detention orders have been extended twice.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
20 Aug 2014
Political Prisoners at Evin Transferred into Quarantine without Explanation
Twenty-seven political prisoners have been transferred from Evin Prison s Ward 350 to quarantine, where they are now being held in conditions tantamount to clear and serious ill treatment. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Atieh Taheri, the wife of Saeed Matinpour, who is an Azeri journalist and civil activist and one of the prisoners transferred into quarantine, reported that Matinpour believes the transfer will last for some time. In a brief phone conversation with his wife, Matinpour said no reason had been given for the sudden transfer of prisoners from this ward.
Publisher: The Guardian
18 Aug 2014
Iranian photographers face the lash after criticising official’s book
Two photographers in Iran have been sentenced to a total of 75 lashes after criticising an illustrated book published by a local official. Both men, who are from Qazvin province, were put on trial when Mohammad-Ali Hazrati, the head of the local cultural heritage organisation, felt insulted by the negative reviews the pair had written in separate posts online about his photography book, "Qazvin, the Land of Times Past".
Publisher: IranPressNews
5 Aug 2014
Seven Cyber-Activist arrested in Mashhad
Although several days passed since these Cyber-Facebook Activists were arrested, there is no news about their conditions and their whereabouts is unknown regardless of their families' attempts to locate them. It must be said that "Hekmati" and "Chinisaz" are known for their previous blogging activities which criticized Iranian Government and have been arrested -after Ashoora - in 2009 after Presidential election events.
Publisher: Independent
14 Jul 2014
Iran sentences 8 facebook activist to 128 years in prison for criticizing the government
An Iranian court handed jail sentences of eight to 21 years to eight Facebook page administrators, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. The report said the defendants were convicted of plotting against national security, spreading propaganda against the ruling system and insulting officials. It did not identify the defendants or the Facebook pages.
Publisher: The Guardian
19 Jun 2014
Iranian film-maker jailed for five years for ‘collaborating with the BBC’
Prominent Iranian documentary film-maker and women's rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi has been jailed for five years, charged with collaborating against the state with the BBC. Mohammadi's detention comes on the fifth anniversary of the bloody crackdown that followed the 2009 presidential election, when tens of thousands took to the streets to claim the election had been rigged. Hundreds were arrested, many of whom, including the main opposition leaders, remain in custody.
Publisher: Amnesty International
2 Jun 2014
Silenced, Expelled, Imprisoned: Repression of Students and Academics in Iran
This report is based on research that Amnesty International conducted using a wide range of private and public sources. This included in-depth interviews with more than 50 individuals, both women and men, with direct knowledge of Iran's universities and system of higher education, including former students and academic teaching staff. Amnesty International has not been permitted to visit Iran for fact-finding and research on the country since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and thus was unable to investigate conditions at Iran's universities first hand.
Publisher: mashable
29 May 2014
Iran Sentences 8 Facebook Users to Combined 123 Years in Jail
Publisher: Huffington Post
21 May 2014
Young Iranians Arrested For Dancing In ‘Happy’ Pharrell Video
Sources report that seven to eight young Iranians have been arrested in Tehran, for the simple crime of being "Happy." Three men and three women danced unveiled to Pharrell Williams' smash hit in a video that was widely shared on social media, garnering over 30,000 views before it was taken down. Copies have been quickly re-uploaded as news of the arrest has broken, sparking the hashtag #FreeHappyIranians.
Publisher: CNN
3 May 2014
In Iran, an actress faces prison
Publisher: Persian2English
27 Apr 2014
Iranian Activist Reports on First Prison Visit Since Ward 350 Attack + Denial of Iranian Authorities
Some of the prisoners of conscience who Iranian security agents brutally attacked in Evin s Ward 350 were granted prison visits with their families on Monday. More than a hundred supporters including activists Narges Mohammadi, Mohammad Maleki, Mohammad Nourizad, and Arash Sadeghi were reported to have accompanied the families. Following the prison visit Sadeghi published the text below on his Facebook profile. Sadeghi was released from prison in summer 2013 after global campaigns and pressures from human rights bodies and international authorities.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
15 Mar 2014
Human Rights Activist Rejects Criticism of her Meeting with Ashton
Mohammadi, the spokesperson for the Tehran-based Society of Human Rights Defenders, met with Ashton, who is the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, along with a number of other women activists at the Austrian embassy in Tehran during Ashton s formal visit to Iran on March 8th. Topics discussed during the two-hour meeting included human rights, woman s affairs, civil society, and Rouhani s steps to improve the economy and foreign relations, Mohammadi said.
Publisher: Hrana
9 Mar 2014
A former student activist has been arrested
Publisher: The Guardian
26 Feb 2014
Iranian activist Mohammad Nurizad attacked and arrested, but not silenced
Nurizad was a staunch supporter of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a published journalist in the ultra conservative state newspaper, Keyhan. But the events during the aftermath of the disputed 2009 presidential elections, in which tens of protesters were killed and hundreds of others arrested in the biggest unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, gave the veteran journalist a change of heart.
Publisher: Hrana
24 Feb 2014
The mass arrests of Turkish activists still going on
The massive wave of Turkish civil activists arrests, in the international mother tongue day is going on. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), some other Turkish activists who have gathered for international mother tongue day, in Mr. Fathi's house in Tehran-Akbar Abad, have been arrested by intelligence forces, on Friday February 21st.
Publisher: Al Jazeera
11 Feb 2014
Iranian poet executed for ‘waging war on God’
An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist, Hashem Shaabani, has been executed for being an "enemy of God" and threatening national security, according to local human rights groups. Shaabani and a man named Hadi Rashedi were hanged in unidentified prison on January 27, rights groups have said. Shaabani, who spoke out against the treatment of ethnic Arabs in the province of Khuzestan, had been in prison since February or March 2011 after being arrested for being a Mohareb, or "enemy of God".
Publisher: Persian2English
9 Feb 2014
Local Sources in Baluchestan: Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence Buried 7 Bodies in Secret
The Ministry of Intelligence has reportedly secretly buried seven bodies in Zahedan (Sistan and Baluchestan Province's capital). Local sources have told "The Baloch Activists Campaign" that on the morning of Tuesday, February 4th, 2014, Ministry of Intelligence agents buried the bodies of individuals whose identities are unknown.
Publisher: Hrana
3 Jan 2014
Lack of any information about the situation of two prisoners
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Hashem Shabani, Hadi Rashidi, two cultural activists in the city of Ramshir / Khouzestan, whose death sentences were upheld by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court, transferred to an unknown place by the intelligence office of Ahwaz. Their families and lawyers have not been informed about this transfer and their situations since then.