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: payvand
27 Dec 2014
Female Prisoner of Conscience Transferred to Deplorable Gharchak Prison
Female prisoner of conscience Hakimeh Shokri was abruptly transferred from Evin Prison to the Gharchak Prison in Varamin on December 15, 2014. "I don't know why they treated her this way. Why did they transfer her to Gharchak Prison in Varamin in such haste where she wasn t even able to take her clothes, personal items, and money? She didn t even have enough money to call us and let us know about her transfer," said Zahra Shokri, Hakimeh Shokri's sister.
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
Baha’is Have No Citizenship Rights, Says Grand Ayatollah
A high-ranking cleric and Khomeini-era member of the Supreme Judicial Council has told Fars News Agency that Baha is are not entitled to citizenship rights. The statement was made only weeks after Mohammad Javad Larijani, Head of the Iranian Judiciary s Human Rights Council, denied the systematic denial of Baha is right to higher education.
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: Al Jazeera
8 Dec 2014
Iran charges Washington Post journalist
Iran has charged a Washington Post reporter who has been detained in the country for nearly five months, the paper said, citing sources familiar with the case. It said the nature of the charges levelled at Jason Rezaian, the newspaper's bureau chief in Tehran, were not immediately clear as he appeared in court on Saturday.
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: American Thinker
6 Dec 2014
Iran’s Future will be Shaped by Women
The recent spike in discrimination against women by the regime and regime-backed forces betrays Tehran s fear of women, who are the driving force behind change in Iran and the fight against Islamic fundamentalism, the bedrock of the Iranian regime. After Hassan Rouhani assumed office as the Iranian regime s president in 2013, suppression and restrictions against women have been exacerbated, including in the fields of arts, sports, education, and work. The measures were aimed at driving women out of public affairs and circumenting challenges to the state.
Publisher: NYTimes
17 Nov 2014
Public Grieving for Pop Singer Is Startling for Iran
Iranian authorities were caught off guard over the weekend when thousands of people joined spontaneous gatherings around the country to mourn and remember a pop singer who died late last week. Mostafa Eghlima, a sociologist, said that the roots of the outpouring of grief could be traced to the harsh social restrictions faced by Iranians and enforced by a small group of hard-liners. Urbanization, the influx of oil money and access to social media are among the trends that have greatly changed Iranian society over the past 15 years. But faced with changes that challenge their control, the hard-liners have insisted on more and stricter laws to rein in what they call "Westernization."
Publisher: HRANA
27 Oct 2014
Dozens arrested in Tehran in a protest at acid attacks
Dozens of people who intended to gather and protest against the recent acid attacks, were arrested and many of them were beaten by security forces. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), People who were planning to protest in front of the Interior Ministry against the recent acid attacks on women who not dressed appropriate "Hijab" were met by violent security and anti-riot police forces.
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: 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: The Guardian
10 Oct 2014
Iran blocks Instagram account of ‘rich kids’ showing off wealth in Tehran
Hafte-Sobh newspaper took aim at "a class of young people who stubbornly and with the backup of their wealth, are having fun and live their own special way of life, and the Iranian system cannot touch them." Taadol newspaper poured scorn on "a class of nouveau riche who cropped up like mushrooms" during the 2005-2013 presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Publisher: The Guardian
10 Oct 2014
Iran blocks Instagram account of ‘rich kids’ showing off wealth in Tehran
Hafte-Sobh newspaper took aim at "a class of young people who stubbornly and with the backup of their wealth, are having fun and live their own special way of life, and the Iranian system cannot touch them." Taadol newspaper poured scorn on "a class of nouveau riche who cropped up like mushrooms" during the 2005-2013 presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Publisher: Gatestone Institute
3 Oct 2014
Iran’s Political Prisoner Cleansing
Iran continues to hide behind the world's focus on ISIS to accelerate political arrests, executions, "prison cleansing" and above all, its program to achieve nuclear capability. Iran seems to be counting on the reluctance of the United States to intervene in any serious way, in order to run its nuclear weapons program to completion.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
29 Sep 2014
Eighteen Nobel Laureates Call for Immediate Release of Iranian Physicist
Omid Kokabee s Health in Great Danger, Requires Immediate Medical Treatment. Kokabee, an Iranian physicist completing his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin, is serving a ten-year sentence since his arrest in Tehran in January 2011. During his prosecution, the prosecutors charged him with "communicating with a hostile government," and receiving "illegitimate funds" without any substantiating evidence.
Publisher: Jerusalem Post
28 Sep 2014
Barred from social media, Iranians demand access to Twitter
Iranians on Sunday launched a campaign on Twitter asking the social network to allow Iran-based users full account verification services, at the same time as the Twitter CEO called on the Islamic Republic to end its ban on the popular social network. Twitter, like Facebook, is officially banned in Iran. Iran blocked direct access to Twitter in 2009, saying that anti-government demonstrators were using the social network to organize mass protests.
Publisher: RTE
22 Sep 2014
Iran Arrests 11 Over Insulting Text Messages
An Iranian newspaper says 11 people have been arrested in the south after allegedly sending text messages deemed insulting to the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Haft-e-Sobh daily on Monday quoted Col. Ismaeil Mohebipour of the Revolutionary Guard, as saying the arrests were made after social networking applications on mobile phones - such as WhatsApp, Viber, Line and Tango - were monitored
Publisher: Hrana
22 Sep 2014
The latest list of Political prisoners at Ward 350 Evin Prison
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), after the mass transfer of prisoners from Ward 350 at Evin prison - the most renowned place in Iran to jail Political Prisoners - only 54 out of more than 200 Political and high security prisoners are now kept at this ward. Those removed from this ward was sent to other wards at Evin Prison or prisons in other cities, especially Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj.
Publisher: Ynetnews
21 Sep 2014
Iranian president under pressure to curb internet
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: HRANA
15 Sep 2014
Mass arrests at Qezel Hesar after the rebellion footage published
in his interview with Fars News Agency reporter, Asghar Jahangiri , head of State Prison, Security and Corrective Measures Organisation of Iran mentioned that they have identified, pictured and published the pictures of the prisoners behind the recent riot at Qezel Hesar Prison .However, well informed sources claim that Intelligent and Security Unit of Qezel Hesar Prison initiated mass arrests at this prison to cover the riot incident and its after effects. Some of those arrested has no relation with the riot and have been arrested with no clear reason.
Publisher: aawsat
12 Sep 2014
Radical group gears up to begin morality patrols
Publisher: HRANA
10 Sep 2014
50% increase in the executions during recent 2 weeks
The Statistics and Publication Unit of human rights Activists in Iran has publicized a Comparative report on the executions in Iran in the first half of Shahrivar ( 23rd August- 6th September) this year, against the statistics of executions in the previous month and also same time last year. Finally, they have announced a fifty percent of growth in the executions.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
4 Sep 2014
Gender Segregation Gains Momentum in Iran: Women Prohibited from More Jobs
The accelerated efforts to restrict women s access to jobs, professions, and public venues continue in Iran. In the latest announcement, Colonel Khalil Helali, Head of the Public Buildings Office of the Iranian Police, said on August 30, 2014, that henceforth women are not allowed employment in coffee shops, coffee houses, and traditional Iranian restaurants. No laws or reasons were cited as the basis for the decision to bar women from having such jobs.
Publisher: Radio Zamaneh
23 Aug 2014
Arrest of protesters heightens conflict at Bafgh mine
The head of the Bafgh Islamic Council and another four miners were arrested on Saturday August 23, further intensifying the labour protests. ILNA reports that a spokesperson for the Islamic Council reported that five more iron ore miners were arrested and one of them is Hassan Tashakori, the head of the Islamic Council.
Publisher: HRANA
22 Aug 2014
A number of prisoners killed and wounded in a revolt in Qezel Hesar
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on 17th August, after a group of prisoners who were sentenced to death were transferred for execution, prisoners from unit 1 and unit 2 wards 2 and 3 of Qezel Hesar prison revolt and fought with prison guards and security forces. Security unit in the prison used firearms to control violence and prisoners protest, which led to the killing and wounding a number of prisoners.
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: NYTimes
7 Aug 2014
Jason Rezaian of Washington Post and Wife Still Held
Jason Rezaian knew he was being watched. A man on a motorcycle had been following him and his wife for weeks, his colleagues said. The tail was so blatant that Mr. Rezaian, The Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, had even managed to take a picture of the license plate. Like many foreign journalists accredited by the Iranian authorities, Mr. Rezaian had grown painfully accustomed to being under constant suspicion.
Publisher: Persian2English
6 Aug 2014
Iranian Authorities Execute 8 Prisoners in Public in Less than a Week
Publisher: NYTimes
1 Aug 2014
Rounding Up Journalists in Iran
For all the hints of a thaw in Iran s hard-line behavior since President Hassan Rouhani took office, the government s oppression of working journalists has continued unabated most recently with the egregious arrest of Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post s correspondent in Tehran, and his wife and fellow journalist, Yeganeh Salehi. The two were taken for questioning on July 22 by security police who confiscated their laptops and other property, with Iranian justice officials later commenting darkly about being "vigilant towards all kinds of enemies activities." The couple has not been heard from since.
Publisher: The Guardian
31 Jul 2014
Six judges accused of leading role in Iranian crackdown on free speech
The six judges are accused of losing their judicial impartiality and overseeing miscarriages of justice in trials in which scores of journalists, lawyers, political activists and members of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities have been condemned to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution. Those accused are judges Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghiseh, former justices Yahya Pirabbasi and Hassan Zareh Dehnavi (known as judge Haddad), and appeal judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar.
Publisher: NYTimes
24 Jul 2014
Washington Post Reporter Apparently Detained in Iran
The Washington Post s correspondent in Iran is believed to have been detained this week, the newspaper said Thursday. The correspondent, Jason Rezaian, was reported to have been taken into custody Tuesday evening along with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, also a journalist, and two other people, The Post s foreign editor, Douglas Jehl, said in a statement. "We are deeply troubled by this news," Mr. Jehl said, "and are concerned for the welfare of Jason, Yeganeh and two others said to have been detained with them."
Publisher: RFERL
20 Jul 2014
Iran’s Repressed Religious Minorities Using Internet To Practice Faith
ajzooban.org, a website dedicated to news and information about the Gonabadi dervishes in Iran, has been blocked more than 40 times since its launch in 2007. Iranian authorities have also arrested most of its founders. The website is an example of dozens of sites, social-media networks, and online communities that religious minorities in Iran depend on to make their voices heard, practice their faith, highlight abuses by the state, and reach out to potential followers.
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: International Campaign for Human Rights
3 Jul 2014
Veteran Journalist Charged with Propaganda Against State
Shamsolvaezin wrote on his Facebook page: "I did not accept the charges. I said propaganda against someone needs to have both material and non-material elements, both of which I lack. I am a journalist and criticizing things within the framework of the law is a natural tool of my profession,". He added that the deed to his mother's home was submitted to the court as collateral for his bail.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
21 Jun 2014
Eleven Internet Professionals Sentenced to One to Eleven Years in Prison
Eleven Kerman Province Internet professionals have been sentenced to prison, with terms ranging from one to eleven years. Yadollah Movahed, the Prosecutor for Kerman Province General and Revolutionary Courts, said at a press conference on June 19, 2014, that the eleven individuals were arrested and prosecuted for "designing sites, websites, and creating content for media hostile to the regime."
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: International Campaign for Human Rights
14 Jun 2014
Journalist Put on Trial for Propaganda Against State
Publisher: mashable
29 May 2014
Iran Sentences 8 Facebook Users to Combined 123 Years in Jail
Publisher: The Guardian
29 May 2014
Journalist Saba Azarpeik arrested in Iran
Azarpeik has been arrested before, including in January 2013 when security officials raided at least four newspapers and arrested several journalists in advance of the presidential elections that gave Hassan Rouhani a victory. Azarpeik has been critical of the state's treatment of journalists and opposition figures and has repeatedly grilled officials and politicians in her interviews. She has been particularly under pressure for her comments and reports on her Facebook page. She particularly covered the case of the Iranian blogger, Sattar Beheshti, whose death in custody brought embarrassment for the authorities.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
29 May 2014
New Details Emerge on Coercion of “Happy” Youths During Detention
The morality police pressured the participants in the "Happy in Tehran" video during their detention to implicate Reyhaneh Taravati and Sassan Soleimani and file complaints against them, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned. "They threatened them with a gun. They put a gun to the head of one of the detainees and told him if they did not cooperate they would kill them and get rid of their bodies so that no one would find them."
Publisher: The Guardian
28 May 2014
Briton among eight jailed in Iran for web insults
Eight people, including an Iranian-born British woman, have been jailed in Iran on charges including blasphemy and insulting the country's supreme leader on Facebook. The opposition website Kaleme reported that two of the eight, identified as Roya Saberinejad Nobakht, 47, from Stockport, and Amir Golestani, each received 20 years in prison and the remaining six - Masoud Ghasemkhani, Fariborz Kardarfar, Seyed Masoud Seyed Talebi, Amin Akramipour, Mehdi Reyshahri and Naghmeh Shahisavandi Shirazi - between seven and 19 years.
Publisher: NY Daily News
25 May 2014
Billionaire involved in $2.6 billion bank scam executed in Iran
Publisher: Persian2English
22 May 2014
Propaganda Activist for Iran’s Dictatorship: Men have the right to rape unveiled women
Attempting to spread fear among Iranian civil society, *Tasnim, a state-run news agency in Iran controlled and operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), interviewed Hadi Sharifi, a "media activist" (I.e. Regime propaganda activist), who attempted to send the message to campaign supporters: stop, or else.
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: Asharq Al Awsat
15 May 2014
Iran’s liberal media continue decline under Rouhani
It has been more than 35 years since the Islamic revolution culminated with the slogan "freedom and republicanism" and 17 years since Iran s newspapers were recognized for the first time as the fourth pillar of civil society and as the columns of democracy under then-president Mohammad Khatami. Today, the Islamic Republic s newspapers are experiencing conditions as bad as those during after the 1907 - 1907 Constitutional Revolution and the 1953 coup against then-prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq.
Publisher: The Guardian
5 May 2014
Hassan Rouhani faces growing criticism in Iran over nuclear talks
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is facing growing criticism from a broad array of political hardliners and rightwing opponents who say his government is being duped by the US in an over-hasty attempt to clinch a nuclear deal with the west and end economic sanctions. At a meeting at the former American embassy building in central Tehran on Saturday, a newly formed group of MPs and rightwing activists calling itself "We're Worried" claimed Iran's negotiating team was ignoring national interests in the nuclear talks, which resume on 13 May in Vienna.
Publisher: CNN
3 May 2014
In Iran, an actress faces prison
Publisher: RFERL
1 May 2014
Rude Homecoming For Iranian Dissidents
Tthe hard-liners are worried that, now that Rohani is in power and people they don't want back [are back], activities they don't want to see happening are picking up. It is unclear just how many Iranian dissidents have returned to Iran since Rohani took power in August. De Wolff says he's familiar with four cases, and in each case they were detained and interrogated by the IRGC, and their passports confiscated.
Publisher: Reporters Without Borders
29 Apr 2014
Press freedom violations recounted in real time January 2014
Reporters Without Borders condemns the pro-reform newspaper Ebtekar's suspension by the Tehran prosecutor s office for media and culture on 26 April, two days after it reported that the head of the Iranian prison system, Golamhossien Esmaili, had been fired. Ebtekar editor Mohamad Ali Vakili said that "according to the letter from the prosecutor's office, the newspaper has been suspended under article 6 of the press law for publishing false information."
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
23 Apr 2014
Rouhani’s Silence on Brutal Prison Attack Unacceptable
The Campaign calls on President Hassan Rouhani to put an end to the denials, address one of the most appalling acts of violence against political prisoners in Iran since he took office in 2013, and stand by his stated commitment to defend citizen rights. "Mr. Rouhani s silence is unacceptable. What happened was against the laws that he is expected to enforce, but he has chosen to let such actions happen before his eyes," said Ghaemi.
Publisher: The Guardian
19 Apr 2014
Iranian guards use extreme violence against inmates, claims opposition
Iranian guards and intelligence officials have used unprecedented levels of violence against political inmates in one of the country's most notorious prisons, opposition leaders claimed on Friday. Kaleme, a news website close to an opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has reported that dozens of prisoners were injured, some taken to hospital and others transferred to solitary confinement following disturbances in Evin prison in Tehran on Thursday
Publisher: Amnesty International
18 Apr 2014
Evin prisoners at risk after report of riot
Reports of prison guards raiding Section 350 of Tehran s Evin Prison, where many political prisoners are held, have emerged raising fears about the safety of prisoners. The unrest appears to have resulted in prisoners sustaining injuries, including broken ribs. It has been reported that at least 32 individuals from Section 350 have been transferred to solitary confinement in Section 240 of the prison. According to media reports on the morning of 17 April Ministry of Intelligence officials, along with about 100 guards dressed in riot gear reportedly entered Section 350 of Evin Prison, possibly to conduct a search. It is not clear what happened next, but some sort of confrontation with prisoners opposing the raid appears to have ensued, and several prisoners seem to have been injured.
Publisher: CSMonitor
19 Mar 2014
Iranian newspapers drop their guard
The fate of newspapers is one window into Iran's larger political stand-off. Mr. Rouhani, who defeated a raft of conservative rivals last June, wants more open publishing. Fundamentalists reject that and want to deny Rouhani any victory. "They want to send a message to people who support change that Rouhani coming to office will change nothing," says Mr. Mohammadi. "Critics of [Rouhani] know if they frustrate the people, they can easily defeat the government... They want to prevent the government from sending the message to the people that change is coming."
Publisher: The Washington Post
14 Mar 2014
In Iran, a battle over control of media and culture is heating up
A long-smoldering battle over government control of media and culture in Iran is heating up, as opposing political forces fight over where the limits should be drawn on access to information. President Hassan Rouhani and his supporters say that press restrictions should be reduced and that the public should be trusted with greater access to the Internet and television.
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: The Guardian
22 Feb 2014
A leap forward for Iranian journalism nipped in the bud
In the inaugural issue of Aseman, a centrist daily newspaper launched one week ago, the editors wondered at the political change that allowed such a newspaper to operate in Iran s thorny media landscape. A year ago, no one would have thought it possible for us to become newspaper journalists, and behold, they wrote. Now, as Aseman s publisher Abbas Bozorgmehr spends the 20-21 February Iranian weekend in Evin prison following a revocation of the newspaper s license, that transformation seems more toothless than its readers had imagined.
Publisher: Asharq Al Awsat
9 Feb 2014
Executing Iran’s Political Compromise
Over the years, Iran has maintained a consistent response to persistent criticisms of its human rights record. If a report condemning Iran's woeful human rights record is issued by an NGO, such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, a statement is issued accusing the group of "toadying to the US and Israel." Their evidence is discredited as unsubstantiated and biased, as having been collected from "anti-Iranian outlets and terrorist groups." If the criticism comes from a foreign government then Iran has developed a strategy of drawing attention to double standards.