Middle East
Publisher: Tablet Mag
31 Dec 2014
How Iran Kept Its Jews
The fact that the Jewish community has shrunk to quarter of its original size speaks to the overall grim, mostly economic, realities of life not only for Jews or religious minorities, but for all Iranians who are not on the side of "them." ("They" and "them" are the insiders' reference to the regime.) The fact that the community, unlike most others in the region, did not vanish and continues to exist attests to a unique truth: Iranian Jews recognized that they had not been singled out to suffer in the aftermath of the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. And, in many complex ways, they have sometimes fared better than, say, secular Iranians of Shiite descent, who stood in opposition to the regime.
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: VOA
6 Oct 2014
Iran and Prisoners of Conscience
Iran s Baha is are the most persecuted religious community in Iran, facing relentless government- sponsored harassment, discrimination, arrest and detention. There are an estimated one hundred Baha is in prison, jailed solely because of their religious beliefs. Muslims who diverge from the regime s interpretation of Islam are also persecuted. Human rights monitors report that Mohsen Amir-Aslani was executed in September after being found guilty of heresy for offering his own interpretation of the Koran.
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: WSJ
20 May 2014
Repression of Baha’i Minority in Iran
As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani's presidential victory, the Islamic Republic's human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities, remains abysmal. This is especially true for the Baha'is, Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority. As with the cases of jailed Christian pastors, such as Saeed Abedini and Farshid Fathi, the Tehran regime shows no signs of wanting to free the so-called Baha'i seven - Baha'i leaders jailed on spurious charges, from espionage to "spreading corruption on the earth"- nor of stopping the persecution of its Baha'i population, which numbers more than 300,000.
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights
15 May 2014
Lawyer for Kurdish Political Prisoners Put on Trial
A Kurdish human rights lawyer has been tried on charges of membership in an illegal political group and propaganda against the state for providing information on prison conditions to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Publisher: Hrana
5 May 2014
Three more Sunni preachers to be hanged in Iran
Three Sunni prisoners of conscience have been sentenced to death in Iran after being convicted of enmity against God through spreading propaganda against the regime . According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the men, Mohammad Kayvan Karimi, Amjad Salehi and Omid Payvand, who were active in preaching Sunni Islam, were informed of their death sentences through the lawyer assigned to their case.
Publisher: rudaw
4 Feb 2014
Kurdish Prisoner in Iran Who Sewed His Lips Tells Story in Rare Interview
My worst days were when tens of my cellmates were executed at once, and also when I heard that my mother had passed away, he said by mail correspondence with Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist living in London. Nazari, who is jailed at the Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj and says he has not been outside of prison for nearly 20 years, told Alinejad: "I was at my sister's in Bukan when I was arrested (in 1994) and later sentenced to death... in a stagy and speedy trial without a lawyer." He was just 23 at the time of his arrest.
Publisher: YouTube
1 Feb 2014
Bahram Ahmadi – a young Sunni preacher executed in Iran
Numerous Sunni scholars, preachers and activists have been imprisoned and executed in the Shia-led Iran, often following unfair trials using evidence obtained through torture. The Iranian regime commonly falsely accuses Sunni preachers of membership in a Salafi group or enmity against God , in an attempt to justify their imprisonment and execution.