Month: May 2019

Iranian Intelligence Shuts Down Church, Removes Cross

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The Assyrian Christian community in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz has been left in a state of shock after intelligence agents forced a Presbyterian church to close earlier this month, Assyrian International News Agency (Aina) reports. Religious freedom charity Article18 said: “Intelligence agents stormed the 100-year-old church, officially recognized as a national heritage site in Iran, on Thursday, May 9, changed all the locks, tore down the cross from the church tower, and ordered the churchwarden to leave.” “They made it clear that the Assyrian people are no longer…

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards raid modelling agencies for ‘promoting vulgarity’

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‘Those who disregard norms … should know that the hands of the law will catch up with them,’ says the commander of the elite force. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force has raided three modeling agencies, accusing the companies and their aspiring models of breaking strict Islamic dress codes for women. General Mohsen Karimi, a commander in the city of Arak, said staff at the underground agencies had been arrested for “promoting vulgarity”, according to the semi-official Iranian news service Fars. The report said part of the alleged offences had been the sharing…

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Charity Worker Who Assisted Flood Victims Arrested in Tehran

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Charity worker Akram Nasirian was arrested by unidentified security agents in Tehran for unknown reasons, according to the Telegram channel of the Voice of Iranian Women charity organization. Nasirian, who prior to her arrest had worked in flood-impacted areas of the country, made a phone call to her family the following day and said she was being held for interrogations. “My mother Akram Nasirian was arrested on the street on Monday, April 29 [2019] and taken to Evin Prison without anyone informing us,” her son Nima Mehdipour said in a…

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