UN and Amnesty International Condemn the Crackdown on Iran Protests

On Tuesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that dozens of people have been killed in continuing protests across Iran – mostly by live ammunition. Rupert Colville, the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “We are deeply concerned by reported violations of international norms and standards on the use of force, including the firing of live ammunition, against demonstrators in Iran during the protests that began on Friday and have continued into this week. We are especially alarmed that…

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

‘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

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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Imprisoned Lawyer’s Husband Rejects Judiciary’s Accusation of “Exaggerating” Her Heavy Sentence

“The authorities…refuse to accept the fact that they have condemned a woman lawyer to suffer the inhuman act of flogging and a long prison sentence because of activities that were entirely peaceful.” –Reza Khandan, husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh Imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, has rejected Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaili’s claim that the magnitude of the sentence against her has been exaggerated. “They are playing games,” Esmaili said at a press conference in Tehran on April 23, referring to the outcry over the harsh punishment against Sotoudeh for her…

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Iran Execution: Six prisoners, Including a Juvenile Offender, Facing Execution In Days

Iran Human Rights : At least six prisoners from different wards were transferred to solitary confinement at Rajai Shahr Prison to be executed. Omid Rostami, a juvenile offender, is one of the prisoners. According to a close source, on the morning of Monday, February 12, at least six prisoners from different wards were transferred to solitary confinement at Rajai Shahr Prison to be executed. Most of them were sentenced to death on murder charges. Some of them are identified as: Masoud Taghipour from ward 6, Mohammad Saleh Dolatabadi from ward…

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Iran: Women Face Bias in the Workplace

(Beirut) – Laws and policies that discriminate against women interfere with Iranianwomen’s right to work, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Women confront an array of restrictions, such as on their ability to travel, prohibitions on entering certain jobs, and an absence of basic legal protections. The 59-page report, “‘It’s a Men’s Club’: Discrimination Against Women in Iran’s Job Market,” examines in detail the discriminatory provisions and insufficient protections in Iran’s legal system that represent obstacles to women’s equal access to the job market. Over the past four…

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Deprivation of Education for Afrooz Zabihi, a Baha’i Student in Her Fifth Semester

HRANA News Agency – Fifth Term Civil Engineering student from Shahid Beheshti University, Baha’i Afrooz Zabihi, was banned from continuing her education after completing 90 credit hours, because of her religious faith. Miss Zabihi has several achievements in the Shining Genius Test in her name. According to HRANA, a close source to Miss Zabihi said “on Dec. 19, 2016, at the same time as the publication of the President’s Bill of Rights and the beginning of final exams, she was contacted on behalf of the Education Officer of the college. Moreover,…

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4 Activists Transferred to Women’s Ward of Evin Prison

  HRANA News Agency – Tahereh Riyahi, Masoumeh Zia, Mahsa Raj`ati, and Mehrak Karimpoor are four civil rights activists who were mainly active in the field of news coverage, and were arrested in late December and early January. They were transferred to general female ward after more than two months, from solitary confinement of ward 209. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Mahsa Ra`ati, 36, was arrested on January 2, Tahereh Riyahi, 35, journalist and editor of Borna press was arrested on January 4, Masoumeh…

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