Iran’s Baha’i Problem

The Islamic Republic of Iran is facing a big problem. As a matter of fact, the problem is so big that the Iranian leadership and State media cannot stop talking about it. They are very very upset, suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety. This problem is so big that it has unified the otherwise divided hardliners and pragmatists who now speak with one voice in the name of all that is holy and sacred. If you guessed that the problem is the highest per capita rate of executions…

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Iran introduces 2,000 new morality police units in response to women’s hijab protests

Iran has introduced 2,000 new morality police units in reaction to what officials call an “increasing defiance” of the compulsory wearing of hijabs. The units, called “resistance groups for verbal and practical response to bad-hijabi women”, were launched recently in the northern province of Gilan as part of a pilot scheme. They are each made up of six women who have the power to arrest and detain those they deem to be flouting the country’s strict veiling laws. The move comes amid a growing backlash by women in the Islamic…

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Iran To Block Social Media In Case Of War With U.S.

Iran would block its citizens’ access to social media if war were to break out with the U.S., the head of the country’s Passive Defense Organization has said. In a speech on Sunday, May 26, brigadier-general Gholamreza Jalali of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said, the U.S. “uses social media for media and psychological operations to influence Iranians’ minds.” He added that Washington has the opportunity to exercise soft power in exploiting both Iran’s lack of a defensive national intranet and its weakened economy, using “social media for placing its…

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Journalists Condemn Arrest of Reformist Reporter Ahead of World Press Freedom Day

Marzieh Amiri, a reporter for the reformist Shargh newspaper, has been in Evin Prison’s Ward 209 under the control of the Intelligence Ministry since she was arrested while covering a Labor Day protest in Tehran on May 1, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. Amiri was detained after she went to a detention center on Vozara St. to inquire about workers’ rights activists who’d been arrested at a rally near Iran’s Parliament, according to tweets by Shargh reporters. Judicial authorities have not commented on the reason…

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Iran’s Baha’i Problem

The Islamic Republic of Iran is facing a big problem. As a matter of fact, the problem is so big that the Iranian leadership and State media cannot stop talking about it. They are very very upset, suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety. This problem is so big that it has unified the otherwise divided hardliners and pragmatists who now speak with one voice in the name of all that is holy and sacred. If you guessed that the problem is the highest per capita rate of executions…

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Three Death Sentences Carried Out in Tabriz

HRANA News Agency – Three prisoners were executed on charge of “murder” in Tabriz Central Prison on 26 November 2017. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), On Sunday, 26 November 2017, three prisoners were executed on charge of “murder” in the central prison of Tabriz. The identity of one of these prisoners which has been confirmed by HRANA is: Taher Amini, 30, from Maragheh, imprisoned in ward 9 of Tabriz Central Prison. So far, the identities of two others who were detained in ward…

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UN Should Keep Engaging Iran on Its Human Rights Record by Renewing Special Rapporteur’s Mandate

Rights Violations Continue Under President Rouhani’s Watch February 22, 2018 — Iran’s deteriorating human rights record requires the UN Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic to maintain constructive pressure on the government and magnify the voices of activists inside the country. “Renewing the mandate of the special rapporteur will send a strong signal to the Islamic Republic that the international community is watching and expects the government to produce tangible improvements,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of…

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Iran Executes 19-Year-Old Charged as Juvenile in Violation of Two International Treaties

Ignoring pleas by international organizations and in violation of two international treaties, Iran executed 19-year-old Amirhossein Pourjafar, who was sentenced to death as a juvenile, on January 4, 2018, in Tehran. Pourjafar was 16 when he was charged with raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is illegal to execute someone for crimes committed under the age of eighteen. Iran is party to both treaties but remains one among a handful of countries still putting juveniles to…

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More than 150 Detained Iranian Protesters Have Requested “Pills,” Reports Committee

Credible Sources Report That Detainees Told to Request Pills to Speed Up Release More than 150 people detained in the protests that broke out in Iran in December 2017 have requested opioid addiction treatment pills, according to the Tehran-based Committee for the Defense of the Dey 1396 Detainees. The committee’s statement follows credible reports that detainees in Tehran were told to admit to being drug addicts to speed up their release. “Out of about 400 people detained in the first three days [December 30, 2017-January 1, 2018], more than 150 asked for pills for…

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