Iran has stepped up its campaign of death threats against journalists working in London for BBC Persian with warnings that they will be kidnapped and brought back to Iran if they refuse to quit their jobs. Staff for the British broadcaster said intimidation, which had been going on for years, was mounting with threats, cyberbullying and pressure put on their Tehran-based families, members of whom were arrested and questioned by Iranian agents.
Thousands of workers in Iran’s energy sector have held protests for better wages and working conditions in southern gas fields and some refineries in big cities, according to Iranian news agencies and social media postings. With an economy tanked under the weight of U.S. sanctions and the worst COVID-19 pandemic impact in the Middle East, Iran has faced nearly continuous protests by workers and pensioners for months over an inflation rate of more than 50%, high unemployment and unpaid wages.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Iran’s security and intelligence apparatus, in partnership with the judiciary, of harshly cracking down on dissent, including through excessive and lethal force against protesters. The group also reported abuse and torture in detention. “President Rouhani and his administration have shown little inclination to curb or confront these serious rights violations perpetrated by Iran’s security agencies,” HRW said in its report. “Authorities at the highest level continue to greenlight these rampant abuses,” the report read.
Peaceful prisoners of conscience Mohammad Hossein Sepehri and Kamal Yazdi were beaten on June 20 and 21 by prison authorities. Fatemeh Sepehri, the sister of Mohammad Hossein Sepehri published a video announcing the beating of the activists while they have been on hunger strike since one month ago to protest being denied phone calls. The two dissidents who are imprisoned in Vakilabad Prison of Mashhad after signing an open letter calling on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign, have been denied phone calls since March 31.
Iranian women are treated appallingly by the state. Under Iranian law, the age of consent for girls is nine compared with 15 for boys. In February of this year, Zahra Ismaili died of fright while waiting in line to be hanged in Rajai Shahr prison outside Teheran. Although dead, she was hanged anyway. She had been convicted of killing her abusive husband, a former state official. On August 5th, 2020, the UN secretary general expressed his concern at Iran’s “persistent discrimination against women, girls and minorities”.
The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is a United Nations-sponsored World Day to honor and support victims of torture around the world. This year’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture coincides with the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, a mass murderer who played a direct and leading role the 1988 mass extrajudicial executions in Iran. For the past four decades, Raisi has been involved in some of the worst forms of repression, torture, killing, and crimes against humanity.
Ten days have passed since the arrest of Baha’i citizens, Dorsa Dehghani and Sina Kamali Sarvestani, in Shiraz. As of today, Thursday, July 24, they are still being held in an unknown place. These citizens were arrested separately on June 15 by IRGC intelligence agents. At the time of their arrests, agents searched their homes and confiscated some of their personal belongings. According to a source close to the families of the two Baha’is, Sina and Dorsa have only had brief telephone conversations with their families since their arrest.
On International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Amnesty International has highlighted the treatment of two Iranian prisoners, Vahid and Habib Afkari, since their arrest in 2018. A 45-page analysis, Harrowing Accounts of Torture Committed With Impunity – New Findings on Afkari Brothers, shows how Iran’s prosecution and judicial authorities have ignored or dismissed complaints filed by two brothers inside prison, Amnesty said.
A group of Iranian lawmakers are working on a draft bill that could further restrict access to the internet, a reformist newspaper said Sunday. The bill calls for “organising social media” and the banning of virtual private network (VPN) software used widely by Iranians to bypass internet restrictions and blocks imposed on several social media websites, according to Etemad. Over the past few days, internet users in Iran have expressed concern over the draft bill proposed by some conservative lawmakers, who hold the majority in parliament since 2020.
Iran’s apparent use of 20 U.S.-based hotel properties as polling sites for its recent presidential election has raised questions about the hotel owners’ compliance with U.S. sanctions and the appropriateness of their involvement in a vote that Washington criticized as neither free nor fair. The U.S. was one of dozens of countries in which Iran said it had arranged for members of the Iranian diaspora to cast absentee ballots in the June 18 vote, won in a landslide by ultraconservative Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, an ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has granted clemency to more than 5,100 prisoners to mark a Shi’ite religious holiday, his website announced on June 26. The statement did not identify the prisoners in question or say whether they had been released or had sentences shaved. The leniencies were handed down in conjunction with the anniversary of the birth of Imam Reza, one of Shi’ite Islam’s most sacred figures. Amnesty International accuses Iran of routinely denying fair and open trials to the accused, carrying out arbitrary detentions, and systematically concealing the whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents “forcibly disappeared” and thought to have been extrajudicially executed decades ago.
Worker strikes over economic demands hit Iran’s vital petrochemical and oil industries during the last week, prompting one expert to comment that the demise of the regime could start with labor unrest. “Localized strikes and protests are more common than most realize. Generally, they end on their own. But when the collapse of the Islamic Republic begins, it is likely to begin here,” tweeted Norman Roule, who served for 34-years in the Central Intelligence Agency and oversaw Middle East programs. The core economic demands from workers are wage increases, reduced working days, and the end of temporary contracts.
The outcome of Iran’s presidential election is a person infamous for his crimes over three decades hold various offices. With a thesaurus of only 30-40 words Ebrahim Raisi in every meeting, press conference, and circle showed that he not only is not capable to answer the simplest questions expected from someone who becomes the head of the executive branch to run a government but has not any solution for the country’s accumulated crises over the past decades, since the start of the mullahs’ regime.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a 19th century forgery by Russian intelligence services, was designed to scapegoat Jews for the empire’s hardships. It has since fueled more than a century of hate. The Protocols has catalyzed antisemitic harassment, assaults and pogroms, and helped lay the groundwork for the Holocaust. For over a century, the Anti-Defamation League and other experts have warned that The Protocols are nothing but venomous lies and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Something religiously astonishing is taking place in Iran, where an Islamist government has ruled since 1979: Christianity is flourishing. The implications are potentially profound. Consider some testimonials: David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries stated in 2018 that “Iranians have become the most open people to the gospel.” The Christian Broadcast Network found, also in 2018, that “Christianity is growing faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other country.” Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University wrote last year about Iran that “Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran, as it calls itself, is not a republic, but it is Islamic. Here are two definitions to make the point before moving on to a larger point. A Republic is defined by dictionary.com as “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” Iran’s elections put supreme power in religious leaders, not the people. In previous elections when there were public demonstrations in opposition to the government, “the people” were jailed, or murdered by the regime.
اعتراضهای کمسابقه کارگران صنعت نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی در ایران ادامه پیدا کرده و کارکنان چند واحد صنعتی دیگر نیز به اعتصابکنندگان پیوستهاند. معترضان میگویند در صورتی که به خواستههایشان نرسند اعتصاب را گسترش خواهند داد. واحدهای متعدد مرتبط با صنعت نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی در چند استان ایران، از جمله آذربایجانی غربی، ایلام، اصفهان، بوشهر، تهران و خوزستان در این اعتصاب به تعطیلی کشیده شدهاند. یکی از کارگران معترض به سایت رویداد۲۴ گفته است: “کاسه صبر خیلی از کارگران از این شرایط لبریز شده و کمرشان زیر بار نخواندن دخل و خرجشان خم شده
فدراسیون بینالمللی روزنامهنگاران در آخرین گزارش خود اعلام کرد که با پیوستن به اتحادیه ملی روزنامهنگاران بریتانیا و ایرلند، وضعیت روزنامهنگاران ایرانی و فشار حکومت ایران بر روزنامهنگاران فارسیزبان خارج کشور را در نشستی همزمان با جلسه شورای حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد مورد بررسی قرار داده است. به گزارش فدراسیون بینالمللی روزنامهنگاران در این نشست، «آزار و اذیت سیستماتیک» روزنامهنگارانی که در بخش فارسی شبکههای بیبیسی، رادیو فردا و ایراناینترنشنال فعالیت میکنند از سوی مقامهای ایرانی مورد بررسی قرار گرفته است. آنتونی بلانگر، دبیرکل این فدراسیون ضمن اعلام همبستگی با روزنامهنگارانی که به گفته او با «آزار و شکنجه» جمهوری اسلامی ایران، وادار به سکوت میشوند تا شهروندان از حق دسترسی به خبر محروم شوند، خطاب به مقامات ایران گفت: «دولت جدید باید فورا برای جلوگیری از تهدیدها و حملهها اقدام کند
روز شنبه و به مناسبت روز جهانی حمایت از قربانیان شکنجه، سازمان عفو بینالملل در یک گزارش مفصل، به جزئیات شکنجههایی پرداخت که بر برادران نوید افکاری (وحید و حبیب افکاری) در زندان اعمال شده است. برادران افکاری در پی اعتراضات مرداد ۱۳۹۷ در شیراز بازداشت، و به قتل کارمند یک نهاد امنیتی و «محاربه» متهم شدند. نوید به اعدام محکوم شد و حکم او در شهریور گذشته اجرا شد. وحید و حبیب نیز به زندان محکوم شدند. در گزارش عفو بینالملل که با ارائه اسناد مرتبط منتشر شده است، گفته میشود که علاوه بر شکنجههای مداوم و حبس طولانیمدت در سلول انفرادی بدون پنجره»، آنان از دسترسی به تلفن، ملاقات با خانواده، و مراقبت پزشکی نیز محروم بودهاند