Iranian dissidents and Iranians living in the Islamic Republic are using the social media phrase “No to the Islamic Republic” to form greater connective tissue between their aspirations for a new society. “Launched in just the last few weeks with a plain but captivating slogan and graphic, the international ‘No to the Islamic Republic!’ (or ‘N2IR’) campaign is a call to any and all who oppose a regime that has left no Iranian family untouched by its evil,“ wrote Mariam Memarsadeghi, an advocate for a democratic Iran, on the website of The Bulwark on Wednesday.
US Congressman Joe Wilson introduced Friday a bill that holds Iran accountable for human rights violations. He issued a statement on introducing the “Iran Human Rights and Accountability Act of 2021,” which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. “I introduced the Iran Human Rights and Accountability Act of 2021, which stands with the people of Iran and their desire to live in freedom and with basic human rights,” the statement read. “I am grateful for the support of Congressmen Jim Banks and Greg Steube on this legislation,” Wilson added.
Swedish-Iranian scientist Ahmadreza Djalali, sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges, is in critical condition and near death after months of prolonged solitary confinement, U.N. human rights experts said on Thursday. “Djalali’s situation is truly horrific,” the experts said. In an appeal calling on Iran to release him, they said he had been held in solitary confinement for more than 100 days, with prison officials shining bright lights in his cell round the clock to deprive him of sleep. “Medical issues have prevented him from eating properly, resulting in dramatic weight loss,” said the experts, who include the U.N. special rapporteurs on the situation in Iran, arbitrary executions, arbitrary detentions and torture.
British-Iranian workers’ rights campaigner Mehran Raoof, 64, has been held in solitary confinement for five months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after he was secretly recorded talking about politics in a cafe, human rights campaigners have revealed. Raoof was arrested at his home in Tehran in October and taken to Evin, where Iran keeps political prisoners and dual nationals. There are frequent allegations of torture at the prison.
The Iranian government in a new inhuman act is exiling female political prisoners to faraway places. But the question is why? What does the totalitarian government fear? Is imprisoning these women not enough. Why so much pressure? On January 24, 2021, the political prisoner Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was transferred from the Qarchak prison to the prison of Amol. On March 9, 2021, the officials of Evin prison in Tehran transferred suddenly Maryam Akbari Monfared to the prison of Semnan during her twelfth year of imprisonment.
According to human rights defenders in Iran, juvenile offender Aydin Delaei Milan is at imminent risk of execution in Iran. The authorities detained him two years ago in Tehran. He is currently 20 years old. In an act of self-defense, Aydin Delaei Milan killed an abuser on September 10, 2018. However, the State Security Forces (SSF) detained him and transferred him to Urmia, the capital of the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan. Although Milan was under the age of 18 at the time of the incident, the judge sentenced him to execution in flagrant defiance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The head of the Iranian Prison Organizations, Mohammad Mehdi Haj Mohammadi, said on March 5 that prisoners were “cheap labour” and could be used by the private sector, according to a report by the state-run ISNA News Agency. During a visit with the East Azerbaijan Governor, Haj Mohammadi, who was appointed to his post in June 2020, said this would be a “win-win” situation for prisoners and businesses, but is this true? Let’s look at the facts.
As Iranians prepare to celebrate Norouz, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling on Iran’s government to grant pardons to the 21 journalists and citizen-journalists it says are “unjustly” imprisoned in the country. The 21 men and women, whose “only crime was to do their duty to report the facts,” are preparing to spend the Persian New Year celebration on March 21 behind bars in Iran, instead of at home with their families, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said in a statement on March 18.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has criticized the British government’s handling of his wife’s detention in Tehran, and accused it of “hiding behind” her dual Iranian-British nationality to downplay the situation. Richard Ratcliffe said London’s approach had allowed “five years of abuse to fester.” His wife’s five-year sentence for spying charges — which she denies — recently drew to an end, but fresh charges were leveled against her on Sunday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iran to stop secretly prosecuting journalists over accusations of spreading fake news. The move comes after three unnamed employees of the country’s Fars News Agency, including a managing director, were convicted on March 14 in secret trials for “spreading false news,” the latest such incident of journalists being targeted by the state.
For the past two months, tens of thousands of impoverished pensioners have poured onto the streets in towns and cities across Iran, angrily protesting about spiralling prices, disintegrating living conditions and a collapsing economy. They have crowded outside government buildings and social security offices demanding answers. But rather than attempting to resolve their grievances, the theocratic regime has reacted in its customary way, sending in the State Security Force (SSF) to crush the protests.
In the past few years, Iran has witnessed waves of popular protests involving large parts of the population making economic and political demands. On 28 December 2017, demonstrations erupted in Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran. The unrest quickly extended to other cities, and continued into 2018. The protesters’ demands focused on the economy at first, but soon included political slogans against the regime.
In an online conference on March 20 and on the occasion of the Persian new year Nowruz, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) delivered a comprehensive speech about the current situation in Iran. In her remarks, Mrs. Rajavi wished a happy Nowruz to all Iranians. She also highlighted the social circumstances of Iran, the achievements of the Iranian people and their resistance movement in the past Persian year, and the prospects for change in Iran in the year to come.
Senior members of U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Relations, Armed Services, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Appropriations, and the Select Committee on Intelligence, joined prominent political figures at a briefing organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) to discuss the fundamentals of an effective U.S. policy on Iran. The event, marking the Iranians’ ancient new year, Nowruz, also addressed many aspects of Tehran’s malign behavior at home and abroad, including abysmal human rights record, terrorism in the region and Europe, and systemic reliance on hostage diplomacy.
مریم معمار صادقی، تحلیلگر و فعال سیاسی و از موسسان و مدیران پیشین «توانا: آموزشکده جامعه مدنی ایران»، در یادداشتی در نشریه اینترنتی «بولوارک» نوشته است قدرت این کارزار از تشخیص این واقعیت می آید که رژیم جمهوری اسلامی قابل اصلاح نیست. معمار صادقی می گوید از زمانی که یک رژیم تمامیت خواه اسلامگرا در سال ۱۳۵۷ بر ایران حکمفرما شد مردم ایران مصیبت های فراوانی را تحمل کردند، اما نتوانستند در قالب یک اپوزیسیون متحد گردهم آیند. دسیسه بازان حاکم از اختلافات ایدئولوژیک، رقابت ها و بی اعتمادی ها سوء استفاده کردند و با دست زدن به ترور رهبران اپوزیسیون و عملیات انتشار اطلاعات غلط چشم انداز افسانه «اصلاح» را جا انداختند. هدف از این کار ایجاد سردرگمی، ارعاب، تضعیف روحیه، انزوا و بی قدرت کردن ایرانی ها در داخل و خارج از ایران بود.
عفو بینالملل در گزارش تازهای با اشاره به اعدام مخفیانه چهار زندانی عرب ایرانی به نامهای جاسم حیدری، علی خسرجی، حسین سیلاوی، و ناصر خفاجیان در زندان سپیدار اهواز، از ابراهیم رئیسی، رئیس قوه قضائیه ایران، خواست اجساد این زندانیان سیاسی به خانوادههایشان تحویل داده شود. سازمان عفو بینالملل روز پنجشنبه ۲۸ اسفند ماه با انتشار این گزارش گفت، مقامات جمهوری اسلامی واقعیت درباره سرنوشت و محل دفن این چهار زندانی سیاسی عرب ایرانی را مخفی نگاه میدارند، از تحویل دادن پیکر آنها به خانوادههایشان خودداری میکنند، حقیقت را در مورد آن بیان نمیکنند، و از این رو به ارتکاب عمل مجرمانه ناپدیدسازی قهری متهم هستند.
دستگاه قضایی جمهوری اسلامی ایران در اسفند سال گذشته، حکم اعدام را برای ۱۹ نفر صادر کرد. فعالان حقوق بشر، صدور و اجرای حکم اعدام را نادیدهگرفتن نقض حق حیات شهروندان میدانند. هرانا در این مورد نوشت: «در ماه سپری شده، حکم اعدام جعفر منصوربیگی در زندان عادل آباد شیراز، احمد سمیعی در زندان لاکان رشت، مریم (معصومه) کریمی در زندان مرکزی رشت، سید فتاح حسینی در زندان بوشهر، فرهاد عبداللهنژاد در زندان دستگرد اصفهان و ۴ زندانی در زندان مشهد اجرا شده است. به عبارت دیگر بیش از ۷۵ درصد اعدام های صورت گرفته در ایران توسط دولت یا نهاد قضایی اطلاع رسانی نمیشوند که نهادهای حقوق بشری اصطلاحا آن را اعدام «مخفیانه» میخوانند..»
شماری از زندانیان سیاسی در ایران اعلام کردهاند که در اعتراض به آنچه ظلم موجود خواندهاند، سه روز اعتصاب غذا میکنند. همزمان بسیاری از خانوادههایی که فرزندانشان را در سالهای گذشته در اعتراضهای سراسری از دست دادهاند، تحویل سال را بر مزار آنها گذراندند. فرین عاصمی گزارش میدهد.