Iran: Maryam Naghash Zargaran returned to Evin Prison

Christian prisoner Maryam Naghash Zargaran returned to the women’s ward of Evin on June 27, 2016, without completing her medical treatment.

 The Prosecutor's Office refused to extend the medical leave for this severely ill prisoner of conscience and forced her back to prison by threatening to confiscate her bail.

Maryam Naghash Zargaran was granted a medical leave on June 6, 2016, after 11 days of hunger strike when she protested the undetermined state of her case, deprivation from medical treatment, and cancellation of her conditional release.

This new Christian convert was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment on the charge of acting against national security. Her charges have not been officially relayed to her, but she is presently serving the four years in Evin's women's ward.

Originally published here:
http://www.women.ncr-iran.org/index.php/iran-women-news/2822-iran-maryam-naghash-zargaran-returned-to-evin-prison

Political prisoner writes to UN about abuses in Iran

Iranian political prisoner, Hassan Sadeqi, who is currently behind bars in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of the Iranian capital, has written an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council protesting the authorities’ refusal to allow him to visit his wife imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Iran: silent army of unemployed people will topple the regime

Neglecting population and housing numbers in the past few years, and lack of adequate planning by the government, have led to a major unemployment crisis in the society, in a way that one can say a silent army of unemployed people will lead to the toppling of any government, warned Secretary-General of Iran’s House of Economics.

“For each college student we must consider two unemployed individuals with lesser education. This means in the next few years we need to create 15 million new jobs,” Massoud Daneshmand said.

“Around $70,000 dollars is needed for every new job; meaning we need a budget of $10 billion to have the college students graduating in the next few years entering the job market not end up unemployed. The government cannot provide for such a budget and there is a need for foreign investment,” he continued.

Iran: IRGC training special terrorist units in Farur Island

IRGC admits training foreign terrorist in “special Nedsa unit”

On Monday, June 6^th the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Navy admitted Iran is training foreign troops to carry out terrorist attacks abroad.

“Our special unit was both in operation and training mode, providing training in a wide variety of fields for various forces inside the country and abroad receiving training especially focused for special units…” Fadawi said in an interview with the IRGC-associated Fars news agency. “Foreign troops who could not speak Farsi would only repeat what their instructors were saying over and over again.”

Iran: regime officials terrified of consequences of public lashes

Iran: Inhumane lashing in public

Exposing regime crimes more important than ever before

Lashing by the repressive apparatus is nothing new in Iran, existing from day one of the mullahs’ regime. The question is why has the lashing of Ghazvin University students, and the deprived Agh Darre miners of Takkab, gained so much attention and sparked such domestic abhorrence and international condemnation?

The truth is that oppression, including lashing, has been one of the main pillars of the mullahs’ regime in Iran seen across the country ever since this regime rose to power. However, in these recent measures, the mullahs have expanded lashing against other walks of life as a systematic method. This includes lashing hardworking miners, continuously arresting and lashing youths, college students and women.

Iran: mullahs officially cancel this year’s Hajj for Iranians

Iranian people’s religious beliefs taken hostage by ruling mullahs

 Iranian Guidance Minister Ali Jannati announced the official cancellation of this year’s Hajj pilgrimage for the Iranian people, adding Iran will not be sending any pilgrim to Saudi Arabia for this year’ Hajj ceremonies. This comes at a time when Iran had previously agreed and signed a draft agreement on the Hajj pilgrimage rituals in Saudi Arabia.

Jannati in flip-sided remarks claimed there was a deliberate intention seen from the Saudi side to officially prevent Iranian pilgrims from taking part in this year’s traditional gathering, and Iran needed to take a clear stance in this regard.

Iran: more than 70% of architecture graduates are unemployed

Increasing unemployment crisis in Iran – “We youths are unemployed”

More than 70% of Iran’s construction graduates are unemployed, according to remarks made by the chair of the Architect Guild Center.

“We have fallen asleep and lost any sense of time, and our architecture community has lost its effectiveness. If up to last year 60% of our architecture graduates were unemployed, these statistics have now reached above 70%,” said Mohammad Reza Noruzian in an interview with Mehr news agency, associated to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.

Iran: mullahs terrified of expanding social media websites

 Iranian regime terrified of growing use of social media

Mullahs in the city of Qom, central Iran, have expressed serious concerns regarding the expanding use of social websites, especially by youths in Iran, and calling for firm measures by the regime’s judiciary.

“Each day hundreds of websites and networks are busy spreading rumors against religious issues, and providing blasphemy to our youths...,” said Mullah Mesbah Yazdi, a known member of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. “Therefore, we must constantly identify the intellectual dangers threatening our youths, and/or at least hold intimate talks with them to understand their questions and/or provide convincing answers for them.”

Mullah Makarem Shirazi also expressed his concerns over the expansion of social media networks.

Iran: RSF express Distress over fate of journalists in Evin prison

Iran is the biggest prison for journalists

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is outraged by the lack of transparency and denial of justice surrounding the hospitalization of Mohammad Sedegh Kaboodvand, a journalist on hunger strike since 8 May in protest against his continuing detention and the judicial harassment to which he has been subjected in recent months

Kaboodvand was taken to hospital on 21 May after collapsing in his cell in Tehran’s Evin prison but, after 24 hours of observation, he was returned to his cell. His family was able to visit him today but he was very weak and was unable to remain standing. He is continuing his hunger strike and his condition is very worrying.

Iranian students threw a graduation dance party. It cost them 99 lashes each.

Iran: 99 lashes, cost of graduation party

See the complete story in Washington Post

It happens behind closed doors in Iran all the time: Young people get together to play music, flirt and generally relax, hidden away from hard-liners who definitely would not approve. Mostly, the parties wrap up without incident: the guys cleaning up any incriminating clues, the girls putting their headscarves back on. Then they all go their separate ways.

This time, however, someone tipped off authorities that a group of students was throwing a bash to celebrate graduation. More than 30 were taken into custody. Their punishment: 99 lashes each.

The report by Iran’s Mizan News Agency gave no details about the students, their ages, their school, or when the arrests took place. But it noted that lashings were carried out with almost unprecedented swiftness: within less than 24 hours after officials raided the villa on the outskirts of Qazvin, a small city about 80 miles northwest of Tehran.

Iran: Narges Mohammadi in solitary confinement – pain & suffering far beyond prison

Political prisoner Narges Mohammadi – A human rights advocate in solitary confinement

Narges Mohammadi, political prisoner and human rights advocate in Iran, has recently been sentenced by the mullahs’ so-called judiciary system to another 10 years behind bars. Mohammadi has in a letter to the Pen Association unveiled the extremely critical situation of solitary confinement detentions in Iran under the mullahs’ rule.

Iran: juvenile executions must be stopped

Fear of imminent mass executions of juvenile offenders

Seven juvenile offenders are planned to be executed by Iranian regime

The Iranian regime in yet another brutal measure has transferred 7 

juvenile offender to the solitary confinement for imminent execution.

As a step prior to carrying out executions, the fundamentalist regime of Iran moves the death row inmates to the solitary confinement a day or days before the sentence is carried out. The 7 are in what is called by Iranian people as Gohardasht prison or as it is called by the regime the Rajaie-shahr prison located some 20 miles northwest of Tehran in the city of Karaj. 

Iran: Hard-Liners Crack Down on Models Not Wearing Head Scarves

Originaly posted in New York Times

TEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary unleashed one of its periodic crackdowns on social media permissiveness on Sunday, announcing the arrest of eight people involved in online modeling without a mandatory head scarf and questioning another woman, a former model, live on state television on Sunday.

A blogger, Mehdi Abutorabi, 53, who managed a publishing tool called Persian Blog, was also detained, the semiofficial student news agency ISNA reported Monday.

The former model, Elham Arab, 26, had been something of an Instagram star, posting pictures of herself in bridal gowns with eye-catching, dyed-blond hair. But on Sunday, months after her Instagram account had been shut down, she wore a pious black scarf and matching gloves as she was questioned by two prosecutors during a live television program.

Iran: Regime is arresting women posing without headscarves online

Iran regime arrests women with loose hijab

Iranian police have arrested eight people in a new crackdown on women who post images of themselves online without their hair covered, state media reported Monday, part of a larger cultural struggle in the Islamic Republic over the country's future.
The arrests are part of a wider crackdown on artists, poets, journalists, bloggers and activists.
The arrests and harsh sentences handed down signal that hard-liners in the police and judiciary, who were unable to stop the accord and fear looser social norms will weaken their power on the public.

Iran: Warning! 5 million educated unemployed Iranians

 

More and more young men becoming unemployed in Iran

Reza Rahmani, chair of the Iranian Parliament Industrial Commission said, “All industrial ministries must get to work because the unemployment alarm has been sounded, because in addition to the other unemployed people, we now have more than 5 million educated unemployed people across the country.”

Speaking on Saturday night in the regime’s Chamber of Commerce session in the city of Tabriz (northwest Iran), Rahmani said Iran is now 117^th in the world in employment.

Iran: Women workers suffering under mullahs’ rule

Today’s world has witnessed significant developments and changes regarding women’s status and conditions in various aspects of our society. The increasing number of educated women, evolving knowledge and levels of learning have rendered a mounting demand for women’s presence in the job market. This development can be the source of widespread social and cultural changes. In Iran, however, it is an entirely different story.

Iran is world primary state sponsor of terrorism, says prominent UK think-tank

Originally Posted by: Vijeta Uniyal

May 12, 2016

One year after the Obama-backed Nuclear Deal came into effect, Islamic Republic of Iran remains the leading sponsor of international terrorism, says a policy paper published by British policy think-tank Henry Jackson Society. According to the report released on Wednesday at the House of Lords in London, Iran maintains a large and lucrative illegal financing network to bypass the remaining sanction that are in place to stop Tehran from funding terrorist outfits and regime.

Iran: growing number of suicides amongst youth

The painful and unfortunate tragedy of numerous suicides in Iran have been gradually on the rise in the past few weeks, with the main reason behind this social phenomenon being widespread poverty and a new wave of hopelessness the people face in Iran under the mullahs’ rule. One may conclude that unfortunately suicide in Iran is considered the last method of protest for the people. When people sees no prospect for the evaluation and resolution of the never-ending dilemmas in a society ruled by fundamentalist mullahs, this is how the youth react and show their protest to the incompetence and repressive measures imposed by the ruling elite.

IRAN: CRACKDOWNS CONTINUE DISPITE RELEASE OF SOME POLITICAL PRISONERS

The Associated Press reports that on Tuesday, the cartoonist and social activist Atena Farghadani had been released from Evin Prison, in line with an earlier reduction of her sentence from a staggering 12 years to only 18 months.

However, despite the greatly diminished punishment, human rights advocates lament the fact that the appeals court upheld any punishment whatsoever, given that her charges were based on her having drawn and shared a cartoon depicting Iranian officials as animals in order to protest policies that restricted the rights of women and greatly reduced access to birth control.

IRANIAN PRISONER KNOWN AS A LEADING LADY FOR JOURNALIST

In a ceremony in Paris on May 2, Reporters Without Borders declared four journalists to be heroes and heroines of 2016; amongst them was Ms. Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian political prisoner, lawyer, and human rights activist.

During this ceremony, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo expressed her support for all those who work for freedom of expression. She presented City of Paris medals to the chosen journalists and praised their endeavors, saying that the gates of the French capital will always be open to them.

Mohammadi has been arrested many times for her human rights activities. She was last arrested on 5 May 2015 at her home by judicial security agents without prior notice and was transferred to the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran. The arrest initiated a six-year prison sentence that had already been handed down in March 2011.