Iran: Salman Rushdie threatened by flames of religious extremism

The American Pen Association has reacted to a recent measure by a group of 40 Iran-linked media outlets. This media group, associated to Hassan Rouhani’s government, announced last week that $600,000 have been added to the $2.8 million already set to carry out the fatwa issued for murdering the Iranian-British writer.

The American Pen Association said in response to this measure that threats against Rushdie will not influence the writer’s will to write, speak out or defend the text written by another individual that is targeted.

A joint statement issued by the American Pen Association, the International Pen Association and the UK Pen Association expresses disappointment of the effort Iranian regime media outlets resort to threaten Rushdie. The new financial award that has been added to this old threat is a vain effort to provoke the flames of religious extremism and hatred, the said.

Iran: army commander concerned of ‘soft war’

Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, commander of the ground forces of the Iranian regime’s army said with concerns, “Currently there are over 30,000 satellites in the atmosphere, and 160 of which are Farsi language channels. In Iran 18,000 channels can be received free of charge.”

“We must take seriously the soft war launched by the enemy, including America, and prepare our families for this matter,” he added on Thursday, March 3^rd in a speech in Zahedan, southeast Iran.

The Iranian regime has time and against expressed its concern over people’s access to social media, the Internet and satellite TV which can provide more information and knowledge for the entire society and pave the grounds for protests and popular protests.

90 mines closed, 2,700 miners out of worker, Iran official says

The Statistics Center in Iran issued a report announcing 90 mines were closed from March 2014 to March 2015, leading to 2,700 minters losing their lives.

These numbers were gathered as 170 statistics agents went to around 6,400 mines across the country. The number of mines under work in the abovementioned period saw a decrease of 90 mines in comparison to a similar period the year before. The number of miners also decreased by 2,771.

Iran: 4 women commit suicide in span of few days

A woman working for section 13 of Tehran municipality threw herself off the second floor of the municipality building on Wednesday, March 1^st, and unfortunately lost her life.

“This woman, identified with the initial ‘H’, threw herself off the second floor at 7:30 pm at Wednesday, March 2^nd, after exiting her manager’s room. The young woman, whose husband also works in the municipality, committed suicide due to problems at work,” state-run media reported.

Furthermore, on Tuesday, March 1^st, three single sisters in one home in Tehran’s Nezam Abad district committed suicide by opening a gas hose. They unfortunately lost their lives.

Last week two women and one man in the cities of Tehran, Minudasht and Saghez committed suicide and unfortunately lost their lives. The increasing number of suicides in Iran under the mullahs’ rule is the result of poverty, unemployment and oppression, especially amongst women.

Harassment of political prisoners in Evin

To humiliate the political prisoners, Tavassoli, a chief warden in Evin prison‘s section 7 has mixed them with drug addict inmates. Tavassoli is using fraud and armed robbery prisoners to degrade political prisoners there by calling them as spies or traitors to their country.

Brawl between suppressive Guards and Arab street venders in Ahwaz

A brawl broke out when government forces decided to disperse Iranian Arab citizens who were trying to make their living by peddling in Abdohamid Bazar of Ahwaz, in Iran’s south west county of Khuzestan. Peddlers started fighting back when Security forces used batons against them. Some of the Arab peddlers were arrested,

Most of street venders in Iran are university graduates who cannot find jobs due to Iran’s devastated economy. 

Amnesty International: Iranian Juvenile Offender faces death

Amnesty International reported on March 2^nd that an Iranian juvenile offender Amir Amrollahi has been sentenced to death for the second time, after a retrial and following a decade in prison. Amir was 16 years old at the time of the crime in November 2005,

Beside Amir Amrollahi, at least seven other juvenile offenders – Salar Shadizadi, Hamid Ahmadi, Sajad Sanjari, Siavash Mahmoudi, Himan Uraminejad, Amanj Veisee, and Fatemeh Salbehi –have been sentenced to death in Iran.

Fatemeh Salbehi, who was 17 years old at the time of the commission of the crime, was executed in October 2015.

Amnesty International has recorded at least 73 executions of juvenile offenders between 2005 and 2015. According to the UN at least 160 juvenile offenders are now on death row.