Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, a senior Iranian Shia cleric, has expressed his opposition to the proposed second hanging of a convict who did not die after his first hanging. A question was put to Ayatollah Golpayegani about the case of Alireza M., who was recently subjected to execution but later was found alive in the […]
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More than 100 Kurds Arrested in Tehran
Iranian security forces in Tehran arrested more than 100 Yarsani activists today. The Yarsan or Ahl-e Haqq (People of Truth) faith dates back to the 14th century in Iranian Kurdistan and is estimated to have 2 million followers. Its followers are subject to systematic discrimination and oppression by the Iranian state. The activists were […]
List of human rights defenders behind bars
Human rights defenders, including lawyers, women’s rights defenders, trade unionists and activists working to protect ethnic and religious minorities, are in a very precarious situation in Iran.Among those detained are the following members of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), one of the two FIDH member-organisations in Iran: Mohammad Seifzadeh, Abdolfattah Soltaniand Mohammad […]
Pressure against human rights defenders continues
While international relationships between Iran and western countries have been warming up, progress on human rights remains to be seen. Dozens of human rights defenders continue to serve prison sentences and dozens of others are awaiting court decisions in retaliation for their human rights work. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, […]
Khomeini’s Granddaughter Quits Facebook Over War Joke
Heard the one about the ayatollah who wanted to marry war widows? It’s the type of joke that doesn’t get many laughs in Iran, even if told by the grandest ayatollah of them all — Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic. The 1980-88 war with Iraq remains a painful memory for Iranians, […]
Rohani urges Swiss to advance nuclear negotiations
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has received the new Swiss Ambassador to Tehran, Giulio Haas, expressing Iran’s will to reach a win-win situation in negotiations with world powers. The Iranian president added that the Swiss government could be instrumental in acting as more than just a host to the nuclear talks and he called on […]
Detained opposition leader’s wife appeals to president
Fatemeh Karroubi has appealed to the Iranian president to clarify the legal basis for the incarceration of her husband, Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist candidate who challenged the authenticity of the vote count in the 2009 presidential election. In a letter addressed to Hassan Rohani on October 19, Fatemeh Karroubi writes that the troubles her […]
Iranian violin master dies at age 93
Mahmoud Zolfonoon, the Iranian violin master, has passed away at the age of 93 in the United States. A student of Iranian music legends Ruhollah Khaleghi and Abolhassan Saba, Zolfonoon studied at Iran’s National Conservatory of Music. In the 1940s, he joined National Radio Broadcasting and soon after the National Music Orchestra. Later, he […]
Imprisoned lawyer is hospitalized in Tehran heart hospital
Mohammad Seifzade the imprisoned lawyer in Rajaie Shahr prison of Karaj has been hospitalized in Tehran heart hospital since Tuesday. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Mohammad Seifzade was transferred to Tehran heart hospital on October 15, 2013 as heart problems appeared and then hospitalized there. A […]
Ill and long isolated, Iranian opposition leaders scent freedom
Four months after President Hassan Rouhani’s election, Iran is reviewing the house arrest of two opposition leaders, but conservatives may fear the consequences of freeing men who remain heroes to many Iranians. Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, candidates who led the “Green Movement” that disputed the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have never been […]