Dorothy Parvaz called her fiance on April 28 and told him something he didn’t want to hear: She was going to Syria to report on the uprising and the government’s ruthless efforts to quash it. The Iranian-born Al-Jazeera reporter, who spent her teen years in Canada and studied and worked in the U.S., had been [...]
Following the calling for nationwide student protests on Sunday May 15th, 2011 [25 Ordibehesht, 1390], by student activists at Tehran University and Amir Kabir University and the support by a significant number of other universities, the Facebook page associated with this spontaneous student uprising published a preliminary list (on May 11th, 2011) of universities that [...]
Acid will be dripped into the eyes of an Iranian man sentenced by a court in Tehran to qesas (retribution) on Saturday May 14th. According to reports from the Iranian media Majid Movahedi who was sentenced to retribution by blindness in both eyes after he in 2004 blinded Ameneh Bahrami, the woman who spurned his marriage proposals, will [...]
Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini has accused the Cannes film festival of being political for screening movies by Iranians who back the country’s opposition movement, media reports said on Thursday. The annual festival, which opened on Wednesday, “sometimes takes political positions that we disagree with and condemn,” Hosseini said, referring to films by Jafar Panahi [...]
UNITED NATIONS—Tehran has shipped conventional weapons to Syria in violation of a U.N. arms-export ban, according to a new U.N. report, which also concludes that U.N. sanctions are constraining Iran’s pursuit of materiel for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The report, reviewed Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, says sanctions are working because nations are [...]
The G5+1 says a recent letter from Iran inviting the resumption of nuclear talks with the West is unconvincing and will not lead to a rapprochement. Reuters reports that a spokes woman for Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, announced that Iran’s letter to the G5+1 contains no new developments that could form the [...]
Women’s rights activist Maryam Bahreman was arrested yesterday in Shiraz. Kaleme website reports that Iranian security forces arrived with an arrest warrant at Bahreman’s home and spent three hours searching and confiscating books, documents and a computer before finally arresting her for “activities against national security.” A few days earlier the activist had published a [...]
In an open letter to the Head of the Judiciary and Minister of Intelligence, Seyed Hashem Khastar, retired teacher and prisoner of conscience who has been in prison for close to two years inside Mashad’s Vakilabad Prison without a single day of furlough, described details of his prosecution and imprisonment, including prisoner abuse, unfair trials, [...]
Eight people convicted on drug charges were executed yesterday in the northwestern Iranian cities of Orumiyeh and Miandoab. Human rights activists in western Iran reported on Tuesday May 10 that five people were executed in Orumiyeh and another three in Miandoab. Iran is a close second to China when it comes to the annual number [...]
A decision by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to merge eight government ministries into four has sparked tension with the parliament, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports. The move, which was approved by the government on May 8, entails merging the Industries and Mines Ministry with the Commerce Ministry, and the Housing and Urban Development Ministry with the [...]