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Tag: Iran

  • Video: Eiffel Tower lights up in solidarity with Iranian women

    Thousands of people participated in a march on Monday in Strasbourg, France, to show support for the Iranian opposition movement in favour of women’s rights.

    The famous Eiffel Tower became part of the demonstration as well as the landmark was illuminated with pro-Iranian demonstrators and pro-women activists’ messages.


    “Woman. Life. Freedom” and “StopExecutionsInIran,” were displayed on the tower.

    The protests in Iran were triggered after Mahsa Amini, died on September 16, 2022, while being held by the morality police for allegedly breaking a rigorously adhered-to Islamic clothing code. This incident served as the impetus for the protests in Iran. Despite widespread criticism, Iran has arrested many people for crimes connected to the uprising started by Mahsa Amini’s killing..

  • Activist daughter of former Iranian president sentenced to five years in prison in Iran

    Activist daughter of former Iranian president sentenced to five years in prison in Iran

    The daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani daughter, activist Faezeh Hashemi, has been sentenced to five years in prison in Iran.

    The lawyer did not give details of the charges against Faezeh Hashemi. However, Tehran’s public prosecutor indicted Hashemi last year on charges of “propaganda against the system”, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

    It was reported that Faezeh had been arrested for “inciting riots” in Tehran during protests triggered by the death of a young Kurdish woman in police custody.

    “Following the arrest of Ms Faezeh Hashemi, she was sentenced to five years in prison but the sentence is not final,” defence lawyer Neda Shams wrote on her Twitter account.

    In 2012, Faezeh Hashemi was sentenced to jail and banned from political activities for “anti state propaganda” dating back to the 2009 disputed presidential election.

  • Women must wear mandatory headscarves in cars: Iranian police issues warning

    Women must wear mandatory headscarves in cars: Iranian police issues warning

    Iranian police have resumed warnings that women must wear mandatory headscarves, including in cars.

    “The removal of hijab has been observed in your vehicle: It is necessary to respect the norms of the society and make sure this action is not repeated,” read a message reportedly sent by police and posted on social media, AFP reported.

    Iran’s morality police — known as Gasht-e Ershad, or “Guidance Patrol” — have a mandate to enter public areas to check on the implementation of the country’s strict dress code.

    Widespread demonstrations have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini in 2022 after she was arrested in Tehran. She was taken into custody for not wearing the hijab properly, thus, breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women.

  • Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani sentenced to death for supporting women’s rights and ‘basic freedom’

    Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani sentenced to death for supporting women’s rights and ‘basic freedom’

    Iranian footballer Amir Reza Nasr Azadani has been sentenced to death after he was arrested last month for participating in worldwide protests against the country’s clerical establishment.

    Azadani was arrested in connection to the deaths of three security personnel during protests in Isfahan and accused of waging war against God, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

    The 26-year-old Iranian league footballer is among at least 27 other Iranians facing death sentences in connection to the protests that have engulfed the country for almost three months.

    Two of those men — Majidreza Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari, both 23 years old — were publicly hanged this month.

    The world union of professional footballers, FIFPRO, said it was “shocked and sickened” by Azadani’s sentencing “after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country.”

    “We stand in solidarity with Amir and call for the immediate removal of his punishment,” the organisation wrote on Twitter.

    Prominent current and former footballers expressed solidarity and called for executions to end.

    Former Iranian international star Ali Karimi and Iran’s World Cup team goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand used their social media platforms to call for the sentence to be revoked and an end to executions.

    Asadollah Jafari, the judiciary chief of Isfahan, was quoted by local media as saying that Mr Azadani was a member of an “armed group that operated in a networked and organised manner with the intent of fighting the basis of the Islamic Republic establishment.”

  • Iran abolishes ‘morality police’

    Iran abolishes ‘morality police’

    After more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s strict female dress code, Iran’s local media said on Sunday that the country has suspended it’s morality police.


    “Gasht-e-Ershad,” which translates as “guidance patrols,” and is widely known as the “morality police,” was a unit of Iran’s police force established under former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


    “Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary,” and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said while answering a question from a participant at a religious conference.


    The announcement to disband the “morality police” came just a day after Montazeri told local reporters that “Both parliament and the judiciary are working [on the issue],” on whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed.

    Following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September, the country has witnessed daily rallies, primarily spearheaded by women, calling for an end to the rule of hard-line clerics.

  • Pakistan engaged in severe violations of religious freedom: US

    Pakistan engaged in severe violations of religious freedom: US

    The United States (US) has placed Pakistan on a list of countries that are “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” during 2022.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this on Friday and said, “Around the world, governments and non-state actors harass, threaten, jail, and even kill individuals on account of their beliefs.”

    He noted that the US will not stand by in the face of these abuses.

    Apart from Pakistan, the US has placed China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and others. However, Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam are on the Special Watch List for engaging in, or tolerating, severe violations of religious freedom.

    This is not the first time that Pakistan is on the list of religious freedom violators.

    The Trump administration first placed Pakistan on this list in December 2018 and retained it in 2020 as well. The Biden administration, which came to office in January last year, retained the old list with some changes, but kept Pakistan on it.

  • At least 50 minors killed in Iran over participating in protests

    At least 50 minors killed in Iran over participating in protests

    The Iranian government’s crackdown on demonstrators asking for social freedom and political change that has rocked the country for the past two months has had a severe impact on the country’s youth, reports The New York Times.

    Human rights advocates and lawyers familiar with the situation have talked about the affect on the country, where the average age of protestors is said to be just 15-years-old. In an effort to quell dissent, authorities have raided schools and carried out arrests, beatings in custody, shootings and killing of protestors on the streets. The lives of countless others have been disrupted in other ways.

    The authorities are targeting thousands of minors under the age of 18, for taking part in the protests. Human rights groups in Iran have said that at least 50 minors have been killed by government authorities since the protests started.

    Following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, in the custody of the morality police in September, the country has witnessed daily rallies, primarily spearheaded by women, calling for an end to the rule of hard-line clerics.

  • ‘No state, entity, individual has the right to decide’: Malala comes out in support of Iranian women protesting against forced Hijab

    ‘No state, entity, individual has the right to decide’: Malala comes out in support of Iranian women protesting against forced Hijab

    Nobel laureate and social activist Malala Yousafzai has shared a video message to show solidarity with the women of Iran who are protesting for their rights.


    “No state, entity, individual has the right to decide what a woman should do with her body, what she should wear and how she should wear,” said Malala in the video message.
    “To the Iranian girls and young women who are in the streets to demand freedom and safety: You are already changing the world with your courage,” she wrote in the caption of the video.


    “Zan! Zendigi! Azadi! Women! Life! Freedom,” she added.

    Widespread protests have taken hold of Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who breathed her last in September after being arrested by a police unit responsible for forcing Iran’s strict dress code for women. She was taken into custody for not complying with hijab rules.


    Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran. Photographs of Mahsa lying in a hospital bed went viral, showing the young woman in a coma with her head wrapped in bandages and breathing through tubes.


    Since then, protests have spread across the country, including Tehran, Mashad,  Esfahan, Rasht, Keramn, Chabahar and Sanandaj. Human rights agencies have said that over 244 protestors, including 32 children, have been killed by security forces while 12,500 have been arrested.

  • Musician ‘Iranian sisters’ sing Bella Ciao in solidarity with Masha Amini

    Musician ‘Iranian sisters’ sing Bella Ciao in solidarity with Masha Amini

    Two Iranian sisters have sung a Persian version of revolutionary Italian folk song “Bella Ciao” in response to Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran.

    The two Iranian sisters, Samin and Behin Bolouri, recorded the Persian version of Bella Ciao and uploaded it on Instagram.

    The translated version of the caption read: “We are not awake until tomorrow.”

    The video has garnered over five million views.

    Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman breathed her last days after being arrested by a police unit responsible for forcing Iran’s strict dress code for women. She was taken into custody for not complying with hijab rules.

    Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran on Tuesday. Photographs of Mahsa lying in a hospital bed have gone viral, showing the young woman in a coma with her head wrapped in bandages and breathing through tubes.

    #MahsaAmini became one of the top hashtags on Persian-language Twitter as Iranians fumed over the death of Amini. Later, women in Iran protested against the death of Amini by setting their hijabs on fire. Her death has sparked widespread protests in Iran.

    At least 70 people have died in protests and over 1,200 have been arrested following Amini’s death.

  • Iran President declines interview by CNN anchor who refuses to wear hijab

    Iran President declines interview by CNN anchor who refuses to wear hijab

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi didn’t turn up for a CNN interview when the interviewer, Christiane Amanpour, refused to wear a hijab during the taping.

    Amanpour took to Twitter to explain the incident, stating that the interview was long planned and this would have been President Raisi’s first-ever interview on US soil. However, things didn’t go as planned.

    “An aide came over and said that the President is suggesting that I wear a headscarf because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar”, she said while adding that the aide made it clear that the “Interview would not happen if Amanpour did not wear a headscarf”.

    She said that she “politely declined”, stressing that she was in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. “I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I interviewed them outside Iran,” she pointed out.

    The journalist concluded by saying that because of the situation going on in Iran, it would have been an “important moment” to speak with President Raisi

    “And so we walked away. The interview didn’t happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi.”

    Anti-government protests erupted across Iran last week over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody, after having been arrested by Iran’s morality police on an accusation of violating the law on head scarves.

    However, Iranian officials have claimed that Amini died after suffering a “heart attack” and falling into a coma, but her family has said she had no pre-existing heart condition.

    Following the incident, thousands of people have taken to the streets. In the videos which are circulating on social media, women can be seen cutting their hair and burning their hijabs as a protest. According to media outlets, at least eight people have been killed in the demonstrations.

    It is pertinent to mention that since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it has been compulsory for women to wear the hijab in Iran.