Iran: survive

EU is very concerned about the situation of religious minorities in Iran.
The EU is deeply concerned by the arrests since April of Iranian converts to christianity and members of the Baha'i community. It calls for their immediate release and the cessation of all forms of violence and discrimination against them.
There have been many reports that people belonging to the Christian, Baha'i, Sufi and Sunni minorities in Iran are regularly suffering forms of persecution such as confiscation of property, desecration of their places of worship, imprisonment and numerous acts of violence, including some life threatening.



In Khash, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, a public prosecutor survived an assault by gunmen.
The gunmen escaped, the prosecutor was only slightly injured.


In Mahabad, Kurdistan province, a sunni cleric has been assassinated when he returned after morning prayers.
Two unknown gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on the cleric.
According to the prosecutor it is not clear whether the assassination was politically motivated or was the result of personal disputes.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: educate

Baluchistan Human Rights Watch and Sunnionline.com report that August 27 a sunni religious school with 800 students was demolished.
September 7 and 10th, the following human rights activists were arrested:
Abdoulrahman Shahbakhsh (The brother of Moulavi Hafez Mohammad Ali, the headmaster of Imam Abuhanifa sunni religious school).
Noor Mohammad Shahbakhsh (The brother of Moulavi Hafez Mohammad Ali, the headmaster of Imam Abuhanifa sunni religious school).
Abdoulkarim (The nephew of Moulavi Hafez Mohammad Ali, the headmaster of Imam Abuhanifa sunni religious school).
Abdoulghader Naroui
Azizullah Naroui
Mohammad Hossein Khalili
Mohammad Reza Rakhshani
According to ISNA 26 baloch were arrested in recent weeks.


A law for new visas who came in effect July 29th in United Arab Emirates, has stranded some 5000 people on Kish Island, most of them Philippine nationals.
Those who wish to apply for a new visit visa after their visa expires must return to their home country and stay there for one month before being issued another visa.
The procedure takes at least a month.
Since the Philippines are situated in Asia, most people travel to neighbouring countries like Oman and Iran.
Tourist companies are misleading people by telling them that they can renew the visas once they expire, but this is not true.


According to the National council of Resistance of Iran, hospitals in Iran resell the donated blood to patients.
It was revealed when some patients with needs for operations found extra charges on their final bill for blood they received from the hospitals.
It has been a tradition for most Iranians to donate blood as means to help people in need.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: interpretation

According to daily Etemad Melli,this weeks resigned director of Central Bank of Iran, Tahmasab Mazaheri, warned president Ahmadinejad against policies which further stoke inflation, which is 27% already. The growth of money supply and a surge in cash injection to the economy have been, according to him, the main cause of inflation.
His replacement came after a political struggle about financial policies, especially interest rates and loans to financial institutions.
Mazaheri favoured in his one year function freeing up bank rates, coupled with tight controls on lending policy, to reduce inflation.
President Ahmadinejad wants to reduce unemployment by supporting small loans for small production units but critics say that it raises inflation rather than creating new jobs the beneficiaries of such subsidies have often spent the money on other things.


The Iranian privatization law has come following its publication in the Official Gazette in late August and is expected to expand the private sector.
The law, which framework was outlined by the Supreme Leader is named:
"The Law Amending Certain Articles of the Fourth Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Implementation of the General Policies of Principle 44 of the Constitution"



In an interview with New York Times said president Ahmadinejad that no minors are executed in Iran.
He said that Iranian law sets 18 as the criminally liable age for capital punishment. He also said that sometimes figures in reports get confused with the execution of drug traffickers.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: reason

Two Iranians who were abducted in Afghanistan have been released after a ransom has been paid.
The two men, who are employees of an Iranian constructioncompany from Iran, were abducted August 14, while they were traveling from the western city of Herat to Islam Qala on the border with Iran.
In Afghanistan people are kidnapped, either by the Taliban or by criminal gangs seeking ransom.
According to the provincial criminal investigation's police there had been at least 22 cases of kidnapping for ransom in Herat in the past six months.


Sourena Hashemi, Bahram Vahedi and Ali-Reza Firouzi are banned from registering for university of Zanjan by the disciplinary committee.
The 3 banned students were involved at the sit-in protests in the university in June, which were ignited since the university's vice-president charged with vetting students' conduct tried to sexually harass a female student.
A parliamentarian and the university promised not to pursue any disciplinary or scholastic actions against participating students.
Nevertheless a number of students were arrested and later released on bail.



According to the newspaper Asre Iran former president Khatami's speech has been censored while aired live on state television (IRIB).
ISNA published a different version of the speech on its website, IRIB denied, accusing ISNA of distorting the ex-president’s words.
A tape adresses that IRIB cut off some sentences, bitterly critical of government.
ISNA quotes Khatami as saying it is not right to squander national assets
“in the name of justice”. These last words were pruned by IRIB.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: conceptions

The Coalition of Human Rights Advocates in Iran reports that political prisoner Sayed Mostafa Alavi-Jodaei is transferred from Rajaei prison in Karaj to section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran.
His wherabouts were kept secret for more then one week, and the authorities refuse to give him access to his vitally important medications for his heart condition.
There is no clear indication as to why he was transferred to section 209 in Evin prison.




A man, Mojtaba, and a woman, Tahere, are sentenced to death by a court in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan province, for adultery and the murder of the woman's husband.
In 2007 they killed the husband of Tahere and are sentenced to death. There was still no punishment for the adultery. In Iran adultery is punished by dead through stoning.
Human rights organization are concerned that Tahere and Mojtaba could be facing death by stoning. Although Iranian justice has recently said that "stoning as punishment is suspended in Iran", Human rights defenders are concerned that other methods of execution could replace stoning.


According to the site "Iranian human rights activists" Nemat Safavi (20) is sentenced to death for "lavat" (sexual acts between men).The sentence is now sent to the supreme court for final approval.
In 2006 Nemat was arrested, which makes him a minor offender.
The same site reports that Hamzeh Chavi (19), and Loghman Hamzehpour (20),were sentenced to death by a court in Sardasht in Februar 2008 for sexual acts between men.


GlobalVoicesOnline writes that the Association of Iranian American Writers have published a website. On this website are news,a blog, profiles and excerpts of Iranian American writers.


The daily Kargozaran reports that Branch 21 of the court of appeal in Tehran confirmed that the sentence of a six-month imprisonment and 10 lashes for Nasrin Afzali,is suspended.
In March 2008 she was arrested along with other women after they were not allowed to be at a courtsession, and transferred to Evinprison.
The women were charged with gathering and collusion, endangering national security, disturbing the peace and resisting a police order.
The women were ultimately sent to Branch 13 of the revolutionary court, where a number of women were put on trial and then were found innocent and released, and a number of accused women, received six months imprisonment and 10 lashes for disturbing the peace.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: future

The Iranian parliament approved the new penal law,calling for a mandatory death sentence for apostates, or those who leave Islam.
Also according to other points of this law, extrasensory individuals, fortune-tellers and homosexuals will be sentenced to death.
The law passed with 196 votes for the law, 7 against, 2 votes abstained.
Two men converted to Christianity were arrested in Shiraz in May this year. The court demands death sentence for them.



Iran has banned the import of all Chinese dairy products. In China died 50.000 babies of contaminated baby milk.
Iran does not import directly powdered milk from China and a ban has now been placed on Chinese products containing milk.


The director of the Iranian National Tax Administration announced that VAT (value added tax) has been enforced as of September 22.
VAT is an efficient way to fight against money laundering.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) considers VAT enforcement a prerequisite for the WTO membership.



Many NGO's supporting children’s rights believe child abuse cases have increased at an alarming rate within the recent years.
According to statistics from Protecting the Rights of Children organization , childabuse increased with 3.5% in compare to the previous year.These statistics have been prepared by the society and are not a true reflection of the actual data.
According to an expert on social issues a study in 2001 in Tehran said that 31 percent of students in middle school had been molested sexually in some shape or form. Similar studies in other cities have shown a larger percentage of various forms of abuses.
Despite this, people active in this area believe that the collection of reports on all forms of child abuse is overshadowed by cultural and traditional barriers.
Iran has no steady or regulated program for reporting and data collection.
The chairman of the Child Protection Society said that in 1996 10% of children between 10 and 18 years were employed.In 2006 the number had increased to 12.7 percent, which translated to 1,660,000 children.
Farshid Yazdani told ISNA that considering population statistics and the number of students, presently there are 3,600,000 children who are outside of the school system.

In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: writing is combining words

According to Amir Kabir Newsletter, the arrested students of the Teacher Training School, unit Karaj Mohammad Sharifi, Amin Arya and Sivan Farokhzadi,are released based on a recognition of guarantors.
The students were among a group of students who protested in the Teacher Training School (Karaj unit) to student-related issues, for which school authorities promised that none of the participating students would be prosecuted.
However, school authorities broke their promises and more than 40 students were to appear before disciplinary committees and, many of the students were arrested.



GlobalVoicesOnline writes that Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad,who was arrested various times for reporting about arrested bloggers in Iran and was detained for 20 months, used google-earth to show his prison in Iran.





The British charge d'affaires in Tehran has been summoned to Iran's foreign ministry over the recent arsonattack on the Iranian embassy in London.
Mondaynight the door of the embassy was damaged by a Molotowcocktail.
Nobody got hurt, the police is investigating the case.



Former president of Iran Mohammad Khatami said to members of the Coordination Council of Reforms Front that the reason he did not announce his decision to run for presidency yet, is the fact he still considers how his presence in the elections can impact the current trend.
Khatami also asked the members of the reformists camp not to insist on nominating a particular candidate as a representative of the whole front.
Another prominent reformist politician and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi said that he would soon announce his final decision about running in the election.
Karroubi thinks that the reformist alliance needs to nominate a single candidate. He also says that this decision must be made in a general, after various reformist parties or groups have introduced their candidates, started their campaigns and evaluated their chances.
Iran's presidential election will be held on June 12, 2009.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: shirk

Ebrahim Mehrnahad (16) is in Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province convicted by the Revolutionary Courts to 5 years in prison, from which 2 years are conditional.
He has been found guilty with "attempts against the nations security".
He was not allowed to have acces to a defence-lawyer.
He is in prison since March and he was fysically and mentally abused.
He is the younger brother from Yaghoub Mehrnahad, who was hanged in August after he was convicted of having links to the violent rebel group Jundallah (Soldiers of God).
Others say that Yaghoub Mehrnahad was a student journalist who also chaired a regional civil rights group named the Voice of Justice..
Ebrahim Mehrnahad blogged about his brother and mediated news about him.

The deathsentences to which the court in Rasht, Gilan province, spoke against Mahyar Haghgoo and his mother Maryam are approved by the Supreme Court.
When he was 17-year-old Mahyar killed his father in 2004.His father, an alcoholic, was beating up his mother. Suffering from temporary insanity , he and his mother killed his father.


The website Tabnak wrote Friday that the spokesman of State Security Forces (SSF) said that 61 people were arrested and 157 people were warned for eating in public.
Four restaurants were sealed for selling food in the morning hours.
Seven drivers were stopped and their vehicles towed away for eating while driving.
Eating in public is considered a serious violation of the law in the month of Ramadan in Iran.
Only passengers with a valid airline, train or bus ticket are allowed to eat.



Iran's great demand for water,that is being drawn out of aquifers far faster than it can be replenished, is according to a new study the cause of sunken farmland, and cracked buildings.
Estimates suggest the water levels in Iranian ground have declined by an average of nearly half a meter every year over the last 15 years.
Satellite radar observations—collected by GFZ, the German Research Centre for Geosciences based in Potsdam, Germany, show the severity of the situation.
Satellite radar images of the land surface dating back to 1997 compared with water level data, has shown that water withdrawal from aquifers is creating a major dilemma.
Iran is a dry country,and only 10 percent of the country receives enough rainfall to meet its needs.
The remainder of the country is heavily reliant on groundwater, with around 50 percent of Iran's water being supplied by aquifers. Growth of population and agricultural-technical and economical development increased water usage.
But the aquifers have not been able to keep up, some aquifers need thousands of years to fill up.
Farmers have to dig deeper wells every year and cracks are appearing in buildings, roads, and pipelines in cities.
Earthquakes can be more dangerous because loose soil makes the ground shake more easily.
A solution can be found like in San Francisco USA, who imports their water elsewhere from the mountains.
It is expected that water problems are likely to become an issue in many Middle Eastern countries.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: count

Iran Human Rights said that Rooz Online writes that the prosecutor in the city of Mash-had announced Tuesday that in prison of Mashhad alone there were 500 death row inmates convicted of drug dealing.
There is also an increase in the consumption of drugs and alcoholic beverages.
No further details were given but he said that the 500 convicts are being kept seperate from other convicts with death punishment.
In the middle of August the public relationdepartment of the judiciary in Khorasan Rasavi said that 4400 people were arrested in drugsrelated cases.
The head of police in the city of Dshtestan, Bushehr province announced that with a population of 250,000, the number of death row inmates in the jails stands at 150 people.




1340 Iranian civil and political activists issued a statement condemning the media accusations launched against Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.
Especially Kayhan Daily and the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), have engaged in malicious libel against Ms. Ebadi.
They remind government officials that in accordance with article 20, 22, and 23 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as Article 3 of the International Declaration of Human Rights, of which the Iranian government is a signatory, that the right to judicial and political security, the right to life and dignity, and human rights in general, including the right to freedom of expression and thought, are among the national and international commitments of the government.
The original statement and view the signatures in Farsi are here.



According to Farsnews, half of all internetusers in the Middle East are situated in Iran. Iran ranks 2nd in the Middle East with this.
Also, Iran has about 465,000 broadband users, more than any other country in the Middle East except for Israel.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: (re)move

Saturday night Iran has set the clock back for wintertime.
This means the clock has been set back for one hour.
Iran time is three and a half hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).



The chief of Iran's Central Bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri has resigned.
He will be replaced by Mahmoud Bahmani.
a senior government official said to Press-TV that it will be announced on Sunday. on condition of anonymity that .


During a meeting held by the teachers’ union center in the residence of one of the center members located in section 4 of Tehran, security agents detained more than ten individuals.
Teachers from other cities were also invitees.The arrested were all members of the coordinating council of teachers across the country, the arrests were made by plainclothed agents.
Although no clear information about the identity of the arrestants is known,they include
Mr. Akbari, Mr. Baghani, Mr. Beheshti, Mr. Niknejad, Mr. Iaynalzadeh,Mr. Noori, Mr. Ghoraishian, Mr. Falahi.



According to Amir Kabir Newsletter, several students of Teacher Training School in Tehran were arrested last week.
Last week inspector Hoseini repeatedly threathened the students that they have to appear for the revolutionary court in Karaj.
Sivan Farokhzadi had to appear before the revolutionary court in Karaj and later was arrested.
Last Tuesday, Amin Arya and Amin Shojae, two other students of the Teachers Training University in Tehran, had to appear before the court in Karaj and were later detained.
Monday evening, Mohammad Sharifi, was picked up by plainclothes security agents on the premises of the university and arrested.



More then 270 people in Marivan, civil rights activists, students and journalists announced their support of the hunger strike by Kurdish political prisoners and activists. They went in hungerstrike to protest the tortures, executions and bad treatment of Kurdish prisoners.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: official and unofficial

The Iranian team managed to win in the Paralympics 14 medals.
The 73-man team got five golden, six silver and three bronze medals.
Iran ranks with this 22nd.
Friday, the team returned to Tehran from Beijing and was welcomed by sportsofficials and compatriots.


Thursday, four members of Iranian security forces, including a general got killed during clashes in Sistan-e-Baluchestan.
The fightings were in Nosratabad region, north of Zahedan.
According to Fars newsagency, several rebels were also killed.




In Azerbaijan province are Faraz Zehtab, Aydin Khajei, Sajjad Radmehr and former student Daryush Khatami, who still serves in military unit imprisoned for two months now.
The official representative of Committee for Protection of South Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in the South Azerbaijan told Trend News that the arrested are kept in the prison of the Iranian National Security Ministry. They are not allowed to meet with their relatives or to contact lawyers.
The secretary of the Islamic Unity organization in Tabriz and two students were arrested September 17th in Tabriz. Unofficial information says the arrested are kept in the temporary isolation cell in Tabriz.
September 9th are Alireza Sarrafi and 18 Azerbaijani, arrested during a break of the fast, amongst the arrested wellknown journalists and tutors.
At present, an unknown number of national activists, students, journalists and intellectuals are jailed in Azerbaijan province.



In GlobalVoicesOnline it says that Iranian blogger Emroozina writes (fa) that President Ahmadinejad recently stated there are "only" 600.000 drugsaddicts in Iran.
Other authorities talk about three million addicted people where one million of them are under 19 years old.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl