Iran

September 4, 2015

Political motivations are taking precedence over the law when it comes to activists such as Bahareh Hedayat, who is being kept in prison despite the completion of her sentence, legal expert Mohammad Oliaei-Fard told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

2 June 2015

The sentencing of Iranian artist and activist Atena Farghadani to more than 12 years in prison – far in excess of the statutory maximum punishment for the charges she faced – is a terrible injustice, and a violation her rights to free expression and association, Amnesty International said.

Following the announcement that the ban against women in stadiums would stay in tact, two Friday imams have called for Iranians to pursue  “religious and revolutionary values” in their daily lives.

“The idea of letting women to go to sport stadiums to watch matches has many immoral and negative social consequences,” said Hassan Mosleh during his sermon in Borazjan, Bushehr province, on Friday, 17 April.

TEHRAN — In a major shift, Iran announced Saturday that women would be allowed to attend big sporting events, reversing a rule that had barred them from entering stadiums to watch matches attended by men.

Women in Iran could face significant restrictions on their use of contraceptives and be further excluded from the labour market unless they have had a child, if two proposed laws are approved, says a new report by Amnesty International published today.

Shahindokht Molaverdi, the head of women's and family affairs, told the eighth meeting of women's affairs advisors and executives that she feels she is completely blocked from taking any action in her governmental capacity.

Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh is protesting every day against a court decision banning her from practicing law for three years. On 25 November police interrogated her for seven hours after she demonstrated against acid attacks on women in Isfahan, but this has not deterred her personal protest.

On today, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, WLUML networker Elahe Amani reflects on the recent spate of acid attacks on women in Isfahan, Iran.

by Parastou Hassouri | published November 10, 2014 - 2:31pm

The decision to leave your country, especially when you leave for political or ideological reasons, can be gut-wrenching. My parents made that decision for me when they left Iran in my early adolescence. Unlike some Iranians forced to flee, my parents were not members of a persecuted religious minority. Nor were they high-profile political activists at immediate risk of arrest. But as people who had demonstrated against the Shah’s dictatorship, and had hoped that the 1979 revolution would bring democracy and social justice to Iran, witnessing their country plunge into authoritarianism and turn into a theocracy was more than they could bear. It was like the country they knew and hoped for no longer existed. Add to that the fact that, in September 1980, Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Iran, igniting a cruel war that would last eight years, and my parents felt that the best option for them, my two sisters and me was to build a future elsewhere. It was a decision that tormented them as they made it, and continued to occupy their thoughts for years after emigration.

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