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☆ Court in Iran Sentences Prominent Rapper to Death, His Lawyer Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Cassandra Vinograd | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A dissident rapper has been sentenced to death in Iran after releasing music in support of antigovernment demonstrations that rocked the country in 2022, according to his lawyer, in a case that has prompted global condemnation. The rapper, Toomaj Salehi, 33, was one of the most prominent voices among those arrested over nationwide protests against Iran’s clerical rulers after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. Human rights organizations have been calling for Mr. Salehi’s release, saying that he has been tortured in prison and warning that he could face execution. Amir Raesian, Mr. Salehi’s lawyer, told the Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh in an article published on Wednesday that a court in the central city of Isfahan had sentenced Mr. Salehi to death and that his client planned to appeal. The office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran condemned the sentence, calling it another example of “the regime’s brutal abuse of its own citizens, disregard for human rights, and fear of the democratic change the Iranian people seek.”

Persons: Toomaj Salehi, Mahsa Amini, Amir Raesian, Salehi’s, Mr, Salehi, ” Organizations: U.S . Locations: Iran, Iranian, Isfahan

☆ Iran Pardons 4 Environmental Activists to Commemorate Eid al-Fitr, Lawyer Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Yonette Joseph | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Iran has pardoned and begun freeing four environmental activists who spent several years in prison on espionage charges, Iranian state media said on Monday. The pardons were granted to commemorate Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday celebrated at the end of Ramadan, according to their lawyer. Iran has a tradition of freeing prisoners, but not political ones, around religious holidays. Mr. Bayani and Mr. Jokar were freed on Monday, according to images posted by their families on social media. A lawyer for the activists, Hojjat Kermani, said he expected the other two to be freed at a later time.

Persons: Eid, Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar, Sepideh Kashani, Taher Qadirian, Houman Jokar, Bayani, Jokar, Hojjat Kermani Locations: Iran, United States, Iranian

☆ Iran Says 17-Hour Battle With Separatists Leaves 28 Dead in 2 Cities
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

State television broadcast footage of gunmen running in the streets of Sistan Baluchestan Province as loud explosions from rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire rocked the two cities, and large plumes of smoke billowed into the air. Jaish al-Adl, a separatist ethnic Baluch group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Iran’s deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, said on state television that the fighting had raged for hours, from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 3 p.m. the next day. The gunmen entered homes, taking civilians hostage to use as human shields, but security forces released them, he said. The militants wore vests with explosives, and several blew themselves up during the fighting, he added.

Persons: Jaish, Majid Mirahmadi Organizations: Ministry of Interior, ., Adl, Baluch Locations: Sistan Baluchestan Province, United States

☆ Iran Adds Prison Time for Nobel Winner and Frees 2 Journalists on Bail
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Vivian Yee | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Iranian regime sentenced Narges Mohammadi, the jailed human rights activist who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, to 15 more months in prison, her family said on Monday. The news came a day after Iran released the journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi on bail while they appeal their sentences, according to state media. They had been jailed for their coverage of a young woman whose death sparked a nationwide protest movement that challenged the country’s system of authoritarian clerical rule. Ms. Hamedi, 31, reported for the Iranian daily newspaper Shargh from the hospital where the young woman lay dying and shared a photo of her grieving relatives that went viral on social media. She was arrested days after Ms. Amini’s death, and Ms. Mohammadi, who had covered her funeral for the newspaper Hammihan, was arrested a week after that, as protests swept Iran.

Persons: Narges Mohammadi, Niloufar Hamedi, Mohammadi, Mahsa Amini, Hamedi, Amini’s Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Iran

☆ Famed Iranian Rights Lawyer Reportedly Jailed and Beaten
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested and severely beaten, her husband said on Monday — one of several activists taken into custody at the funeral in Tehran of a girl who was fatally injured after a reported confrontation with the enforcers of Iran’s strict dress code for women. The activists were arrested on Sunday at the funeral of Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old who died last week following what many believe was an encounter over not covering her hair on Tehran’s subway, in defiance of the law imposed by the Shiite Islamic government. Ms. Sotoudeh, 60, is renowned for representing women who have not worn a hijab, the traditional head scarf, while in public, and for refusing to wear one herself. She has been imprisoned several times, and most recently had been convicted at a secret trial in 2019 of security-related crimes, but was released in 2021 because she suffers from heart disease and other ailments. Her husband, Reza Khandan, said in an interview she had called him in the middle of the night to tell him what had happened, including that her glasses were broken in custody.

Persons: Nasrin Sotoudeh, Armita, Sotoudeh, Reza Khandan Organizations: Islamic Locations: Tehran

☆ Women’s Rights Activists Rounded Up in Iran as Protest Anniversary Nears
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Leily Nikounazar | Aaron Boxerman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a sweeping operation ahead of an important anniversary, the Iranian authorities have detained at least 12 rights activists, all but one of them women, over the past two days, human rights groups and Iranian media have reported. Hundreds were killed in the ensuing government crackdown, including at least 44 minors, while around 20,000 Iranians were arrested, the United Nations calculated. The arrested activists were rounded up in cities across Iran’s northern Gilan Province, according to HRANA, an Iranian human rights organization. On Thursday, Iranian officials accused the 12 detainees of planning to incite “chaos and vandalism” on the upcoming anniversary of Ms. Amini’s death, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported. According to Fars, which has close ties to the country’s security agencies, the officials also accused the activists of being funded by foreign intelligence and collaborating with Iran International, an opposition television channel based in Washington.

Persons: Amini, “, ”, Sanam Vakil, Amini’s Organizations: United Nations, Chatham House, Fars News Agency, Iran International Locations: Iran, Iran’s, Gilan Province, Iranian, East, North Africa, London, Fars, Washington

When the government in Iran ordered the nation to shut down for two days starting on Wednesday to conserve energy and protect public health because of “unprecedented” broiling summer heat, Iranians and experts alike quickly discerned another, unspoken reason for the enforced holiday. Iran simply does not have enough natural gas, or a strong enough power grid, to keep all the lights on despite sitting on the second-largest reserves of natural gas in the world. And, as skeptical residents pointed out, much of Iran experiences blistering heat every year, especially in the south, which has already endured debilitating temperatures this summer. “I don’t feel any temperature difference at all,” said a 42-year-old bookstore worker named Nima in Tehran, the capital. “This is not unprecedented at all.”

Persons: ”, Nima Locations: Iran, Tehran, “

Iran is once again deploying police officers on the streets to enforce its conservative dress code for women, which many have flouted since the protest movement that rattled the country began last fall, according to state news media and social media posts. Months into the protests, Iran quietly withdrew the morality police from the streets in an apparent concession to try to calm the nationwide upheaval against the government. The protests began last September after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in custody after the morality police accused her of violating the dress code and arrested her on a Tehran street. A spokesman for Iran’s police force, Gen. Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, said on Sunday that effective immediately, police officers would begin patrolling to “deal with those who, unfortunately, regardless of the consequences of dressing outside the norm, still insist on breaking the norm.” He added that the patrols would “expand public security and strengthen the foundation of the family.”He said the police would first warn people caught breaking the hijab law governing dress, which requires women to cover their hair and wear long, loose clothing that hides the shape of their bodies. Those who still refused to comply, he said, would be prosecuted.

Persons: Mahsa Amini, Saeed Montazer al, Mahdi, ” Locations: Iran, Tehran

When a renowned Iranian artist hosted friends at his apartment in Tehran last month, he served, as he did often, a bottle of homemade aragh, a traditional Iranian vodka distilled from raisins, that he had secured from a trusted dealer. His guests and his partner did not drink that evening, so he raised shot glasses to them and drank alone. Within a few hours, the artist, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, 60, felt his vision blur. By the next morning, his sight was gone, he was delirious and short of breath. He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with methanol poisoning from the aragh, according to his partner, Shahrzad Afrashteh.

Persons: Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Shahrzad Afrashteh Locations: Iranian, Tehran

☆ Their Reports About a Woman’s Death Set Off a Revolt. Iran Put Them on Trial.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Vivian Yee | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“They are both full of life and passion, and they were fighting with their journalism to improve women’s lives and status in Iran,” said Amir Hossein, a Tehran-based journalist. “Instead of investigating the causes and the people behind Mahsa Amini’s death,” he added, “the regime began blaming the journalists who brought it to light in the first place.”“What can I say?” Mr. Hossein said. But for many of those involved, an official reckoning goes on: The authorities have executed seven protesters, and at least eight more are on death row. At least 95 journalists have been arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We rarely hear the details” of the abuses of Iranian citizens by the authorities, the citation read.

Persons: ”, Amir Hossein, “, Mahsa, Mr, Hossein, Hamedi, Mohammadi Organizations: Protect Journalists Locations: Iran, Tehran

☆ Iran Targets Businesses to Stop Women Defying Hijab Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Vivian Yee | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The cafe had run afoul of Iranian law by serving women who were not covering their hair with head scarves, they said. Since then, the cafe’s management has been summoned repeatedly by the authorities and ordered to warn customers to wear their scarves. Mohammad, the owner, grudgingly did the bare minimum, putting a sign on the wall telling women to respect the hijab law. Emboldened since the women-led protests that broke out last fall, which turned into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic Republic, growing numbers of Iranian women have started going around without head scarves and wearing Western-style clothes. In Iran, Mohammad said, forcing women to wear the hijab is a lost cause.

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