(New York, NY) – Earlier this week, Iranian officials reportedly arrested three relatives of journalist, author, and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad. PEN America said the arrests of Alireza Alinejad, Hadi Lotfi, and Leila Lotfi are likely retaliatory against Alinejad for her work calling for women’s rights and an alarming and reprehensible attack on free expression.
Iranian authorities have arrested three family members of Masih Alinejad, a prominent US-based Iranian journalist and activist as retribution for her women’s rights activism, Amnesty International revealed today.
The European Parliament, – having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran, notably those concerning human rights, in particular those of 14 March 2019 on Iran, notably the case of human rights defenders(1), of 13 December 2018 on Iran, notably the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh(2), of 31 May 2018 on the situation of imprisoned EU-Iranian dual nationals in Iran(3), of 25 October 2016 on the EU strategy towards Iran after the nuclear agreement(4), of 3 April 2014 on the EU strategy towards Iran(5), of 8 October 2015 on the death penalty(6) and of 17 November 2011 on Iran – recent cases of human rights violations(7),
The death of Sahar Khodayari, a woman who set herself on fire in Tehran because she thought she would have to serve jail time for trying to watch a soccer match, has put the spotlight on the costs of a discriminatory state policy that Iranian women have been protesting for decades.
Harsh verdicts issued against journalists and political activists show that the cost of advocacy for reform and civil liberties is still high in Iran despite pledges by moderate President Hassan Rouhani to change the status quo.
Four months after being arrested while covering a Labor Day protest, Journalist Marzieh Amiri has been sentenced to 10.5 years in prison and 148 lashes by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. If upheld upon appeal, Amiri, a reporter for the reformist Shargh newspaper in Tehran, would have to serve at least six years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by a new wave of arrests and interrogations of women journalists since the start of August in Iran. The Islamic Republic is now the world’s biggest jailer of women journalists, with a total of ten currently held.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is due in Sweden on August 20 and 21 to meet with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and representatives of the Swedish Parliament and some international peacekeeping bodies to discuss Yemen and to safeguard the Iran Nuclear deal also known as The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
An Iranian-born Canadian resident has returned to British Columbia after being imprisoned and allegedly tortured in his home country for 11 years.
Recent statements by Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, advisor to Iran’s head of the judiciary and a former minister of justice, defending the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988 provide shocking confirmation of the authorities’ wilful flouting of international human rights law both at the time and now and a stark reminder of the sense of impunity that senior officials linked to the killings enjoy, Amnesty International said today.
