On November 4, the Islamic Republic will again “celebrate” the taking of the US Embassy forty years ago. Regime loyalists will chant “Death to America” and the spectacle will be broadcast around the world, no doubt prompting statements of outrage from the US and other governments.
Women leaders in Iran courageously resisted the tyranny that followed their country’s revolution in 1979. In the 40 years since, Iran’s theocrats have been vindictive toward women who dare to challenge their authority.
The Trump administration’s broad sanctions on Iran have drastically constrained the ability of the country to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines, causing serious hardships for ordinary Iranians and threatening their right to health, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The administration in Washington should take immediate steps to ensure a viable channel exists for trade of humanitarian goods with Iran.
After the Iranian Revolution, in 1979, the theocracy called on women to breed a new Islamic generation. It lowered the marriage age to nine for girls and fourteen for boys; it legalized polygamy and raised the price of birth control. By 1986, the average family had six children.
There was much anticipation, even hope, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in New York for this year’s UN General Assembly meeting. The recent attack on Saudi oil installations, which the United States and its allies blame on Iran, unsettled everyone, and spurred diplomatic efforts to avert war. Perhaps the most active on this front was French President Emmanuel Macron, who conducted his own version of shuttle diplomacy by trying to broker a meeting between Rouhani and U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Rouhani’s truculent UN address, however, should put an end to speculation about such a meeting.
Iran’s President arrived in New York City in September and left, as usual, without meeting the American one. Both Hassan Rouhani and Donald Trump professed an appetite for sitting down and talking over the ever more treacherous rift between their nations. But as Rouhani has pointed out in private, Iran’s top elected official “has no authority in foreign policy.” That authority–and nearly every other strand of power in the Islamic Republic–resides with the elderly cleric who remained 6,000 miles away, in the country he has not left for decades.
Iran’s theocracy and Trumpism have irresolvable power oriented conflicts, but they match each other’s nihilism when it comes to human rights issues.
(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),
