January 11, 2017—The public funeral of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on January 10, 2017, has led to an outpouring in Tehran of public calls for the release of opposition leaders held under house arrest and political prisoners, in a resurgence of support for reformist issues that have been harshly suppressed in Iran for the last decade.
Archive for Human Rights
Rafsanjani’s Death Reshuffles the Political Deck in Iran
Iranian Activist Ends Hunger Strike as Wife Is Released From Prison
Arash Sadeghi
The New York Times – By RICK GLADSTONE – Jan.03 2017 – An imprisoned political activist in Iran who began a hunger strike more than two months ago to protest the incarceration of his wife halted the fast on Tuesday when the judicial authorities released her at least temporarily, rights groups and Iranian news media reported.
Six Years into Extrajudicial House Arrest, Green Movement Leaders Still Asking for Trial
December 13, 2016—The Judiciary should carry out its latest “promise—or threat” to put former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who has been under extrajudicial house arrest since 2011, on trial, said his son Mohammad Taghi Karroubi.
Former Italian Ambassador to Iran Denounces Detention of Iranian-American Dual National and Wife
“Much more is at stake than the personal freedom of two outstanding, patriotic Iranian citizens” says Ambassador
In a public letter the former Italian Ambassador to Iran, Roberto Toscano, condemned the arrest and now three-month detention of dual Iranian-American citizen Karan Vafadari and his wife, Afarin Niasari, whom he called among “the most dignified people I have met during the five years I spent as Italy’s ambassador to Tehran.”
Unite to fight violence against women!
2016.11.18 – We, women have all experienced the wounds of violence. At home, in school and in society, from the moment that we have come to know ourselves as the second gender, as a woman, violence has entered our lives – daily violence that appears to be natural, always with some kind of cultural, traditional, psychological, biological, legal or religious justification. Even we ourselves who have been the target of violence have become used to it. The violence is not only an act damaging our bodies and endangering our lives.
Reject impunity: Don’t withdraw from the ICC
Declaration of FIDH and more than 100 Member and Partner Organisations (List below)
Stop the Execution of Zeinab
Zeinab Sekanvand
10.25.2016 – Zeinab Sekanvand another young Iranian woman from Kurdistan region is set to be executed by the Islamic regime of Iran. She is accused of killing her husband. When she was arrested, only 17 was held in the police station and tortured by male police officers for weeks to make her confess to the killing. Zeinab was denied access to a lawyer until the very
last minute before her unfair trail. In court she refused to plead guilty but made a shocking statement that the brother of her husband who had raped her many times was responsible for the murder.
Iran’s Judiciary Should Release Siamak and Baquer Namazi and Allow Them Full Defense in Appeals Court
Siamak and Baquer Namazi
October 25, 2016—The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran calls on Iran’s Judiciary to immediately release on bail the unjustly imprisoned Iranian-American dual citizens Siamak Namazi and his father, Bagher Namazi, and allow them to prepare for the Appeals Court with legal counsel and full due process.
CHILD BRIDE FACES EXECUTION BY HANGING IN IRAN
Stop Zeinab’s execution now!
Amnesty International UK – Zeinab was 15 when she left her family to marry Hossein. She thought the marriage was her only chance to escape poverty. Soon after the wedding, Hossein started beating Zeinab- she asked for a divorce, but he refused. She told police, but they Ignored her. She ran away, but her family disowned her.
Iran: Call for prosecution of perpetrators of 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners
In the summer of 1988, in a matter of a few months, 30,000 political prisoners were massacred upon a fatwa by Khomeini, the Iranian regime’s leader. Based on this fatwa, all the prisoners who were still loyal to the opposition People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and refused to renounce it were executed. Many of the victims were serving their sentences or had even finished them. The fatwa was subsequently extended to other prisoners.
