RSF report coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power [Reuters TV]
Iran arrested, imprisoned or killed at least 860 journalists in the three decades after the 1979 Islamic revolution, according to documents leaked to media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Forough Farrokhzad near Tehran circa 1966. She was one of Iran’s pre-eminent mid-20th-century writers, both reviled and revered for her poems. Ebrahim Golestan
Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, we’re adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times.
Jan. 30, 2019, The New York Times, By Amir-Hussein Radjy,
When a radio interviewer suggested to the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad that her verses could be characterized as “feminine,” she rejected the notion.
“What is important is humanity, not being a man or a woman,” she said. “If a poem can get to that point, it is no longer connected with its creator but with a world of poetry.”
January 30, 2019, By Shirzad Bozormehr and Eliza Mackintosh, CNN – Dog-walking has reportedly been banned from public places in Iran’s capital.
“Certain people who bring their dogs to public places cause panic and anxiety among the public,” Tehran’s chief of police Hossein Rahimi told state news agency Young Journalists Club, or YJC. He added that local police have obtained permission from the judiciary to confront dog owners walking their pets in public.
First Half of Indictment Lacks Evidence, Relies on Statements Made Under Extreme Duress
January 30, 2019 – In their first trial session since being detained in Iran one year ago, eight conservationists learned today that the first half of their indictment is based on one detainee’s retracted forced “confessions.”
Part of the 300-page indictment was read today to defendants Houman Jowkar, Taher Ghadirian, Morad Tahbaz, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh in their closed-door trial on January 30, 2019, at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.
January 29, 2019 – CBS . Phoenix —The mother of a veteran detained in Iran is calling for his immediate release. Michael White, 46, has been in an Iranian prison for more than six months.
Journalists, lawyers, minority rights activists and anti-hijab protesters among those held
Teargas fills the air as Iranian students clash with riot police during an anti-government protest at the University of Tehran. Photograph: EPA
Thu. 24. Jan.2014 Guardian-Iranian authorities arrested more than 7,000 dissidents last year in a sweeping crackdown that led to hundreds being jailed or flogged, at least 26 protesters being killed, and nine people dying in custody amid suspicious circumstances, according to Amnesty International.
January 24, 2019 – Some of the conservationists who have been imprisoned incommunicado in Iran for the past year have been forced to confess under the threat of death, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.
Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami Denied Right to a Public Trial
January 22, 2019 – Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami have both been sentenced to six years imprisonment in Iran and banned from leaving the country or engaging in online activities for two years for peacefully protesting the country’s compulsory hijab law.
Iranian asylum seeker Fardin Gholami poses for a photograph in Liverpool, Britain January 14, 2019. Picture taken January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Andrew Yates
JANUARY 23, 2019 – LIVERPOOL (Reuters) -Bozorgmehr Sharafedin – The traffickers told Fardin Gholami that a fishing boat would take him from France to England at midnight, but when he and five other Iranian asylum seekers got to the beach, all they found was an inflatable dinghy with nobody to sail it.
17 January 1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini announces that he plans to set up a provisional government leading to an Islamic Republic
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Empress Farah at Mehrabad Airport, Tehran, 16 January 1979. Photograph: AP
17 January 2019 – The Guardian – Iranians erupted in a frenzy of rejoicing yesterday at the news that the Shah, who has ruled them for 37 years, had finally left the country.
The cities resounded with a chorus of hundreds of thousands of car horns, crowds danced through the streets, yelling incessantly and tearing down symbols of the monarchy and the raised fist was the gesture of the day.
