Free Narjis Mohammadi!

One of the faces of women’s rights defenders in Iran is currently behind bars. Narjis Mohammadi has been in detention for more than 2 months and her physical condition is deteriorating. Prison officials prevent her access to the necessary medicines she needs. 
In the most recent development in her detention case, 650 civil activists signed a letter calling for her release and access to her lawyer.

Iran: protest

Report on recent protests across Iran [including photos]

Tehran- a large number of Sheikh Hadi neighborhood residents rallied and protested their telephones being cut off for a long time. This terrified regime officials in the area and they promised to resolve the matter in order to stop the people’s rage.
On Saturday, June 27 workers of the Abyek Cement Factory in Ghazvin Province rallied for the second time protesting officials not living up to their promises to pay the workers outstanding paychecks from the year before. This rally was staged along with drivers of this company.

On Saturday, June 27 contract employees of the Social Security Department in the southwestern city of Ilam, workers of the Avini cultural group in Sanandaj, and employees of the Village Communications Company in Birjand staged rallies protesting their low living conditions and very minimum paychecks.

 

On this same day a group of drivers belonging to the West Zagros Feedstuff Company in the western city of Kermanshah rallied and demanded their paychecks which they haven’t received in the past 3 months. They have promised to not return to work until they are paid.

 Nurses protest!

Iran’s nurses have since yesterday morning staged a protest gathering. In June many nurses gathered outside Hamadan’s medical science department, expressing their protest to their unpaid wages, tough work conditions and lack of job security.
After the passing of a month, on June 31st we once again witnessed the nurses’ protest gathering outside the medical science university. Physicians, hospital staff, laboratory staff and hospital nurses in Hamadan gathered in protest to the implementation of the ‘Qasedak’ plan in the health ministry. They chanted: “enough talking, act!”
On June 30th, hundreds of nurses in Tehran took to the streets to shout their protest to poor work and living conditions.
On 29 June, nurses in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz, Yazd and Chalous, staged gatherings in protest to low wages and poor living conditions.
On this day the city of Tabriz witnessed the gathering of many nurses. They gathered at various hospitals in this city, including the Razi, Madani, Sina and Shohada hospitals.

What are the nurses protesting to?
After the Rouhani government came to office, a plan was implemented in the ministry of health called “paying on basis of conduct”. This plan raised the protest of many nurses.
The nurses say that agents affiliated to the government, instead of implementing the “nursing service tariff” plan that was ratified by the parliament 8 years ago, have implemented the “payment on basis of conduct” plan. This plan has completely violated the nurses’ rights.
Contrary to the remarks of the health ministry that said nurses will be paid upon their work hours and performance, in this plan individuals affiliated to the regime will take home large sums of money, yet the country’s nurses will not receive what they deserve!
The nurses say that their only hope is the country’s nursing system that must support them. Yet currently, the nursing system is hand in hand with the ministry of health and this ministry is acting against the nurses.

Iran: youths arrested by regime in Ahvaz, Khorramshahr

On Thursday and Friday, July 25th and 26th, the two cities of Ahvaz and Khorramshahr witnessed 7 individuals being arrested under various mullah-fabricated charges. The names of these individuals are:
Mohammad al-Mazhaji – Ahmad Marazi – Hadi Marwani – Malek al-Mash’ali – Ahmad Tamimi – Ali Suleimani – Kazem Khalfi
These youths were transferred to Ahvaz’ Karoon Prison after their arrest. 
A number of other youths were arrested and transferred to unknown locations, of which there is still no information.

University professor: 100,000 women are annually fired from the job market

In the Iranian society women are step by step pushed towards letting go all social activities and staying at home.
The government has implemented this policy in the area of job opportunities, opportunity for free social activities and the development of women in the cultural arena.
In this regard, a university professor, says: annually 100,000 women are fired from the job market. According to official stats, 74,000 women after using their pregnancy leave of absence were fired from work. Therefore, one can say that all in all some 900,000 women have been fired from work during this period.
The conditions of divorce in the society are at a point where the rate of divorced women has turned into a national security issue.
Some have estimated it at 6 million women.
Women’s educational condition in Iran is horrible. Professor Sadeqi says:
According to official stats, some 10% of girls between the ages of 6 to 17 are deprived of education. This includes almost 700 to 800 thousand girls. 20% of girls never make it to high school.

(ISNA News Agency – June 31, 2015)

Iran: 54 death row inmates write letter demanding justice

54 death row inmates in unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison wrote a letter calling on the Iranian people, others around the globe and human rights organizations to place efforts to have their death sentences revoked.
This letter emphasizes on inhumane pressures and tortures imposed in the mullahs’ torture dungeons: “It is the main elements and billionaire state officials that are importing trucks and more trucks full of drugs into the country!
“99% of all prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison are from the deprived and hungry people belonging to the lower class poor people living in south-central areas of urban areas. We call on the noble Iranian people and the world, along with human rights organizations to help us innocent people. We are unable to announce our names considering the imminent threat of our execution.”

Iranian authorities’ arguments in defence of amputation expose outrageous inhumanity: Amnesty International

 Amnesty International has condemned the amputation of fingers of two young Iranian prisoners in the city of Mashhad in on Sunday 28 June.

“These brutal punishments flagrantly violate international law and there is no place for them in the criminal justice system. The punishment of amputation is torture, a crime under international law,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday, 1 July.

“However, Iran’s Penal Code continues to prescribe corporal punishments, such as amputation, flogging and blinding, which violate the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. Under Article 278 of Iran’s Penal Code, the punishment for first-time theft is ‘amputation of the full length of four fingers of the right hand of the thief in such a manner that the thumb and palm of the hand remain.’ Theft for the second time is punishable by ‘amputation of the left foot in such a manner that half of the sole and part of the place of anointing [during religious ablution] remain.’ Third and fourth time offenders are punished with life imprisonment and the death penalty, respectively. “

“Iranian authorities have on numerous occasions defended amputation, including in public, as the best punishment for deterring theft and regretted that they cannot practice it as widely as they would like to because of international condemnation. A month ago, Ayatollah Naeem Abadi, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in southern Hormozgan Province, bemoaned, during a speech in Mashhad, that amputation sentences are not firmly implemented ‘when security can be restored in society by cutting off a few fingers.’ “

“Dismissing the concerns of the UN Human Rights Council about the practice, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s Human Rights Council, denied, in October 2010, that corporal punishments such as amputation, flogging and stoning amount to torture and claimed that they are “culturally justified”.  

“Far from providing any semblance of justice and order, the authorities’ arguments in defence of amputation expose the outrageous inhumanity of a criminal justice system that is bent on enforcing cruelty.”

IRAQ: Depriving Iranian dissidents of basic needs enters third week

Iraqi forces stationed in Camp Liberty, which houses thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq, On Monday and Tuesday, June 29 and 30, 2015 continued refusing to allow delivery of basic necessities purchased by the residents which have been held at the camp entrance since two weeks ago.

Preventing entry of items that include ventilators and Spare parts for camp’s ice-making machines has already created much problem for the residents living in temporarily metal trailer units in the hot summer weather conditions.

The Iraqi forces who refuse to hand over the items work on the order of an Iraqi governmental committee which is controlled by Iraqi National Security Advisor Faleh Fayyad.

The residents and their representatives have constantly taken up the issue daily with UNAMI monitors and have protested the logistical siege of the camp, but no effective measures have been taken.

Depriving residents of basic human needs is a violation of humanitarian and human rights standards, as well as many international covenants, and a criminal act meriting prosecution.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations and the U.S. government that have repeatedly and in writing committed themselves to the wellbeing and security of Camp Liberty residents, as well as the European Union and its member states, to adopt immediate measures to end this antihuman siege.