Azadeh Akbari
Contributor
Contributor
An Iranian official at United Nations on Friday denied that the country detains journalists or civil society figures, even as a rights group reported nearly 400 cases of judicial and security actions targeting journalists and media outlets last year.
An annual US State Department report called Iran the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for the 39th year running, accusing Tehran of using its allied armed groups to destabilize the Middle East.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government has prompted rare admissions of setbacks from Iran’s hardline media, with an outlet linked to the IRGC acknowledging losses for Iran's military allies across the region.
Amnesty International has condemned Iran's new compulsory veiling law, saying it intensifies the oppression of women and girls while exposing activists opposing the rules to charges carrying the death penalty.
Iran has carried out an unprecedented number of amputations for theft over the past three years, a punishment based on Islamic law that breaks international human rights laws.
Iran’s new chastity and hijab law has drawn criticism from journalists and activists who warn it represents a new weapon in the state's arsenal against women which could authorize extreme punishments including the death penalty and flogging.
A new report from a US-based rights group drawing on hundreds of interviews over more than two years has documented Iran's systematic denial of accountability and legal redress for killings and other grave human rights abuses.
Iranian citizens warn the country’s new hijab law will tighten restrictions on personal freedoms while also serving as a tool for state-driven financial exploitation.
The number of HIV infections in Iran contracted via sexual intercourse has more than doubled according to the country's top research body in the field, highlighting the theocracy's strict policy toward contraception.
A teenage table tennis player has eluded her team in Denmark and refused to return to Iran, a sport federation said and Iranian media reported, in another likely case of athletes seeking refuge abroad.
Iran conveyed its continued support for the Syrian government on Friday as rebel fighters entered Syria's second-largest city Aleppo for the first time since it was recaptured by government forces in 2016.
The European Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution denouncing human rights violations in Iran, particularly the growing and systematic repression of women, with 562 votes in favor, 2 against, and 30 abstentions.
A senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) was killed in Syria's Aleppo province during an overnight attack by Islamist forces opposed to the Syrian government, Iranian media reported Thursday.
Glasses left behind, a cherished jacket, a shirt bearing the last scent of dead man: the items on display moved many attendees of a unique exhibition on Iranian state repression to tears and tell a painful tale of Iran's suffering.
From behind bars, Iranian rapper and one of the country's most prominent activists Toomaj Salehi pleaded with fellow dissident Hossein Ronaghi to end a hunger strike and not risk death.
At least 711 people have been executed in Iran since January, prompting female political prisoners at Evin prison in Tehran to call on authorities to stop issuing death sentences.
The US special envoy to Iran and international rights groups blamed Iranian authorities on Friday for the suicide of Iranian journalist and activist Kianoosh Sanjari, who faced repeated arrests and underwent years of abuse in custody.
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) urged the United Nations and member states to immediately hold Iranian authorities accountable for a deadly crackdown on protests in 2019 as the fifth anniversary of the uprising approaches.
Iran has subjected its Baha’i community to 45 years of physical violence, imprisonment and denial of education and employment, a new report by a top Iranian human rights organization said.
Retired educators from provinces nationwide gathered outside Tehran’s Ministry of Education on Sunday, protesting unpaid end-of-service compensation and demanding action on delayed pensions.
Prominent activists and human rights advocates have condemned Iranian authorities for labeling a young female student from Tehran's Azad University as mentally ill after she stripped in apparent protest at an assault by security forces over her clothing.
Reza Salmanzadeh, the father of slain teen protester Mehdi Salmanzadeh, has reportedly been transferred to a hospital after a hunger strike and losing consciousness in Ghezel Hesar prison, in Karaj, west of Tehran.
Iranian authorities have intensified a crackdown on journalists and political activists by forcing them to erase social media posts and coerce them into publishing favorable content, sources told Iran International.
Iran has executed at least 531 people this year including twelve prisoners put to death on the eve of the International Day Against the Death Penalty, rights groups reported this week.
Twenty-two female political and ideological prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison have released an open letter demanding an immediate halt to the sexual harassment of inmates during body searches.
Iranian hardline newspapers are ramping up threats against Israel, detailing an extensive list of potential targets Iran will strike if Israel retaliates for last week's ballistic missile barrage.
Forty-seven female political prisoners in Iran's notorious Evin Prison plan a day-long hunger strike to coincide with President Masoud Pezeshkian's debut address at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, sources familiar with the situation told Iran International.
On Saturday, Iranians commemorated the second anniversary of lives lost during one of Tehran's most brutal crackdowns on 2022 anti-state protests, when security forces killed over 50 protesters in a single day.
Iran’s security forces on Wednesday arrested Mina Soltani, the mother of Shahryar Mohammadi, a protester killed during the 2022 protests in Bukan, West Azarbaijan province.
Twelve Afghan nationals were arrested on Friday in southwestern Iran, accused of attempting to "abduct several children and teenagers," according to a statement from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The fourth annual "Iran: Transitional Justice" conference, hosted by the Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR), was held in Oslo on Saturday to discuss Iran's future.
Iranian authorities have ramped up their crackdown on nationwide nurses' protests, resulting in multiple arrests and one nurse falling into a coma after her detention.
Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, urged lawmakers on Saturday to approve his cabinet, emphasizing its commitment to "ensuring the civil rights of all Iranians." However, events that same day sharply contrasted with his message, highlighting ongoing repression.
The family of Arezou Badri, a 31-year-old woman shot by Iran’s police on July 22 for allegedly violating mandatory hijab laws, is under intense government pressure to withdraw their complaint.
In yet another move in its war on women's freedom of choice, Iranian authorities have introduced the Tuba Plan to promote and enforce the country's mandatory hijab laws amid widespread defiance.
In a series of targeted operations in less than two months, Israel has killed five high-ranking members of Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, armed and financed by Iran.
Iranian authorities have accused four women of "armed rebellion", a sentence carrying the death penalty, as the country's execution spree continues.
Following widespread public outcry, Iranian writer and anti-hijab activist Sepideh Rashnu, has had her prison sentence postponed.
A new report has highlighted an alarming trend of increasing femicide cases amid an ongoing pattern of violence against women and girls in Iran.
The Islamic Republic has intensified its pressures on nurses protesting in various parts of Iran for improved working conditions and better wages.
The repression of rappers in Iran continues unabated, with at least three individuals recently arrested, underscoring the ongoing suppression of artistic expression and dissent in Iran.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman formerly imprisoned in Iran criticized Sweden's recent prisoner swap with Iran, leaving behind Swedish-Iranian physician Ahmadreza Djalali on death row in Tehran.
Iran has consumed its thousand-year water reserve in just three decades as the country's environmental crisis worsens.
The families of Flight PS752 victims, downed by IRGC missiles in 2020, say they are outraged by the recent visit of Iran's former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to the graves of victims in Esfahan.
In the absence of independent election polling in Iran, multiple social media channels have launched their own ad-hoc polls, which reveal totally contradictory results depending on who the followers of each channel are.
Sweden's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tobias Billstrom, has publicly acknowledged a significant oversight in travel advisories concerning Iran, following the recent controversial prisoner swap deal with Tehran.
Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi has issued a warning about the deteriorating health of fellow inmate Rezvaneh Khanbeigi, who is in her second trimester of pregnancy.
Despite gross government underreporting, a children’s rights activist and lawyer says official estimates suggest that the actual number of child laborers in Iran exceeds three million.
Fatemeh Sepehri, a prominent Iranian political prisoner and vocal critic of the Islamic Republic who suffers from a heart ailment, has been sentenced to an additional 18 and a half years in prison.
The economic landscape for workers in Tehran is marked by severe hardship, with annual inflation hovering above 40% for five years while wages have only risen marginally.
Iranian law enforcement agencies have recently widened their crackdown on cafes secretly serving alcohol to customers, with two cafes in Tehran province sealed by authorities in the last week.
Farhad Zare, the brother of slain Iranian protester Milad Zare, was arrested on Thursday and transferred to Babol’s Mati Kola Prison in the central-northern part of the country in Mazandaran province.
The court session for jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi was held in branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran without her presence.
Imprisoned Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who has been sentenced to death, was awarded the Václav Havel International Award at the 16th Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway's capital on Tuesday.
The 16th annual Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) commenced on Monday, with a session focused on highlighting the plight of Iranian protesters who lost their eyes and showcasing the efforts of Iranian activists campaigning for democracy and human rights.
The prolonged detention and transfer of four individuals accused in the high-profile 'Ekbatan case' to the notorious Ward 2A of Tehran’s Evin prison has sparked growing concerns amongst rights groups.
Six prisoners, including one who was a minor at the time of his sentencing, were transferred to solitary cells in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Iran on Thursday, in preparation for their execution.
Families of three French citizens arbitrarily imprisoned in Iran without due process of law are urging the United Nations to apply pressure on Tehran for their release.
The Iranian people are being held hostage, dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof told an audience at the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony, after receiving the festival's special award.
Amid funeral ceremonies for President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian authorities are cracking down on the families of dissidents celebrating his death, issuing threats and making arrests.
