Abuse of 11-Year-Old Child Bride in Iran Sees Some Lawmakers Calling for Reforms

*Editor’s Note: This story includes disturbing details.

News of an 11-year-old girl in the Iranian city of Ilam being repeatedly raped after being illegally married off to a man four times her age has renewed protests by some members of Parliament against the law that allows child marriage.

The child, referred to by the pseudo name of “Raha” by media outlets, was placed in the care of the State Welfare Organization (SWO) following the intervention of a provincial prosecutor because the marriage had taken place without the approval of a local court as required by civil law.

Cyberattacks on Iranian Online Businesses Expose State’s Failed Digital Security Promises

Government Touted “National Information Network” by Promising Improved Digital Protections

At least 20 digital media and financial companies in Iran were targeted with DDoS attacks in February 2019, highlighting the government’s inability to deliver promised protections to citizens or stop the current round of attacks, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks aim to make a website unavailable and are typically used when the attacker is trying to prevent dissemination of information released on a website.

Intelligence Ministry Threatens Families of Labor Activists Bakhsi, Qoliyan With Prosecution

The Intelligence Ministry in the city of Shush, southwestern Iran, summoned the families of detained labor activist Esmail Bakhshi and freelance reporter Sepideh Qoliyan and warned them not to speak to the media, the worker’s union of the nearby Haft Tappeh sugar mill reported on February 21, 2019.

“The intelligence officials told the families that the two prisoners had lied about being tortured and asked them to calm the media,” said the report on the union’s Telegram messaging app channel. “The families have also been threatened with prosecution.

Subjecting friends, family members and lawyers of defendants held in politically sensitive cases to various forms of harassment and intimidation is common in Iran to prevent them from speaking to media outlets.

Concert Cancellations Continue in Mashhad Due to Intolerance by Religious Conservatives

A concert by the popular Persian pop band Hoorosh was canceled by judicial order an hour before show time on February 20, 2019, in the city of Firouzeh, northeastern Iran, after a powerful local ayatollah pressured the authorities.

In Semnan, 110 miles east of Tehran, some journalists were also prevented from covering a concert by another band, Rastak, because a state official believes their music is too “happy.”

Abolfazl Hakimpour, the acting governor of Firouzeh, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on February 20 that Hoorosh’s concert was canceled even though “all necessary permits had been obtained and there was no problem for the performance.”

Ten Detained Political Activists and Environmentalists Denied Counsel in Iran’s Kurdistan Province

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Ten political activists and environmentalists arrested in Iran’s Kurdistan Province between December 31, 2018, and January 6, 2019, are being held at the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in the city of Sanandaj while being denied access to legal counsel and contact with family members.

Eight of the detainees are members of the Kurdish branch of the Iran National Unity Party (INUP) and two others had allegedly engaged in peaceful environmental activism, a party source with knowledge about their cases told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) February 5.

As of February 5, they had only been allowed to make one phone call to their families, said the source who asked not to be identified for security reasons.

Unable to Move His Arm, Arash Sadeghi Denied Hospitalization for Infected Biopsy Wound

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

“What’s certain is that he needs to be urgently hospitalized”

Arash Sadeghi, a political prisoner in Iran, has lost the ability to move his right arm due to an infection on his shoulder that has been left untreated in Rajaee Shahr Prison, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.

“After the biopsy, the assigned doctor prescribed monthly hospital visits to check his tumor and stop its growth,” said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“But the head of Rajaee Shahr Prison always comes up with some excuse to prevent Sadeghi’s transfer to the hospital.

“He can’t control the movement of his arm and the infection on the spot of his surgery is getting worse every day,” added the source. “The doctor in the prison’s clinic says that he should be dispatched to a hospital to get the tumor examined and if it doesn’t stop growing, he would need chemotherapy, which would require long-term hospitalization.”

Sugar Mill Workers Call for International Action to Free Detained Colleagues Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan Pressured to Retract Torture Allegations

A union representing workers of the Haft Tappeh sugar mill in the Iranian city of Shush, Khuzestan Province, has called on individuals and international organizations to demand the release of union representative Esmail Bakhshi and freelance reporter Sepideh Qoliyan from the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in Ahvaz.

“We are aware that in the past few days, and at the time of their arrest, they were asked to lie and confess against their will in front of a camera that torture was never carried out and that the whole story was dictated to them by so-called adversaries and anti-revolutionary media outlets,” said the union in a post on its Telegram app channel on February 11, 2019.

Inmates in Gharchak Women’s Prison Denied Food and Heating After Being Assaulted by Guards

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Prisoners Launched Protest after Being Falsely Led to Believe They Would be Released

Twenty prisoners in Iran’s Gharchak Prison for women, including five Sufi political prisoners, were placed in solitary confinement or transferred to Evin Prison after prison guards violently attacked them on February 8, 2019.

The prisoners were denied food for the first two days after the transfer and continue to be denied access to gas and electricity required for heating their cells, as well as fresh air breaks, a source with knowledge about the event told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on February 11.

Tehran Art Exhibition Showcases Works by Acid Attack Survivors

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Victims Face Social Stigma and Inadequate State Laws and Services

“How many more victims should acid take until it’s banned, or its trade is limited, or a new law is passed so not everyone dares to use acid as a weapon?” –Recent acid survivor Zahra Yousof-Nejad

Highlighting the plight of survivors of acid attacks, a new exhibit, “Identity,” recently opened in Tehran which presents the work of acid attack survivors and other artists with disabilities. The exhibit, which presents the impasto paintings of Mohsen Mortazavi and other survivors, aims to raise awareness of the social stigma faced by the survivors of these attacks.

The show is the fourth exhibition of acid survivors and their artist supporters, in collaboration with The Association of Support for Acid Violence Victims and the State Handicrafts Institute.

Swedish-Iranian Scientist Denied Medical Treatment for Demanding to be Transported With Dignity

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

Imprisoned dual national scientist Ahmadreza Djalali was prevented from leaving Evin Prison in Tehran for a scheduled medical appointment with a cancer specialist because he refused to wear a prison uniform.

“During the past week he had two blood tests that showed his bone marrow cells have weakened, indicating a high possibility of leukemia,” his wife, Vida Mehrannia, said in an interview from Sweden with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on February 6, 2019.

“On the recommendation of the Evin Prison doctor, Ahmadreza was scheduled to see blood and cancer specialists in a hospital on Tuesday [February 5th] but he was prevented by the prison authorities from going because he objected to wearing prison clothes before being dispatched ” she added.

“Ten Years is Enough:” Mother of Canadian Resident Imprisoned in Iran Seeks Pardon

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

The mother of Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian resident imprisoned in Iran since 2008, sent a letter to Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi on February 1, 2019, requesting that Malekpour be included in a mass pardon of prisoners that may happen in March.

“Saeed does not have a father so I guess I am his father and mother,” wrote Akram Esmailzadeh. “He, after God, is the one I depend on and yet for the past ten years he has been in the bowels of a prison instead of his mother’s arms.”

“Whatever crime he may have committed… ten years is enough,” she said.

Family of Late Conservationist Kavous Seyed-Emami Petitions Iran to Respond to State TV Smears

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

Widow Remains Barred From Leaving Country Despite Expired Travel Ban

One year after his father’s suspicious death in Tehran’s Evin Prison, Ramin Seyed-Emami has filed a petition to respond to the unsubstantiated reports about his father broadcast by Iran’s main state-run broadcasting organization.

He is also calling on the judiciary to release his mother, who remains barred from leaving the Islamic Republic despite the expiration of the travel ban that was imposed on her in December 2018.

“We only want to exercise our constitutional right to defend ourselves against accusations made against our father,” Ramin said in a phone interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on February 7, 2019.

“We are not a political family. We just want clarification on why our father was arrested and why he died,” added Seyed-Emami, an Iranian Canadian dual national who relocated from his home in Tehran in March 2018 to Vancouver, BC, after being repeatedly threatened by security agents.

Mounting Evidence that Clears Eight Conservationists from Grave Charges, Judiciary Still Relies on Forced “Confessions”

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Iran Must Guarantee Fair Trial in Upcoming Court Session on February 12

Year-long Detainment Continues while Judiciary Ignores Conclusions of Supreme National Security Council, Intelligence Ministry and Department of Environment

February 7, 2018—In light of the upcoming court session on February 12 in which eight conservationists who has been detained for over a year will have to defend themselves against grave national security charges, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) calls upon the Iranian Judiciary to ensure all safeguards necessary for a free trial will be provided.

Iran: Secret Executions at Rajai Shahr Prisonاعدام مخفیانه دو زندانی در زندان رجایی شهر کرج

February 1, 2019

Iran Human Rights (IHR); February 1, 2019: Two prisoners were executed secretly last Wednesday at Rajai Shahr Prison, Karaj city.

According to IHR sources, two prisoners were executed on the morning of Wednesday, January 30, at Rajai Shahr prison. IHR could not yet identify them by name.

“Probably they had been transferred to Rajai Shahr for the execution from other prisons or IRGC special wards,” the source added, “recently, executions are carried out in Rajai Shahr prison under strict secrecy measures. Authorities try their best not to reveal information related to the executions, even to the common soldiers who serve as the prison guards.”

Of note, ward 8 of Rajai Shahr prison is under control of IRGC security forces; and political detainees who are under interrogation, are held there. Last year, Rajai Shahr prison was at the top of prisons where executions were carried out.

Three Members of Iran’s Writers Association Charged with National Security Crimes for Opposing Censorship

JANUARY 29, 2019

Three senior members of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA) have been charged with national security crimes for peacefully protesting state censorship policies, according to a statement posted by the trade union on Facebook on January 22, 2019.

IWA board members Baktash Abtin, Reza Khandan Mahabadi and Keyvan Bajan were charged with “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and collusion against national security” and “encouraging women into corruption and prostitution” for allegedly printing declarations and internal publications opposing the censorship of art and literature in Iran, said the statement.

Mahabadi and Abtin were released from Tehran’s Evin Prison on January 27 and 28 respectively after being detained on January 22. During their detention, they were denied access to counsel and only released after posting bail set at one billon tomans (approximately $237,000 USD at the time) set by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh of Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Eight Conservationists Tried in Iran on Basis of Retracted False “Confessions”

JANUARY 30, 2019

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.

“In the first court session of the eight environmental conservationists, half of the indictment, which was more than 300 pages, was read and most of it was based on false ‘confessions’ made by one of the defendants,” a source with knowledge of the court session told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Labor Activist Ali Nejati Denied Medical Treatment against Doctor’s Orders

JANUARY 31, 2019

Petition Signed by 800 People Calls on Iran to Release Striking Haft Tappeh Workers

Detained labor rights activist Ali Nejati is being denied medical treatment for heart disease and kidney and prostate problems in Shush Prison in the city of Andimeshk, Khuzestan Province, against the prison clinic doctor’s orders, according to a report posted on the Telegram app channel of the Haft Tappeh sugar mill workers union on January 27, 2019.

Nejati, who was imprisoned for engaging in peaceful activism, had refused to go to the hospital in hand and foot chains, which are only required for prisoners deemed extremely violent.

During phone contact with his family members, he frequently coughed and complained of pain in his chest and eyes, the union said in its report, adding: