15 Iran MPs Urge New Judiciary Chief to Stop Renewed Crackdown on Freedom of Speech

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

During a speech addressing Iran’s legislature, member of Parliament (MP) Parvaneh Salahshouri strongly criticized the recent crackdown on journalists and workers’ rights advocates and called on recently appointed Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi to uphold the rule of law.

A group of MPs subsequently called on Raisi to rescind recent harsh prison sentences that have been issued against several individuals including journalists and activists who were arrested during a Labor Day rally in Tehran on May 1, 2019.

“There are young women inside prison crying for justice these days,” said Salahshouri, a prominent reformist and former leader of the Women’s Faction in Parliament, on September 1, 2019.

Female Political Prisoners to Serve Additional Two Years For “Insulting” Supreme Leader

Political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi have been told they must serve an additional two years behind bars for making peaceful public statements criticizing Iranian state policies.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Imprisoned civil rights activist Atena Daemi and recently released political prisoner Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi were informed that they must serve an additional 2.1 years in prison now that the Tehran Appeals Court upheld a joint sentence against them under the charges of “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the state.”

Daemi’s mother, Masoumeh Nemati, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on September 5, 2019, that her daughter and Iraee were also banned from engaging in political and civil rights activities for two years.

Mass Sentencing of Labor Activists, Journalists Prelude to Reign of Repression Under New Judiciary Chief

Seven Sentenced to Lengthy Jail Terms in Connection with Peaceful Protests

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Less than a year after workers’ rights activists in southwestern Iran publicized evidence that Intelligence Ministry agents had tortured detainees, those same activists and four independent journalists who covered their cases have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

“The sentences are an indicator that newly appointed Judiciary Chief Ehrabim Raisi intends to prolong his predecessor’s reign of repression by punishing peaceful activism through arbitrary arrests and kangaroo courts,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“Freedom of assembly is guaranteed by Iran’s Constitution, yet the judiciary is decimating that right by punishing activists and journalists for exercising it,” he added. “Raisi has signaled that he will be accelerating the corrosion of the rule of law in Iran to stamp out peaceful dissent.”

Death of Iran’s “Blue Girl” Spotlights Senseless Ban on Women in Stadiums

No More Empty Promises: FIFA Should Call on Iran to Lift Ban Once and For All

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

September 10, 2019 – The death of Sahar Khodayari, a woman who set herself on fire in Tehran because she thought she would have to serve jail time for trying to watch a soccer match, has put the spotlight on the costs of a discriminatory state policy that Iranian women have been protesting for decades.

“This senseless tragedy should be a turning point for Iran’s government, which has been ignoring calls by its people to lift its discriminatory ban on women in stadiums, and is now facing the human costs of that policy,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).