Iran tries to reimpose strict dress codes for women and girls
Source: NBC News
Iran is attempting to reimpose strict dress codes months after a wave of unrest following the death of a young woman who had been detained by morality police saw women and girls remove their headscarves in protest.
The moves came as the government tries to reassert control after months of the sometimes violent nationwide demonstrations posed the biggest challenge to the clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Over the weekend, thousands of text messages were sent to business owners and drivers, reminding them of the renewed crackdown on women not wearing hijabs, the head coverings worn by some Muslim women, according to the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB News.
Officials also announced that people who encourage women to remove their hijabs would be prosecuted.
That Iranian British Broadcasting Corporation reporter must be happy with the recent Iranian news and talks of sending them their cash lol. I think there are more women in some government roles just in the UK which with the whole owning a country and the others assisting with that with their titles and all is not something trivial. Strange news to me though humorous when I first saw it on CNN
Jailed Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi Wins Nobel Peace Prize by Ivana Saric
October 6, 2023
Introduction:
(Axios) Jailed Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her fight against women's oppression and her championing of human rights.
The big picture: The prize also "recognizes the hundreds of thousands of people who... have demonstrated against the theocratic regime's policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women," including those who participated in massive protests against the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody last year, the committee said.
• Mohammadi, 51, "has helped to ensure that the protests [in Iran] have not ebbed out," the Nobel Prize committee said.
• The protesters' rallying cry of "woman, life, freedom" is an "illustration of what Narges Mohammadi has been working for over three decades," Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in an interview published Friday.
What they're saying: Mohammadi's activism has come with "tremendous personal costs," the committee said. She has been arrested 13 times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison.
Children of Jailed Women's Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi Accept Her Nobel Peace Prize by Julia Conley
December 10, 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) An empty chair sat on the stage at the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway on Sunday, symbolizing the absence of the rights activist who was being honored: Narges Mohammadi, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence in Tehran for multiple charges related to her activism against Iran's theocratic government.
Accepting the award in Mohammadi's place were her 17-year-old twins, Kiana and Ali Rahmani, who read a speech their mother had prepared.
"I write this message from behind the tall and cold walls of a prison," Mohammadi wrote. "It seems that in the globalized world, either human rights will become respected internationally or human rights violations will continue to spread across state borders."
(See link below for Twitter feeds)
"The realization of democracy is contingent upon the realization of human rights," she continued. "Human rights have reached the level of historical awareness among the people of Iran and constitute the focal point of the activities of many movements, currents, and groups. It has the capacity and power to create widespread national solidarity and coalitions."
Mohammadi has been a rights campaigner for three decades, most recently serving as deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in her home country of Iran.
Iran’s Regime Fails to Counter Growing Wave of Protests Across the Country by Mahmoud Hakamian
January 1, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) Despite efforts by Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime supreme leader, to use his warmongering tactics in the region to silence the voice of social protests, the cries of the hungry against the oppressors resonate in the streets of Iran.
On December 27, the strike of the workers of the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz continued for the fifth consecutive day. This week, the workers marched from the company’s premises to Baghaei Square, disregarding the regime’s threats. They chanted, “Threats and prison no longer have any effect,” and “Death to the oppressors, hail to the workers.”
On the same day, the gold traders’ guild also held the fifth day of strike in protest against coercion and unfair taxation. Furthermore, the people of Ardakan, in their third day of protest against air pollution and the expansion of polluting industries that endanger their health, dressed their children in shrouds and continued their demonstrations with anti-regime slogans.
On December 25, retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran in Shiraz, Sanandaj, Shahrekord, Khorramabad, Ardabil, Isfahan, Marivan, Tabriz, Arak, Ahvaz, Hamedan, Bijar, Rasht, Sari, Zanjan, Kermanshah, and others gathered once again in front of the local offices of the TCI to protest the lack of attention to their demands. Additionally, nurses in Tehran, Ahvaz, and Qazvin joined the retirees in their protest gatherings.
The intensity of the opposition to tax pressures and the increased exploitation of retirees and workers has caused concern among some officials and government-affiliated media.
103 Reported Killed in Iran in Blasts Near General's Tomb
Source: NY Times
A pair of explosions on Wednesday at a commemoration for Iran’s former top military general Qassim Suleimani killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials. The blasts sowed fear and grief in Iran and heightened tensions in the broader region even further a day after an explosion killed several Hamas officials in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon.
Iranian officials told state media that a pair of bombs placed in bags along the road toward the cemetery in Kerman, Iran, had exploded as a procession of people was on its way there to commemorate the four-year anniversary of General Suleimani’s assassination by the United States. The officials said the bags appeared to have been detonated via remote control, leaving bodies in pieces on the ground.
Given the sheer scale of the blasts, which state media described as a terrorist attack, the death toll was likely to rise.
Videos and photos of the explosions’ aftermath on state media showed widespread carnage and chaos, with sirens blaring and the injured — among them children — collapsing to the ground. Bloodied, several of the wounded screamed, “God help us. Everyone is killed.”
Iran Moves to Seal Borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan After Deadly Blasts January, 2024
Introduction:
(RFE/RL) — Iran said it is shutting its vast borders with neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan to increase security after the twin bombing that killed at least 89 people in the southeastern city of Kerman on January 3.
The Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying his government was prioritizing border crossings along borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which range for almost 1,000 kilometers.
Further Extract:
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for the blasts saying that two of its members detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered for Soleimani’s memorial. IS has in the past claimed responsibility for some terrorist attacks in Iran.
Iranian women violently dragged from streets by police amid hijab crackdown
Source: Guardian/US
Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.
A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.
Hours later, videos verified by human rights groups showing women and girls being forcefully arrested by agents of the notorious Gasht-e-Irshad (“morality police”) flooded social media along with stories of beatings and assault.
One mother and daughter walking through a busy Tehran square were surrounded by five chador-clad female agents and two male agents, who hurled insults and accusations before they grabbed the women. When they resisted arrest, they were violently dragged into the van, a source close to the family said.
Dina Ghalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University and was among the first to tweet about a confrontation. On her now suspended X (formerly Twitter) account, she said: “Yesterday in the police room of Sadeghiyeh metro station, I insisted that I had the right to use the metro as a citizen and a taxpayer. But then, they violently dragged me into a room and Tasered me. They handcuffed me and one of the officers sexually assaulted me.”
