EU removes PMOI from its terrorist list
European states agreed on Monday to remove exiled Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) from an EU list of banned terrorist groups, an EU official said. The official confirmed that EU foreign ministers approved a decision to take it off a list that includes Palestinian Hamas and Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers. The PMOI is the group which exposed Iran’s covert nuclear program in 2002.

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Iranians outside EU headquarters in Brussels demanding PMOI’s delisting
Supporters of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI) the main opposition group in exile, gathered in Brussels for the 29th day. They are demanding the removal of the PMOI from Europe’s terrorist list. The European Union is expected to strike the main Iranian opposition group in exile off its list of terrorist organizations on Monday. Tens of thousands of Iranians are expected to show up at the Shuman Square in Brussels in front of the EU headquarter.

Iranian regime hanged 22 people
Iran Focus reported on Thursday that Iranian authorities hanged 22 people over the past two days. Ten people were mass executed on Wednesday in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, the state-run news agency Fars reported, adding that an eleventh man had his execution postponed for a month. It said that he witnessed the other 10 people being hanged. He is expected to be hanged in February. In a separate report on Wednesday Fars said that six people were executed in a prison in Yazd Province on Tuesday. Three men, identified only by their first names Alireza, Hassan and Mohammad-Hassan, were hanged in the Yazd prison on Wednesday, the government-run news agency ISNA reported. In the central province of Isfahan , two men, identified as Jan Mohammad M., 41; and Reza M., 34, were hanged in prison on Tuesday, Fars said. The official state daily 'Iran' wrote on Wednesday that a man identified only by his first name Gholam was hanged on Tuesday in a prison in the north-western city of Karaj.

Public flogging of a man in Qom
A 25-year-old man was tied to a bench and received 70 lashes in public by the mullahs’ judiciary in the holy city of Qom on Friday. Local residents protested the sentence especially when the man’s last name was also exposed by the local judge assigned to enforce the verdict. In an interview broadcast on state TV on June 25, 2008 in the evening program, the head of the Iranian regime’s Judicial Authority complained that 'many Iranian judges, influenced by western propaganda and fearing they will be accused of failing to respect human rights, are not sentencing offenders to effective penalties like public flogging'. 'Public flogging is one of most just sentences that can be inflicted on someone who has committed a crime,' said Shahroudi . 'The publication of photos and news of public floggings is the best deterrent, while three or four months in prison has no effect,' he said. 'We must reduce prison sentences and make use of public flogging more to punish offenders.'

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Arrest of families of Ashraf residents in Tehran airport
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Tens of families of Ashraf residents who were going to Iraq to visit their children were arrested during an attack by the mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) at Tehran airport. Subsequently the houses of these families were raided in Tehran. The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris announced the names of some of the mothers, fathers, and sisters who were arrested on Friday afternoon January 16 and were mostly at the ages of 60 to 80. Those arrestees were transferred to solitary cells of Ward 209 in Evin prison. The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran reminded that the arrest and mayhem of the old mothers and fathers of the PMOI members, transferring them to torture chambers of the ward 209 of Evin prison and raids on their residences is a corner of mullahs’ so-called “compassion” towards the residents of Ashraf and their families. This is at the very same time that the mullahs and their agents continuously shed crocodile tear for family sentiments of Ashraf residents’ families. Last December, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran published the names of the families of 87 other residents of Ashraf who had been arrested, imprisoned and undergone various pressures by the mullahs’ regime after visiting with their children in Ashraf and their return to Iran. The Iranian Resistance has asked international organizations to condemn this act and immediately intervene for releasing imprisoned families.Voice of America TV on January 17, 2009 reflected this news by saying: 'According to human rights activists in Iran, 18 women were arrested at Mehrabad airport [in Tehran] yesterday and were taken to solitary cells of ward 209 in Evin prison. It is said that these women, whose ages were between 55 and 80, had gone to the airport with the intention of visiting their children in Camp Ashraf in Iraq and had valid visas.'

EU strongly condemns new cases of execution by stoning in Iran
Friday, 16 January 2009
EU: According to official confirmation and reports from other credible sources, three people were subject to execution by stoning in the city of Mashhad in the week beginning 21 December 2008. One of the three is reported to have managed to escape the stoning pit and survived. The other two were less fortunate and were stoned to death. The European Union requests that the central authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran investigate this issue, and ensure that the practice of execution by stoning is effectively and permanently terminated in the country, in compliance with the International Covenant of Political and Civil Rights, which the Islamic Republic of Iran has signed and ratified, as well as the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons From Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 3452 of December 1975, which Iran has approved.The European Union calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish the cruel and inhuman punishment of stoning from its legal code, and to ratify the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.The European Union wishes to remind the Islamic Republic of Iran of an announcement made in August 2008 by the judiciary placing a suspension on the practice. These most recent executions not only go against the suspension, they represent a worryingly retrograde step, and we urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure such statements are immediately enforced and enshrined in legislation. The EU’s condemnation comes after the Iranian regime sentenced 10 people to death by stoning.

European Parliament condemned EU Council of Ministers for not implementing courts’ rulings on de-listing PMOI
The European Parliament approved a resolution in its official session in Strasburg on January 14 and strongly condemned the European Union’s Council of Ministers for not implementing several Court verdicts in favour of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Article 31 of the European Parliament’s resolution titled as 'Situation of fundamental rights in the European Union' reads: “The European Parliament Deplores the non-implementation by the EU of the judgments of the CFI on 12 December 2006 and on 4 and 17 December 2008 and the UK Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) on May 7, 2008.''The European Parliament considers that the effective protection and the promotion of fundamental rights form the basis of democracy in Europe and are prerequisites for the consolidation of the European area of freedom, security and justice.'

Iranians marked 20th day of sit-in supporting PMOI in Brussels
In bitter cold, Iranians from all walks of life marked their 20th day of sit-in outside EU headquarters calling for justice in the case of the main Iranian opposition organization, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), on Friday. The participants demanded that the EU Council of Ministers immanently implement the court ruling of 4 December 2008 annulling the terror label on the organization.Dr. Karim Qasseim, chairman of the Environmental Committee of the NCRI addressed the demonstrators. He said, 'EU Council must abide by the rule of law and delist the PMOI.' Organizers of the Brussels sit-in opened a photo exhibition of the latest human rights violations of the mullahs’ regime. It received good public respond when local residents and tourists expressed sympathy with the Iranian people and their Resistance.


More pressures and torture imposed on political prisoners
Thursday, 15 January 2009
NCRI: Jan. 14, 2009: The ruling religious fascism in Iran has intensified pressure on political prisoners in order to break them down mentally. One political prisoner, Mr. Mansour Rodpour, was transferred last week to the solitary confinement ward known as Ward 8 at Gohardasht prison in Karaj (near Tehran). Last month, he tolerated solitary confinement in Ward 1 of the prison, known literally as the “dog pound.” After being severely tortured, he now has trouble walking, and remains under the supervision of the mullahs’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is not allowed to talk to other prisoners.The area known as the “dog pound,” which is equipped with cameras and eavesdropping devices, is considered as one of the most terrifying torture chambers of the mullahs’ regime, and is used to break down unyielding political prisoners.Groups of henchmen from the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attack the defenceless prisoners who are blindfolded and whose hands and feet are enchained. The henchmen use sticks and electric batons to beat the prisoners and carry out some of the most brutal forms of torture.Prisoners are deprived of the most basic necessities and have no access to pharmaceutical drugs or medical care. They are only allowed to exit their cells three times a day for their personal needs.Mansour Rodpour was arrested by MOIS agents on May 17, 2007 while travelling on Chalous road. He spent 25 days in safe houses under torture. Deprived of a lawyer and right of defence, on August 23, 2008, he was tried at the mullahs’ “Revolutionary Court,” Branch #1, by a MOIS agent identified as Asef Hosseini, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Mr. Rodpour has been banned from family visits.Another political prisoner, Hashem Shahin Nia, who has been exiled at the Central prison in Bushehr (southern Iran) for more than a year, is in dire physical condition after facing brutal torture and due to intolerable prison conditions. Despite the need to be treated by doctors, the regime’s henchmen refrain from providing medical attention to Mr. Shahin Nia. He is, in addition, currently suffering from a heart condition. He is accused of participating in the 2005 protest gathering outside the notorious Evin prison in Tehran as well as having ties to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and has been sentenced to seven years in prison.According to obtained reports, Ms. Hamideh Nabavi Chashemi, Ms. Shahnaz Gholami, Ms. Hanna Abdi, Ms. Zeinab Bayazidi, Ms. Ronak Safarzadeh, Ms. Zahra Assadpour, and Mr.`s Seyyed Zohour Nabavi, Mohammad Nikbakht, Yasser Majidi, Saeed Sangar, Jafar Eghdami, Farhad Haj Mirzaii, Hoad Yazerlou, Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili Fard, Ali Heydarian, Mohammad Sedigh Kaboudvand, Hamidreza Mohammadi, Hamidreza Borhani, Saeed Masouri, Saeed Shah Ghale, Gholamhossein Kolbi, Mansour Osanlou, Arjang Davoudi, Ebrahim Madadi, Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, Ali Zaremi, Misagh Yazdan Nejad, Abbas Khorsandi, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Ahmad Danesh Pazir, Saleh Kohandel, Ali Moezzi, Ali Mohammad Hassani, Ayatollah Kazemeini Boroujerdi, and hundreds of other political prisoners who are incarcerated or exiled in the regime’s torture chambers, face some of the most grueling pressures and forms of physical and mental tortures.In addition, Shiraz University students, including Saeed Khalaatbari, Arash Roustaii, Hadi Alam Li, Enayat Taghva, Ahmad Kohansal, Esmaeel Jalil Vand, Hamdollah Namjou, and Alma Ranjbar, who were summoned and arrested after widespread university protests marking the occasion of Student Day on December 6, 2008, are currently spending time at the mullah regime’s MOIS secret locations.The Iranian Resistance warns about the intensification of pressures and torture on political prisoners, and calls on all international human rights organizations and bodies to refer the dossier of the inhumane regime’s crimes to the UN Security Council and adopt immediate and binding measures aimed at stopping the brutal suppression of prisoners in Iran.

Two prisoners hanged in public in Iran
Two prisoners were hanged in public by Iran’s judiciary in Chamrun Square in the southern city of Jahrom, reported the official daily Kayhan on Tuesday. The men were identified as Mojtaba R. and M.H.A. On January 31, 2008, the mullahs’ judiciary chief, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered death penalty should be carried out behind close doors. 'We have repeatedly seen that people expressed sympathy with the person who was going to be hanged in public. People even expressed their abhorrence at the execution of the sentence,' said the assistant prosecutor for sentences in Tehran’s criminal prosecution office, the state-run daily Javan reported on January 31, 2008. 'With far less expenditure, executions could be carried out in prison,' he added. The state-run websites also admitted to the adverse effects of public hangings and noted that the victims’ gestures before being hanged deeply affected the young people and left heroes image in their minds. These websites regretted that in addition to generating hatred among people, public hangings have also damaged the status of the regime in the world.

Radio Irava is 14 years old

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Iranians demonstrate outside French embassy in Ottawa to protest EU for not de-listing PMOI
Iranians staged their second demonstration in Canada outside of the French Embassy in Ottawa on Tuesday. The rally was held in protest against the EU and the French government’s disobedience of the decisive rulings of the European Court of First Instance regarding annulment of terrorist labeling against the PMOI. The demonstrators asked the EU to abide by the European Courts’ rulings. David Kilgour, the co-chair of “the Canadian Committee of Friends of Democratic Iran” and former Canadian minister, said: “EU Council of Ministers’ defiance in applying the courts” verdicts is countering judicial basic principles; I am very optimistic that the European countries open their eyes and by mid January we hear good news about decisive annulment of the PMOI off the EU terrorist list.’

Two were killed in anti-government demonstration in Homayounshahr by SSF agents
According to latest reports from anti-government demonstration in Homayounshahr of Isfahan, two of the demonstrators were killed by the State Security Force (SSF) agents one identified as Hamid Rezaie, 17 years old, and more people injured. It took place in Amirabad Street of Homayounshahr. The Intelligence Ministry has not delivered the bodies of the slain persons to their families. The incident took place on Monday and Tuesday this week following attacks by the SSF agents on a mourning group of people on the occasion of Ashura and detainment of 150 of the mourners; the people attacked the governorate building and inflicted some damage on it and clashed with the SSF agents. The SSF agents shot bullets at people and also fired tear gas.

Four prisoners hanged in Bandar Abbas
Four prisoners were hanged by the mullahs’ judiciary without identifying them, in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Sunday, according to National Council of Resistance of Iran’s sources inside the country. In the past week alone nine prisoners were hanged by the mullahs’ regime in various locations around the country. On December 19, the UN General Assembly condemned the widespread human rights violations in Iran. It was the 55th such resolutions passed by the UN bodies on human rights violations in Iran.

Forugh Farrokhzad

An extremely small number of Iranian women have achieved anything in Iran outside of the home without dependence upon a relationship with a man or male patronage. The best known among them is the poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967), the most famous woman in the recent history of Persian literature. Forugh Farrokhzad was born in Tehran into a middle class family of seven children. She attended public schools through the ninth grade, thereafter received some training in sewing and painting, and married when she was seventeen. Her only child, the boy addressed in "A Poem for you," was born a year later. Her marriage failed within less than two years and she never saw her son again. She voices her feelings in the mid-1950s about conventional marriage, the plight of women in Iran, and her own situation as a wife and mother no longer able to live a conventional life in such poems as "The Captive," "The Wedding Band," "Call to Arms," and "To My Sister."As a divorcee poet in Tehran, Farrokhzad attracted much attention and considerable disapproval. She had several short lived relationships with men-"The Sin" describes one of them,--, found some respite in a nine-month trip to Europe, and in 1958 met Ebrahim Golestan (b. 1922), a controversial film-maker and writer with whom she established a relationship that lasted until her death in an automobile accident at thirty-two years of age in February 1967. Unlike her female predecessors, Farrokhzad had a poetic voice that was and remains (where as a voice not heard may be no voice at all.)
Sound, sound, sound,Only sound remains. (Forugh Farrokhzad)

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Student demonstration in the streets of Shiraz
Tuesday, 06 January 2009NCRI - Following the arrest of four students of Shiraz University on Saturday by the mullahs’ notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the students took to the streets to gain their release in the southern city of Shiraz. The detained students were identified as Abdol-jalil Rezaii, Kazem Rezaii, Mohsen Zarrin Kamar, and Loghman Ghadiri Goltappeh. Officials from the MOIS avoid responding to inquiries from families of these students on Sunday. In the beginning of Monday’s demonstration, the participants gathered on the campus of the university and gave a 30 minutes ultimatum to the MOIS to free the four arrested students. However, the official refused to give in to protesters’ demand which triggered anti-government slogans from the demonstrators. They shouted, 'Free the detained students,' 'Free all political prisoners,' 'Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] Pinochet, Iran can’t become Chile' and 'Death to dictator.' Local residents passing by joined the protesting students and the demonstrators marched toward nearby Danshjo Square. Members of the anti-riot units of the State Security Forces (SSF) --mullahs’ suppressive police-- attacked the demonstration fearing its spread to other parts of the city.

Washington Sit-in participants ended with the victory in achieving Ashraf’s rights to protection
On 29 December 2008, the Ashraf residents’ families and supporters of the Iranian Resistance staged 109th day of sit-in in Lafayette Park, in front of the White House. The sit-in began nearly four months ago in New York, outside of the UN headquarters, and later in Washington D.C., in front of the White House. Finally, the sit-in ended after the US embassy on 29 of December 2008 in Iraq released a statement emphasizing on the rights of Ashraf residence in Iraq. U.S. officials in Iraq pledged to Iranian dissidents residing in an enclave in Diyala province they will be secure once the U.N. mandate for Iraq expires.Around 3,500 members of an Iranian Opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, reside under U.S. military protection at Camp Ashraf in Diyala province. The group is under U.S. military supervision as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Conventions, A statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Iraq said the U.S. military would work with the Iraqi government to ensure the residents of Camp Ashraf are treated humanely.'The government of Iraq has provided the U.S. government written assurances of humane treatment of the Camp Ashraf residents in accordance with Iraq’s Constitution, laws, and international obligations,' the statement said.The statement of the US embassy brought joy and happiness to tens of thousands of Iranian who participated in the sit in and other Iranians around the world. In Ottawa a joyful Caravan hit the streets on Tuesday. The cars were decorated with the Iranian sun and the lion flag and the flag of PMOI and the city of Ashraf’s.

Hundreds of supporters of the Iranian Resistance demonstrate outside EU headquarter
Hundreds of family members of the main Iranian opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) residing in Camp Ashraf, Iraq and supporters of the Iranian Resistance gathered outside EU headquarter in Brussle for the eight times in a row.
The participants are calling on the EU to abide by the rule of law and remove the PMOI form the bloc’s terror list. The human rights activists, political dignitaries and jurists have also joined them. On December 10, a similar demonstration was held at the French Foreign Ministry with the same demands.

Iranian regime stoned two prisoners in north eastern Iran
According to National Council of Resistance of Iran, two prisoners were stoned by the mullahs’ judiciary in Behesht-Reza cemetery in the holy city of Mashhad. One of the victims managed to get out of the hole while the other died. The two men were sentenced to death by stoning at the same time. However, one of them identified as Mahmoud escaped with minor injuries. According to mullahs’ penal codes he will not be stoned to death for the second time. A local judge sentenced the prisoners to death by stoning in Khorasan’s province Fifth Circuit Court. In July 2007, the Iranian regime caused international outrage when Jafar Kiani was stoned to death in the north western city of Qazvin. A man and a woman, Abbas H. and Mahbubeh A. were also stoned to death in May of 2006 in the north eastern city of Mashhad, although their execution has never been officially confirmed. On February 4, the mullahs’ Supreme Court upheld the death sentence by stoning of two sisters Zohreh (27) and Azar (28) Kabiri-Neyat in the notorious Gohardasht (Rajaishahr) prison in Karaj some 40 km west of the capital Tehran. Similarly, in the winter of 2007, the death sentence by stoning of a 49-year-old man named Abdullah Farivar was upheld by the Supreme Court in the northern city of Sari. The man has two children.

1000 workers strike in Qazvin
1,000 workers of two textile factories, Farnakh and Mahnakh, walked out over their unpaid salaries, reported the state-run news agency ILNA on Sunday. The two are located on the International Qazvin Highway, 165 kilometer northwest of Tehran. 'The workers blocked the highway and burned used tires to get the attention of travelers,' said one of the workers to regime’s state run news agency ILNA.