NEWS))))))

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the Iranian regime's most murderous mullah, died today at age 82. He held different positions in the regime since 1979 and had hand in the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980's and in sending children to battle field during Iran-Iraq war. Rafsanjani is also known as the mastermind behind the assassinations of Iranian dissidents in Europe in the 1990's.



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Yesterday Sat. Jan. 7 the Iranian-Canadians gathered in front of the
Parliament and across from Prime Minister's office and called for the freedom of Mr. Ali Moezzi a political prison who's sentence has ended but the Iranian regime has transferred him to an unknown location. The Iranians also called for the freedom of Arash Sadeghi, Maryam Akbari Monfared and all other political prisoners in Iran.

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The Iranian regime was finally forced to release Golrokh Ebrahimi
Iraee on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 and that ended her husband Arash Sadeghi's 72 days of hunger strike. Arash Sadeghi was finally transferred to hospital on Sat. but despite doctors direct order for hospitalization, they returned Arash back to Evin prison.

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Civil and children's rights activist and political prisoner Atena Daemi staged a sit-in in Evin prison after learning about the summoning of her relatives. After two days, Evin warden Charmahali called her and threatened her so that she would withdraw here complaint against the IRGC. He said the complaint would get nowhere but will be used against her."



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Tehran's Khomeini Hospital refused to do a liver transplant operation on a sick woman who was suspected to be an Afghan, according to Jahan-e San'at Jan. 6.
The woman's nephew said their family were originally from Sistan-and-Baluchistan, but had been residing in Gonbad for the past 35 years. He stressed that his aunt's documents and confirmation by the coroner's office indicating that she was an Iranian citizen were at hand through her husband, nevertheless hospital officials did not do her operation. Afghans in Iran face Systematic discrimination by the Iranian regime.

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A few hours after being released from Varamin's Qarchak Prison on January 4, 2017, Zahra Shafii said, "They read out the court's verdict for us in prison… Our sentence is two years of suspended imprisonment and 74 lashes."
Zahra Shafii who had been imprisoned for protesting and demanding the release of his teacher, Mohammad Ali Taheri, said: "We are not content with such unfair verdict and we are going to protest it."

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One of the regime's officials defended marriage of child girls in Iran according to State-run Qanoon daily Jan. 2nd. Zahra Ayatollahi, head of Women's Social and Cultural Council in the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, argued, "Our grandmothers and grandfathers got married in very young age. Many of them were 14 or 15… This practice should be implemented today, as well, in our society."
Ayatollahi said having a family is more important than having education for a girl. She pointed out, "It is more essential for girls to learn how deal with their husbands' families than to learn chemistry, physics and math formulas."
According to the regime's statistics, economic poverty is the main reason why families give their daughter for marriage between the age of 10 and 15. Divorce rate in Iran has been skyrocketing over the past years and the widow age has dropped to 16 while Iranian welfare and social security system has no protective plan for the homeless or widowed women. Ayatollahi did not mention though why the Iranian regime's officials send their own children to abroad such as USA for higher education instead of early marriage.

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In a gathering on January 2, the State Security Force spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi announced the formation of the Children's Police and the Judicial Police who will impose more control over women and youths.
Montazer al-Mahdi said dealing with mal-veiling is the Police Force's priority and added, "The responsibility of promoting the veil is with 26 agencies, among whom the police is the last agency. Actually, all agencies must engage in the issue of veiling."

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A Baha'i couple were arrested by security forces of the Intelligence Department in the southern city of Boushehr. The security forces searched the residence of Maryam Bashir and Borhan Esmaeli in Borazjan and confiscated their personal belonging including their cellphones, laptop and religious books.


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A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck a village deep in southern Iran on Friday Jan. 6 2017, killing four people and injuring four others, Iranian state-run television reported.
The quake struck in the morning hours in the village of Saifabad near the town of Khong, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. According to the TV, the four fatalities are Afghan nationals, who worked on local farms. It said one of the injured was also an Afghan laborer.
In 2003, some 70,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.

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For the fourth day in a row, students at Tarbiat-Moalem University demonstrated on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd to protest the university for charging tuition for the withdrawn and retaken courses.




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Prison authorities executed at least 4 prisoners in the Karaj central prison, north of the capital, Tehran, and another prisoner in the Ghazvin prison on Tuesday, January 3. Prison authorities also executed a 36-year-old prisoner, Mahmood Faramarzi in the Ghazvin prison on Tuesday. Two other prisoners were also executed on Monday in the Ghazvin prison.

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Workers at the “Glassbid factory” in Arak in North Central Iran went on strike on Tuesday, January 3, protesting a five-month delay in the payment of their salaries.