NEWS))))))

Following water, electricity and communications services facing shortages and cut-offs in Ahwaz and 11 other cities of Khuzistan Province south of Iran, due to dust storms since January 28, numerous cities continued to witness major power outages on Thursday and Friday. Some areas also experienced major water service disruptions, parallel to internet and communications networks going down. After years of exploitation of the province’s natural resources, the province which once was one of the most fertile areas in Iran has turned into a dessert. The people of Ahwaz one of the cities in Khuzistan province have come to the streets in the thousands since Monday to express their outrage. In Tehran people in an act of solidarity supported the demands of the peopole of Khuzistan but were attacked by the Intelligence forces and plainclothes agents in Tehran’s Vanak Square on Thursday, February 16, and arrested four women and confiscated people's cell phones.

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According to Examiner: Feb. 14, a group representing Iranian
dissidents on Tuesday called on the Trump administration to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, based on new information that appears to show an expansion of its terrorist training activities.
Last week, multiple news outlets reported that the Trump administration was considering an executive order that would designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. At a press conference in Washington, the National Council of Resistance of Iran said it believes that the IRGC’s stepped up efforts to train terrorists means the group deserves the designation. Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran-NCRI, presented information to reporters gathered by the social network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, MEK, a dissident group located inside Iran. He said that information shows since 2012, the NCRI has seen an increase in the training of foreign nationals in its terrorist training camps, which threatens a wide scope of countries, not just those beset by conventional warfare. 'For operations in countries where there is no open warfare, including Persian Gulf countries such as Bahrain and Kuwait, terrorists’ cells are trained instead,' he said. That information also identified 14 of what are dozens of IRGC training centers, and said eight of them are terrorist training operations in and around Tehran. It 'exposed' the main training camp for terrorists, Imam Ali Garrison, and included satellite images of each of the training centers for foreign nationals.
Jafarzadeh said the IRGC is 'contributing to the rise of' the Islamic State, among other things, which is putting US forces and their allies in danger.
The ramped-up training operations are spearheaded by IRGC’s special operations unit, the Quds forces, which has already been labeled a terrorist group. But the NCRI contended that IRGC and Quds should not be dealt with separately, as the Iranian constitution and the budget do not deal with the Quds as a separate entity.
'The IRGC is actually the entity that runs the whole show when it comes to terrorism,' even though they are spearheaded by the Quds force, Jafarzadeh said. 'You cannot do the separation. You cannot have the Quds force designated as a terrorist entity, but not the IRGC.'
Jafarzadeh said there is bipartisan support in Congress for the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group, and suggested that with the new Trump administration, there is 'a better possibility for those measures to move forward.' The Feb. 14 conference was picked up by many media outlets in US, and Arab countries.

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Human rights advocate and activist mother, Shahnaz Akmali, was temporarily freed from jail on Saturday, February 18, after 24 days of arrest in Evin prison on a 100-million-touman bail ($30,800) until her trial convenes. She was arrested in the morning of January 25, following an Intelligence Ministry raid on her home. Shahnaz Akmali's son, Mostafa Karimbeigi, was shot killed by security forces during Iranian's 2009 uprising.

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Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and urged them to probe the case of her siblings massacred by the Iranian regime in 1988. In her February 17 letter Ms. Akbari asked the UN experts to hold the regime accountable for the execution of her brother, Abdulreza, and her sister, Roqieh Akbari Monfared, in the summer of 1988. The first time she went public with her demand for justice was October 15, 2016. Then on December 22 of the same year, she wrote a letter to international organizations and urged the UN to convene a fair trial for the prosecution of the perpetrators and masterminds of this massacre. Ms. Akbari has lost three brothers and a sister in the 1980s when they were executed by the Iranian regime for supporting the PMOI People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran or MEK. Maryam was arrested for her sibling's activism.

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The Iranian regime's Supreme Court turned down the appeal for re-examination of the case of Zeinab Sekaanvand on February 16, 2016. The woman in Orumiyeh Prison is sentenced to death. With the rejection of the Supreme Court, she is now one step away from death. Amnesty International issued a press release on January 11, in an effort to stop the imminent execution of Zeinab Sekaanvand. It pointed out that 80,000 people had signed its petition urging the Iranian authorities to halt her execution and throw out her death sentence. Zeinab Sekaanvand was 17 at the time of alleged crime. She has denied the charges against her.

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Security forces raided the residence of civil activist, Noura Najafi, on Tuesday morning, February 14. They intimidated the residents and threatened to break into the house and arrested Ms. Najafi and subsequently thoroughly searched the house. Ms. Najafi is a student and supporter of Erfan-e Halgheh, a school of cosmic mysticism. In another news Mrs. Massoumeh Sadeghi was arrested in a raid on her class by security forces in Isfahan on February 12. Security forces subsequently attacked Sadeghi's home, searching and confiscating her identification cards, computer and cellphone. Ms. Sadeghi is an instructor in a class of Erfan-e Halgheh, Cosmic Mysticism.  


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Shadi Khaliani, 14, committed suicide on Wednesday, February 15, due to restrictions she faced. This horrifying incident happened in the city of Naghadeh in West Azerbaijan Province. In another news on Saturday, February 11, a young woman from Mahabad hanged herself and died. Pariya Mohammad Shiekheh, 22, was a student of accounting at the Free University of Mahabad. The Iranian women's situation is so dire that they end up killing themselves or turn into drugs.

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A number of retired teachers including a remarkable number of women staged a protest in front of Iranian regime's Budget and Planning Organization on February 14, in Tehran. The protesters demanded their 30-year rewards and complained about the organization's putting off payment of their rewards for over a year.

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Sisters of Evin political prisoner Atena Daemi were exonerated from the charges leveled against them by the Revolutionary Guards Corps. Ensieh and Hanieh Daemi charged with alleged "insulting of the leader, as well as deliberate insulting and beating of government agents" were relieved from prosecution.
The trial to examine the charges against Atena Daemi's family were convened in Evin on January 23. Earlier, Atena Daemi had published an open letter in which she had responded to the unfounded IRGC allegations and protested their filing of spurious complaints and illegal behavior during making arrests.

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Prison authorities have prevented hospitalization of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe despite deterioration of her illness. The British-Iranian prisoner held at Evin Prison needs to be dispatched to hospital to be treated under supervision of neurologists. She is suffering from pain in her neck, shoulder and backbone among others and her illness has aggravated in prison. Nazanin Zaghari was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she was going to fly back home to UK. Authorities confiscated hers and her 2-year-old daughter's passport and imprisoned her.

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The Iranian regime executed 10 prisoners Qom and Zabol on February 13. The Iranian regime has executed 88 people in one month alone under the so called Moderate Rouhani presidency.
Yesterday in Ottawa the Iranian-Canadians gathered in front of the Parliament Hill and called for the freedom of all political prisoners such as Arash Sadeghi who was on hunger strike for more that 70 days for arresting his wife Golrokh Ibrahimi Iraee, Ali Moezi who is in solitary confinement with no visitation, Narges Mohammai mother of 2 and Maryam Akbari Monfared. They called for justice for the 30,000 executed political prisoners in the summer of 1988 as well.

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Kurdish political prisoner, Qadrieh Qaderi, is denied treatment despite acute ear infection, severe headache and numbness of her hand. Ms. Qaderi's family have declared they are ready to pay her medical expenses, but prison authorities have obstructed Ms. Qaderi's dispatch to hospital. Qadrieh Qaderi was arrested in spring 2011 in Orumiyeh on the charge of collaborating with a Kurdish party. She was sentenced to 7 years in prison and was banished to the Prison of Yasouj, in the southwestern province of Kohgilouyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

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An elderly woman, Saharnaz Moussavi, was beaten up by Dastgerd Prison guards on the morning of Saturday, February 11, 2017, and subsequently abandoned on the street. Mrs. Moussavi referred to Dastgerd Prison of Isfahan to inquire about her imprisoned son, Qanbar Ali Safai. Her pleas went unheeded, so she started crying out to compel prison officials to respond. Security forces, however, attacked the elderly woman, dragging her out of the prison and abandoning her in the street.
The families of prisoners who were witness to this scene, took Mrs. Moussavi to hospital. Her son, Qanbar Ali Safari has been confined in solitary cells of Dastgerd Prison in an undecided status since 2009 and is presently on hunger strike. Under great pressure and torture, Mr. Safari attempted suicide in December 2016.

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According to Tasnim news agency affiliated with terrorist Qoads force Feb. 12 only 18 per cent of women who are heads of their household have jobs and employment. Ebrahim Ghaffari, General Director of Golestan's Welfare Organization announced on February 12, that according to the survey of 2011, of the total 21 million households in the country 2.557.700 are female-headed. He predicted that the figure will reach 3.5 million by the end of this (Persian) year in March 2017. He also added that only 18 per cent of these women have employment and the others are grappling with unemployment and poverty.