NEWS))))))

On Dec. 5,  A huge conference titled: "Canadian Policy & Iran regime: World's leading Executioner, State-Sponsor of Terror" was held on Parliament Hill by the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran. Hundreds of Iranian-Canadians attended this forum to hear key note speaker and Co-Chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran Hon. David Kilgour, senator Linda Frum ,David Tkachuk, Irwin Cotler, Peter Kent, Tony Clement, and Hon. Judy Sgro to name a few. Two representatives of the embassies of Egypt and Saudi Arabia attended as well. Sen. Linda Frum on Dec. 8 told the senate about the Dec. 5th conference. She said: Over 200 Iranian Canadians from across Canada gathered in Ottawa to share their views on the Liberal Government’s proposed re-engagement with Iran. Two things were made very clear by these representatives of the community. First, they believe that diplomatic relations with Iran must be tied to an improvement of Human Rights. Second, they strongly believe that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the IRGC, must be listed as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada. She added: Honourable Senators, these are exactly the same objectives of Bill S-219, and grassroots support for this legislation was demonstrated by the extraordinary, cross country turnout for the event.  I salute all those who attended the event because I know it takes great courage, even in Canada, for activists to denounce the cruel and criminal Iranian Regime.  Even inside our own borders, agents of the Iranian Regime use malicious and threatening tactics to silence opponents in the diaspora. Iranian Canadians are spied upon and targeted – a situation that was even worse when the Iranian Embassy was in operation in Canada. Opposition to the normalizing of diplomatic relations with Iran could not have been expressed more clearly by attendees of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran event. I hope that over the upcoming Parliamentary Break, you all will take the opportunity to speak to Iranian Canadians in your own communities to understand their perspective on the proposed re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Iran.  As Senators, we are here to represent the rights of the oppressed and the vulnerable rather than the powerful. 

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Kurdish Iranian political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian is still on medical strike and has been deprived of her family visits by the prison officials. Ms. Jalalian who is imprisoned for life has been on medical strike, refusing to take any medicines, since February in Khoy Prison, northwestern Iran. She is protesting negligence of prison officials, ignoring her health condition and registering false information in her medical record. She's been deprived of her weekly visit with her family since September. Ms. Jalalian's illnesses includ canker sores in her mouth and pterygium  توریجیم , which have deteriorated due to lack of medical treatment and her therapy strike. Zeinab Jalalian, 35, was arrested by Kermanshah’s Intelligence Department forces in March 2007 and on December 3, 2008, she was sentenced to death, but her sentence was commuted to life in prison in November 2011. She has been under pressure and tortured to make false TV confessions.

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Khadijeh Nissi was arrested by security forces on Friday, December 8, in Ahwaz, capital of the oil-rich province of Khuzistan in southwestern Iran. Agents of the Intelligence Department of Ahwaz arrested Ms. Nissi for participating in a demonstration in support of the inhabitants of Jelizi village in Dehloran, in Ilam province (western Iran). She had sang a folklore song in support of the Arab villagers who had been attacked by a company affiliated with the Army in a bid to confiscate their farm lands.
The State Security forces attacked Jelizi village in Dehloran, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, December 3-5, 2017. Claiming that they were acting on a court verdict to confiscate the lands, they used tear gas and batons to brutalize the farmers. They arrested around 50 of the farmers and their wives and daughters some of whom were identified as being Mrs. Jassem Jelizi, No’eh Jelizi, Terfayeh Jelizi, Hassneh Jelizi, Hamideh Jelizi and Hamideh Cha’bawi.

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Teachers working on contracts in Ahwaz (southwestern Iran), including a large number of women, staged a protest on Thursday, December 7, demanding revision and reform of the Education Ministry’s new exam for official employment. A similar protest was held by contract teachers in Qom outside the office of the city’s deputy in the Iranian regime's parliament.
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The lifeless body of a young woman named Mona Dorrani 28 was found on Wednesday, December 6, at the dormitory of Ramin University of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Khuzistan, in Ahwaz- Iran. She was from Kermanshah, and a third-year Ph.D. student of agriculture at this university. This is the third case in six months of suspicious deaths of female Kurdish students. Two months ago, Zeinab was found dead in one of the universities of Ilam, western Iran.

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A group of women social activists criticized Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani’s 100-day record and said the appointment of a few women as governors or deputies does not solve Iranian women’s problems.
In an open letter, the women revealed that Rouhani’s hollow claim of having created 307,000 jobs for women as his cabinet’s success, includes false jobs such as peddling which women do as a last resort.
The letter reads in part, “Indeed, what is seen as the outcome of the government’s conduct and policy-making with regards to employment include objectified use of women in expensive auto exhibitions, hiring them as advisors in real estate agents, increasing their presence in the agencies, offering them low income jobs providing services in trains and airplanes, etc. and an increase in the number false jobs such as peddling in the streets and an increased presence in marketing. This process is in contravention of Article 21 of the Constitution.” (The state-run Mehr news agency – December 5, 2017)
Women are the first victims of Iran’s bankrupt economy in light of the flagrant discrimination institutionalized in the law against women and numerous restrictions imposed on their employment and education, creating harsh conditions for women in earning a living. Many women with college education have to resort to peddling in the streets, working in restaurants or as secretaries in offices and accept salaries as low as one-third of the minimum wage.

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According to state-run ISNA Dec. 5, a Kermanshah health official announced the deaths of 11 pregnant women and 39 pre-school children in the quake-stricken areas of Kermanshah Province in western Iran. Ibrahim Shakiba, head of the Health Center of Kermanshah, told a press briefing on Monday, that the women had died in Sarpol-e Zahab, but the children were from three cities of Sarpol-e Zahab, Salas Babajani and Dalahou.
He did not explain the reason for the deaths of the children and sufficed to make a general statement on the deaths of pregnant women, saying they were “due to the problems caused by the earthquake.”
In the first couple of days after the earthquake, three children died because of being homeless despite the freezing cold and lack attention from the government.

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Massoumeh Zare’e, the head coach of the women’s futsal team of the Municipality of Rasht, northern Iran, said her team is not sent to high-cost games!
The women’s futsal team of Rasht’s municipality cancelled her trip to Ahwaz, capital of the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzistan, at the 11th hour and did not attend its game with the national drilling team of Ahwaz due to lack of funds.
The State-run ISNA reported on Dec. 4 that the tournaments of the women’s futsal teams were held on Sunday, December 3, while the two teams of Esteghlal of Sari and Municipality of Rasht were not able to face their rivals due to financial problems. Futsal is a variant of football or soccer, played on a hard court, smaller than a soccer field, and mainly indoors.

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From 20,654,750 people who hold jobs in Iran, only 16.2 per cent are women and 83.8 per cent are men. This is the outcome of a survey done by the National Statistics Center on the Iranian work force for the Iranian year 1395, which is between March 21, 2016 – March 20, 2017, published on Sunday, December 3, 2017.
The regime’s official IRNA news agency reported that the figure indicates that Iran’s job market is male-dominated and job opportunities are planned for men.  This is while 48.1 per cent of women with employment have higher education compared to 26.1 per cent of men. The survey says the number of women applying for higher education in Iran is twice the men, however, they are not absorbed by the job market.
According to the same survey, there are 7 million people employed by the unofficial job market, of whom 1.5 million are women.

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On the eve of the Student Day (December 7) in Iran, a number protest gatherings have been held by Iranian students in various universities where young women and girls have been actively participating.
In a rally held at Tehran University, a group of students made speeches and played a symbolic theatre in which they paid tribute to the students who have given their lives for freedom.
The young women and men of Tehran’s Allameh University staged a protest march, demanding free education as their right and condemned the school’s charging them with high fees. They accused university officials of having objectified the education.
Similar protests were held at Tehran’s Melli and Kharazmi universities as well as the University of Baluchistan.
Some of the slogans chanted by the students were, “Won’t be silenced despite threats and summoning of students”, “Forced labor before graduation, unemployment after education”, “students are suppressed all across Iran from north to south”, “Girls’ dormitories are prisons”, “Free education is our right, forcible tuition is neither justice nor legal”, etc.
Also the students of the Oil Industries University staged an unlimited sit-in protest outside the Oil Industry building in Tehran on Monday, December 4, 2017, vowing not to leave until their demand for employment is met. After three weeks of protest and sit-in on the campuses of the Oil Industries University in Ahwaz and Abadan (southwestern Iran), the students took their protest to Tehran and held a rally on Sunday, December 3, outside Rouhani’s office.