NEWS))))))

Isfahan’s farmers continued their protests with women’s active participation on Saturday, April 14, in Khorasgan Square of this city, in central Iran. Fearing the spread of protests, the State Security forces blocked Jay Ave. by placing curbstones and water cannons on the route. As the protesters were returning home, the special unit guards attacked, using dozens of motorcycles, sticks and batons to beat them up. At least two women were brutalized and 30 others arrested. On the same day, the State Security Force of Isfahan declared a state of emergency and banned formation of any gathering of over two persons. The state-run Sharq daily on Thursday acknowledged women’s massive participation in these protests. The farmers of Isfahan are protesting the mismanagement of water resources for their lands. Much of Iran is suffering from drought, and residents of Isfahan say officials have diverted the province's main river to neighboring Yazd Province, causing their farms to suffer. The reason for this diversion is not clear but people
suspect IRGC(Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)'s involvement.


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Women whose properties have been plundered by the fraudulent Padideh Shandiz company in Mashhad (North East of Iran), once again wore shrouds and staged another protest. The protesters have not yet received any response on reimbursement of their properties after four years. The protest took place on Thursday, April 12, outside the Prosecutor’s Office in Mashhad, capital of Razavi Khorassan Province in northeastern Iran. The State Security Force arrested 12  protesting women and men.
One of the banners carried by the protesters read, “30,000 workers insured by the Padideh Shandiz Project have been laid off and it was the Public Prosecutor of Razavi Khorassan (Province) who caused escalation of the unemployment crisis throughout the country. Who is going to answer this oppression? Is there anyone who could help?”
Padideh Shandiz International Tourism Development Company (known as Padideh Shandiz) is an Iranian private joint-stock holding company active in restaurants, tourism and construction. In 2015, it was accused by a prosecutor in Mashhad of a fraud worth $34.3 billion.

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A group of young women and men studying at the University of Shiraz, in southern Iran, staged a protest against the expulsion of one of their professors. Female students were actively participated in this protest on Thursday, April 12. The students held placards saying “No to dismissal of brains.” Young women participated in 111 of the student protests which took place over the past year in universities across the country. They demanded their rights and

 improvement of the educational status and facilities.


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According to Women's committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a young woman and ten young men were arrested Tuesday night, April 10, at a party in Abadan, the second largest city of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwestern Iran. The arrested woman and men were handed over to judiciary officials. It is forbidden to have parties in Iran where men and women mix, drink and dance. Security forces systematically violate privacy of people’s homes and arrest the landlords and the guests participating in such parties. Over the past year, at least 570 women were arrested in such nightly raids on various parties. Earlier, security forces raided two big parties in Mashhad, NE Iran, and Amol, northern Iran, and made a large number of arrests.

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Despite passage of more than 40 days since her arrest, Mitra Badr-nejad Zohdi is still held in detention. The Baha’i woman residing in Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran, is deprived of contacting her family or receiving any visits. She is presently under interrogation but She has not been informed of her charges. Baha'i citizens are systematically persecuted and harassed in Iran. They are deprived of equal access to education and employment. Between March 2017 to February 2018, at least 47 Baha’i women were arrested and imprisoned, and 23 female Baha'i students expelled from universities.


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Despite shortage of at least 100,000 nurses in Iran, Iranian nurses are leaving Iran for Qatar. Ibrahim Mohammadi, international relations director of the Nursing Organization, pointed out that Iranian nurses are being recruited by the private sector in Qatar. He added, “This measure is taking place based on a memorandum signed by the Islamic Republic’s attache and the private sector in Qatar, according to which Iranian nurses get hired by medical centers in this Arab country.”
Criticizing the measure, Mohammadi said, “We must not allow our professional work forces leave the country so easily, while we are short of at least 100,000 nurses.” It's noteworthy that at least 17 nurses have died in Iran due to excessive pressure at their work place. While according to international standards every nurse has to attend to one up to four patients at maximum, an Iranian nurse attends to 15 patients, in the least. Nurses staged at least 29 protests last year to demand their past due salaries, not paid from six to 11 months.

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The father of hunger striking political prisoner Golrokh Iraee got to visit his daughter on Sunday, April 8, under heavy security presence. Ms. Iraee has been hospitalized in the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Baghyatollah Hospital in Tehran after some 70 days of wet and dry hunger strike and losing 22 kilograms. She keeps fainting and her life is at risk. She is in the same hospital that Zahra Kazemi Iranian-Canadian photo journalist died under torture. Golrokh is still on hunger strike and demands to return to Evin from Qarchak prison with  her inmate Atena Daemi. On the other hand the physical condition of political prisoner Atena Daemi has been reported as alarming. “After being transferred to Qarchak Prison, Atena has had various physical and nervous problems due to bad prison conditions and tremendous psychological pressure,” a source close to Daemi family announced on Friday, April 13. A large number of political prisoners from Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and the Central Prison of Orumiyeh in northwestern Iran, have sent messages of solidarity to Golrokh Iraee and praised her firm will and determination to insist on her rightful demands to be returned to Evin prison. Qarchak Women’s Prison is made of 7 warehouses that is holding approximately 2000 women and a few children. These buildings were used as avicultures and turned into prison for women. Female prisoners are held  together, disregarding the rules of segregation of prisoners by age and crime.