NEWS))))))


******

On May 5, delegations from more than 40 US states gathered in the Iranian freedom convention in Washington D.C. which was held by the Organization of Iranian American communities in the United States. Mayor, Rudy Giuliani as keynote speaker at the Iran Freedom Convention expressed his support for the Iranian people and called for a Free Iran. He asked US media to go to Paris and participate in the Grand Gathering of the Iranian people this summer. In a message to the Iranian American Freedom Convention in Washington DC, congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Ted Poe, Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico, Congressman Eliot Engel, as well as Dr. Daneshgari an Iranian American personality spoke at the event. Mrs Maryam Rajavi the president elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran- NCRI, sent a message to the gathering as well. The Iranian Americans attending the 2018 Iran Freedom Convention called on all freedom loving Iranians to attend at FreeIran2018 on June 30th, Paris and support a Free Iran. The annual grand gathering of the Iranians will take place on June 30, 2018 at the Villepinte Exposition center north of Paris – France.

******

According to the People's Mojahedin of Organization of Iran PMOI May 5 statement, in several raids on May Day 2018 (the International Workers’ Day), hundreds of the youth and workers were arrested and tortured in Southwestern oil rich city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province by security forces and intelligence agents on various fake charges. PMOI statement continues: more than 100 of the detainees, who had been transferred to Sheiban Prison in the city of Whace and tortured with whips and hoses, were taken before the Sharia judge to receive their sentences. Among them, there are a number of workers of Haft-Tapeh sugarcane plantation who were aggressively attacked by the regime’s agents while they were preparing and mounting their protest banners. An immediate fact-finding visit to Ahvaz prisons by representatives of the UN and international organizations is absolutely vital said PMOI.

******

Mrs. Dayeh Sharifeh, mother of Iranian death-row political prisoner
Ramin Hossein Panahi, called for an open trial for her son and challenged the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ charges against him. Ramin Hossein Panahi is a Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death. He was scheduled to be executed on Thursday, May 3, but was returned from solitary cell to the general ward of the Central Prison of Sanandaj and implementation of his death sentence was postponed after an extensive international campaign to stop his execution. His niece, Nishtman Hossein Panahi, committed suicide on May 1, due to pressures from the Intelligence

Department of Sanandaj and in protest to the death decree for her uncle. Nishtman was pressured to divorce her imprisoned husband and cooperate with the Intelligence Department against her family.
In a message published in social media on May 3, 2018, Mrs. Dayeh Sharifeh said:
Since the first day when Ramin was arrested, we demanded that his trial be open. Ramin is absolutely innocent. He has never been armed at any time. He had come to Sanandaj just to visit me. Now if the Justice Ministry is telling the truth, they should also disseminate what Ramin and I have said. They must prove that Ramin was armed. These false charges have been leveled by the IRGC to cover up their own crimes by sending Ramin to the gallows.

******

According to state-run Aftabnews May 3rd, Several female supporters of Esteghlal soccer team, were identified and arrested on May 3rd, while attempting to enter a stadium in Khorramshahr (southwestern Iran) with men's disguise. Iranian women have been wearing men's clothing and appearance to break the discriminatory restriction officially imposed on them to enter stadiums in Iran. Some women have been successful in doing so and published their photos and films in social media. 

******

Women teachers actively took part in an act of protest organized at the grave of Iran's freedom-loving poet, Mirzadeh Eshghi. Mirzadeh Eshghi was assassinated by the order of the Chief of Police when Reza Khan was Prime Minister. Reza Khan later toppled the Qajar Dynasty, founding the Pahlavi Dynasty which ruled Iran with dictatorship for 75 years.



******

Students of Tehran's Allameh Tabatabaii University, including a large number of young women, staged a protest on Sunday, April 29, at the university's campus. They protested the university's new policy of requiring tuition, fabricating of false cases against students, and issuing heavy sentences for them. 
Allameh’s young women held placards which read, “Students are not criminals,” “university is not a garrison,” “Sina Rabii, a student with heavy sentences.”
They also spoke out against the policy of Rouhani’s government to obtain tuitions from college students. They held placards which read, “No to college tuitions”, “Allameh U is an economic firm”, etc. Last year, young women and female students participated in 111 acts of protest in various univerisities across Iran.

******

According to state-run Young Journalists Club April 27, a plan is to be implemented against shop owners who offer unconventional clothing for women, said the commander of the State Security Force (SSF) in Isfahan, central Iran.
The SSF Commander of Isfahan said that the plan was called, “Tat’hir,” which means purifying or cleansing. He said, “Hijab (veil) and chastity are the (Iranian) Revolution’s strongest barrier against infiltration of the enemies. To this end, a special plan called “Tat’hir” is going to be on the agenda under the command of Isfahan Province’s SSF. The objective of this plan is to deal with suppliers who offer unconventional clothing for women and cause improper clothing and violation of chastity in society.”
Earlier on March 24, Nasser Makarem Shirazi, one of the regime’s religious scholars had proclaimed that “Hijab” had been transformed from a secondary commandment of Islam into one of its symbols.

******

A group of families of the men and women arrested in recent protests in Ahwaz, SW Iran, gathered outside the city’s court on Sunday, April 29, 2018.
More than 400 protesters including a number of women are presently held in detention.
Participants in this protest gathering, most of whom were women, demanded determination of the status of their children.
Judiciary and security officials had previously promised that all the arrested protesters were going to be released. However, only five have been temporarily freed from jail, so far, until their sentences are issued. The bailbonds set for the detainees are very high and the families do not afford to provide the necessary property documents to deposit as bail.
Ahwaz is the capital of the oil-rich Khuzistan Province, in southwestern Iran.
Also in Tabriz, NW Iran, a group of women who have worked on temporary contracts for the city’s municipality staged a picket line outside the building. They have not received any benefits for years and demand to be officially employed by the municipality.

******

A 15-year-old student, Ma'edeh Shabani-Nejad, is still being held in Sepidar Prison of Ahwaz since her arrest in January. Ma'edeh Shabani-Nejad (Amouri) is a freshman at Reyhaneh High school in Abadan and is a brilliant student. She writes nationalistic and epical poetry in Arabic and publishes them on social media.
The first time, Ms. Shabani was arrested was on October 17, 2017. The second time, she was arrested in her uncle's house in Ahwaz on January 25, 2018, by the IRGC's Department of Intelligence and transferred to the IRGC detention center.
Some of her family members and relatives have been also arrested for helping this 15-year-old girl. Among them was Ms. Mahnaz Amouri Faissali, 43, her aunt, Mahmoud Amouri, 32, her uncle, Khaled Amouri, 28 and Foad Amouri, 30.

******

For the second time in a month, another woman was attacked by acid in Tabriz, capital of Iran's northwestern province of East Azerbaijan. Maryam has been burned in the face and hands. The assailant was her husband who threw one liter of acid on her.
In 1995, a wave of state-backed acid attacks on women was carried out in Tehran and Isfahan against women who were accused of not properly covering themselves, as part of an anti-vice campaign. The assailants were never arrested or punished. This led to common use of acid in cases of personal revenge. The bill proposing criminalization of violence against women has been waiting in the Iranian regime's parliament for ten years now without being examined and adopted.