Radio Irava's condolences for the passing of Dr. Zari Isfahani, Iranian-Canadian- former physician, painter, poet and writer

Dr. Zari Izadpanah knowd az Zari Isfahani died of cancer last night and shocked and saddened the Iranian community in Canada and around the world. She was 63 years old. She never stopped writing against the Iranian regime and was very active on Facebook and before the birth of social media, she was writing Political and literary content on different websites as well as her blog: Zari Isfahani’s notes. She will be missed tremendously.

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The Iranian-Canadians gathered during their weekly protest on Sat. Oct 28, in front of the Parliament Hill and across from PM office and called for the release of Mr. Hashem Khastar prominent teachers' rights activist from mental hospital. Mr. Khastar was kidnapped on Oct 23, 2018 by the Iranian regime's plain cloths agents and 14 hours later his wife was informed that Mr. Khastar was in the Ibn Sina mental hospital in Mashhad, Northeast of Iran. The kidnapping of Mr. Khastar followed the nation wide teacher's strike last week.

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Akram Rahimpour, wife of labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh, has been threatened by agents of the Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to report her husband on Wed. Oct 24. This is the third time in seven months that MOIS agents have referred to Mrs. Akram Rahimpour. Jafar Azimzadeh, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Free Alliance of Workers of Iran, had been sentenced to 17 years in prison. The Appeal Court of Arak acquitted him of 11 years, leaving six years for him to serve in prison. Jafar Azimzadeh was jailed in November 2015. After nearly eight months, he and Ismael Abdi, an imprisoned activist teacher, went on hunger strike to protest the regime’s approach to legitimate trade activities as national security threat. Widespread domestic and international support and 63 days of hunger strike led to the temporary release of the two activists.

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An Iranian regime official acknowledged the catastrophic statistics on the number of girl children left out of school in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the beginning of the new school year.

Massoumeh Ebtekar, Presidential deputy on Women and Family Affairs, said, "Sistan and Baluchestan province has the country’s largest number of children left out of school. Girls make up the majority of the children deprived of education."

Only 45,000 children in Sistan and Baluchestan who had been left out of school have been identified by the Education Department and sent to school for the 2018 academic year. This is according to Alireza Nakhaii, Director General of the Department of Education in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. (The state-run Tasnim news agency – October 23, 2018)

Of the 169,000 children deprived of education in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, 156,000 are girls. (Alireza Nakhaii, Director General of Education in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, the state-run ILNA news agency – June 16, 2017)

According to the state media, more than 15 million children in Iran are at the age of attending school, while the student population is about 13 million. That means at least 2 million students are deprived of education, and many of them are girls.

Revocation of free education has been the most important factor contributing to the increase in the number of children being left out of education in Iran. According to Principle 30 of the Iranian Constitution, “The government is obliged to provide free elementary and high school education for all members of the nation and facilitate free higher education for all until the country is self-sufficient.”