Sunday, November 04, 2018

NEWS))))))


According to the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Nov. 1, from Thursday morning, the fourth round of strike of heavy truck drivers began in Iran, and covered vast sections of the country. Drivers from different provinces including Tehran, Isfahan, Khuzestan, West Azarbaijan, East Azarbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Fars, Kermanshah, Kerman, Hamedan, Golestan, Zanjan, Semnan, Hormozgan and others stopped working. Drivers had earlier gone to strike in June, August and October 2018 to protest their dire livelihood conditions, low freight rates, expensive spare parts, tough insurance conditions, and so on. Their third round of strike lasted 21 days. Strikers, in addition to their previous demands, called for the release of drivers who were arrested in the third round of the Nation wide strike. Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the president elect of the Iranian resistance called on all youth to give strikers financial and moral support and called on labor unions and the International Labor Organization and other organizations defending the rights of workers and the working people to condemn the repressive measures taken by the Iranian regime against drivers and to support their strike to get their rights.


 ******
On Monday, October 29, Iranians fought the Iranian Regime every step of the way in order to celebrate Cyrus day. Cyrus is the ancient Persian emperor credited with forming the identity of Iran. Many Iranians wanted to travel to Cyrus’s tomb at Pasargadae in Fars Province to pay tribute to this great man, but the Iranian Regime tried everything to prevent the Iranian public from going there out of fear. The Iranian regime’s security sectors sent out threatening texts to public not to observe Cyrus day. IRGC also announced that military drills would be near the tomb and warned hospitals to expect increased casualties. Despite all these suppressing measures many Iranians got to Cyrus’ tomb and others held protest gatherings in their own cities, with Tehran being a prominent example.
King Cyrus II was an ancient Iranian leader, responsible for creating the largest empire of civilized nations known in the world in 600 BCE and the world’s first human rights charter. His life is celebrated on October 29, as that is believed to be the day that he conquered Babylon and freed the Jewish people from slavery, before declaring that the temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt, and giving the Jewish people the choice of returning to their homeland or joining him. He is also considered a just ruler in Islamic holy readings, but the Iranian Regime does not recognize the day, as they wish to do away with all pre-Islamic Iranian celebrations.


******
Hengameh Vahedian, a female student in Mashhad, published an open letter protesting the lack of accountability by the regime’s authorities and agencies regarding her father's arrest. Abbas Vahedian was arrested by security forces on October 11, 2018, because of his activities in the Teachers' Guild Association in Mashhad. He was transferred to an unknown location and no information has been available on his fate, since.
In her open letter, Hengameh Vahedian writes: "I went to the information center. I went to the Revolutionary Court, without finding a single proper answer to my questions and concerns! However, I heard only one answer when they said no order had been registered to have my father arrested, and it was not clear which agency had taken action! How is it possible in a country to arrest a person and have a legal warrant to enter his home, without a court order and an agency issuing and carrying out the order?
"If humanity and awareness are considered a crime, if defending one’s homeland is considered a crime, and if talking about freedom and demanding one’s rights are considered a crime, then I am proud that my father is a criminal!”
It has been reported that security forces raided the residence of Abbas Vahedian on October 11, 2018, ransacking the entire house to find his own and his children’s tablet and mobile phones. They told his 10-year-old daughter and Hengameh Vahedian’s younger sister, Parmida, that, “You will never see your father again. We are taking him to kill him!"


******


On Sat. Oct. 27, female students of the central unit of Tehran’s Azad University confronted the Guidance Patrol forces during a protest rally on Saturday, October 27, held on the university’s surrounding area in Sohanak. Female students played an active role during the protest and tried to stop the Guidance Patrol vehicles which were driving into the crowd. Witnesses have filmed which is posted on the internet shows a female student being pushed by a petrol car. The State Security forces (SSF) arrested 4 students and seized several mobile phones.
- Female students of medical sciences of Azad Universities also gathered, pursuant to a number of other similar protests held against the mistakes made in the 2018 admission exams.
- Female students studying genetics Genetics specialists held a protest rally against the organization’s failure to provide medical system numbers for the professionals on the same day outside the building of the Medical System Organization in Tehran.
In another protest on Saturday, retired women of various government banks converged in Tehran and held a protest rally outside the Bank Pension Fund. One of the protesters said, "One of our most important demands is the unconditional and permanent implementation of article 64 of Chapter 10 of the Law on the Administration of State Services, and payment of the salary difference since January 20, 2017."
Also on the same day a group of defrauded people cheated by the Gold Samen Website gathered outside the Public Prosecutor's Office in Tehran.
A group of women’s rights activists gathered for a symbolic ceremony on Saturday, October 27, 2018, at the grave of Reyhaneh Jabbari and commemorated her on the fourth anniversary of her execution.


******
Some 40 prisoners detained in the women’s ward of Khoy Prison, West Azerbaijan, have been displaced to the prison’s visitation hall where they have to endure deplorable conditions without having access to basic facilities. The inhuman measure has been taken under the pretext of doing repairs. Political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian is imprisoned in Khoy Prison. Ms. Jalalian has been in jail since 2007 and has to serve a life sentence.


******
Two civil activist women, Hakimeh Ahmadi and Nasim Sadeqi, were tortured by the Ministry of Intelligence agents after and during their arrests.
Ms. Hakimeh Ahmadi, a civil activist detained by the Ministry of Intelligence agents on October 18, was subjected to physical and psychological torture. The agents broke her fingers and two of her rib bones. According to her husband, Gholamreza Ghorbani, Hakimeh is hospitalized at the Tabriz Army Hospital, and the Intelligence Ministry agents have demanded that he pay the hospital and treatment fees.
During the arrest of this civil activist woman, the intelligence agents beat her and even threatened her and her husband with their weapons.
Ms. Hakimeh Ahmadi, the mother of two young children, had previously been detained in September and was released after three days on a 100-million-touman bail.
Nasim Sadeghi, who is currently in detention, explained about the tortures she had been subjected to during a telephone call to her children, saying that the security guards had beaten her repeatedly during her detention and threatened her.
Further information on the arrest of Ms. Lamya Hemadi indicates that the 20-year-old woman detained in an unknown location, is seven months pregnant. Ms. Hemadi had been previously summoned by the intelligence department for her cyberspace activities and arrested by security forces in October 2018.
The Iranian regime has been cracking down on the populace in and around Ahvaz, making dozens of arbitrary arrests since September 22, 2018, when the parade of its military forces were attacked by armed men. Around 600 people from Khuzestan province have been detained by security forces and under interrogation. Arab human rights activists have announced that many of the detainees are civil activists.

******
At least 14 young women and girls in Iran have committed suicide and ended their lives in October 2018. At least six teenage girls, between the ages of 13-17, are among the victims. Poverty and depression under the current regime is the cause of suicide which is on the rise.