NEWS))))))

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With the International Federation of Association Football(FIFA) setting a deadline for Iranian women entering the stadiums(Aug. 31) to watch football matches in Iran, this issue has again become a trending topic of the day. However, the Attorney-General and the religious authorities of the Iranian regime continue to oppose the subject. Attorney-General of Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said, “Do you think this a simple matter when FIFA officially announced that if women are not allowed to enter the stadiums they will ban Iran from attending international matches? That is not an easy thing to say. What business is it of FIFA for a country where 10, 500, 1000, or 5000 spectators go to watch football that a number of them have to be women?”He added: “Do they feel sorry for women when they are pining for women to be allowed to enter stadiums in Iran? Are they worried about our sports centers? Worried for women not being deprived of the great graces of watching football? Do not take this as a simple matter.” (The state-run ISNA News Agency – August 7, 2019)
Makarem Shirazi, one of the regime’s religious authorities also said, “The environment in the stadiums is not suitable for the presence of women… Therefore, women need to refrain from attending such programs. Especially since they can watch them from the media and their presence is unnecessary.” (The state-run Aftab News Agency – August 5, 2019)
FIFA has given the Iranian regime until August 31, 2019, to agree to allow women to enter stadiums.

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Two women’s rights activists, Maryam Mohammadi and Esrin Derkaleh, have been moved from the Intelligence Ministry Ward 209 in Evin Prison to the Women’s Ward. They had been active in the field of women’s empowerment and women’s literacy and spoke on the International Women’s Day to a gathering held by the Voice of Iranian Women’s Association (Neda-ye-Zanan-e Iran) and talked about women as being the main driving force in the protests and also about 40 years of women’s movement in Iran..

- Nasrin Javadi who was arrested on May 1st demonstrations in Tehran, was summoned to the 26th

Branch of Tehran’s Court on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. The court accused her of disrupting public order and of association and collusion against national security, as well as of propaganda against the state.

- On Sunday, August 4, security forces arrested Ms. Raha Ahmadi and took her to an unknown location. Her family has inquired about her whereabouts without any response.

- Asal Mohammadi, a civil rights activist and a student at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Azad University of Tehran, was transferred to Evin Prison on Sunday, August 4, after appeared in Branch of the regime's court on a pre-set date but her bail was changed to detention on the basis of a complaint from the Ministry of Intelligence. She must remain in custody until her sentence is issued. Ms. Asal Mohammadi was thus arrested by judicial bailiffs and transferred to Evin Prison.

- Leila Hosseinzadeh, a master’s student of anthropology at Tehran University who was arrested by intelligence agents on July 28, was transferred to the women’s ward in Evin Prison on Monday, August 5, to carry out her 30 months’ imprisonment sentence.

- On Monday, August 5, a hearing on the charges against Atefeh Rangriz, labor activist arrested during the Labor Day protests, was held at Branch 4 of the Iranian regim's Tehran Court. A bail was set at 4 billion tomans for Ms. Rangriz’s temporary release, but since her family could not afford it, she was returned to Qarchak Prison in Varamin. Atefeh Rangriz was badly brutalized by ordinary prisoners on July 30, and transferred to the hospital after the incident.

- A month after the arrest of Sedigheh Moradi and her husband Mehdi Khavas-sefat, their families are still unaware of their fate. The former political prisoners were detained by security forces in Tehran on Sunday, July 7, 2019.