Sunday, October 25, 2020




Over 132,700 people have died of the novel coronavirus in 460 cities checkered across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to reports tallied by the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as of Sunday afternoon local time, October 25. 

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Arbitrary arrests in Iran target civil and student activists – Intelligence agents arrested a number of civil and student activists on October 16, 2020. They included Elham Samimi, Bahareh Soleimani, Somayyeh Kargar, and Nahid Taghavi.

Elham Samimi is a student of anthropology at Tehran University. Somayyeh Kargar is a graduate student of philosophy from Tabriz University. She was arrested at home. She is a Kurdish civil activist. The Evin Courthouse told her family that Somayyeh Kargar has been arrested for internet crimes. The civil activist is suffering from a rare eye illness. She does not have access to her medications since she was arrested at home in Tehran. Her family are very concerned about her health. Intelligence agents also arrested Bahareh Soleimani in Karaj and took her to an unknown location. They also ransacked her parents’ home. Then they searched her own residence. Bahareh Soleimani is a health worker. For the past eight months, she has been in constant contact with patients infected with the coronavirus. Her lungs have suffered damages during the past 8 months and she needs urgent medical attention. On October 18, the Soleimani family enquired about their daughter’s whereabouts. The authorities told them that until her status is determined, they are not going to have any contacts or visits with her. They also told the Soleimani family that Bahareh is detained in the intelligence section in solitary confinement. The arbitrary arrests in Iran also included the arrest of Nahid Taghavi by intelligence agents at her home. Nahid Taghavi, 66, had recently underwent an operation. She also suffers from high blood pressure. She has not had access to her medications since her detention. Her family took her blood pressure medicines to the Evin Courthouse, but prison agents did not accept the medicines because Ms. Taghavi is held in solitary confinement.

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A video clip circulated in social media on October 22, 2020, of a young woman in Abadan being mistreated by Oil Company’s security forces. The young woman with bloodied face was being held on the ground while one of the security agents put his foot on her chest.

The inhumane treatment of the injured woman in Abadan provoked widespread outrage among Iranians in Khuzestan and across the country.

Social media users said the video clip displayed an example of oppression of women and the corruption and depravity rampant within the clerical regime.  

The person behind this harrowing incident was Jahan-Nejadian, a high-ranking manager of Abadan Oil Refinery and an operative of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

IRGC operative, Jahan Nejadian holding the picture of Qassem Soleimani

The video clip reveals the corruption of one of the mid-level managers of the Abadan Oil Refinery. The Security Force of the Berim District in Abadan also cooperated with him and brutalized the young woman.

The NCRI Women’s Committee reiterates that the spread of such social disasters is the product of the mullahs’ misogynistic rule. The regime’s misogynistic policies and laws are the prime cause of violence against women, the spread of poverty, corruption and various forms of social crimes and disasters.

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Special Guards raided defenseless inmates in the women’s section of Kermanshah’s Correctional Center for Rehabilitation.

Women imprisoned in Kermanshah’s Correctional Center for Rehabilitation held a protest on October 21, 2020. They protested the harsh conditions imposed on prisoners by the head of this prison. However, their peaceful protest was responded by an attack by the Special Guards.

The Special Guards unit raided imprisoned women by lobbing tear gas at them. They brutalized them using batons.

Two female prisoners, Sheno Rahmati and Fatemeh Rahimi, were badly beaten. They were dragged on the ground and taken to solitary confinement.

In addition, a number of protesters suffered shortness of breath due to tear gas and pepper spray used by guards.

The family of one of the inmates said: “The majority inmates detained in the women’s section of Kermanshah’s Correctional Center for Rehabilitation protested harsh new rules imposed on inmates’ clothing and timing of telephone calls by the head of this prison. However, their peaceful protest was attacked by the prison’s Special Guards Force.”

Soheila Zahiri, a member of Bassij, heads the women’s section. She implements the harsh new rules on female inmates, making conditions intolerable for inmates.

This is not the first time that prison guards attack defenseless inmates in a women’s prison. They have launched such attacks on many occasions in the notorious Qarchak Prison.

In February 2019, in response to the inmates in wards 1 and 2 of Qarchak who demanded attendance to one of the prisoners, the special guards attacked them. They used pepper and tear gas in the prison’s closed area to quell the protests. 

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The state-run media in Iran cited a deputy in the mullahs’ parliament speaking during parliamentary debates. Mo’ineddin Saeedi, Majlis deputy from Chabahar, revealed that 4 years ago, a widow in Sistan and Baluchestan Province had been compelled to sell her body to provide potable water for her children. The miserable woman then committed suicide. (The state-run etemadonline.ir – October 21, 2020) Saeedi was underlining the acute water crisis in his province and the officials’ failure to address it. He said: “A widow who was more honorable than me and the president, was forced to sleep with a (stranger) man to provide water for her children. And she committed suicide afterwards.” https://tinyurl.com/yyxrwpsn

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Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was serving her sentence in Evin Prison when authorities called her out of the ward on Tuesday, October 20, and told her they were going to take her to hospital for her cardio and angiography operation. But they took her directly to Qarchak Prison instead. On Wednesday, October 21, the Evin Prison authorities called Yasaman Ariyani and her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, who were serving their 9 years and 7 months in prison for opposing the compulsory veil, to meet with their lawyer. But they were transferred to the Kachouii Prison in Karaj. 

The notorious Qarchak Prison in Varamin is the only all-women prison in Iran used for detention of women convicted of violent offences and as an internal exile for political prisoners. There is no separation of crimes in this prison and political prisoners are held along with ordinary criminals and dangerous prisoners. The sanitary conditions in this prison were dreadful even before the coronavirus outbreak. Dozens of women have lost their lives in this prison due to the outbreak. The sanitary conditions in the Kachouii Prison is also horrible. The prison has four halls. Every hall houses more than 50 prisoners. In each hall There are two rows of metal bunk beds, each for three prisoners. https://tinyurl.com/y3kl7oaj

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The Revolutionary Court of Tehran- Iran's capital, sentenced Farangis Mazloum to 18 months in prison on Oct. 20th. Mother of political prisoner, Soheil Arabi, received a one-year sentence on the charge of “assembly and collusion with the intention of committing crime through contacting the People’s Mojahedin Organization.” And received another six months for “disseminating propaganda against the state and in favor of dissident groups.” Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Ms. Mazloum on July 22, 2019. They took her to the security Ward 209 of Evin Prison where she was detained in solitary confinement for 2.5 months. Despite health conditions and heart illness, they interrogated Farangis Mazloum under torture. Ms. Mazloum has been under constant pressure and harassment in recent years after her son, political prisoner Soheil Arabi, was arrested and detained. She had previously declared that “I am being tortured every day and night.” https://tinyurl.com/y3m2wbr7

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A 13 year old teenage girl named Parastoo Jalili commited suicide in a small village in Urmia, capital of West Azerbayjan, northwestern Iran, due to poverty and for not having a smartphone to continue her online classes. The news of a young girl committing suicide for not having a smartphone circulated in the social media on October 20. Seyyed Mohammad Mousavizadeh, 11 years old, took his own life for the same reason on October 12, in the city of Dair in Bushehr Province, southern Iran. His mother told news agencies: “My son did not have a good cellphone. We do not have a good life. I have a disabled child. My husband is sick and we live in a rented house. I have several children. Mohammad needed a cellphone but his did not work alright, it did not send voice or image.” Hossein-Ali Shahriari who chairs the Health Commission in the Iranian regime's parliament, said on October 14: “60,000 of our teachers do not even have a cellphone. 3.5 million of our students do not have access to smartphones or tablets.” https://tinyurl.com/y5f6yrxz

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Health conditions of political prisoner Fatemeh Mosanna have deterioratedand turned critical due to intestinal infection since Oct. 17. Evin clinic has announced that they are unable to provide the necessary treatment to Ms. Mosanna. But according to reports from Evin, prison authorities have so far refrained from sending her to a civic hospital. Fatemeh Mosanna and her husband, Hassan Sadeqi, were arrested on April 9, 2014, for holding a funeral ceremony for his father, deceased on January 29, 2014, in Camp Liberty, Iraq, where PMOI members were held under siege. https://tinyurl.com/y6ejudf7

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The clerical regime’s news agencies reported on the arrest of a woman who removed her Hijab while riding a bicycle. The NCRI Women’s Committee condemns the unjustified arrest of this woman for defying the compulsory veil and calls for her immediate release. Security forces arrested a woman in Najafabad, the state-run Fars news agency reported on October 20. Najafabad is one of the major cities in Isfahan Province, central Iran. A videotape showing a woman riding a bicycle without covering her hair circulated in the social media on October 19. The Governor of Najafabad said they had also identified and arrested the persons who filmed and disseminated the video. Media reports did not specify the identity of the woman and those who filmed and posted the video. https://tinyurl.com/y3mr9pxz