IRAN NEWS))))))

Iran’s nationwide uprising marked its 178 day on Sunday March 12. The uprising has spread in 282 cities across Iran with 750 people dead and 30,000 detainees. The names and identities of 664 people killed by the regime have been announced by the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK, People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

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Teachers and families of students held protests against deliberate poisoning. At least 41 more girls were poisoned in Zahedan due to inhaling toxic gases. Various capitals across Iran saw protests on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, against deliberate poisoning of students. Teachers and families of students called on the clerical regime to account and provide the security of schools. The protesters chanted, “Condemn the chemical attacks,” “death to the child-killing regime,” “Security of schools is our inalienable right,” etc. In continuation of the poisoning of students, another 41 girl students in Zahedan were poisoned on Tuesday, March 7, due to inhaling toxic gases. In Tehran, teachers and families of students held a protest gathering outside the Department of Education in the capital’s 5th district, and chanted against poisoning of girls. In the protest gathering of teachers and families of students in Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province, the State Security Force and plainclothes agents lobbed tear gas at the protesters. In Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan Razavi Province, teachers and families of students gathered outside the General Department of Education of Khorasan to protest the chemical attacks on students. The gathering was also raided by security forces and plainclothes agents. In Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, teachers and families of students gathered outside the General Department of Education and condemned the chemical attacks on students and their widespread poisoning. In Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province, protesters gathered outside the Department of Education and chanted against the regime’s chemical attacks on schools and universities. In Ardabil, teachers and residents of the city gathered outside the Department of Education and protested the chemical attacks on schools. Teachers and the staff of the Education Ministry held gatherings in Isfahan and Sari, outside their departments of education, and protested widespread poisoning of students and chemical attacks on the schools. In the protest gathering in Noorabad-Mamasani, in Fars Province, a teacher said, If a young man writes a slogan on the wall, they pursue him with drones and act with full force to identify him. Then they immediately arrest, torture, and execute him. In this case, however, despite passage of three months since the poisoning of students started, government officials do not intend to answer people. https://tinyurl.com/35znkp3y

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Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced engineering student Samaneh Asghari to 18 years and three months in prison on Monday, March 6, 2023. Ms. Asghari is an industrial engineering student at Kharazmi University. If this sentence is approved in the appeal stage, by applying Article 134 of the Penal Code, the maximum punishment of six years and three months will be applicable to Ms. Asghari. Samaneh Asghari, a children’s rights activist and an industrial engineering student at Kharazmi University, was arrested on October 11, 2022, and detained in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. She was later transferred to Qarchak Prison, where she remains in custody.

- The first branch of the Sanandaj Criminal Court sentenced civil activist Sorour Molaei to three years and six months in prison. Sorour Molaei, 38, a mountaineer, environmental activist, and education department teacher from Sanandaj, was arrested by IRGC intelligence forces on October 26, 2022, during the 40th-day memorial of Mahsa Amini in Sanandaj. She had been released on bail after two weeks of interrogation in the detention center of the IRGC Intelligence, pending the completion of the proceedings.

- Sarina Mahmoud Salehi, a 19-year-old animation student at Karaj Technical and Vocational University, was arrested on March 2, 2023, for spreading the news of poisoning the university’s students.

- The case of the poet and songwriter Taraneh Jameh Bozorgi was referred to the Appeals Court of Qom province. Taraneh Jameh Bozorgi, a poet and songwriter from Qom, was arrested by state forces in December 2022 during the nationwide protests. Sometime later, she was temporarily released on bail until the proceedings ended.

- On March 7, 2023, Sakineh Parvaneh, a former political prisoner, was arrested by the security forces in Tehran and taken to an unknown location. There is no information about the reason for his arrest and his whereabouts. Sakineh Parvaneh was arrested by IRGC intelligence agents in 2019 and was finally sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran and, as a supplementary punishment, to 2 years of being banned from being a member of political organizations. She had been released in mid-February this year. https://tinyurl.com/2jh496wj