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On Friday Jan. 12, the US Treasury Sanctioned 14 Individuals and Entities for Human Rights Abuses and Censorship in Iran, and Support to Sanctioned Weapons Proliferators. The 14 individuals include Sadegh Larijani the head of Iran's judiciary and Rajaee shahr prison and Gholamrezathe Ziaei head of that prisons,
"The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Iran's judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government," said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. "We are also targeting Iran's ballistic missile program and destabilizing activities, which it continues to prioritize over the economic well-being of the Iranian people."
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The Iranian regime facilitated the escape of its former head of judiciary from Germany back to Iran. Mahmoud Shahroodi had traveled to Germany for treatment. This is while many Iranians such as Dr. Mohammad Maleki are denied outside the country treatment. There were demonstrations and protests against Shahroodi's visit to Germany. A number of Iranians, including former political prisoners who were witnesses to crimes committed in prison during Hashemi Shahroudi’s tenure as head of the judiciary, filed complaints against him in Germany. The Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany has also filed a complaint with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office against Hashemi Shahroudi in accordance with international criminal procedures within the framework of a crime against humanity, which called for issuing a warrant for his arrest. He departed from Germany on Thursday Jan. 11 in early morning and in a hurry. He used different rout to avoid the demonstrators who were waiting for him at the airport.
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According to a report published by one of the Iranian state-run websites, women have to cover their heads even under surgery in some of the hospitals in the capital. “Can’t enter the hospital’s emergency room without the chador,” says a middle-aged woman standing at the hospital’s entrance to prevent women from entering if they are wearing manteaux.
Some of the clinics and hospitals in Tehran require women to wear the chador before walking in. Baghyatollah Hospital is one of these centers. The patients who are not feeling well and need to rely on others to walk must also observe this requirement. The woman guarding the entrance says, “Those who come on their own feet, we make them remove their make-up. Here, we have everything. Make-up remover, nail-polish remover, napkins, ... Those who have artificial nails, must wear gloves.”
The chador – head-to-toe black veil—is not only compulsory in the hospital’s clinic but also inside the hospital and even in the emergency room. The female patient’s gown for the operation room also includes a maghna’eh (head cover which is tighter than a scarf and covers everything but the face).
Sara whose mother has recently had an operation in this hospital says, “My mother did not feel well and was very anxious about her operation. My mother had breast cancer and the doctors would see her body. So, I don’t know what was that head cover good for.” “We came to this hospital because of our insurance contract but women and their companies are very much distressed in this hospital,” added Sara. (The state-run Fararu.com, January 11, 2018)
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A Kurdish woman, Touran Mehraban, has been beaten up and tortured in jail after being arrested last week. The mother of this arrested student said she had been informed of the torture when she met her daughter on Saturday, January 6, at the detention center of the Department of Intelligence of Orumiyeh, capital of West Azerbaijan Province, NW Iran. Ms. Mehraban was studying at Nazlou University of Orumiyeh when she was arrested on Saturday, December 31, 2017, by security forces on the charge of taking part in protest gatherings against economic corruption.
Another one of the arrested women has been identified as a civil activist Sepideh Farahan (Farah
abadi) who was arrested on Tuesday, January 2, in Tehran’s Enghelab Square by security forces and transferred to an unknown location.
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At least 400 women are among those arrested in recent protests in Izeh, in Khuzistan Province, SW Iran. The arrests in this city have been extensive. All members of some families have been arrested. Local eyewitnesses say most of the arrested women in this city have been taken to a drug addiction rehabilitation camp. Thirty-six individuals including 8 women were arrested during a raid on a house in Birjand, capital of South Khorassan Province, eastern Iran. The Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Birjand, Hossein Moghaddas, said the arrested women had previous record of breaching the dress code and they were taken to jail. 11 protesters, including at least seven women, have been recently transferred to the prison of Saqqez, Iranian Kurdistan, after preliminary interrogations. An uncertain number of detainees are held in other detention centers including those belonging to the Intelligence Department and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reports say. According to the Iranian resitance some 8000 people have been arrested during Iran protests. Based on Brigadier General, Hossein Zolfaghari, Deputy Interior Minister more than %90 of protesters who were arrested are youths under the age of 25.