Sunday, January 24, 2021


According to the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK) Jan. 24, the number of Covid-19 fatalities in Iran has exceeded 205,800 in 478 cities across Iran. Meanwhile Khamenei in a Fatwa, has ordered the ban of purchasing the Covid vaccine for the Iranian people. 

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On Jan. 19, Mahboubeh Rezaii has been arrested and taken to the Prison of Bushehr, to serve her 2 and a half year jail sentence. Ms. Rezaii is from the city of Borazjan, in Bushehr Province, in southern Iran. Her charges include “assembly and collusion against national security”, “membership in one of the opposition groups”, “insulting the (mullahs’) leader” and “propaganda against the state” for which she had been sentenced to a total of 13 years in jail. The Revolutionary Court of Shiraz said that 5 years of this sentence will be implemented according to the regime’s laws. The Revision Court finally upheld 2.5 years of the sentence for this activist woman. Mahboubeh Rezaii was first arrested in May 2017 but was temporarily released on bail until final disposition of her case. In another development, the trial of Shakila Monfared, a civil activist, was held in Tehran on January 20, 2021. Three male guards and a woman from the IRGC’s Sarallah Garrison took her to prison after the trial. Born in 1993, Shakila Monfared resides in Tehran. On August 22, 2020, intelligence forces arrested her as she was leaving home. She is charged with “insulting the (mullahs’) leader” and “propaganda against the state.” At least 41 Kurdish citizens have been arrested so far in a wave of arbitrary arrests that stared on January 9. Most of those apprehended had been involved in civil, cultural, environmental and student activities. https://tinyurl.com/y66h3z2g

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The Iranian Intelligence services have deprived a Christian woman from getting employed for converting from Islam to Christianity. A former prisoner of conscience, Mary Mohammadi (Fatemeh) wrote in a post that nearly one year since she was released from Qarchak Prison in Varamin, she has been deprived of finding employment. The companies that she previously worked with, have refrained from hiring her under pressure of intelligence services and against their own will. Her former boss said about the situation: “For the sake of my one-year-old child, I cannot take any risks.” Mary Mohammadi was deprived of continuing her education in Tehran’s Azad University – North Branch where she was studying English translation, in December 2019. Earlier on April 7, 2018, Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced this Christian woman to 6 months’ imprisonment on charges of Christian activities and acting against national security through propaganda against the state. She was released from prison after finishing serving her sentence. On January 12, 2020, intelligence agents violently brutalized and apprehended her near Tehran’s Azadi Square during the nationwide protests against the downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mary Mohammadi was sexually harassed and abused while under interrogation in Vozara detention center in downtown Tehran. She was rearrested a second time for alleged “disruption of public order and calm” by taking part in an illegal gathering. She was sentenced to three months and one day of prison and 10 lashes. The Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced each of two Baha’i women, Sofia Mobini and Negin Tadrissi, to five years’ imprisonment. The two women are charged with celebrating the birthday of the Baha’i prophet in 2017. https://tinyurl.com/yxhcgjpb

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On Saturday, January 16, two members of Glaris all-women musical band were summoned to the Intelligence Police of the State Security Force of Kermanshah-Iran. Nazanin Atabaki and Nasrin Yazdanipour, solo singers of the musical band, were interrogated by the police. Subsequently, they were temporarily released on bail until their prosecution is finalized. According to an informed source two members of Glaris musical band had performed in a video advertisement for a furniture store. Members of Glaris musical band in Kermanshah, including Nazanin Atabaki, Samira Farahnaki, Maliheh Moradi, Nasrin Yazdanipour and Elham Yazdanipour have been summoned several times over the past days. They were compelled to sign written pledges not to participate in production of such video clips. The all-women Glaris musical band was founded in Kermanshah in 2017. It is active in performing folklore and traditional Kurdish music. Under the misogynous laws of the Iranian regime, women are censored and banned from singing in public. In the initial years of the mullahs’ rule, all female singers and performers were forced to stay home. https://tinyurl.com/y2sz25kp 

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Tehran’s Revolutionary Court issued a verdict on January 19, sentencing media activist and journalist Moloud Hajizadeh to one-year imprisonment. Moloud who lives in Tehran, had posted articles in protest to the bloody crackdown on the protests in Iran in November 2019. She also wrote against the downing of the Ukrainian airliner by the regime’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on January 8, 2020, which led to the deaths of all the 176 passengers and crew on board. https://tinyurl.com/y3a29oe6

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Parizad Hamidi Shafaq was sentenced to 18 years and six months of imprisonment for her activities on social media. She is presently detained in the notorious Qarchak Prison in Varamin. Parizad has already served 11 months in ward 8 of Qarchak Prison. Agents of the IRGC Intelligence arrested her in February 2020. After undergoing interrogations for 25 days, she was transferred from the solitary cells of Ward 2A of Evin Prison to Qarchak Prison on March 19, 2020. The Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Parizad Hamidi Shafaq to 18 years and six months in prison. Since she did not object the sentence, her final sentence was commuted to 5 years and 7 months and 15 days. In another news, three detained Kurdish women have been transferred to the detention center of the IRGC Intelligence in Urmia, capital of W. Azerbaijan Province. Esrin Mohammadi, arrested in Tehran; Darya Talebani, arrested in Karaj; and Azimeh Nasseri, arrested in Bukan; have been taken to the IRGC Intelligence’s detention center in Urmia.

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Intelligence agents kidnapped a young poet and threatened to cut her tongue if she continues to write poems. This news was published on January 18. The young poet, Taraneh Mohammadi, was taken out of the city of Baneh in Iran-Kurdistan on January 11, where she was insulted, humiliated and harassed. One of the intelligence agents who spoke Farsi told her that they would cut her tongue out. Ms. Mohammadi's posts in the social media and her poems were mostly about human rights of the Kurds, women’s rights, children, and violence against women, including forced marriages. https://tinyurl.com/y2sfdkwm

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40 days after the arbitrary arrest of Nazanin Mohammad Nejad, this student activist continues to remain in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Nazanin is deprived of having access to a lawyer and of calls and visits with her family. Forces of the IRGC Intelligence broke into Nazanin's home on December 8, 2020 and arbitrarily arrested her. She was taken to Ward 2A of Evin Prison and detained in solitary confinement. IRGC Intelligence forces confiscated some of her personal belongings. Nazanin Mohammad Nejad was a student activist at Tehran and Allameh Tabatabaii universities. She is from Mahshahr, in the southwestern Province of Khuzestan. Nazanin’s sister had earlier announced that the IRGC Intelligence is responsible for life and safety of her sister. https://tinyurl.com/y6rwx3jd