From Afghanistan and Iran to rampant misogynistic vitriol online, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said he was appalled at “systematic” efforts to strip women of their rights, but believed they would ultimately fail.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), the UN rights chief said he wanted to visit Kabul and Tehran for direct talks with the authorities:
Afghanistan is the worst of the worst.
To repress women in the way that it is happening is unparalleled.
Turk said it was deeply worrying that nearly 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, efforts to strip rights from women and girls were swelling:
I am very concerned about the backsliding and the pushbacks.
We see it in different ways, in insidious ways.
While misogyny and efforts to halt the march towards gender equality are not new, he warned there was now:
a more systematic, more organised way of countering women’s rights.
‘This cannot be the norm’
In Afghanistan, the Taliban last month banned women from working in non-governmental organisations. The group had already suspended university education for women and secondary schooling for girls.
The barrage of attacks on women’s rights by Afghanistan’s rulers, Turk said, should serve as a reminder:
of what perverted thinking can lead to.
This cannot be the norm in the future.
Turk said he wanted to visit Afghanistan. When his predecessor, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, did so last year, she issued stinging criticism of the Taliban’s record.
He said he would “find an opportune moment” to go, and would seek:
discussions with the de facto authorities about how to ensure that they understand that development of their country… has to include women.
‘Discriminatory practices’
Turk has also requested a visit to Iran, rocked by protests since Mahsa Amini died in custody in September after allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women. He said the Iranian authorities had yet to respond.
If able to go, Turk said he would again call for a repeal of “discriminatory practices against women and girls”. He also intends to raise the subject of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on the protests.
Oslo-based monitor Iran Human Rights says nearly 500 people have been killed in the crackdown, and thousands have been arrested.
In particular, Turk voiced alarm at the use of capital punishment in connection with the protests, with two such executions already carried out.
The death penalty, he said:
must absolutely not be used in this type of context under any circumstances.
Patriarchy’s last gasp
Beyond actions taken by states, Turk pointed to social media:
where misogynistic, sexist comments seem to be allowed, … and thriving.
He stressed the need for “guardrails” to ensure that social media platforms “don’t add fuel to the fire”.
He stated that the algorithms such platforms use can:
very quickly ensure that hate speech gets amplified in a way that is very dangerous.
Shortly after taking office, Turk sent an open letter urging Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk to make human rights central to the platform.
He told AFP he had initially planned to discreetly reach out to contacts in Twitter’s human rights department:
but we couldn’t reach any of them, because they had just been fired.
Since then, Musk has made numerous controversial moves, including reinstating people previously banned for misogynistic remarks and hate speech.
While alarming, Turk said he saw the current pushback against women’s rights:
as a last attempt by the patriarchy to show its force.
Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab
The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.
She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.
Members of the United Nations voted to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women, a body overseen by the Economic and Social Council. | Pool photo by Eduardo Munoz
On 14 December 2022 Politico reported on another setback for Iran in the diplomatic area: A U.S.-led effort to push Iran off a United Nations panel that promotes women’s rights succeeded on Wednesday, the latest move in a broader Western campaign to punish Iran for its crackdown on widespread protests.
The resolution to oust Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women passed with 29 votes in favor and eight against. Yet of the 54 countries eligible to vote, at least 16 abstained — a sign of the wariness about setting a precedent of the U.S. dictating who’s deserving of U.N. panel memberships. Some countries had also questioned why Iran was singled out when other past and present panel members have spotty records on women’s rights.
Iran received vocal support from coiuntries such as Russia and China, some of which noted that there were no formal procedures to push Iran off the commission. Abstainers included countries such as India, the Solomon Islands and Indonesia. Many did not make public statements during the debate.
The vote was held by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council, which oversees the women’s rights commission. The commission was established in 1946, and its past activities include laying the groundwork for a landmark treaty that has served as an international bill of rights for women. It also urges countries to update their legal frameworks to provide equal rights for women.
Wednesday’s vote followed a campaign by women’s rights activists, including many in the Iranian diaspora, to get Iran off the commission as it has tried to suppress protests. Hundreds have been killed in the crackdown. Iran also has begun executing protesters as part of its attempt to end the demonstrations, which have often been led by young people and women.
Foreign affairs committee chair says holding of men allegedly involved in protests part of ‘industrialised taking of hostages’
All British people still in Iran should leave immediately because of the “industrialised” level of people being taken state hostage, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee has said.
Alicia Kearns made her call after the Iranian government said it had arrested seven “British linked” suspects including some dual nationals allegedly involved in the country’s anti-government protests, which began 100 days ago.
In fact, among the Iranian protest photos selected for inclusion in Time magazine’s list of the “Top 100 Photos of 2022” are one of women running from military police brigades and another of an unveiled woman standing on a car with hands raised.
As a scholar studying the use of images in political movements, I find Iranian protest photos powerful and engaging because they play on several elements of defiance. They draw on a longer history of Iranian women taking and sharing photos and videos of actions considered illegal, such as singing and dancing to protest gender oppression.
Pictures in past Iranian movements
Iranian women did not stage mass public demonstrations against restrictions on their freedoms for nearly three decades following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when protests against compulsory hijab laws were brutally crushed by the Islamic regime.
In subsequent protests, visuals have been at the heart of women’s efforts to mobilize against the Islamic Republic. In 2014, women began recording themselves walking, cycling, dancing and singing in public unveiled, under the banner of the “My Stealthy Freedom” movement. Started by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist based in New York, the movement protested the forced wearing of the hijab and other restrictive laws by showing women breaking them.
Walking in busy city streets unveiled, riding a bike in parks where such activities are banned for women and joining dance circles in town squares were among the ways in which Iranian women protested oppressive laws and practices.
Four years later, what came to be known as the “Girls of Revolution Street,” protests started with one woman, Vida Movahed, standing atop a utility box on Tehran’s Revolution Street to wave her headscarf on a stick like a flag. Soon, others joined Movahed by repeating her action in other public spaces in Iran.
Images showing dozens of people protesting mandatory veiling in this way were widely shared on social media and later picked up by global news networks, bringing international attention to women’s resistance efforts in Iran.
\u201cIt was the quietest protest Iran has ever witnessed. Vida Movahed, a 31-year-old mother of a toddler, stood atop a large utility box and removed the hijab that all women are required to wear by law: https://t.co/O93RGaBDOe\u201d
The use of images by protesters has been a central practice of resistance in other protests around the world as well. During the Arab Spring, a series of protests against the ruling regimes that spread across the Middle East and North Africa in the early 2010s, images played an important role in mobilizing people into joining the movement.
A photo of a woman dragged by government forces in the streets of Egypt with her body exposed persuaded many to protest against what was a clear example of state violence in the Egyptian uprising. These images challenged the regime interpretations of protesters as “troublemakers” and helped bypass the state-controlled news networks to show the world what was happening on the ground.
\u201cPic #KhaledSaid on the right and other martyrs on the left #Alex #Jan25\u201d
Iranian women have been protesting the Islamic Republic’s sexist policies and showing the world what freedom and gender identity mean to them through their bodily expressions.
Images of women freely riding a bike or sitting with a member of the opposite sex while unveiled are ways of protesting through the everyday acts that women are barred from under the Islamic Republic. Through their widespread participation in these actions, women have shown a solidarity.
As it is difficult for the Islamic Republic to suppress this kind of protest, it often responds by arresting key activists who can be identified and imprisoning them for several years. In 2019, one activist associated with this form of protest, Yasaman Aryani, was sentenced to a 16-year jail term after a video surfaced of her handing out flowers in the Tehran metro unveiled.
Images of Iranian women engaged in defiant acts make their daily oppression visible. Scholar Mona Liljadescribes these protests in terms of “resisting bodies” that speak in ways that are not always apparent at the outset of a demonstration or public act of defiance. Emotions, symbolic actions and women’s engagements with the spaces in which they protest combine to form the meaning of resistance we associate with these pictures.
Today’s protest pictures build on past resistance efforts and build on a tradition of resisting the Iranian government.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Detention of one of Iran’s most famous performers sign state wants to crack down on celebrities who challenge regime
Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most famous actors, has been detained by security forces in Tehran days after she criticised the state’s use of the death penalty against protesters.
Recall your attention to the response from the US establishment after Russia was found to be using Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine. The extent of the outrage was so intense that the issue was brought to the UN Security Council, and the spokesman for the State Department briefed the press on the American position conveyed during the proceeding. He said, “we expressed our grave concerns about Russia’s acquisition of these UAVs from Iran,” and “we now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure.” He added, “we will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers.”
American intelligence officials later told the New York Times that Iran had sent members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the Crimean Peninsula; they had been sent, the allegation goes, to train the Russian military how to use the drones they had acquired. Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer, commented on this, saying, “sending drones and trainers to Ukraine has enmeshed Iran deeply into the war on the Russian side and involved Tehran directly in operations that have killed and injured civilians,” and “even if they’re just trainers and tactical advisers in Ukraine, I think that’s substantial.”
The Biden Administration and members of the intelligence community have endorsed an important principle: a state is responsible for the crimes it enables others to commit. Applying this standard to those designated as enemies is quite common, but powerful states always reserve a different set of standards for themselves. Any morally serious person will endorse the precept of universality, and insist upon applying the same criteria to ourselves that we do to others.
If one were to establish the goal of reducing the amount of violence in the world, the simplest way to begin would be to eliminate one’s own contribution to it; the withdrawal of American involvement in criminal acts would mitigate much of the savagery. The Biden administration is responsible for directly facilitating crimes in Yemen that greatly exceed anything Iran is accused of. The Administration has the opportunity to enact the principles they’ve enunciated, and it doesn’t require sanctions or other coercive measures, they merely need to stop participating in the Yemeni war.
The consequences of the war are not controversial. The United Nations estimated that 377,000 people had died at the end of 2021, and that doesn’t account for the destruction that occurred the following year. Yemen is the scene of perhaps the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with almost three-quarters of the population, 23.4 million people, requiring humanitarian assistance. The Yemeni population is subjected to a blockade that can reasonably be classified as torture, the World Organization Against Torture has reported. The legal director for the organization said, “the tens of thousands of civilians who die due to malnutrition, waterborne diseases, and the lack of access to healthcare are no collateral damage of the conflict.”
On December 6, The Intercept reported that Bernie Sanders was advancing a war powers resolution aimed at halting American support for the war Saudi Arabia was leading in Yemen. The Biden administration was asked to avoid incriminating themselves as transparent hypocrites, and allow for their policy to approach the standard they condemn Iran for failing to reach. This task was too strenuous for the administration. They lobbied intensely against the resolution and Sanders was forced to withdraw it.
It should never be shocking when a president behaves in a manner contrary to how he presented himself during his campaign; or when an administration condemns enemies for their crimes while they are committing worse acts. Hypocrisy of this sort is a prominent feature of the American political establishment. But this is a particularly egregious example of this. The Biden administration is reserving the right to aid Saudi Arabia as they annihilate Yemeni society and slaughter its inhabitants, and they expect to be greeted with something other than contempt when they accuse their enemies of criminal conduct. This isn’t a privilege that should be afforded to them.
New York: As part of the 11th Interfaith Holiday Celebration, the South Asian Community Outreach (SACO) – a not-for-profit organization brought together South Asians under one roof in New Jersey.
SACO organized a grand ceremony in honor of the guests in a local hall, which was also graced by US officials with their presence.
The 11th Interfaith Holiday Celebration of South Asia Community Outreach started with the National Anthem of the United States of America.
After which SACO President Nilesh Dasondi and Chairman Sam Khan welcomed the guests and thanked the attendees for making the event a success.
They said that the New York Police Department’s (NYPD’s) Muslim Officers Society (MOS) paid a detailed visit to Pakistan and helped the flood victims. The local people not only appreciated this great humanitarian gesture but a short documentary film based on their tour of duty was also shown.
Guests were invited on stage to raise their hands to light the candle of unity
People belonging to different religions offered prayers according to their religious beliefs.
SACCO also conferred awards upon those who have rendered services to South Asian communities and other issues.
South Asian Community Outreach’s Interfaith Holiday Celebration also featured South Asian music. The singers danced and the expert dancers gave a great performance.
A sumptuous dinner was also given to the guests by SACO. South Asian Community Outreach has been bringing communities together every year for 11 years to convey the message that development depends on unity.
A record number of people face execution after allegations of their involvement with ongoing protests in Iran. Meanwhile, the country’s jailing of journalists has pushed worldwide figures to a new high. However, despite these unwanted milestones, there are no signs of the protests subsiding.
“Unprecedented” levels
The executions in the past week of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, the first people put to death over the protests, sparked an outcry. However, campaigners warn that more executions will follow without tougher international action. Iran has already sentenced a dozen more people to death.
At the same time, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated on 14 December that the crackdown has pushed the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to a record high of 533 in 2022. Iran is now third on the list of countries with the greatest numbers of jailed reporters. It’s also the only country that was not part of the list last year, said RSF, which has published the annual tally since 1995. RSF said Iran had locked up an “unprecedented” 34 media professionals since protests broke out in September.
Iran’s protests erupted after police jailed and killed Iranian-Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Amini for allegedly not properly observing hijab laws.
Silencing and spreading fear
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group, said of the executions that Iran is trying to:
spread fear among people and save the regime from the nationwide protests.
It appears that the move to lock up journalists is part of the same drive. RSF highlighted the cases of Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi. The pair are among 15 female journalists arrested during the protests who drew attention to the death of Amini. They now face a potential death penalty on the charge of sedition – which IHR describes as “fabricated accusations”. It also said the arrests of Hamedi and Mohammadi are:
indicative of the Iranian authorities’ desire to systematically reduce women to silence.
Protesters have faced similar spurious charges. Mohammad Ghobadlou was sentenced to death on charges of running over police officials with a car, killing one and injuring several others. Saman Seydi, a young Kurdish rapper, was sentenced to death on charges of firing a pistol three times into the air during protests. Toomaj Salehi, a prominent rapper, was charged solely for music and social media posts critical of the government. Amnesty International said that all of these charges are based on confessions gained after torture.
Nonetheless, there are no reports of a slackening in Iran’s protest activity in recent days, even after the executions.
The UK’s “half-hearted” response
Campaigners are highlighting all of the individuals facing the death penalty in the hope that increased scrutiny on specific cases can help spare lives. However, they also warn that the executions are often sudden. Authorities hanged Rahnavard just 23 days after his arrest, shortly after a last meeting with his mother. She had no idea he was about to be hanged. Shekari’s case was unknown until state media announced his execution.
Amnesty said Iranian authorities are issuing, upholding, and carrying out death sentences in a “speedy manner”. As a result, there is a “serious risk” that Iran could execute unknown detainees “at any moment”.
IHR’s Amiry-Moghaddam is urging international action on Iran:
Unless the political cost of the executions is increased significantly, we will be facing mass executions.
However, the UK’s response so far has been poor. One Iranian caller on radio station LBCsaid the UK’s sanctions are “half-hearted” and “not cutting it”.
Dr Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, a Research Associate with SOAS University of London and associate editor of The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies spoke with Farooq Sulehria about the significance of the revolutionary movement in Iran.
Figures from Tehran province indicate extent of clampdown on protests sparked by killing of Masha Amini
Courts in and around the Iranian capital have jailed 400 people for charges related to recent protests, with many of the defendants sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Ali Alghasi-Mehr, judiciary chief for Tehran province, said judges had handed down the rulings to “rioters” – a term officials use for all demonstrators who defy Iran’s hardline theocratic rule.
On Monday 12 December, Iranian authorities executed protester Majidreza Rahnavard. It was over the protests that have shaken the regime for months. The state defied an international outcry over its use of capital punishment against those involved in the movement – and just days after it killed Mohsen Shekari for blocking a street and wounding a member of the paramilitary.
Iran: another state execution for protesting
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that an Iranian court sentenced Majidreza Rahnavard to death in the city of Mashhad. The judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency reported that his execution was for what authorities allege was the killing of two members of the security forces with a knife, and the wounding of four other people. This happened during the ongoing protests that have swept Iran for nearly three months. They came after Iranian Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Amini died in custody following her arrest by the morality police in Tehran. This was for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women.
The state executed Rahnavard just over three weeks after authorities arrested him in November, rights groups said. Officials said he was hanged in public in the city, rather than inside prison. Rahnavard’s hanging came only four days after the state executed Shekari. This was the first case of authorities using the death penalty against a protester. Mizan Online published images of Rahnavard’s execution. They showed a man with his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a rope attached to a crane. The execution took place before dawn, and there was no sign that a significant number of people witnessed it.
Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that images have shown authorities beat Rahnavard in custody, and then forced him into a purported confession – broadcast on state media. Protest monitor social media channel 1500tasvir said his family was informed of the execution only after it was carried out. It published pictures of a last meeting between the condemned man and his mother, saying she had left with no idea he was about to die.
“Coerced confessions”
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP that Rahnavard:
was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions after a… show trial. The public execution of a young protester, 23 days after his arrest, is another serious crime committed by the Islamic republic’s leaders.
US-based dissident Masih Alinejad told AFP that :
Majidreza Rahnavard’s crime was protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini. The regime’s method of dealing with protests is execution… EU, recall your ambassadors.
There was a similar reaction on social media:
Devastating & Inhumane! The Islamic Republic has executed 23 yr old wrestler #MajidrezaRahnavard arrested for protesting and charged with “waging war against God.” This is how a criminal and brutal regime attempts to silence calls for freedom. #MahsaAmini#IranRevolutionpic.twitter.com/XXz9JOBos0
Iran’s use of the death penalty is part of a crackdown that IHR says has seen the security forces kill at least 458 people. According to the UN, at least 14,000 have been arrested. Iran is already the world’s most prolific user of the death penalty after China, according to Amnesty International. Public executions are, however, highly unusual in the Islamic republic, and one in July was described by IHR as the first in two years. Prior to the two recent executions, Iran’s judiciary said it had issued death sentences to 11 people in connection with the protests. However, campaigners say around a dozen others face charges that could also see them receive the death penalty.
Amnesty International warned that the lives of two more young men sentenced to death – Mahan Sedarat and Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh – were at imminent risk. IHR’s Amiry-Moghaddam warned of “a serious risk of mass execution of protesters”, and urged a strong international “response that deters the Islamic republic leaders from more executions”.
Human rights group warns death of Majidreza Rahnavard ‘a significant escalation of violence against protesters’
Fears are growing that Iran is preparing to execute scores more protesters after authorities hanged a 23-year-old man from a crane, in a public killing carried out less than a month after he was arrested and following a secretive trial.
Majidreza Rahnavard was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad, a centre of the protests, for allegedly killing two members of the paramilitary Basij force and wounding four others. The Basij, affiliated with the country’s feared Revolutionary Guards, has been at the forefront of the state crackdown.
Thousands marched through Sydney streets on December 10 (International Human Rights Day) demanding democracy in Iran and justice for Jina Mahsa Amini and the growing number of democracy protesters who have been killed, arrested and tortured by the dictatorial regime in Iran.
On December 8, Mohsen Shekari became the first democracy protester to be executed. At least 475 protesters have been killed by security forces and 18,240 others have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA).
The Australian government will use human rights sanctions to punish “egregious human rights violations and abuses” by Iranian and Russian perpetrators.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced the Magnitsky-style sanctions (named for the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison after exposing corruption in Russia) have been imposed on 13 Russian and Iranian individuals.
Iran carried out its first known execution on 8 December over the protests that have shaken the regime since September. It sparked an international outcry amid warnings from rights groups that more hangings are imminent. Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been convicted and sentenced to death for blocking a street and wounding a paramilitary during the early phase of the protests, after a legal process denounced as a show trial by rights groups.
At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups warned. Demonstrations have swept Iran for nearly three months since Iranian Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women.
‘Inhumanity’
Amnesty International said it was “horrified” by the execution, and condemned Shekari’s court proceedings as a “grossly unfair sham trial.” They added:
His execution exposes the inhumanity of Iran’s so-called justice system.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), urged a strong international reaction otherwise “we will face mass execution of protesters”. He said:
Mohsen Shekari was executed after a hasty and unfair trial without a lawyer.
Iran’s Fars news agency carried a video report of Shekari talking about the attack while in detention, which IHR described as a “forced confession” with his face “visibly injured”.
‘Boundless contempt’
Other governments have echoed the anger of the rights groups. Washington called Shekari’s execution “a grim escalation” and vowed to hold the Iranian regime to account for violence “against its own people.” In Rome, prime minister Giorgia Meloni expressed indignation at “this unacceptable repression” which, she said, will not quash the protesters’ demands. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock had a similar message:
The threat of execution will not suffocate the will for freedom. The Iranian regime’s contempt for human life is boundless.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said of Shekari’s death:
we deplore (the) hanging.
IHR this week said Iran had already executed more than 500 people in 2022, a sharp jump on last year’s figure.
Increase in executions
The 1500tasvir protest monitor said on social media that the execution of Shekari had happened with such haste that his family had still been waiting to hear the outcome of the appeal. It posted harrowing footage of what it said was the moment his family found out the news outside their home in Tehran, with a woman doubled up in pain and grief, repeatedly screaming the word “Mohsen!”
The largely peaceful protest movement has been marked by actions including removing and burning headscarves in the streets, chanting anti-government slogans and confronting the security forces. In a relatively new tactic, protest supporters staged three days of nationwide strikes up to Wednesday 7 December which closed down shops in major cities, according to rights groups. The security forces have responded with a crackdown that has killed at least 458 people, including 63 children, according to an updated death toll issued by IHR on Wednesday.
A court on Tuesday 6 December sentenced five more people to death by hanging for killing a Basij member, bringing to 11 the number sentenced to death in connection with the protests. Freedom of expression group Article 19 said urgent action was needed:
as the lives of others on death row in relation to the uprising are in imminent danger.
Exclusive: Men and women coming in with shotgun wounds to different parts of bodies, doctors say
Iranian security forces are targeting women at anti-regime protests with shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals, according to interviews with medics across the country.
Doctors and nurses – treating demonstrators in secret to avoid arrest – said they first observed the practice after noticing that women often arrived with different wounds to men, who more commonly had shotgun pellets in their legs, buttocks and backs.
The women-led mass protests in Iran have now lasted for almost three months. Since September 16 — when protests began in Kurdistan and Tehran in response to the state police murder of Zhina Mahsa Amini for wearing an “improper” hijab — the state repression has increased severely. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, more than 18,000 protesters have been arrested, over 450 have been…
Iran sentenced five people to hang for killing a paramilitary member, its judiciary said on 6 November. The ruling was condemned by rights activists as a means to “spread fear” and stop Iranian protests over Mahsa Amini’s death. Another 11 people, including three children, were handed long jail terms over the death. Iranian judiciary spokesman Massoud Setayeshi told a news conference that the sentences could be appealed.
Hanging for “corruption on earth”
The five sentenced to death were convicted of “corruption on earth” – one of the most serious offences in Iran. The other 11, including a woman, were convicted for “their role in the riots”, and received lengthy prison terms. The rulings bring to 11 the number of people sentenced to death over protests that erupted following the death of Amini in police custody. She was arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s hijab dress code for women.
The verdicts were condemned by Norway-based non-governmental organisation Iran Human Rights (IHR). Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told Agence France-Presse (AFP):
These people are sentenced after unfair processes and without due process
The aim is to spread fear and make people stop protesting.
Iran executes more than almost any other nation
Despite a crackdown that has killed hundreds, images posted online showed shops closed in cities across the country on 6 November, the second day of a strike that culminates on 7 December. This is also known as Student Day, the anniversary of the deaths of three students at the hands of police in 1953. “Freedom, freedom, freedom”, dozens of students from Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University were heard chanting in a video published by IHR.
At least 448 people have been “killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests”, the Oslo-based rights group said in its latest toll issued on November 29. Iran, which accuses the United States and its allies Britain and Israel of fomenting the unrest, said on Saturday that more than 200 people have been killed since the protests began. A general put the figure at more than 300 last week.
Iran currently executes more people annually than any nation other than China, said Amnesty International. The London-based rights group said on 16 November that, based on official reports, at least 21 protesters had been charged with crimes that could see them hanged in what it called “sham trials”. The crackdown has also seen thousands of people arrested, including 40 foreigners, as well as prominent actors, journalists and lawyers.
Three months after the uprising began, demonstrators are still risking their lives. Will this generation succeed where previous attempts to unseat the Islamic hardliners have been crushed?
For the past 12 weeks, revolutionary sentiment has been coursing through the cities and towns of the Persian plateau. The agitation was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, on 16 Septe mber after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. From the outset the movement had a feminist character, but it has also united citizens of different classes and ethnicities around a shared desire to see the back of the Islamic Republic. Iran has known numerous protest movements over the past decade and a half, and the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has comfortably suppressed each one with a combination of severity and deft exploitation of divisions within the opposition. This time, however, the resilience and unity shown by the regime’s opponents have consigned the old pattern of episodic unrest to the past. Iran has entered a period of rolling protest in which the Islamic Republic must defend itself against wave upon wave of public anger.
In their retaliation against the protesters, the security forces have killed at least 448 people, including 60 children and 29 women, and made up to 17,000 arrests. Thirty-six protesters have been charged with capital crimes, according to Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, including several people accused of killing members of the security forces. Still, the authorities insist that they have erred on the side of restraint. On 9 November the commander of Iran’s ground forces warned that Khamenei only needed to say the word and the opposition “flies” would “without question have no place left in the country”.
Iran was knocked out of the World Cup by the United States in Qatar on Tuesday night, drawing a mixed response from pro- and anti-regime supporters. Many Iranians refused to support the national team in response to a bloody government crackdown on more than two months of protests sparked by the death in custody of Jîna Mahsa Amini.
Caught between the clerical regime and calls to show solidarity with protesters, the national team pressed near-relentlessly in the second half on Tuesday night, but were unable to cancel out a 38th minute opener by the US, resulting in an early exit. That prompted the extraordinary spectacle of Iranians cheering a defeat inflicted by the Islamic republic’s arch-enemy, often labelled the “Great Satan”.
Iranian gaming journalist Saeed Zafarany tweeted:
Who would’ve ever thought I’d jump three metres and celebrate America’s goal!
Inside Iran, celebrations were especially marked in the western Kurdistan province, the cradle of a movement sparked by the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. A video shared online by Kurdish activist, Kaveh Ghoreishi, showed a Sanandaj city neighbourhood at night with sounds of cheering and horns blaring after the United States scored.
That goal also prompted joy in Amini’s hometown of Saqez, according to the London-based news website Iran Wire, which published images showing fireworks and sounds of people cheering. Protesters also set off fireworks in Mahabad, Kurdistan, following Iran’s loss, according to videos shared online. Meanwhile, the Norway-based Hengaw human rights group also reported celebrations there and in the city of Marivan.
The scenes of joy were not confined to Kurdistan province, reflecting the nationwide nature of the protest movement. Videos on social media showed citizens celebrating in the capital Tehran and Ardabil, Mashhad, Kerman and Zahedan – many with people dancing and cheering in the streets amid long traffic jams.
Tragedy
There was soon punishment for these celebrations, however. An Iranian man was shot dead by security forces after celebrating his national team’s exit from the World Cup, rights groups said on 30 November.
Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead after honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast, northwest of Tehran, human rights groups said. Samak “was targeted directly and shot in the head by security forces… following the defeat of the national team against America”, said Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) also reported that Samak had been killed by the security forces while celebrating.
Iranian international midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi, who played in the US match and is from Bandar Anzali, revealed that he knew Samak. He posted a picture of them together in a youth football team. Ezatolahi described Samak as a “childhood teammate” on Instagram, and said:
After last night’s bitter loss, the news of your passing set fire to my heart.
He did not comment on the circumstances of his friend’s death, but did say:
Some day the masks will fall, the truth will be laid bare.
This is not what our youth deserve. This is not what our nation deserves.
A tense funeral
The CHRI published a video from Samak’s funeral on Wednesday. Mourners could be heard shouting “Death to the dictator”. The chant was aimed at Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is one of the main slogans of the protests that flared after Amini’s death in custody on 16 September.
IHR said that the authorities had refused to hand the body over to the family, while BBC Persian said the funeral in Bandar Anzali had gone ahead without prior announcement, and with a heavy security presence in a bid to avoid major incidents. As the Canary reported earlier this week, Iran’s security forces have killed at least 448 people in the crackdown on the protests, including 60 children under the age of 18 and 29 women, according to IHR.
Iran’s players, after refusing to sing the national anthem for their opening game against England in a gesture of solidarity with the protests, reversed that stance for their second game with Wales, resulting in opprobrium in some quarters. Players again voiced the anthem, albeit with little enthusiasm, for what turned out to be Iran’s final game.
They now go home to a country that remains on edge, as authorities crack down on the mainly peaceful protests that have become the biggest challenge to the regime since its birth in 1979.
People across Iran have been protesting for nearly three months, defying a deadly crackdown by regime forces. The demonstrations are seen as a fierce challenge to four decades of hardline clerical rule. The protesters’ cry of ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ has galvanised the movement, which has travelled around the world, but within Iran there have been more than 18,000 arrests, violence and a rising death toll. With protesters refusing to back down, we look at what they want and why they are willing to risk everything to get it
Three Iranian teenagers are among 15 people who could face the death penalty over the killing of a pro-government paramilitary force member, the judiciary said on 30 November. Iran has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Jîna Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s dress code for women. Authorities charged a group of 15 people with “corruption on earth” over the death of Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Basij paramilitary force, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.
The Basij militia is a volunteer paramilitary force of men and women under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Its members are found in schools, universities, state and private institutions, factories, and even among tribes. Basij forces are widely used to help to maintain law and order and repress dissent, and have frequently been accused of using extreme brutality.
As the Canary previously reported, Norway-based Iran Human Rights said at least 448 people had been “killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests”, in an updated toll issued on 29 November. The group says its toll includes those killed in violence related to the Amini protests and in distinct unrest in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Based on the announced charges, such as ‘waging war’ and ‘corruption of earth,’ some of the accused could be sentenced to death. The detainees are being held without having been officially charged or being able to meet with a lawyer, or contact family.
In reality, this is a security process, not a judicial one. The security establishment wants to quickly issue sentences and doesn’t care about legal procedure. The courts are just acting as rubber stamps.
Social media protest
Authorities are heavily policing protests on the streets, as well as those on social media. As Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, Iranian authorities have arrested the two actors behind a viral video where a group of film and theatre figures stood silently without headscarves in solidarity with the protest movement. Authorities have arrested the actor and director Soheila Golestani, who appeared without her headscarf in the video, and the male director Hamid Pourazari, who also appeared prominently, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The director of DAWN, which was founded by Jamal Khashoggi, shared the video on Twitter:
Incredible! Soheila Golestani (actress) published this video (without a headscarf) on her Instagram, & Hamid Pourazaei (director) & a group of Iranian actors/actresses & theatre/movie professionals joined them. Courage & resilience! #MahsaAmini#مهسا_امینی#IranRevoIution#Iranpic.twitter.com/FpbpsOJVTR
In the clip, Golestani, wearing black, walks into the shot without a hijab and turns around to reveal her face, looking directly into the camera. Nine other women then join Golestani with the same gesture, as do five men. The Iran Wire website said all those in the video were Iranian actors. It was not clear if they too risk arrest.
Further arrests
Several Iranian actors have made taboo-breaking gestures of removing their headscarves, with are mandatory for women in the Islamic republic. Earlier this month Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s best-known actors remaining in the country, posted an image of herself on social media without a headscarf:
Iran also arrested two prominent actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, who expressed solidarity with the protest movement and removed their headscarves in public in an apparent act of defiance. Authorities have now released both on bail, reports said.
Iranian cinema figures were under pressure even before the start of the protest movement sparked by Amini’s death. Prize-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after their arrests earlier this year. Rasoulof was arrested for objecting to the violent response to protestors from the government on social media. Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison for criticising the Iranian government.
The world must speak out—heads of governments around the world, U.N. officials and experts, and international professional associations of lawyers, journalists, doctors, teachers, athletes, cultural figures and others—should publicly condemn the violent and lawless behavior of the Iranian authorities, and communicate clearly to Islamic Republic officials that meaningful costs will intensify with their continuation.
Iranian security forces have killed at least 448 people since mid-September. The killings, over half of which were in ethnic minority regions, came amid the state’s crackdown on protests. The news about the number of killings comes on the same day Iran’s football team faces the USA in the World Cup.
Iran has been shaken by over two months of protests sparked by the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Jîna Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women. Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted that the Iranian state could sentence 21 people to death over the protests.
Now, AFP reports that the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group has given an update on the number of people security forces have killed. IHR said that authorities have killed 448 people. Of these, 60 were children aged under 18, including 9 girls and 29 women. IHR said security forces killed 16 people in the past week alone. They slew 12 in Kurdish-populated areas, where protests have been particularly intense. The toll also rose after the deaths of people killed in previous weeks were verified and included, it added. The toll only includes citizens killed in the crackdown and not members of the security forces.
The UN Rights Council recently voted to establish a high-level fact-finding mission to probe the state’s crackdown. Iran’s authorities angrily rejected the UN probe – despite admitting to many of the killings. Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday 29 November that his forces had killed more than 300 people. This was the first time the authorities have acknowledged such a figure.
Predictable non-cooperation
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said:
Islamic republic authorities know full well that if they cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission, an even wider scale of their crimes will be revealed. That’s why their non-cooperation is predictable.
Security forces also killed large numbers of people in the western Kurdish-populated Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces. There, authorities killed 53 and 51 people respectively. However, IHR said that more than half the deaths were recorded in regions populated by the Sunni Baluch or Kurdish ethnic minorities.
The greatest number of deaths were in the southeastern region, Sistan-Baluchistan. Authorities killed 128 people there after protests erupted following the death of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini. Tehran’s morality police had arrested her, and the ensuing protests then fed into the nation-wide anger.
ANALYSIS | Violence by brown people: bad. Violence by white people: Mmmmm, more please! Chris Graham trolls former politician Cory Bernardi’s Twitter page, with predictable results.
I’m not sure about anybody else, but politics in Australia has been much the poorer without Cory Bernardi’s innate ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and look ridiculous while he does it.
Briefly, for those who don’t remember him, Bernardi was elected to the Senate for the South Australian Liberals in 2006, but after the 2016 election he quit the party in a huff because they weren’t right-wing and/or religious enough for him. Go figure.
And that explains how Bernardi came to found his own political party, Australian Conservatives, which promptly collapsed two years later under the weight of its own bullshit. Shortly after that, Bernardi quit parliament altogether.
If you still can’t place him, just think of every extreme view on the right, multiply it by 10, and Bernardi thinks it’s too progressive. Exhibit A: Bernardi doesn’t believe global warming is caused by humans; he supports major cuts to the ABC; he’s opposed to same-sex marriage (claiming it will inevitably lead to polygamy and bestiality, a rant that led to him being nicknamed ‘Corgi Bernardi’); he’s anti-abortion; and his views on Islam are… well, take a guess.
Former Liberal extremist Cory Bernardi, speaking at the Senate Inquiry into the certification of foods.
In 2011, Bernardi objected to the Commonwealth paying the funeral expenses of asylum seekers who died while in our custody. Then he claimed he wasn’t against Muslims, just Islam itself. And then he clarified those remarks with this zinger: “When I say I’m against Islam, I mean that the fundamentalist Islamic approach of changing laws and values does not have my support.” Because, you know, the fundamentalist Catholic approach to changing laws and values is sooooo much better (we need more paedophilia, not less!).
And who could forget his ill-fated Senate inquiry into halal certification in Australia, the funds from which Bernardi boldly claimed were being used to fund terrorism… only for Bernardi to list Hamas as a “proscribed terrorist organisation” that was probably getting the cash… only for it to turn out that Hamas wasn’t a proscribed terrorist organisation… and in any event wasn’t receiving the cash anyway.
‘Cory Takes On Halal’ was easily one of the most farcical albeit entertaining wastes of taxpayer time and money in living memory. But while Bernardi has disappeared from the halls of parliament, we’re delighted to report he hasn’t disappeared from politics altogether, holding court on his very own Twitter page where almost 60,000 folks hang on his every word. Give or take.
And that’s how on Sunday, Bernardi came to tweet a warning to the West, about “the price of diversity and tolerance”. Except that without a well-paid Liberal staffer to help him, it came out like this: “It (sic) the price of diversity and tolerance as the West writes its own suicide note.”
It the price of diversity and tolerance as the West writes its own suicide note. https://t.co/bWVqRjDPGz
The tweet features a video of a violent clash in a street somewhere in London, in which dozens of people appear to target a single individual, and occasionally the police protecting him. But while the video is big on action, it’s very short on detail. Specifically, it could have happened last week, last month, or last millennia – the video, and Cory’s tweet, don’t say.
The mystery wasn’t helped by the fact that Bernardi was just amplifying someone else’s tweet – he didn’t actually create it. That ‘honour’ appeared to belong to Marina Medvin, a woman from the United States who describes herself as a “Defense Attorney” and a “Patriot Advocate”. So, you know, a cooker. But upon closer inspection it turned out that she was also just retweeting someone else… someone called ‘TXdeplorable’.
And as you might have guessed, that’s where things really started to go pear-shaped, because, if we’ve learned anything about social media over the last decade, it’s that you should never retweet an anonymous somebody with a silly Twitter name. Unless, of course, they’re saying something you agree with!
Inevitably, the whole story started to fall apart rather quickly, because while Bernardi and Medvin weren’t smart enough to check the provenance of their retweet, Txdeplorable was actively working to mislead people about it… with mixed success.
Notwithstanding his dismissive response, TXdeplorable – who lives in the United States if his actual Twitter handle of “@Texas_Made” is anything to go by – continued to be challenged by people who actually live in London about when the footage was captured. Eventually, he was forced to concede. Sort of.
And by weeks, they mean months. Two to be precise. The footage is from an incident in London in mid-September. But – and here’s the rub – it’s not just random violence from ‘brown people’ aka ‘the price of diversity’ ‘aka Muslims’. The footage is actually from a protest by predominantly Iranian ex-pats living in England, and what they’re protesting turns out to be a little ‘inconvenient’ for the narrative Bernardi et al routinely push. Over to the facts for a bit clarity.
22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody in Iran recently, sparking protests around the world.
On September 16, a young Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini, aged 22, died in a Tehran hospital shortly after being arrested by the ‘Guidance Patrol’ – the Iranian Government’s ‘morality police’ – for the offence of not wearing a hijab in accordance with government mandated standards. While Iranian officials have denied any violence was inflicted on Amini, eye witnesses claim she was severely beaten by police, and leaked medical scans reportedly back up this version of events.
Amini’s death has sparked widespread and continuing protests from Iranians and their supporters all over the globe, with more than 300 Iranians already killed at home. And that is what underpinned the incident in London.
On September 25, protestors gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in South Kensington, where clashes with police protecting the embassy saw more than a dozen arrests, and at least five police officers injured.
The police line ultimately held, and so, unable to reach the Embassy, protesters turned their anger a short distance north to a suburb called Maida Vale, which also happens to be home to the Islamic Centre of England (here’s a link to the exact spot on Google Maps where the footage is shot, which is about 150 metres east of the Mosque).
It’s there that the video in Bernardi’s retweet captures a mob of men attacking an older man who, it’s alleged, had minutes earlier threatened protesters that their families in Iran would be harmed as a result of their participation in anti-Government actions. The crowd obviously had other ideas.
A crowd of predominantly Iranian protestors in London turn on a man accused of threatening that family members of protestors back in Iran would be harmed.
Does that make it all okay? Well, let’s just say it’s complicated, because whether you agree with the mob’s conduct or not, the men depicted in the video were protesting the killing of a young woman by government officials for not wearing a hijab, and calling for the toppling of the Iranian Government. So… you know, not the sorts of protests Brits are used to seeing (for example, whenever Tottenham faces Arsenal, or Manchester United faces anyone, or whenever [INSERT RANDOM PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM] plays [INSERT RANDOM PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM]).
In any event, attacking the Iranian Government is, surely, something on which Cory Bernardi can get on board? Like he does here in 2016 while he was still a member of the Libs. And here, a few months back in June 2022. But most notably, here, just days after the London protests, where Compassionate Cory notes:
“This week the tales of women killed [in Iran]because they refuse to wear the hijab – or Islamic headscarf – have been horrifying. There are reports that 76 protesters have been killed while demonstrating in support of Mahsa Amini – whose family believe she was killed by the morality police.”
Yeah, no shit Sherlock.
And just in case Bernardi tries to slither his way out of this one by suggesting that ‘violence is never the answer’, here he is two days earlier, retweeting a post which celebrates someone being knocked out with a coward’s punch.
Sadiq Khan has condemned the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for banning footballers from wearing One Love armbands. He called FIFA “weak” in the face of pressure from World Cup host Qatar, as England heads into its second match. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have arrested a footballer for speaking out against their killing of civilians and crackdowns on protests, all while Iranian fans continue to protest in Qatar.
England, Wales and other European nations will not wear the OneLove armband at the World Cup in Qatar because of the threat of players being booked. The captains, including England’s Harry Kane and Gareth Bale of Wales, had planned to wear the armband during matches to promote diversity and inclusion.
A joint statement from seven football associations said they could not put their players “in a position where they could face sporting sanctions”.
“We are very frustrated by the Fifa decision, which we believe is unprecedented”…
However, as the Canary wrote, Iran’s captain Ehsan Hajsafi spoke out about his country’s authorities’ violence and repression. He could face arrest – while the England players would only face a yellow card for wearing armbands. Meanwhile, Iran’s 2-0 victory against Wales on Friday 25 November was an emotional event. Fans took an active stance against their authoritarian government. One supporter had Kurdish-Iranian woman Jîna Mahsa Amini‘s name on a shirt. Mahsa died at the hands of Iranian authorities, after they arrested her for breaching strict dress code rules:
Fans booed Iran’s national anthem, amongst other protests:
Iran's players sing the national anthem this time but loud boos and jeers can be heard throughout the stadium. The TV then cuts to an Iranian man and woman both crying uncontrollably. So sad to see.
An Iran fan holds a shirt with the name of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died days after being arrested and reportedly beaten by Iran’s morality police in September for allegedly not adhering to the nation’s dress code for women. pic.twitter.com/CuEAtc8BJj
Iranian security forces on Thursday arrested one of the country’s most famous footballers, accusing him of spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic and seeking to undermine the national World Cup team.
Voria Ghafouri, a former member of the national football team and once a captain of the Tehran club Esteghlal, has been outspoken in his defence of Iranian Kurds, telling the government on social media to stop killing Kurdish people. He has previously been detained for criticising the former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.
The Iranians who are protesting face very severe consequences for it. This highlights why FIFA’s pathetic adherence to Qatar’s internal rules around LGBTQIA+ rights is unacceptable. The football body looks ridiculous because footballers wearing armbands is about as weak a protest as it gets – especially compared to Iranian players and fans’ actions. Meanwhile, Khan has come out and condemned FIFA.
Khan: FIFA are “weak”
In an interview with Gaydio, the London mayor said:
I’m so angry at FIFA, for basically being weak when it comes to standing up for our values. Listen, I understand why in certain cultures drinking is not encouraged. I don’t drink, alright. But for me, there’s a red line when it comes to people not being able to celebrate who they are. I think, you know, we should have stood up to FIFA a bit more. I think FIFA will, in hindsight, be embarrassed by their stance. I said the same thing about Russia. So, I’m not being inconsistent; I’m not picking on Qatar…
The upshot of all this is that FIFA has now said rainbow items will be allowed into matches. Meanwhile, Iran will be taking on the USA in its next match – and England will also face the latter on Friday 25 November. It’s unlikely England’s players will wear their One Love armbands in that game, either – even while Iranian fans, and players, risk their freedoms to protest.
Detention of Voria Ghafouri, former captain of Tehran club Esteghlal, seen as warning to World Cup team
Iranian security forces on Thursday arrested one of the country’s most famous footballers, accusing him of spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic and seeking to undermine the national World Cup team.
Voria Ghafouri, once a captain of the Tehran club Esteghlal, has been outspoken in his defence of Iranian Kurds, telling the government on social media to stop killing Kurdish people. He has previously been detained for criticising the former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.
Official says country is in ‘fully fledged human rights crisis’ as fact-finding mission launched
The UN’s human rights council has voted overwhelmingly to set up a fact-finding investigation into human rights abuses in Iran, where an estimated 300 people have been killed and 14,000 arrested since protests began 10 weeks ago.
At a special session convened by Germany in Geneva the HRC voted by 25 to six to set up the inquiry, with 15 abstaining. The vote is regarded as a significant victory for human rights defenders, since a mechanism now exists to file evidence of abuses by the state, making the possibility of prosecutions in international courts more likely.
An Australian citizen is among at least 40 foreign nationals now held in Iranian jails amid pro-democracy protests across the country – and an escalating violent response by regime forces.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Iranian-Australian dual national had not been arrested for taking part in the anti-regime protests but confirmed that Australian officials had been refused access to assess the person’s welfare.
(@AlinejadMasih) 
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