L to R: Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaghoubi

Iran Regime’s Message to Women Journalists: “You Will Be Killed”

Iran Protests: 100s of Students Face Suspension from University in Tehran

UPDATE, MAY 31:

An Iranian cultural official has been suspended and two managers suspended over the video of a man proposing to a woman who is not wearing the headscarf.

In the clip, filmed at the tomb of the celebrated Persian poet Hafez, the man embraces his new fiancée.

The General Director of Cultural Heritage in Fars Province was suspended from his duties pending further investigation by judicial authorities. Two managers from the Hafezieh historical complex were arrested.

Fars Governor Mohammad Hadi Imanieh said “appropriate” measures will be taken against the man and woman in the video, which he claimed was a “direct violation of societal norms”.

“Those who attempt to promote disobedience and corruption in an organized manner will face legal consequences for their actions,” he said.

UPDATE, MAY 29:

Another arrest of a woman for her stand against compulsory hijab in Iran….

UPDATE, MAY 27:

Political prisoner Heshmatullah Tabarzadi has been sentenced to 45 1/2 years in prison.

Tabarzadi’s lawyer Mohammad Moghimi tweeted on Thursday, “This unjust conviction is not final and can be challenged. However, my client refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic’s courts and therefore does not protest.

Tabarzadi, the secretary-general of the Democratic Front of Iran, has been recurrently imprisoned by the Iranian region. His latest detention began in September, at the start of nationwide protests for rights, justice, and gender equality.

Tabarzadi recently wrote, in an open letter from Isfahan Prison, of the new charges against him. He concluded, “I would willingly embrace the gallows 1,000 times, but I refuse to bear the burden of lies and false cases.”

UPDATE, MAY 24:

Vandals have again damaged the grave of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in police custody last September sparked nationwide protests for rights, justice, and gender equality.

The Amini family’s attorney, Saleh Nikbakht, told reporters that “individuals, known for such distasteful actions in the past, attacked and destroyed the tomb of Mahsa Amini”.

Citing Amini’s father, he said authorities had threatened a welder who tried to put up a protective canopy over the grave, saying his business would be closed.

Amini’s mother Mojgan Eftekhari said she was upset about the closure of the entrance and exit to the cemetery, writing officials, “Please refrain from disturbing the people; their loved ones are here.”

Amini’s brother Ashkan shared a photo of the disturbed grave: “Even the glass of your tombstone bothers them.”

UPDATE 0846 GMT:

Women in Rasht in northern Iran protest Friday’s executions of Saleh Mirehashemi, Majid Kazemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi.

UPDATE, MAY 23:

Iranian singers Mohsen Yeganeh, Reza Sadeghi, Amir Maghare, Babak Jahanbakhsh, and Omid Hajili have been banned from working in the country, after they expressed support for natinowide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.

UPDATE, MAY 21:

Iran’s regime is continuing its crackdown on lawyers during the eight-month nationwide protests.

Farzaneh Zilabi is the latest attorney to be sentenced, following the summoning of 20 lawyers earlier this month for interrogation.

UPDATE, MAY 20: Protests have spread inside and outside Iran over Friday’s executions of Saleh Mirehashemi, Majid Kazemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi.

After Friday Prayers in Zahedan in southeast Iran:

In Karaj, west of Tehran:

Staff leave the Iranian Embassy in London amid a demonstration on the street in front of the building.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, MAY 19: Iran’s regime has executed three more protesters, bringing the total to seven during the eight-month nationwide rallies for rights, justice, and gender equality.

Iran’s judiciary reported that Saleh Mirehashemi, Majid Kazemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were hanged at dawn on Friday in a prison in Isfahan in central Iran.

The three men were accused of involvement in the fatal shootings of two Basij paramilitary members and a police officer during a protest march in Isfahan on November 16, 2022. The men were not sentenced for the murders but for “waging war against God”.

Iranian authorities dismissed appeals by human rights groups and several government that the death penalities were based solely on forced “confessions” during rushed trials in which the defendants were denied due process.

Iranian lawyers and jurists wrote in an open letter on Monday that the proceedings, conviction, and review process were “illegal”, as “fair trial standards had not been observed in any of these cases”.

After Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences earlier this month, family members and supporters of the defendants gathered in front of the Isfahan Central Prison, defying attempts by security forces to disperse them.

On Thursday, a message from the condemned men was published on social media: “Don’t let them kill us. We need your help.”

The killings come amid a spike in executions in Iran, one of the world’s leaders in use of the death penalty.

Amnesty International reported on Tuesday that Iran’s executions rose to 576 in 2022 from 314 in 2021. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group says at least 256 people have been executed this year, including at least 90 in the past 18 days.

Chants of protests in Tehran, condemning the Supreme Leader and the Iranian regime, over this morning’s executions: