Journalists Niloufar Hamedi (L) and Elaheh Mohammadi

UPDATE, OCT 27:

Dr. Fatemeh Rejaei-Rad’s medical license has been suspended after she appeared without a headscarf at a ceremony on Wednesday in Amol in northern Iran.

Rejaei-Rad, a specialist in facial surgery, was barred because of “inappropriate behavior contrary to Islamic values”. The President of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Farhad Gholami, said she was a “violator and lawbreaker”.

The ceremony’s managers have been referred to a disciplinary board.

UPDATE, OCT 26:

An appeals court has upheld one-year prison sentences on Zia Nabawi and Hasti Amiri, students from Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran.

Nabawi and Amiri were punished for their involvement in protests against possible mass poisonings of girls in schools across Iran.

At least 30 students were banned from campus after their involvement in a March 7 rally at Allameh Tabatabai.

Nabawi was detained during the mass protests against the disputed 2009 Presidential election and spent almost eight years in prison.

Armita Pavir, a final-year student in microbiology at Tabriz Madani University, has started a hunger strike over her detention.

Pavir was arrested on September 13, having been held for questioning by the Tabriz Intelligence Department.

The student was first detained on October 31 last year during the “Woman. Life. Freedom” protests.

UPDATE 0949 GMT:

Eight teachers’ union activists have been sentenced by an appeals court in central Iran to a total term of 37 years in prison.

The Court of Appeal in Fars Province condemned the board members of the Fars Teachers’ Association. The sentences includes restrictions on use of social media and international travel, with the revocation of passports.

Board member Gholamreza Gholami was given a total of 11 years in prison for “assembly and collusion” against national security, “membership in anti-system groups”, and “propaganda activity against the system”.

Four of the defendants were given 5-year terms, and three received two years.

UPDATE, OCT 25:

Iran’s authorities are carrying out another wave of repression of adherents of the Baha’i faith, with six given long prison sentences and 10 detained.

The six defendants — Arsalan Yazdani, Saeedaeh Khozouei, Iraj Shakur, Pedram Abhar, Samira Ebrahimi, and Saba Sefidi — were handed a total of 28 years and 10 months in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. They were charged with membership in groups antagonistic to the Islamic Republic, propaganda against the system, and promotion of the Baha’i faith.

Yazdani, Khozoui, Shakur, and Abhar were each sentenced to 5 years. Ebrahimi and Sefidi received terms of 4 years and 5 months.

In the three hearings in the three-month trial, the defendants were denied access to lawyers of their choice.

The reasons for the latest arrests of the 10 adherents by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry are unknown, as are their whereabouts.

Some of those seized have previously been given judicial sentences and imprisoned.

The 300,000 Baha’i adherents in Iran face ongoing persecution, harassment, and imprisonment. They have had their property and businesses seized, and have been denied higher education.

In July, Iranian security agents raided the homes of dozens of Baha’is across the country, arresting several community leaders and charging detainees with “spying for Israel”.

Last month the judiciary closed 12 schools and educational centers and arrested several adherents in Babol in northern Iran on charges of “promoting the Baha’i faith”.

UPDATE 0829 GMT:

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, has criticizes the lengthy prison sentences imposed on journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who broke the news of the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini.

The website of the Iranian judiciary, Mizan News, said Hamedi and Mohammadi received a total of 13 years and 12 years in prison, respectively. Hamedi will have to serve seven years and Mohammadi six.

UPDATE, OCT 24:

The family of Armita Geravand, 16, who fell into a coma after she was accosted by a “hijab enforcer” in a Tehran underground station, have rejected State media reports that she is brain-dead.

Media linked to the Iranian regime, including Tasnim, wrote on Sunday, “Unfortunately, her health condition is not promising and despite the efforts of the medical staff, brain death seems certain.”

See also Armita Geravand, 16, In Coma After Beating by Iran “Hijab Enforcer” — Reports

But “two sources close to Garavand”, quoting medical staff at Tehran’s Fajr Hospital, said the reports are “not true” and the family still “hopes for her return”.

However, a family member said there is no further medical help that can be provided and “everything is in God’s hands”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, OCT 23: Iran’s regime has imposed long prison sentences on two women journalists who broke the news of the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, which sparked months of nationwide protests.

Niloufar Hamedi reported that Amini was in a coma in hospital, just before the 22-year-old passed away on September 16, 2022. Three days earlier, Amini was detained and reportedly beaten by “morality police” in Tehran for “inapproriate attire”.

Elaheh Mohammadi wrote about Amini’s funeral in her hometown of Saqqez in northwest Iran.

The website of Iran’s judiciary, Mizan News, reported on Sunday that Hamedi was condemned to seven years in prison and Mohammadi to six. Both women were charged with “collaborating with the hostile American government”, “colluding against national security”, and “propaganda against the system”.

The sentence can be appealed within the next 20 days.

Hamedi, a correspondent for the reformist newspaper Shargh and Mohammadi, who worked for Ham-Mihan, were seized within days of their reports about Amini.

Their trials began in June, just after the UN awarded them, along with Nobel Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, the World Press Freedom Prize “for their commitment to truth and accountability”.

Last month, Mohammadi’s sister Elnaz, who also writes for Ham-Mihan, was given a three-year sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”. She was to spend about a month behind bars, with the threat of further imprisonment maintained by officials.

Almost 100 journalists have been detained during the “Woman. Life. Freedom” protests. At least 529 people have been killed by security forces, according to activists, and about 20,000 detained and interrogated.