Iran Bans Women From College Courses

The Daily Beast:

Female students in Iran have been barred from more than 70 university degree courses in an officially-approved act of sex-discrimination, which critics say is aimed at defeating the fight for equal women's rights.
By Robert Tait
In a move that has prompted a demand for a U.N. investigation by Iran's most celebrated human rights campaigner, the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, 36 universities have announced that 77 B.A. and B.Sc courses in the coming academic year will be "single gender" and effectively exclusive to men.


It follows years in which Iranian women students have outperformed men, a trend at odds with the traditional male-dominated outlook of the country's religious leaders. Women outnumbered men by three to two in passing this year's university entrance exam.

Senior clerics in Iran's theocratic regime have become concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.

Under the new policy, women undergraduates will be excluded from a broad range of studies in some of the country's leading institutions, including English literature, English translation, hotel management, archaeology, nuclear physics, computer science, electrical engineering, industrial engineering and business management.

The Oil Industry University, which has several campuses across the country, says it will no longer accept female students at all, citing a lack of employer demand. Isfahan University provided a similar rationale for excluding women from its mining engineering degree, claiming 98% of female graduates ended up jobless.

Senior clerics in Iran's theocratic regime have become concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.


ranian women use computers at an Internet cafe in central Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. (Vahid Salemi / AP Photo)

Writing to Ban Ki Moon, the U.N. secretary general, and Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights, Mrs. Ebadi, a human rights lawyer exiled in the U.K., said the real agenda was to reduce the proportion of female students to below 50%—from around 65% at present—thereby weakening the Iranian feminist movement in its campaign against discriminatory Islamic laws.

"[It] is part of the recent policy of the Islamic Republic, which tries to return women to the private domain inside the home as it cannot tolerate their passionate presence in the public arena," says the letter, which was also sent to Ahmad Shaheed, the U.N.'s special rapporteur for human rights in Iran. "The aim is that women will give up their opposition and demands for their own rights."

The new policy has also been criticised by Iranian parliamentarians, who summoned the deputy science and higher education minister to explain.

However, the science and higher education minister, Kamran Daneshjoo, dismissed the controversy, saying that 90% of degrees remain open to both sexes and that single-gender courses were needed to create "balance."
Iran has highest ratio of female to male undergraduates in the world, according to UNESCO. Female students have become prominent in traditionally male-dominated courses like applied physics and some engineering disciplines.

Sociologists have credited women's growing academic success to the increased willingness of religiously-conservative families to send their daughters to university after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The relative decline in the male student population has been attributed to the desire of young Iranian men to "get rich quick" without going to university.

Jailed female journalist sentenced to another year of prison

Human Rights Activists in Iran :
Jailed journalist Mahsa Amer Abadi, who is currently detained in the women’s cellblock in Evin Prison, was sentenced to another year of prison and four years of suspended prison.
According to reports, this sentence which was issued in 2011 in the 26th branch of the Revolutionary court headed by Judge Pir Abbasi has now been finalized and has been announced to the Evin Prison Sentence Implementation Circle.
Amer Abadi was arrested in June 2009 and March 2011 and is now serving two years of prison and a four year suspended prison term.
Notably, her husband Massoud Bastani who was arrested in 2009 after his wife, has been sentenced to six years of prison and is now currently in cellblock 4 hall 12 of Rajayi Shahr [Gohardasht] Prison in Karaj.

هرانا؛ مهسا امرآبادی روزنامه نگار در بند به یکسال حبس دیگر محکوم شد
مهسا امرآبادی روزنامه نگار زندانی که اکنون در بند زنان زندان اوین بسر می‌برد به یک سال حبس تعزیری دیگر و چهارسال حبس تعلیقی محکوم شد.
بنا به اطلاع گزارشگران هرانا، ارگان خبری مجموعه فعالان حقوق بشر در ایران، این حکم مهسا امرآبادی که در سال ۱۳۹۰ در شعبه ۲۶ به ریاست قاضی پیرعباس صادر شده بود اکنون نهایی شده و به اجرای احکام زندان اوین ابلاغ شده است.
مهسا امرآبادی روزنامه نگار زندانی که در خرداد ماه ۱۳۸۸ و اسفند ۱۳۸۹ بازداشت شده بود اکنون برای تحمل مجموعا دوسال حبس تعزیری در زندان بسر می‌برد و ضمنا چهارسال حبس تعلیقی نیز برای وی در نظر گرفته شده است.
گفتنی است، همسر وی مسعود باستانی که در تیرماه ۱۳۸۸ و پس از دستگیری همسرش بازداشت شده بود، به ۶ سال حبس محکوم شده و هم اکنون در بند ۴ سالن ۱۲ زندان رجایی شهر کرج محکومیت خود راسپری می‌کند. (هرانا – 25/5/91)
Mehr state-run News Agency :
Mohammad-Reza Naqdi, the head of the Bassij Organization said, “We are looking to establish a university. Currently, this task has been launched and we have accepted students in two subjects, directing and screen writing. We intent to advance this issue in the near future”…
Jazayeri, the assistant head of Cultural and Bassij Affairs in the Armed Forces Staff told the officials of [government] bodies and organizations, “We suggest that each government organization and system create a soft war base to seriously counter the deceptions of the enemy in cultural and economic grounds”.

"دانشگاه بسیج راه‌اندازی می‌شود"
همه سازمان‌ها و دستگاه‌ها قرارگاه جنگ نرم تشكيل دهند
سردار محمدرضا نقدی رئیس سازمان بسیج مستضعفین گفت: در صدد هستیم تا یک دانشگاه تاسیس کنیم. در حال حاضر این کار شروع شده است و در دو رشته کارگردانی و فیلم نامه نویسی دانشجو پذیرش کرده ایم. قصد داریم در آینده ای نزدیک این امر را توسعه دهیم...
به گزارش مهر، به نقل از اداره ارتباطات و اطلاع‌رساني ستاد كل نيروهاي مسلح، سردار جزايري معاون امور بسيج و فرهنگ دفاعي ستاد كل نيروهاي مسلح  خطاب به مسوولان نهادها و سازمان‌ها تاكيد كرد: پيشنهاد ما اين است كه هر يك از سازمان‌ها و دستگاه‌هاي نظام با ايجاد و تشكيل قرارگاه جنگ نرم، برنامه‌ريزي لازم براي مقابله با ترفندهاي دشمن در عرصه‌هاي فرهنگي و اقتصادي را به‌طور جدي و اساسي در دستور كار خود قرار دهند. (مهر – 25/5/91)
Fars state-run News Agency :
The Commander of the State Security Forces in the province of Fars said that people who used the internet to publish lies and insult a number of citizens and the officials of the town of Khavaran were arrested.
According to the Public Relations Office of the Fars Province SSF Command Center, Sirous Sajadian said, “Two people identified as A.A and J.Kh had made a weblog to publish lies in the town of Khavaran and following complaints, agents of the SSF Production and Information Interaction Police were tasked with identifying them”.
“By using intelligence methods and tracking devices on the internet it became clear that the elements behind the publishing of this kind of content had created a weblog via an internet café in Shiraz and uploaded the content from Tehran and in this way were trying to mislead the police”.
The SSF commander said that one of the suspects identified as A.A was subsequently arrested in a surprise attack.
“After a criminal record was issued and with initial investigations, the suspect said that the published content was provided by another person he identified as J.Kh in Tehran. The suspect, J.Kh, was also identified and was arrested after an arrest warrant was issued”, he added.
“These people had caused many problems in the town of Khavaran by publishing lies against municipality officials, the City Council and a number of other [government] bodies”.

فرمانده انتظامی فارس خبر داد
دستگیری عاملان نشر اکاذیب در خاوران جهرم
خبرگزاری فارس: فرمانده انتظامی استان فارس گفت: افرادی که از فضای مجازی برای نشر اکاذیب، توهین و افترا علیه برخی شهروندان و مسئولان شهر خاوران استفاده می‌کردند، دستگیر شدند.
به گزارش خبرگزاری فارس از شیراز به نقل از روابط عمومی فرماندهی انتظامی استان فارس، سیروس سجادیان اظهار داشت: دو نفر به‌نام‌های «ع – الف» و «ج – خ» با ایجاد وبلاگی اقدام به نشر اکاذیب کرده در شهر خاوران کرده بودند که با اعلام شکایت، ماموران پلیس فضای تولید و تبادل اطلاعات فرماندهی انتظامی استان فارس شناسایی آنها را در دستور کار خود قرار دادند.
وی ادامه داد: با استفاده از شیوه‌های اطلاعاتی و شگردهای ردیابی در فضای مجازی مشخص شد؛ عاملان انتشار این‌گونه مطالب با ایجاد وبلاگ از طریق یک کافی‌نت در شیراز و بارگذاری مطالب از طریق اینترنت در شهر تهران سعی در گمراهی پلیس را دارند اما با تکیه بر شیوه‌های علمی مکان‌های مورد استفاده این افراد برای بارگذاری این مطالب شناسایی و در یک عملیات غافلگیرانه یکی از متهمان، به‌ نام «ع – الف» دستگیر شد.
فرمانده انتظامی استان فارس تصریح کرد: با تشکیل پرونده و انجام تحقیقات مقدماتی متهم دستگیر شده اظهار کرد که مطالب منتشر شده توسط فردی به‌ نام «ج – خ» تهیه شده و در شهر تهران بارگذاری می‌شود.
سجادیان افزود: متهم «ج – خ» نیز با هماهنگی‌های به عمل آمده شناسایی و با اخذ نیابت قضایی در تهران دستگیر شد.
وی گفت: این افراد با نشر اکاذیب علیه مسئولان شهرداری و شورای شهر و چند ارگان دیگر مشکلات زیادی را در شهر خاوران به وجود آورده بودند که دستگیری آنها موجبات رضایت و شادی امت حزب‌الله را فراهم کرد. (خبر گزاري فارس  - 25/5/91)
Reporters Without Borders :
http://www.rsf.org/iran-press-freedom-violations-recounted-16-04-2012,41718.html
13.08.2012 - Three netizens freed from prison
Reporters Without Borders learned today of the release of three imprisoned netizens.
Ahmad Shariat, the supervisor of a blog called Nedai az Daron (Internal Way), was released on bail on 7 August after 18 days in detention, after paying a bond of 100 million tomans (approx. 80,000 euros). He is still awaiting trial.
The organization also learned of the release on bail of Mohammad Solimaninya, head of the social networking site u24, after he paid a bond of 500 million tomans (approx. 400,000 euros). He was arrested on 28 May for a second time after he was summoned to Tehran’s Evin prison.
Iman Masjedi, released on 17 March after his sentence was reduced by a year and four months, was arrested in July 2010 with six other students, Amir Latifi, Mohammad Reza Gholizadeh, Ladan Mostoufi Ma’ab, Hanieh Sate Farshi, Hojat Nikoui and Sepehr Ebrahimi. In April last year a Tehran revolutionary court sentenced them to heavy prison terms - eight years in the case of Masjedi and Ebrahimi, seven years for Gholizadeh and Farshi, five years for Nikoui and Ma’ab, and seven years and 74 lashes for Latifi.
Their convictions were upheld on appeal and they are still in prison. Several are ill or are suffering serious physical and psychological effects of their treatment.
Narges Mohammad, a journalist and spokeswoman for the Centre for Human Rights Defenders, was granted permission to leave prison for medical treatment on 31 July after paying a bond of 600 million tomans (approx. 480,000 euros). She was detained in the northern city of Zanjan on 21 April and taken to Tehran’s Evin prison. Her health is a cause for concern and she was admitted to the Vali Asar hospital in Zanjan on 9 July.
24.07.2012 - Conservative blogger released, another arrested
Reporters Without Borders condemns conservative blogger Mohammad Hassan Nobakhti’s recent detention for a total of 99 days. The editor of the news website Nosazi, he was finally released on 22 July. He was previously arrested in February 2008 after posting an article about Mullah Hassan Khomeiny, grandson of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny.
Ahmad Shariat, the supervisor of a blog called Nedai az Daron < (Internal Way), was meanwhile arrested on 22 July after responding to a summons to report to the Tehran prosecutor’s office. He was detained because he was unable to arrange a bond of 100 million tomans (75,000 euros).
Since the start of the Iranian year (on 21 March), a number bloggers who support President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad have been hounded by the Tehran prosecutor’s office for criticizing associates of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader. Rivalry between the Khamenei and Ahamdinejad factions is taking a growing toll within conservative media circles.
12.07. 2012- Online journalist and rights activist arrested, netizen sentenced
Reporters Without Borders has learned of the arrest on 4 July of Ali Moslehi, who runs the website Kashan News and also contributes to the Jaras site, which is close to Iran’s reformists. He was arrested in the street and his family were informed by local shopkeepers. The reason for his detention and his whereabouts are not known.
The blogger and human rights campaigner Nasour Naghipour has been re-arrested and sent back to prison to serve a seven-year sentence handed down on 8 July. Naghipour, who runs the site , was initially arrested at his home in the city of Qazvin on 2 March. He was released on bail of 100 million tomans (75,000 euros) on 20 June.
On 8 July, the lawyer of netizen Mansoureh Behkish was informed that her client had been given a six-month prison sentence by the 54th chamber of the appeal court for anti-government propaganda, and a suspended sentence of three-and-half years for conspiring against national security.
Last December, Behkish was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment by the 15th chamber of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. She has been imprisoned several times and subjected to constant harassment.
She and 33 other members of the “Mothers in Mourning” movement were arrested while demonstrating in Tehran’s Laleh Park in January 2010. Banned from leaving the country when she was freed on 17 March 2011, she was arrested again in Tehran on 12 June 2011 and spent a month in Section 209 of Evin prison.
Behkish also belongs to the “Mothers of Khavaran,” a movement named after the south Tehran cemetery used as mass grave for political prisoners who were executed en masse in 1988.
She has written several articles for various websites about the group, the ceremonies they organize commemorating the deaths of their loved ones, as well as the repression they have suffered.
Six of Behkish’s close relatives (four brothers, a sister and a brother-in-law) were executed during the 1980s.
03.06.2012- Wave of arrests and convictions of journalists undiminished in Iran
Reporters Without Borders learned on 30 June of the arrest on of Mohammad Solimaninya, head of the social networking site u24, after he was summoned to Tehran’s Evin prison.
The netizen had been previously arrested on 10 January this year then released on bail on 22 May on payment of a bond of 40 million tomans (about 4,500 euros).
On 22 June, we received word of the arrest of the journalist Poya Dabiri Mehr who runs the blog Andishe Poys .The reasons for his arrest and where he was being held were not known. The journalist, who is close to the government of Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, may have been the victim of high-level rivalry between supporters of the president and those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On 9 June, lawyer Farideh Gheirat was informed that his client, the feminist journalist Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, had been handed a one-year suspended prison sentence by the 26th chamber of the Tehran revolutionary court. She is the founder of the Feminist School website and co-organizer of the “One Million Signatures for Equality” campaign calling for the reform of laws that discriminate against women.
Since early March, just before International Women’s Day, the government has stepped up pressure on online feminists such as Khorasani, who are regularly the target of threats and arrests.
The journalist Bahman Ahamadi Amoee, who had been held in Evin prison since 20 June 2009, was transferred on 12 June to Rajai Shahr jail in the northern town of Karaj after he took part in a ceremony organized by prisoners in an Evin prison dormitory in memory of the journalist and writer Hoda Saber, who died on 12 June after a hunger strike.
Rajai Shahr is regarded as one of Iran’s harshest prisons because of its high number of cases of torture, rape and murder. Since his arrest, the journalist has been subjected to constant harassment by the judicial authorities. He appeared before the Tehran revolutionary court on 25 June and was placed in solitary confinement.
31.05.2012-Shargh journalist re-arrested over bail problem
Reporters Without Borders has learned that Sam Mahmoudi Sarabi, a journalist with the newspaper Shargh, was re-arrested on 28 May because the person guaranteeing his bail of 150 million tomans (120,000 euros) refused to continue acting as guarantor.
Arrested on 9 January 2011 for the second time in less than two years, Sarabi spend five months in prison before being released on bail on 9 May 2011, pending trial.
23.05.2012- Two online journalists convicted and another released on bail
Two journalists from the website of the Beheshti foundation (), Meisam Mohammadi and Omid Mohadess, were each sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on 6 May, and banned from working in journalism and engaging in political activity for five years. They were arrested at their homes by plainclothes police in February 2010 and released on bail after two months, pending trial.
Reporters Without Borders also learned yesterday of the release of Mohammad Solimaninya, director of the website u24, on bail of 40 millions tomans (about 4,500 euros). He was arrested on 10 January after being summoned before a revolutionary tribunal in Karaj, a town 20 km north of Tehran.
26.04.2012 Two journalists freed
Reporters Without Borders has learned that Ehssan Hoshmand, a journalist and sociologist who has specialized in the history of the Kurdish people, was released on bail of 150 million toman (140,000 euros) on 23 April. He was arrested at home on 7 January.
The organization has also learned that Reza Taleshaian Jolodarzadeh, the editor of the weekly Sobeh Azadi, was freed on 17 April after being held for two and a half months. He suffers from a chronic illness resulting from an injury sustained during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance suspended his newspaper on 19 October 2011 after it ran a photo of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
16.04.2012 - Netizen freed on bail
The blogger and human rights activist Kouhyar Goudarzi, who kept a blog called Kouhyar ،was finally released on bail of 100 million tomans (90,000 euros) on 12 April. Following his arrest on 1 August 2011 in Tehran, he spent several months in Evin prison without the authorities saying where he was being held.
Last month, a Tehran revolutionary court sentenced Goudarzi to five years in jail and internal exile: he is supposed to serve his time in prison in the northeastern city of Zahedan.
On 2 August 2011, his mother, Parvin Mokhtare, was arrested at her home in the eastern city of Kerman and was sentenced by a Kerman revolutionary court to 23 months in prison. She freed on 19 March.
05.04.2012- More journalists and netizens arrested, sentenced to jail terms
Reporters Without Borders is appalled to learn that more journalists and netizens have been arrested or have been given long jail sentences in the past few days.
Mehran Faraji, a journalist with the newspaper Shargh and the now-closed newspaper Etemad Melli, was arrested on 3 April in order to serve a six-month jail sentence on a charge go anti-government propaganda.
Arrested on 12 December 2010 and then freed on bail on 4 February 2011, Faraji was originally sentenced by a Tehran revolutionary court in October 2011 to a year in prison, but an appeal court later reduced it to six months in prison plus six months suspended. He suffers from severe osteoarthritis and a long spell in jail is likely to exacerbate his condition.
Rihaneh Tabatabai, another Shargh journalist, was notified on 2 April that a Tehran revolutionary court has sentenced her to a year in prison. Arrested at her home by intelligence ministry officials on 12 December 2010, she was freed on 16 January 2011 on bail of 10 million tomans (7,500 euros).
The netizen Mansoureh Behkish has also just learned that a Tehran revolutionary court has sentenced her to four and half years in prison on charges of anti-government propaganda and creating the “Mothers in Mourning” movement in order to “meet and conspire against national security.”
Aged 54, Behkish, has been campaigning for years about the arbitrary execution of political prisoners during the 1980s and has repeatedly been harassed and jailed. She and 33 other members of “Mothers in Mourning” were arrested while demonstrating in Tehran’s Laleh Park on 9 January 2010. Banned from leaving the country when freed on 17 March 2011, she was arrested again in Tehran on 12 June 2011 and spent a month in Section 209 of Evin prison.
Bekhish also belongs to the “Mothers of Khavaran,” a movement named after the south Tehran cemetery used as mass grave for political prisoners who were executed en masse in 1988. Its members are harassed by the authorities for demanding justice and for holding ceremonies commemorating the deaths of their loved-ones.
Six of Bekhish’s close relatives (four brothers, a sister and a brother-in-law) were executed during the 1980s. She posts articles on various websites about these groups, their ceremonies and the harassment to which they are subjected.
Under Iran’s Islamic criminal code, Tabatabai and Behkish have 21 days to appeal against their sentences.
Reporters Without Borders has learned that two journalists, Ali Mousavi Khalkhali and Mehdi Khazali, and a jailed blogger’s mother, Parvin Mokhtare, were released on 19 March.
Khalkhali, who worked for the Irdiplomacy news website, was held in Tehran’s Evin prison after being arrested by intelligence ministry officials at his home on 24 February. He is a nephew of Ayatollah Hakim, a senior Shiite cleric of Iranian origin in Iraq.
The editor of the blog Baran, Khazali was arrested for the third time in less than two years on 9 January and was sentenced on 5 February to four years in jail followed by 10 years of internal exile in the southern city of Borazjan on a charge of insulting government officials. His family said his health deteriorated while detained.
Mokhtare, the mother of the jailed blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi, was herself sentenced to 23 months in prison by a revolutionary court in the southeastern city of Kerman.
23.03.2012 -Two freed on bail
Reporters Without Borders has learned of the release on bail on 10 March of Rahim Sarkar, editor of the weekly Hadiss Qazvin, after payment of a bond of 50 million tomans (about 45,000 euros).
He was arrested on 8 March after being summoned to the revolutionary court in the city of Qazvin. He had been charged on 27 February with “publishing false information with the aim of disturbing public opinion”.
According to the prosecution, “The newspaper published in its latest edition, images of prisons, poverty, executions, etc. in order to paint a bleak picture of the country. The accompanying article forecast a poor turnout at the parliamentary election on 12 March.”
The press freedom organization has also been informed of the release on bail on 26 December last year of Ali Dini Torkamani, a writer and economist who contributes to the Tehran-based online magazine Alborznet. He was arrested on 2 August at his home in the capital.
28 February 2012 - Journalists arrested in January round-up released, photographer detained
Reporters Without Borders has learned of the release on bail two days ago of Parastoo Dokoohaki, a blogger and women’s rights activist, and yesterday of Sahamoldin Borghani, a journalist who writes for the news website Irdiplomacy and Marzieh Rasouli, who contributes to the arts and culture sections of several newspapers.
They were arrested on 15 and 18 January and held in solitary confinement in Sections 209 and 2A of Tehran’s Evin prison which are run by the intelligence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards.
The journalists were freed after the payment of a bond of 300 million tomans each by Dokoohaki and Rasouli, and of 200 million tomans by Borghani.
The day before their release, the organized crime unit of the Revolutionary Guards in a statement on the website Gerdab.ir ،accused them of collaborating with the BBC, British intelligence and the foreign-based opposition.
The Revolutionary Guards announced that an opération code-named “eye of the fox” had led to the break-up of a network that gathered information and produced content for the BBC in Iran. The British broadcaster denied it employed staff in Iran. In the past, satellite stations such as the BBC and Voice of America, have been jammed at regular intervals.
The press freedom organization has also been informed of the arrest of photographer Tahmineh Monzavi by officials of the intelligence ministry at her workplace on 19 February. Her family does not know the reasons for her arrest or where she is being held.
6 February 2012 - Blogger sentenced to jail, newspaper suspended
The Tehran revolutionary court yesterday sentenced Mehdi Khazali, editor of the Baran blog, to 14 years’ imprisonment, 10 years’ internal exile in the south-western city of Borazjan and 70 lashes. He was arrested on 9 January for the third time in less than two years.
Khazali is the son of Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, an influential member of the Council of Guardians of the Iranian Constitution for the past three decades. Despite his frequent run-ins with the authorities, Khazali is very scathing about the government’s policies and human rights violations in his blog, which has been hacked and is no longer accessible.
According the Mashregh website, which is close to the intelligence services, Sharam Golshani, head of the currency conversion site Mesghal is reported to have been arrested two days ago, at the height of a currency crisis in Iran. The site, which gives exchange rates for the Iranian rial and foreign currencies, was accused of contributing to the fall of the rial against the U.S. dollar.
On 1 January, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law Washington’s toughest sanctions yet against Tehran. Subsequently the value of the rial fell by more than 20 percent, despite the intervention of the Iranian central bank.
The website was unavailable for several days in early January. Golshani was accused of being a member of the Baha’i faith, which is not recognized as a religion by Iran, and of being and of working on behalf of Iran’s enemies.
Reporters Without Borders has learned of the release on bail two days ago of Simien Nematollahi, a contributor to the website Majzooban, after the payment of a surety of 100 million tomans (about 90,000 euros). She was arrested on 7 January at her Tehran home by officials of the intelligence ministry on a charge of anti-government propaganda.
The newspaper Roozegar was closed down two days ago on the orders of the Tehran prosecutor responsible for the print media after it published a front-page interview and photo of the reformist leader, Mohammad Reza Khatami. It was the third time the daily had been banned. It was suspended for two months on 4 September 2011 and had earlier been closed down between 2007 and February 2010.
Reporters Without Borders is seeking the release of Said Razavi Faghih, a journalist and former student leader who has worked for several reformist newspapers. He was detained at Tehran airport on 22 January after arriving in the country from France where he had lived since 2004. He was studying philosophy in Paris.
The publications for which he has worked include the reformist newspaper Yase No, which was closed down in 2009.
On 30 January 2009, officials of the intelligence ministry confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving the country. He was ordered to attend the revolutionary court the next day. He was released a month later, but the ban on leaving Iran remained in force.
Faghih was detained for several months in 2003 with three other journalists from Yase No and spent more than 78 days in solitary confinement.
1st February 2012 - Two journalists freed on bail
Reporters Without Borders had learned of the release on bail on 3 January of the documentary film-maker Hassan Fathi, arrested on 12 November, and today of Fatemeh Khardmand, a journalist for the monthly Gozaresh Sanat Chap, who was detained on 7 January.
They were released after paying a surety of 50 million tomans (about 45,000 euros) each.
30 January 2012- Four held over Facebook page
Iran’s police responsible for Internet security have announced the arrest of two men and two women accused of creating a network aimed at corrupting Iranian youth by “promoting prostitution and immorality”.
The cyber police have taken control of the Facebook page “Daf & Paf” which the group is alleged to have set up.
The page, which has nearly 27,000 members, encouraged male and female participants to take part in an online beauty contest by submitting photographs of themselves.
19 January 2012 - Journalist arrested in late December in Bushehr
Reporters Without Borders has learned of the arrests of two journalists late last month in the southwestern city of Bushehr. One was Esmail Jafari, a journalist, human rights activist and editor of the blog Rah Mardom (Voice of the People), who was arrested on 28 December to serve an eight-month jail sentence in Bushehr prison on a charge of endangering national security.
Originally detained in April 2008 for covering a demonstration outside the Bushehr prefecture by about 20 workers protesting against their dismissal, Jafari was formally arrested on 16 December 2008 and was released on bail on 18 March 2009 after being sentenced. He was arrested yet again on 7 April 2009 and was freed 17 days later on bail of 50 million tomans (45,000 euros). He was finally told on 14 November 2011 that his sentence had been confirmed and that he would have to begin serving it.
18 January 2012 - New wave of arrests in Tehran and provinces
A renewed crackdown on journalists and bloggers is continuing in Iran, with two journalists and a blogger arrested in Tehran and another journalist arrested in the northwestern city of Tabriz in the past five days alone.
Sahamoldin Borghani, a journalist who writes for the news website Irdiplomacy, was arrested at his Tehran home on 18 January. Members of his family, who were absent at the time of his arrest, found a note attached to the door saying: “We have taken Shama and his equipment.” They do not know why he was arrested or where he is being held.
Irdiplomacy is headed by Mohammad Sadegh Kharazi, a former Iranian ambassador in France who is close to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami.
Peyman Pakmehr, the editor of the Tabriz News website, was meanwhile arrested by local intelligence ministry officials in the northwestern city of Tabriz on 17 January on the orders of prosecutors in Tehran and was transferred to Tehran’s Evin prison. The reason for his arrest is still not known.
Two women writers were arrested separately by intelligence ministry officials at their Tehran homes on 15 January on charges of anti-government propaganda. They were Parastoo Dokoohaki, a blogger and women’s rights activist, and Marzieh Rasouli, a journalist who writes for the arts and culture sections of several newspapers.
11 January 2012 - New wave of arrests
Arrests of netizens are meanwhile continuing. Simien Nematollahi, a contributer to the pro-Sufi website Majzooban, was arrested at her Tehran home by intelligence ministry officials on 11 January on a charge of anti-government propaganda. Several members of the website’s staff were arrested on 7 and 8 September and were freed on bail on 4 October pending trial.
Mohammad Solimaninya, the head of u24, a social networking website for Iranian professionals, was arrested on 20 January after being summoned before a revolutionary tribunal in Karaj, a town 20 km north of Tehran, on 10 January. Plainclothes intelligence ministry officials searched his home the same day, confiscating his computer, hard disks and CDs.
His family still does not know why he was arrested or where he is being held. As well as running u24, Solimaninya has created and hosts the websites of many civil society organizations, NGOs and Iranian intellectuals.
Journalists Fatemeh Khardmand, Ehssan Hoshmand and Saeed Madani, were arrested by plainclothes men at their Tehran homes on 7 January. Confirming their arrest the next day, intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi said they had “envisaged carrying out American plans to disrupt the parliamentary elections by using cyber-space and social networks.” This is a clearly trumped-up charge by a regime which, without any evidence, systematically accuses dissidents of being spies working for the United States or Israel.
Madani, a sociologist as well as a journalist who has written dozens of articles in the independent media, was previously arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. Hoshmand, who is also a sociologist, has specialized in the history of the Kurdish people.
Khardmand is a journalist with the monthly Gozaresh Sanat Chap. According to her husband, Masoud Lavassani, a journalist and blogger who was released in July after two years in detention, her arrest was carried out by four intelligence ministry officials with a warrant who said she was accused of “being in contact with the families of political prisoners.” Her state of health is a source of concern and their four-year-old son, who was already disturbed by his father’s long imprisonment, is in state of shock.
Mehdi Khazali, who edits the Baran blog and has been arrested several times in the past, was arrested again on 9 January. According to his wife, he was injured in the course of his arrest, which was carried out in a very violent manner. Khazali is the son of Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, an influential member of the Council of Guardians of the Iranian Constitution for the past three decades. Despite his frequent run-ins with the authorities, Mehdi Khazali is very scathing about the government’s policies and human rights violations in his blog, which has been the victim of a cyber-attack and is no longer accessible.

گزارش خبرنگاران بدون مرز در مورد  ايران
سه استفاده‌کننده از اینترنت از زندان آزاد شدند .
احمد شریعت، مدیر ناظر بلاگ ندایی از درون روز 7 اوت بعد از 18روز زندانی با وثیقه آزاد شد... او منتظر دادگاه است
محمد سلیمانی، رئیس شبکه اجتماعی u24 پس از پرداخت 500 میلیون تومان وثیقه آزاد شد...
امان مسجدی که در ژوئیه 2010 به همراه 6 دانشجوی دیگر دستگیر شده بود، بعد از این‌که حکم او به یکسال و 4ماه تقلیل یافت در 17مارس آزاد شد. او به همراه امیر لطیفی، محمدرضا غلامزاده، لادن مستوفی مآب، هنیه سات فرشی، حجت نیکویی و سپهر ابراهیمی دستگیر شده بود...
به نرگس محمدی، یک خبرنگار و سخنگوی مرکز مدافعان حقوق‌بشر پس از پرداخت 600 میلیون تومان وثیقه در روز 31  ژوئیه اجازه ترک زندان برای درمان پزشکی داده شد. او در شهر شمالی زنجان در 21آوریل دستگیر و به زندان اوین تهران منتقل شده بود... (خبرنگاران بدون مرز- 23/5/1391)
Radio Farda :
Jailed lawyer Javid Houtan Kian recently wrote a letter detailing the insults and tortures he tolerated during the 20 months he was jailed in Tabriz Prison.
Javid Houtan Kian is the lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who was sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery. Mr. Houtan Kian was arrested about 20 months ago in Azarbaijan…
Naqi Mahmoudi, Houtan Kian’s lawyer who has recently left Iran talked to us [regarding this issue]…
“Regarding Mr. Houtan Kian, the lawyer of Mrs. Sakineh Ashtiani, he was arrested on October 10, 2010 by agents of the Intelligence Agency in his office along with Mrs. Ashtiani’s son, Sajad Kaveh Zadeh and two journalists from the German Bilde Daily.
He was severely tortured from day one for months and these tortures were unbelievingly inhumane.
For example, one of the tortures was when Javid Houtan Kian was taken to the area outside of the detention center in a cold winter night in Tabriz with his underclothes where he was soaked with water. He was kept there until four in the morning and was then taken for interrogations.
His legs and testicle were also burned with lit cigarettes…
Unfortunately, he has been banned from visits with his lawyer and family and recently, he was transferred to a cellblock where drug addicts are kept. Other prisoners were told that if they have any kind of contact with Houtan Kian, they will be severely punished and will be denied some of their rights such as release on bail, the right to have visits with their lawyer and family or the right to use the phone”.

شکنجه هوتن کيان، وکیل دادگستری با آتش سیگار    
جاويد هوتن کيان، وکيل دادگستری زندانی، به تازگی در نامه ای از توهين و شکنجه های روحی و جسمی که طی بيست ماه در زندان تبريز تحمل کرده، نوشته است.
جاويد هوتن کيان وکيل سکينه محمدی آشتيانی است که به اتهام زنای محصنه به سنگسار محکوم شده است. آقای هوتن کيان در حدود بيست ماه پيش در آذربايجان بازداشت شد...
نقی محمودی وکيل جاويد هوتن کيان که اخيراً از ايران خارج شده، در گفت وگو با رادیو فردا ميگويد:
در مورد آقای هوتن کيان ، وکيل خانم سکينه محمدی ، در روز ۱۸ مهرماه سال ۸۹ از طرف مامورين وزارت اطلاعات و در دفتر کار خودشان به همراه سجاد کاوه زاده، فرزند خانم سکينه محمدی آشتيانی و همچنين دو نفر از روزنامه نگاران و عکاسان روزنامه بيلد آلمان دستگير شدند.
وی از همان روز به مدت چندين ماه مورد شکنجه های وحشيانه قرار گرفته بودند و اين شکنجه ها به حدی غير انسانی بود که قابل باور نيست.
به عنوان نمونه يکی از شکنجه ها اين بوده که جاويد هوتن کيان را در يکی از شبهای سرد زمستان تبريز با لباس زير به محوطه بازداشتگاه برده و ايشان را خيس آب می کنند و تا ساعت چهار صبح همان جا نگاه داشته و بعد از آن او را به بازجويی می برند.
همچنين با آتش سيگار دست ها و پاهها و بيضه های ايشان سوزانده شده است...
متاسفانه ملاقات های ايشان چه با وکيل دادگستری و چه با خانواده شان متاسفانه ممنوع شده و حتی اخيرا که ايشان را به بند مخصوص نگهداری معتادان به متادون و مواد مخدر است انتقال داده اند، در آنجا هم به زندانی های ديگر ابلاغ کرده اند که در صورت هر گونه تماس، ارتباط و يا هم خرج شدن با هوتن کيان، مجازات شديدی انتظارشان را خواهد کشيد و ممکن است که بعضی از امتيازات مثل استفاده از آزادی مشروط و يا حق ملاقات با وکيل و خانواده و يا تلفن از آنها سلب شود. (راديو فردا – 24/5/91)

Jaras website :
In the past few days, the flogging sentence of a number of political prisoners in cellblock 350 in Evin Prison was carried out. According to reports, the flogging of Kamyar Iazi, who is a doctor, was to the extent that his body bled as a result.
Farzaneh Mirzavand, the wife of political prisoner Siamak Qaderi who was flogged said, “Unfortunately, my husband’s flogging sentence was carried out in the month of Ramadan. I expected [the government] the keep the sanctity of this month but they did not…”
Mazdak Ali Nazari was another political prisoner who was flogged. Colonel Nazari his father said in this regard, “I saw Mazdak today in prison and unfortuntaly heard that his flogging sentence and that of a number of others had been carried out. It was carried out in the month of Ramadan while they were fasting…”
The mother of another one of these political prisoners said, “Please do not publish my name because there is a possibility that my son’s name is in the list of people who will be released on Eid Fetr and with this interview, they will find an excuse to harass us again”.
“I became very distraught [about the flogging] and I cannot express my pain. When I saw my loved ones sad face and how they cruelly flogged his whole body, you do not know how I felt…”

خانواده های زندانیان سیاسی شلاق خورده: باور این حد از ظلم برایمان سخت است
طی روزهای گذشته، حکم شلاق تعدادی از زندانیان بند ۳۵۰ زندان اوین به اجرا درآمد. در حالی ضربات شلاق در ماه رمضان به بدن این زندانیان زده شده است که براساس گزارش ها، اجرای حکم شلاق “کامران ایازی” پزشک زندانی به گونه ای بوده که او دچار خونریزی شده است.
فرزانه میرزاوند، همسر سیامک قادری یکی از این زندانیان سیاسی که حکم شلاق درباره وی اجرا شده است به جرس می گوید: “متاسفانه حکم شلاق همسرم را اجرا کردند آن هم در ماه مبارک رمضان! انتظار ما این بود که حرمت این ماه نگه داشته شود اما اینچنین نشد.“..
مزدک علی نظری یکی دیگر از زندانیانی است که روز شنبه حکم شلاق او اجرا شده است. سرهنگ نظری پدر وی در این زمینه تصریح می کند: “امروز در ملاقات مزدک را دیدم و متاسفانه با خبر شدم که حکم شلاق او و عده ای دیگر اجرا شده است. آن هم در ماه مبارک رمضان و با زبان روزه شلاقشان زدند“...
مادر یکی دیگر از این زندانیان بیان می کند: “لطفا اسمی از من نبرید چون احتمال دارد فرزندم در لیست کسانی باشد که قرار است در عید فطر آزاد شوند و با این مصاحبه بهانه ای بدستشان بیافتد، دوباره اذیت کنند، اما اینقدر از این موضوع ناراحت شدم که نمی توانم دردم را نگویم. وقتی چهره ناراحت جگر گوشه ام را دیدم که چطور با قساوت تمام به بدنش شلاق زدند نمی دانید چه حالی شدم...“ (جرس – 24/5/91)
Police News state-run Website :
The Commander of the Lanjan State Security Forces said that 40 shops were shut down by agents of the Public Security Police in the past four months.
Colonel Ali Forough Nia said, “Agents of the Department to Oversee Public Buildings of the Lanjan [town in Isfahan] Police, inspected 2,000 shops during the four months of the Social and Moral Security Plan”.
“In these inspections, the owners of shops in the city were given instructions on various issues, were guided and educated by police experts and a number were told to sign written commitments”, he added.

پلمب ۴۰ واحد صنفی در شهرستان لنجان اصفهان
فرمانده انتظامی شهرستان لنجان استان اصفهان از پلمب ۴۰ واحد صنفی توسط ماموران پلیس امنیت عمومی این فرماندهی طی چهارماهه سال جاری خبر داد.
بنا به گزارش پایگاه خبری پلیس، سرهنگ "علی فروغ نیا" صبح امروز با بیان این خبر اظهار داشت: ماموران اداره نظارت بر اماکن عمومی پلیس امنیت عمومی فرماندهی انتظامی شهرستان لنجان استان اصفهان در پی اجرای طرح‌های ارتقای امنیت اجتماعی و اخلاقی طی چهارماهه سال جاری از دو هزار واحد صنفی سطح شهر بازدید به عمل آوردند.
وی مدعی شد: در این بازدید‌ها صاحبان صنوف فعال سطح شهر در حوزه‌های مختلف توسط کار‌شناسان پلیس مورد توجیه، ارشاد و آگاه سازی قرار گرفتند و از تعدادی نیز تعهد کتبی اخذ شد. (پايگاه خبري پليس – 24/5/91)
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