Last Friday The Election In Iran Has Ended , What Is In It For The People And The Country ?

Moderates And Reformists Can't Continue Serving The Master And The Masses At the Same time , at one point they must chose one over another one !

Parliamentary and assembly of experts Election has ended in Iran ,what is in it for Iranian people ?
Islamic regime in Iran runs the show for 37 continues years . Other than Islamic reformists and moderate Islamists or conservatives ,opposition has no place in the political decision making in Iran.

A couple of years after the revolution , the show run by Islamist revolutionaries mainly sepah with repression and creating fear among society and oppositions , the result was catastrophic with thousands of political prisoners either were mass murdered or imprisoned and disappeared .

A decade and so later Islamist reformist with the support of Iranian people created a situation of hope to bring changes / reforms into the system by electing Seyed Mohammad Khatami. Mohammad Khatami at the end of his 8 years term said; he was just a provider for the regime. It was during his Government term when the students protested for six continues days which shock Iran and the Islamic regime for the first time. And it was also during Khatami's term when the chain murdering of writers and others politicians happened in the hand of the security intelligent officer Said Emami and other high ranking clergies.

8 Years later , after the reformists Government ended a fundamentalist Government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad backed by sepah , Basij and Khamenei the leader of the Islamic regime ran the country to a point were almost destroyed and bankrupt the country and people. It was in his term when the Green Movement happened  in 2009 and more than 4,000,000 people poured into the street for close to a year by chanting where is my vote as a result many young Iranian were killed by regime Sepah, Basij and judiciary forces?

At present the moderate Islamists headed by president Hassan Rohani run the Government while Sepah, Basij and leader watch and weigh in when it is needed to control the situation.

And now the parliamentary and assembly of experts election has ended and out of more than 52 million eligible vote all over Iran, the percentage of those attended at the poll and voted are very low , for example just in Tehran , around 10 million people more or less can vote , the top elected runner from reformists in Tehran just received close to 600,000 vote and the lowest elected runner received close to 400,000 vote. And the top elected runner in assembly of experts Rafsanjani received just more than 2,000,000 vote in Tehran.

This shows , the people are losing faith on reformists / moderates to bring changes or to even resist  for the interest of the people against the sepah, basij or leader 's selfish repressive and destructive plans for Iran.

For now the moderates / reformists have the Government and the majority of MP's in parliament and also the leadership of the assembly of experts …..So we have to see- what will they do after this victory?

Will they release political prisoners? will they release the green movement leaders from the house arrests ? will they bother less the media and remove repressive national security agenda from the country . Or will they bring reform in the judiciary system ? and so many other unanswered questions ….

We have to wait and see ….

Deputy Of President Rohani Mrs. Molaverdi: All Men Of A Village In Sistan And Blouchestan Province Are Executed !

There is a village in Iran where all the men of the village are executed because of drug smuggling.

According to news Mrs. Shahindokht Molaverdi the deputy of president Rohani on the issue of women criticized the executive institutions/organizations for doing nothing in supporting the families of those executed.
She said; there is a village in the South -Eastern part of the country ( Close to Afghanistan )where all the men of the village are executed for drug smuggling .

She did not name the village while speaking with Mehr news agency. So only women are left in the village and men's are executed . The reason is because the men ( bread winners ) of the village earning their income from drug smuggling.

Iran rank top in the world on execution for years.

Link:
https://www.balatarin.com/topic/2016/2/25/1016438

Not To Forget Iranian Political Prisoners ……...

IRAN WATCH CANADA is doing its part ……not forgetting the voiceless Iranian ….bringing their voices as much as it can to the world human rights organizations……Thats the least IRAN WATCH CANADA can do, none stop from September 2004 …...

****
According to news coming from prisons , many Iranian political prisoners are on hunger strike , among them :

1- Said Hossein -Zadeh
Is on his 6th day of hunger strike - The reason for strike is because his health condition is bad and he needs immediate hospitalization. He have written a letter to the judiciary and prison officials asking to let him to be transferred to the hospital for operation and treatment.

2- Reza Samiei Monfared
National Security prisoner . He is in ward number 7 at Evin prison
He is suffering from lower back pain and needs treatment .
He is the former central bank inspector and is arrested for disclosing the 3,000,000,000 Billion Dollar corruption by former Government officials and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
5 years imprisonment for disclosing the corruption!!!!!??????

3- Amir Golestani
On his 9th day of hunger strike .
He supposed to be transferred to the hospital for skin diseases …..
He is charged with Facebook social activities - written article such as ……"Doggy Life"  and "Sweet life" …..  He is on his 3rd year in Evin prison.

4-

A court in the city of Ahwaz sentenced three Iranian - Arab Ahwazi activists to 9 years imprisonment .
They are:
1- Mohammad Heydari - 24 years old

2- Reza Heydari - 26 years old

3- Adel heydari - 22 years old

In another news from the city of Shoush, the intelligent agents on an assault on a village around Shoush have arrested six youth of the village and it is unknown where they have been taken .

and they are :

Jamaloding Chabishot - 24 years old
Riaz Chabishot - 22 years old
Hamzeh Debut - 22 years old
Maher Abdolahi - 24 years old
Asad Kanani- 17 years old
Daram Kaabi - ……

Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/news.jsp?essayId=72209

Tomorrow Is The Election Day In Iran ……..

The candidates had only one week to introduce themselves and their programs and promises ……

Keyvan Karimi Iranian Film Director Is Sentenced By Islamic Regime Judiciary To 223 Lashes And One Year Imprisonment …..

According to Iran Wire Website Keyvan Karimi a 30 year old film director is sentenced by Islamic regime judiciary headed by Mohammad Sadegh Larijani to 223 lashes and one year imprisonment on alleged charges such as ; shaking hands with a woman ( other than wife and family member ) and insulting the leader of the regime and propagating against regime by way of  making film. His film " Neveshtan Bar Shahr " ( Writing on City) is the story of Graffiti's on the City Walls as time changed ……
 

Keyvan Karimi was arrested at his home on December 2014 and spent 12 days in solitary confinement ( ward number 2- Alef in Evin prison which run by Sepah )  but released on bail . After release he appealed the sentencing given by judge Moghiseh . Although the first sentencing which was 5 years imprisonment was reduced to one year imprisonment and 223 lashes , the appeal court approved the reduced sentencing and now this film maker has received the final sentencing, said his lawyer Mr. Amir Reisian .
Kevan Karimi said, he is not intended to leave the country and will remain in the country to face the sentencing.


Link:
http://iranwire.com/features/8750/

Your rights in jeopardy’, global assault on freedoms, warns Amnesty International

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PRESS RELEASE

STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2016 (00.01 GMT)

‘Your rights in jeopardy’, global assault on freedoms, warns Amnesty International

To download a copy of the full report or other embargoed media materials please click here

To download AV footage and photographs please click here

Amnesty International releases its Annual Report for 2015 to 2016

• Many governments have brazenly broken international law and are deliberately undermining institutions meant to protect people’s rights
• Salil Shetty, head of the global movement, warns “not only are our rights under threat, so are the laws and the system that protect them”

International protection of human rights is in danger of unravelling as short-term national self-interest and draconian security crackdowns have led to a wholesale assault on basic freedoms and rights, warned Amnesty International as it launched its annual assessment of human rights around the world. 

“Your rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Millions of people are suffering enormously at the hands of states and armed groups, while governments are shamelessly painting the protection of human rights as a threat to security, law and order or national ‘values’.”

Human rights under threat globally

Amnesty International is warning of an insidious and creeping trend undermining human rights which has come from governments deliberately attacking, underfunding or neglecting institutions that have been set up to help protect our rights.

“Not only are our rights under threat, so are the laws and the system that protect them. More than 70 years of hard work and human progress lies at risk,” said Salil Shetty.

The United Nations’ human rights bodies, the International Criminal Court, and regional mechanisms such as the Council of Europe and the Inter American Human Rights system, are being undermined by governments attempting to evade oversight of their domestic records.

Amnesty International is calling on governments to politically support and fully fund systems that exist to uphold international law and to protect people’s rights.

Rights under threat on a national level

Amnesty International has documented how many governments have brazenly broken international law in 2015 in their national contexts: more than 122 states tortured or otherwise ill-treated people and 30 or more illegally forced refugees to return to countries where they would be in danger. In at least 19 countries, war crimes or other violations of the “laws of war” were committed by governments or armed groups.

Amnesty International is also warning of a worrying trend among governments increasingly targeting and attacking activists, lawyers and others who work to defend human rights.

“Instead of recognizing the crucial role these people play in society, many governments have deliberately set out to strangle criticism in their country. They have broken their own laws in their crackdowns against citizens,” said Salil Shetty. 

Amnesty International says this has partly been down to the reaction of many governments to evolving security threats in 2015.

“The misguided reaction of many governments to national security threats has been the crushing of civil society, the right to privacy and the right to free speech; and outright attempts to make human rights dirty words, packaging them in opposition to national security, law and order and ‘national values’. Governments have even broken their own laws in this way,” said Salil Shetty.

UN in desperate need of reinvigoration

The United Nations and its offices for protecting human rights and refugees have suffered severely from the hostility and neglect of recalcitrant governments in 2015.

“The UN was set up to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ and to ‘reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights’ but it is more vulnerable than it ever has been in the face of enormous challenges,” said Salil Shetty.

Many governments have wilfully thwarted UN action to prevent mass atrocities or hold to account their perpetrators, and rejected or poured scorn on its recommendations to improve human rights nationally.  

The Syrian conflict is one horrific example of the catastrophic human consequences of a systemic failure of the UN to fulfil its vital role in upholding rights and international law and ensuring accountability.

The incoming UN Secretary General, who will be elected later this year and who will take up the post in January 2017, will inherit an organization that has achieved much but is in desperate need of reinvigoration, Amnesty International says. The organization is calling for UN member states and the UN Security Council to show brave new thinking in moving towards reform, starting with the process by which it elects a new Secretary General.

“UN member states have an historic opportunity this year to reinvigorate the organization by supporting a strong candidate for Secretary General with the commitment, personal fortitude and vision needed to push back against any states bent on undermining human rights at home and internationally,” said Salil Shetty.

To achieve this, Amnesty International says the election process must be fair and transparent and ensure that the views of candidates on the major human rights challenges facing the UN are known and understood.

Call to action

“The world today is facing many challenges which, at their source, have been created or prolonged by governments who have played politics with people’s lives. Refugees are suffering in their millions as conflicts proliferate, and armed groups deliberately attack civilians and commit other grave abuses,” said Salil Shetty.

“It is within world leaders’ power to prevent these crises from spiralling further out of control. Governments must halt their assault on our rights and strengthen the defences the world has put in place to protect them. Human rights are a necessity, not an accessory; and the stakes for humankind have never been higher.”

Background

Amnesty International has documented grave violations of economic and social and political and civil rights in 2015 in many countries.  

Examples of national attacks on human rights and the institutions which are there to protect them include, but are by no means limited, to:

• Angola: using defamation laws and state security legislation to harass, arrest and detain those peacefully expressing their views; and publicly snubbing UN recommendations on its rights record.

• Burundi: systematic killings and other widespread violent tactics by the security forces; and efforts to suppress the human rights community in the country.
• China: escalating crackdown against human rights defenders and a series of sweeping laws in the name of ‘national security’.
• Egypt: the arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death.
• Hungary: sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them.
• Israel: maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
• Gambia: torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalization of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty.
• Kenya: extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice.
• Mexico: grave record of human rights abuses including 27,000 disappeared; and its harsh response to UN criticism of the widespread use of torture, enabling almost complete impunity despite increased complaints.
• Pakistan: the severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be “against the interests” of the country.
• Russia: repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria.
• Saudi Arabia: brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticize the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it led in Yemen while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict.
• Slovakia: widespread discrimination against Roma remained despite years of efforts by national and regional groups, resulting in the European Commission having to resort to infringement proceedings against the country.
• Syria: killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians.
• Thailand: arresting peaceful critics for activities including staging plays, posting Facebook comments and displaying graffiti; and the military authorities’ dismissal of international calls not to extend its own powers to excessively restrict rights and silence dissent in the name of “security”.
• UK: continued use of mass surveillance in the name of countering terrorism; and its regressive attempts to evade oversight by the European Court of Human Rights.

• USA: the continuing operation of the Guantanamo detention centre, an example of the grave consequences of its ¨global war on terror”; and its failure to prosecute those responsible for torture and enforced disappearances.
• Venezuela: continuing lack of justice in cases of grave human rights violations and constant attacks against human rights defenders; and its continuing denunciation of the American Convention of Human Rights following its earlier withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, denying victims of violations access to justice.

Public Document

****************************************

Embargoed media materials including the full Report, Facts and Figures, Regional Quotes and human rights gains can be downloaded here

AV material and photographs can be downloaded here

For more information, specific country entries or to request an interview please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or +44 (0)77 7847 2126

or contact Sara Hashash, Middle East and North Africa Press Officer on sara.hashash@amnesty.org or +44 207413 5511

email: press@amnesty.org  twitter: @amnestypress, @salilshetty

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK

Salman Rushdie: Iranian state media renew fatwa on Satanic Verses author with $600,000 bounty

The announcement coincides with the anniversary of the fatwa issued in 1989

Forty state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman Rushdie, according to the state-run Fars News Agency.

Fars News Agency, which is closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was among the largest contributors, donating one billion Rials - nearly $30,000.

The announcement coincides with the anniversary of the fatwa issued the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, the agency said. 

Ayatollah Khomeini, the First Supreme Leader of Iran, issued the fatwa against Rushdie on charges of blasphemy for his novel The Satanic Verses on 15 February, 1989.

The Ayatollah called for the death of the book's author along with anyone "involved in its publication". 

Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death outside his office at Tsukuba University, the Italian translator Ettore Capriolo survived being stabbed at his apartment in Milan, and the novel's Norwegian publisher was shot three times in the back and left for dead outside his home in Oslo.

Rushdie was put under police protection by the British government and spent many years in hiding. 

While Iran's former President Mohammad Khatami said the threat against the author was "finished" in 1998, the fatwa has never officially been lifted. 

Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 the order still stands. 

The new bounty is the largest organised effort to assassinate Rushdie since the fatwa was issued. 

It is currently unclear whether he has been made aware of the new bounty.

Last year, the Islamic Republic cancelled its appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair after Rushdie was announced as a speaker. They urged other Muslim nations to boycott the fair.

Link:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/salman-rushdie-iranian-state-media-renew-fatwa-on-satanic-verses-author-with-600000-bounty-a6887141.html

4 Days To Elections In Iran…..Parliamentary Election And …….

Banner From ISNA news agency :

Banner: 4 Days To Election ……

In Iran Peoples are more divided this time than previous years whether to vote or not to . After 37 years of the Islamic regime in Iran ,there haven't been any change or reform to the system. At the beginning of reform movement people were hopeful for changes and thats why they have supported the reform . But the Islamist reformists like President Khatami has failed to create much change/reform  or to penetrate in to the hard rock of the system. So, nowadays Khatami has chosen to continue the rest of his political life in isolation due to pressure from the top leading fundamentalists particularly Khamenei without any resistance or leading his followers or supporters to resist. Regime has even banned media to speak to Khatami or to publish his picture. While the regime is calling everyone to participate in election and vote , people are more and more choosing not to . Now that only four days left to election we have to see what unexpected things will happen in Iran. 

1- Iran Nation's  Party ( Hezbe Melat  Iran ) in a statement with several reason ( like not having freedom to chose or imprisonment of dissents and influence on engineering the election)  announced that it will boycott the election. This party has 60 years political activities in Iran and one of its major leader was Dariush Frouhar …..

The First Day of the Islamic Reformists Candidates Started with Slogans to Free the Green Movements Leaders From the Hose Arrests …...

Islamic Regime's Games In Iran Against Iran and Iranian People Does Not End ……..

According to news , in a move again the Third Digital Islamic Revolution News Exhibition has prepared a 600,000 Dollar Reward for those who kill Salman Rushdie the writer of the Satanic Verses.
According to "Digarban" News Agency, 43 media institutions have participated in this Exhibition are the backbone of the campaign to kill Salman Rushdie . The funding of all these institutions are coming from Sepah Pasdaran and Basij .

230 Million Tuman of this funding came from Fars News Agency , Basij Press and Basij News Agency.

This reward is prepared on the eve of the day Khomeini first sent a Fatwa on 1989 to kill Salman Rushdie the Indian- British writer.

After the death of Khomeini , Khamenei the  leader of the Islamic regime said he will Follow the Fatwa….

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208732.php

For Immediate Release

Iran: Kish Island Open Closed to Women
Turning Away Female Spectators Violates Assurances Made by Volleyball Federation

(New York, February 17, 2016) – Iranian authorities’ decision to prevent women from attending an international beach volleyball tournament this week, despite prior assurances, is a disappointing step backwards for women’s equal access to attend public sporting events, Human Rights Watch said today. Iran is hosting the first men’s beach volleyball tournament in Iran, on Kish Island, from February 15 to 19, 2016.

Although an official 2012 ban prohibits Iranian women from attending volleyball matches, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) announced on February 7, 2016, that it received assurances from organizers of the Kish Island Open that, “the event will be open to fans from all age groups and genders. This will include families and women.” This announcement was greeted with cautious optimism by Iranian women’s rights activists, who are aware that until the ban is officially lifted, women who seek to attend volleyball matches or other sporting events remain at risk of arrest, harassment, or other forms of retaliation.

“Brave Iranian women who took the FIVB at its word were turned away at the turnstiles this week. That is a black eye for the sport of volleyball, and a setback for women’s rights in Iran,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “This sorry episode highlights the shortcomings of the FIVB’s strategy with the Iranian government, and contradicts their claims that all Iranian fans are welcome.”

One Iranian woman who sought to attend a match at the Kish Open told Human Rights Watch, “We went there and a security [officer] told me, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘Watching matches.’ He said: ‘It’s forbidden.’”

The woman added that a group of other women there to watch the FIVB’s tournament had gathered on the rooftop of a nearby coffee shop overlooking the tournament grounds in an effort to see the matches.

Photos and video posted by @IRIVF, the official account of the Iran Volleyball Federation, show half empty stands on day two of the tournament, with only men watching.

The FIVB responded to the incident by stating, “We are pleased to say this has been a success, although there was a slight misunderstanding by security personnel on Tuesday [today] morning, which has now been resolved.”

“This episode is far more serious than a ‘slight misunderstanding,’ since it spotlights the broader risk the 2012 ban imposes on Iranian women who seek to attend volleyball matches,” said Worden. “It is not fair to ask women to come to the matches without protection and planning for the likelihood that women would have trouble at the gates as in past years.”

The 2012 ban on women attending men’s volleyball matches emerged after the Iranian Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs extended the 1979 ban on women attending games in soccer stadiums. Iranian women have worked for more than a decade to reclaim the right to attend all public sporting events, which is also guaranteed by the Olympic Charter, and the FIVB’s own constitution, which pledges non-discrimination. The ban is just one example of the multiple forms of gender discrimination faced by Iranian women in law and in practice.

In June 2014, Ghoncheh Ghavami and several other women were arrested when they attempted to attend a Volleyball World League match at Tehran’s Azadi (“Freedom”) Stadium. While most were released soon thereafter, Ghavami was rearrested, charged with “propaganda against the state,” and held in Evin Prison – including a stretch in solitary confinement – for nearly five months.

In October 2014 and November 2015, Human Rights Watch met with the FIVB in Lausanne to urge them to defend gender equality and take up the case of women excluded from their own international tournaments. The #Watch4Women campaign spotlights the courage and determination of Iranian women, who know their rights and are taking risks to exercise them.

“The FIVB has awarded Iran hosting rights for the Kish Open and for the June 2016 World League matches in Tehran, so the ball is in their court to ensure Iran plays by international rules,” Worden said. “Women being sidelined like this is all the more reason for the FIVB to press Iranian authorities lift this discriminatory ban.”

For more information on Human Rights Watch’s #Watch4Women campaign, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/watch4women

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran
 

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Minky Worden (English, German, Cantonese): +1-917-497-0540 (mobile); or wordenm@hrw.org. Twitter: @MinkysHighjinks
In Washington, DC, Sarah Leah Whitson (English): +1-718-213-7342 (mobile); or whitsos@hrw.org. Twitter: @sarahleah1
In London, Rothna Begum (English): +1-917-443-2221 (mobile); or begumr@hrw.org. Twitter: @Rothna_Begum
In Washington, DC, Tara Sepehri Far (English, Farsi): +1-617-893-0375; or sepehrt@hrw.org. Twitter: @sepherifar
In Beirut, Ahmed Benchemsi (English, French, Arabic): +1-929-343-7973 (mobile); or benchea@hrw.org. Twitter: @AhmedBenchemsi

Human rights are a litmus test for EU-Iran relations, say foreign affairs MEPs

MEPs welcomed the deal as opening up the possibility of strengthening

 EU-Iran trade, economic, cultural and environmental ties. However, the 

human rights situation in Iran, the death penalty, public executions

 and the prosecution of bloggers and journalists are unacceptable and

 will serve as a litmus test for future relations, MEPs said.

Mr Zarif acknowledged the need to improve Iran’s human rights record 

and promised to pursue dialogue on this issue with EU "in a spirit of mutual

 respect and without preaching".

Link:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=

-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fTEXT%2bIM-PRESS%2b20160216IP

R14517%2b0%2bDOC%2bXML

%2bV0%2f%2fEN&language=EN

10 Days To Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts Elections in Iran …….

Just 10 days have left to the Elections in Iran. The election day is on Feb. 26 this month.
The Candidates have one week starting on this Thursday to start their campaign.
The " Etedal and Touse- e " ( Moderate and Progress ) party together with reformists and supporter of the current Government has 30 candidates in Tehran and they have released the list.
The conservatives together with fundamentalists also released their list for Tehran which consist of 30 personalities.
Its been announced that there are 54, 915, 024 million people are eligible to vote in Iran .
Mohammad Ali Najafi advisor to president Hassan Rohani Said; the next parliament will be made of 65% of reformists and moderates.

More than 12,000 have registered their names for election - out of this 6, 230 are approved by Guardian Council and 5,200 were rejected/denied .

IRAN WATCH CANADA - Reminder:
Opposition political parties and groups like nationalists , Islamists with national brand , communists , socialists, democrats , monarchists and ….are not allowed in Iran to join or to run in the election . Only those Islamists like Conservatives, fundamentalists, Islamic reformists , Islamic moderates , Motalefeh Eslami and …..are allowed to run …although between regime and reformists differences is deepening .

So the dialogue on election is deepening wether to participate of not . Although Khamenei and the rest of the regime are asking people and even opposition to participate , but many opposition groups or party's close to Islamic reformist and Islamist Kargozaran or Islamist Etedalion Parties are asking their supporters to vote if there are only these candidates are in the constituency and not to participate if there are only conservatives or fundamentalists in the constituency.

Many other opposition groups also in a statement boycotted the election in Iran.



End/

Iran: Arrest Shows Peril for Dual Nationals

(Beirut) – The Iranian authorities’ arrest of a former BBC reporter on February 3, 2016, shows the risk dual nationals face if they choose to live in Iran. The family of Bahman Daroshafahi, who has been working as a translator, has not been able to find out about why he has been arrested, or by whom, or what charges he might be facing.

Daroshafahi, a dual British-Iranian national who has worked as a journalist for the BBC Persian television channel and website, returned to Iran in September 2014, after living in the United Kingdom for several years. When he arrived at the airport, the authorities seized his passport. Over the next two months, Intelligence Ministry officials periodically interrogated Daroshafahi about his activities as a journalist, but at the time did not file any charges against him.

“Iran’s unaccountable security agencies run roughshod over President Hassan Rouhani’s promises of a more inclusive Iran,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director. “This pattern of arresting Iranians who were simply excercising their freedoms of expression and association while living abroad seriously undermines the notion that Iran actually welcomes having its own citizens return home.”

 

Plainclothes officers from an unidentified security agency arrested Daroshafahi at a friend’s house on the morning of February 3, 2015. The officers took Daroshafahi to his parents’ house, showed him an arrest warrant, and proceeded to confiscate his digital devices. When his parents asked the officers for an explanation and to identify themselves, they refused to respond.

Daroshafahi’s friends reported that his Telegram messaging application account was active for several hours after his arrest and, in at least one instance, authorities used the account to engage in conversations with a contact.

Daroshafahi’s family went to Evin Prison in Tehran on February 6, where they managed to speak with an official on the telephone who confirmed that their son was being held there. The official told them that he would not be able to contact his family for another week. Two days later, Daroshafahi called his parents and told them he was detained in a “cell” and was being interrogated, but provided no further details about his charges or the identities and affiliations of his interrogator(s).

Iranians who have acquired dual citizenship or have lived outside the country appear to be particular targets for security forces, Human Rights Watch said. Despite repeated calls by President Rouhani encouraging Iranians in the diaspora to return, authorities have arrested and prosecuted several Iranian citizens who have done so.

On October 15, 2015, Iranian authorities arrested Siamak Namazi, a dual Iranian-American citizen and the head of strategic planning at the Dubai-based Crescent Petroleum who was visiting his family in Tehran. He remains in detention, but the charges against him are unclear.

Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post journalist who was recently released in a swap of prisoners between Iran and the United States, spent 18 months in a section of Evin Prison controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and was convicted and sentenced to a term unknown even to him.

Mostafa Azizi, a documentary filmmaker and Canadian permanent resident, was arrested on February 25, 2015, while visiting his family in Iran. Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court sentenced Azizi, who remains in prison, to eight years for “acting against national security,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “propaganda against the state.” On May 10, 2014, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization arrested Seraj Mirdamadi, who had worked as a journalist for the Radio Zamaneh website when he lived in France. He had returned to Iran in 2013, and had been subjected to several rounds of interrogation before his arrest.

On July 27, 2014, Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court sentenced Mirdamadi to six years in prison for “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state” for his journalistic activities. He is in of Evin Prison. Mirdamadi’s father told Roozonline website that Judge Abolghasem Salavati at Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court said during the trial that he was going to make an example of Mirdamadi so that others would not think about returning.

In April 2014, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization’s officers arrested Hossein Nouraninejad, a journalist and member of the Participation Front political party, two months after he returned from Australia, where he had been in graduate school. In June 2014, a revolutionary court sentenced Nournajinejad, who had been released on bail after two months of solitary confinement, to six years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security.” A court of appeal reduced Nournainejad’s sentence to one year. Nouraninejad is in Evin Prison.

Link:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/15/iran-arrest-shows-peril-dual-nationals

11 Days To The Election in Iran - The Religious Leaders Of the Green Movement Still Under House Arrests After 5 Continues Years …..

The Green Movement was A protest Of Iranian People who did not want the continuation of this political status quo .  A political system which do not respect the peoples vote to elect their MP's or president . Iranian people did not want to say another yes to the continuation of the  status quo . The people after more than three decades wanted to say No to the political trend and thats why they came by millions to the street and protested against the system and the security forces which runs the show in Iran .

Hassan Rohani the current president must also decide whether to serve the master ( Khamenei / Security forces of Sepah / economic Mafia  ) or the masses, there is no other way such as serving the master and masses at the same time.

Although Hassan Rhone is different in his position and policies from Khatami the former president but at the end regime won't allow any radical political reform in Iran  . And because of this situation, the People are frustrated and Iran is awaiting a huge resistance and protest in future against the current status quo .

The leaders of the Green Movement in 2009 joined the people's to protest and wanted to change the status quo or the way the regime runs the show in Iran.

Being the observer of regime's show or being the follower of the regime scenarios is coming to an end in Iran and it is getting harder for regime to continue these type of shows as a legitimate election .
Feb. 26 is the Election day in Iran.

Around 100 Students Supporter OF Imprisoned Mohammad Ali Taheri Staged Sit In Protest At Khomeini's Shrine ….

According to Saham news , around 100 students supporter of the imprisoned Mohammad Ali Taheri the leader of the " Erfane Halgheh " staged a sit in protest at Khomeini's Shrine in Beheshte Zahra against the continues imprisonment of their leader and his  hunger strike from 13 days ago .
In this sit in protest ,the security forces clashed with protesters and pulled 40 women and men protesters to a room.

At the end of this event 10 protesters were removed from the rest to be transferred to Evin prison.

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208542.php

The Son of Isa Saharkheiz : My Father Has Started Dry Hunger Strike Since Three Days Ago In Prison And my father said ; You Guys Either Go To Beheshte Zahra Cemetery To Receive My Dead Body Or To The Baghiatollah Hospital To Visit Me there…...

According to BBC Farsi report , Mehdi Saharkheiz the son of Isa Saharkheiz the Iranian Islamist reformist journalist and one of the current political prisoner has started his dry hunger strike in prison. Isa Saharkheiz have been arrested in the past and spent 4 years in prison after the presidential coup in 2009 .
Isa Saharkheiz is allegedly accused of  propagating against the Islamic regime and conspiracy against national security by collaborating with others .
According to Mehdi Saharkheiz the son of Isa Saharkheiz the security forces inside the prison have taken his father's glasses and his tooth brush and are forcing him to confess for things that he haven't  done .

Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/article.jsp?essayId=72040

Feb. 26 Is The Day Of Election In iran - As Election Approaches in Iran Regime Has Banned Election Meeting Or Street Gatherings ……...

According to news from Tasnim News , and as the Parliamentry and Assembly of Experts election is getting closer to Feb. 26 the days of election , Hosein Ashtary the Naja Commanders said ; any type of election meetings or Street gatherings  is banned and police will prevent with such meetings or street gatherings.

Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/article.jsp?essayId=72017

Petition By Iranian Community Living in Canada

We the undersigned welcome the government of Canada’s commitment to lift its unilateral sanctions against Iran and request Mr. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, to announce plans for restoring diplomatic relations with that country as promised by the Liberal Party during the Federal elections in 2015. The sudden and unprecedented action of the Conservative government in 2012 to sever all diplomatic ties with Iran has left tens of thousands of Iranian-Canadians without representation by their 

country of origin in matters concerning their native nationality. Furthermore, the Canadian government’s closure of its embassy in Tehran left many Iranian Canadian families without access to the consular services which allowed their relatives to acquire visas to visit them here in Canada. The shutting down of the Canadian embassy in Tehran also disrupted the immigration process for thousands of Iranian applicants whose access to Canadian immigration officers is now limited to neighbouring countries (mainly Turkey and UAE).

Similarly, for almost 4 years the Iranian-Canadian community has been unable to take advantage of Iranian consular services in Ottawa. This has resulted in unnecessary obstacles with respect to obtaining new passports and other identification documents required for travelling and delegation purposes. We also believe that a continuation of a state of diplomatic suspension with Iran at a time when the country’s recent agreement with the world’s powers has been embraced by the international community can weaken Canada’s position at the world stage. It is also our belief that restoring diplomatic relations with Iran can help resolve outstanding issues between the two sides by fostering the ability of both countries to negotiate on behalf of their citizens. Though the minister of Foreign Affairs has recently stated that Canada is changing its policy towards Iran during question period in parliament, the Conservatives with the help of pro-sanction groups are pressing the government to maintain the status quo and even impose new sanctions, thereby hindering efforts to break the current diplomatic freeze.

Given the welcome statements made by foreign minister Dion, we ask the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada, in solidarity with our allies in the international community, to elevate the priority given to the issue of resuming diplomatic relations with Iran and to accelerate the process for exchanging embassies with the country.

The Islamic Regime in Iran has Moved Two Boys handcuffed Around The City Of Sari ( a city north of Iran ) as Part of Their Punishment for Mischief …...

According to "  Jahan Sanat " Newspaper , Tow boys were hand cuffed and taken to the streets of the city of Sari on a move the people to watch them as part of punishment for allegedly breaking the glass  windows of 12 shops in the city .
Mr. Bahman Keshavarz a lawyer told to the paper that ,in our legal system we do not have a punishment to move the alleged accused in the city for people to watch them and i don't believe that, at  present time and age such an actions in the Islamic Republic's judiciary can be justified .

Link:

http://www.radiofarda.com/content/f2-iran-daily-
elections-vetting-rohani-criticism/27543034.html

16 Days To The Parliamentary And Assembley of Expert Election in Iran . Valyollah Shoja Pourian A Former MP And Current Member Of Tehran City Council Criticized The President Hassan Rohani And Said; Mr. President The Reformists Are Not The Minorities…...

According to an article in Hamdeli Newspaper , Mr. Valyollah Shoja Pourian a former MP and current member of Tehran City Council criticized president Rohani  for what he called as Inactiveness and just acted as an observer  towards the rejection of Islamist reformists candidates and he also told the president that ;the reformists are not just a minority political group as he thinks .
Mr. Shoja Pourian also said; Except a few open positioning , the president did not participate effectively on the issue of the rejection of reformists candidates by the Guardian Council.
He added that, the Reformism is a not just a minority political group but a deep rooted political and influential personalities and issue on the mind of the  Iranian society and has more than 10 million supporters and they must have candidates representing them in the parliament.

Link:
http://www.radiofarda.com/content/f2-iran-daily-elections-
vetting-rohani-criticism/27543034.html

17 Days To Election in Iran - President Hassan Rohani's Effort For The Approval Of The 270 Islamist Reformists Parliamentary Candidates …...

According to a news by Digarban , Mrs. Ashraf Brojerdi an Islamist Reformist activist said; the effort by Hassan Rohani to lobby among Guardian Council and Khamenei for the approval of the  270 most influential reformists failed .
" As far as i am concerned ,the effort by Hassan Rohani ended with NO result and none of those 270 reformists did not return to the election stage. Unfortunately the credibility of the most influential reformists is rejected ." Said Ashraf Brojerdi .

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208303.php










 

20 Days To Parliamentary Election In Iran ……..

According to news and based on what a member of the Guardian Council has said, the credibility of close to 75 % of the candidates for the parliamentary election are rejected / disapproved in its second round of review by the Guardian Council.

Janati -Leader of the Guardian Council

Nejatollah Ebrahimian said, only the credibility of close to 25 % have been approved in the second round of review.
A week earlier Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli the Interior Minister of the Islamic Regime said; 5,500 candidate for parliamentary election who were disapproved by the Guardian Council have filed complaint against their disapproval by Guardian Council .
Guardian Council consists of a bunch of close to 90 years old Islamic clergies watch dogs .
The Guardian Council earlier announced that the council have rejected the credibilities of close to 6,573 candidates.

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208195.php

Jafar Khaefi A Wounded Veteran Of Iran-Iraq War Is Arrested At Night At His Home ……………20 Days To Iran's Parliamentary Election

According to news , Jafar Khaefi the wounded veteran of Iran Iraq war is arrested by security forces of the Islamic regime . The reason for his arrest , is because he has organized a campaign to say NO to the fundamentalist like Mohammad Sadegh Larijani from entering into the Assembley of Experts.

Mr. Khaefi is a political activist in Mazanderan Province supporting the moderates against Fundamentalists . His Campaign calls the people of Mazanderan to Say NO to Sadegh Larijani the current head of judiciary power.
Mr. Khaefi received the highest number of vote in the region of Miyandoroud as city council.

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208169.php

A Campaign Has Just Started in Iran And It Is Called " I Remember "

Recently Zahra Rahnavard the wife of Mir Hossein Musavi one of the Islamist green movement leader  from her house arrest sent a message which is called " Remember the candle that has died , remember ! "

Campaign Slip with Zahra Rahnaward's picture

On this occasion and because of five years house arrest of the Mir Hossein Musavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karoubi the leaders of the green movement since the presidential election of 2009 , this campaign has began  its activities and according to the organizers the campaign will continue its activities for five weeks for now as symbolic to five years imprisonment .
the organizers asked Iranian to use internet programmes to start this campaign for now or any other means like writing this message on Iranian bills , since the Government of Hassan Rohani and his campaign promise to remove the house arrest did not take place.

Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/news.jsp?essayId=71866

27 Iranian Kurdish Political Prisoners Are Sentenced to Death and Are Awaiting For The Execution ………...

The Kurdistan Human Rights Defenders in Iran Demanding From Officials To Drop These Death Sentences and Stop The Execution.

According to latest report and based on some local reports 27 Iranian -Kurdish political prisoners received death sentence and the sentencing is approved by judiciary.

These prisoners are mostly young and regime is accusing them of assaulting the officials of the Islamic regime including security forces or judiciary officials in their home based region and they are all of Sunni faith . These Kurdish political prisoners are all in Rejaei Shahr prison.

Their names are:

1- Kaveh Veisi
2- Behrouz Shanazari
3- Taleb Maleki
4- Shahram Ahmadi
5- Kaveh Sharifi
6- Arash Sharifi
7- Varia Ghaderifard
8- Keyvan Momeni-fard
9- Barzan Nasrollahzadeh
10- Alam Barmashti
11- Pouria Mohammadi
12- Ahmad Nasiri
13- Edris Nemati
14- Farzad Honarjou
15- Seyed Shahou Ebrahimi
16- Mohammad Yavar Rahimi
17- Bahman Rahimi
18- Mokhtar Rahimi
19- Mohammad Gharibi
20- Farshid Naseri
21- Mohammad Keyvan Karimi
22- Amjad Salehi
23- Omid Peyvand
24- Ali Mojahedi
25- Hekmat Sharifi
26- Omar Abdollahi
27- Omid Mahmoudi

End/


Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208117.php

Unemployment in Iran Is In Its Highest Level , Said Kazem Sedighi The Friday Prayer Imam Of Tehran ….

According to news coming from Iran ,Kazem Sedighi the Friday prayer Imam of Tehran speaking to an audience in the city of Mashhad said; the unemployment in Iran is in its highest level and at present the  production engine of the country has stopped .

This shows regime is in deep trouble not only of the corruption but also production and unemployment.

This is another fundamentalist clergy and an anti Islamic Reformists.

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208117.php

23 Days To The Election in Iran And Islamic Regime Arrested Yet Another Iranian Journalist……..

According to news coming from Iran and reported by Zamaneh Radio , Bahman Darolshafaei the journalist , blogger , Translator and Documentary maker is arrested today in Tehran .

Bahman has the work experience of many newspapers including Sharq and Chelcheragh and Etemade Melli in his profile.

He had returned to Iran last year . No one knows where the intelligence agents of Sepah has taken him.

Bahman joined the BBC Farsi and worked there for five years .
Bahman Darolshafaei's family were under constant harsh treatment by regime and Sepah .

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2016/02/208099.php
 

For Immediate Release

Iran Sending Thousands of Afghans to Fight in Syria
Refugees, Migrants Report Deportation Threats

(New York, January 29, 2016) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has recruited thousands of undocumented Afghans living there to fight in Syria since at least November 2013, Human Rights Watch said today, and a few have reported that Iranian authorities coerced them. Iran has urged the Afghans to defend Shia sacred sites and offered financial incentives and legal residence in Iran to encourage them to join pro-Syrian government militias.

Human Rights Watch in late 2015 interviewed more than two dozen Afghans who had lived in Iran about recruitment by Iranian officials of Afghans to fight in Syria. Some said they or their relatives had been coerced to fight in Syria and either had later fled and reached Greece, or had been deported to Afghanistan for refusing. One 17-year-old said he had been forced to fight without being given the opportunity to refuse. Others said they had volunteered to fight in Syria in Iranian-organized militias, either out of religious conviction or to regularize their residence status in Iran.

“Iran has not just offered Afghan refugees and migrants incentives to fight in Syria, but several said they were threatened with deportation back to Afghanistan unless they did,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “Faced with this bleak choice, some of these Afghan men and boys fled Iran for Europe.”

Iran hosts an estimated 3 million Afghans, many of whom have fled persecution and repeated bouts of armed conflict in Afghanistan. Only 950,000 have formal legal status in Iran as refugees. The Iranian government has excluded the remainder from accessing asylum procedures, leaving many who may want to seek asylum undocumented or dependent on temporary visas.

Funerals for Afghan fighters killed in Syria are frequently held in Iran, sometimes attended by Iranian officials. While Iran officially claims that thousands of Afghans living in Iran have volunteered to join the militias, their vulnerable legal position in Iran and the fear of deportation may contribute to their decision, making it less than voluntary. Many said that the threat of arrest and forced conscription in Iran was an important contributing factor in their decision to leave Iran.

Among the cases documented by Human Rights Watch are a 17-year-old Afghan boy who was detained in Tehran with his 17-year-old cousin. The first boy was forced to go to military training and then fight in Syria against his will. His cousin, deemed unfit for military service, was deported. Others were two brothers, ages 32 and 20, and a 16-year-old boy, all of whom were detained in Tehran and coerced to fight in Syria or face deportation.

Other Afghans told Human Rights Watch that they had been detained by Iranian authorities and given the choice between deportation and fighting in Syria, and had chosen deportation. Still others said they had volunteered to receive military training or to fight in Syria on Iran’s behalf, although they cited the need to regularize their status in Iran as an important factor in their decision.

While Iranian law allows conscription by the Iranian military, it is limited to Iranian nationals. The conscription of anyone else, including Afghan nationals, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps falls outside the conscription allowed by Iranian law, and is thus arbitrary.

Six of those interviewed said that Iranian forces had trained them or their relatives in military camps near Tehran and Shiraz in 2015, and four had fought in Syria for pro-government militias commanded by Iranian officials. Two of the six had joined voluntarily, while the other four said they or their relatives had been coerced or forced to fight.

They said that based on their own experience fighting in Syria and information from others who had fought in Syria, Afghan fighters organized and commanded by Iranian military officials were fighting in many areas of Syria, including Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Deir al-Zor, Hama, Lattakia, and in areas near the Syrian border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They said that their Iranian commanders had forced them to conduct dangerous military operations such as advancing against well-entrenched ISIS military positions with only light automatic weapons and without artillery support. They said that in some instances, Iranian commanders threatened to shoot them if they failed to obey orders to advance under fire.

Masheed Ahmadzai, 17 (whose name has been changed, as have those of others interviewed, for safety reasons), said that Iranian security officers had detained him in June 2015 and sent him to Syria to fight. “They did not give us a choice,” he said. “They forced us to train and fight.” He said he spent three months fighting in Syria near Homs and Aleppo, in units commanded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards military officials. Following a short leave in Tehran, he escaped to Turkey and then to Greece.

Baktash Ahmad told Human Rights Watch in October that Iranian police had detained his two brothers in Tehran a year before, and coerced them to fight in Syria, threatening to deport them to Afghanistan if they refused. The family had received no news from one of the brothers for six months. Alireza Muhammad, 28, said that he had volunteered to fight in Syria to obtain money for medical treatment, and had undergone two rounds of military training in Tehran and Shiraz, but that his family persuaded him to run away.

Two Afghan boys, a 16-year-old and the 17-year-old, said they had fought in Syria, and another Afghan, Alireza Muhammad, who underwent military training but did not go to fight in Syria, said that he personally knew Afghan boys as young as 12 fighting in Syria in Iranian-organized groups, and that a 12-year-old boy he knew had been killed in the fighting. International law applicable in Syria prohibits both government forces and non-state armed groups from forcibly recruiting children under 18 or using them in hostilities.

Iranian officials have in recent years limited legal avenues for Afghans to claim asylum in Iran, even as conditions in Afghanistan have continued to deteriorate. These policies pose a serious risk to Afghan asylum seekers who are not among the minority who were previously recognized as refugees, and makes them vulnerable to deportation threats, as well as the reported coercion to fight in Syria.

Threatening registered Afghan refugees with deportation to Afghanistan if they refuse to fight in Syria would amount to refoulement, a practice prohibited under international law. While the cases Human Rights Watch documented involve Afghan nationals living in Iran who had not applied for refugee status, there are ongoing obstacles to registering and obtaining refugee status in Iran. That means that many Afghans living in Iran may be entitled to refugee status, and their return to Afghanistan may amount to refoulement.

“Iran should be offering greater protection to Afghan refugees, not coercively recruiting them to fight for Assad,” Bouckaert said.

For details of interviews with the Afghan men and boys, please see below.

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/iran

For more information, please contact:
In Geneva, Peter Bouckaert (English, Dutch, French): +1 917-385-4389 (mobile); or bouckap@hrw.org. Twitter: @bouckap
In Beirut, Nadim Houry (Arabic, French, English):+961-3-639-244 (mobile); or houryn@hrw.org. Twitter: @nadimhoury
In Washington, DC, Ahmed Benchemsi (English, French, Arabic): +1-929-343-7973 (mobile); or benchea@hrw.org. Twitter: @AhmedBenchemsi

Masheed Ahmadzai
Masheed Ahmadzai, 17, who arrived on a rubber boat on Lesbos Island in Greece, told Human Rights Watch on October 13, 2015, that he had been living undocumented in Tehran for four years, working in construction, when police detained him and his cousin in June. He said the police took them to a military base where there were numerous other detained Afghans, and that military officers selected the men most physically fit:

The military officers selected us, and then they separated us into those fit to fight, and those not fit to fight. They took me with a group of 20 men, but did not select my cousin and deported him to Afghanistan…They did not give us a choice; they forced us to train and fight. They said, “You will fight in Syria and become a martyr, and that is a good thing.” They forced all of us who were physically fit to fight.

He said they took the men to another military base in Varamin, a small city 60 kilometers south of Tehran:

There were about a thousand Afghans and Pakistanis; the Pakistanis were about one-third. Many of the Afghans there told me the Iranian authorities forced them to be at that base. It is true that others had volunteered at the mosques to fight, but the Iranian military officers were much nicer to those volunteers and they were trained at a different base; many went to fight for money. But on our base, the people I talked to said Iranian authorities had forced them to go to the training.

He said religious leaders repeatedly sermonized at the base, telling them they were going to defend the Shia faith in Syria. He said the men had 21 days of military training, including how to dig trenches and use radio communication. The weapons training included the use of heavier weaponry such as rocket-propelled grenades.

In July, he said, the Iranians divided the men into fighting groups of 180, drove them to the military wing of Tehran’s airport in buses with blackened windows, and boarded them on flights to Damascus. On arrival, he said, Iranian military officials gave his group weapons and uniforms, and drove them to Homs to fight in an area called Tadmor (also known as Palmyra), in a mixed group of Syrians and Afghans for 20 days. Then their Iranian commanders took them to fight near the Homs’ oil refinery, forcing them to advance against Islamic State fighters there:

Daesh was advancing, and the Arabs were retreating. The Syrians were too afraid to fight. So they ordered us to the front to fight against Daesh. There were almost no Syrians with us. They said that if we refused to advance, they would shoot all of us, saying we could not retreat. If people still refused, the commander would shoot them in the leg. He shot two people in my group that way. The commander was Iranian, Hodji Heydar, also called Abu Hamed, from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

He said he fought for three months in Syria, while Afghans who volunteer fight two-month tours of duty. He said that Iranian authorities promised him a 3 million tomans (approximately US$1,000) per month as salary, but that he only received a total of 5 million tomans (approximately US$1,650) for his three months of service. The Iranian authorities flew him back to Tehran in late September, gave him 15 days of leave with a pass allowing him to move freely in Iran, and ordered him to return for a second round of duty. Instead, he fled to Turkey and made his way to Greece on an overcrowded boat. The Iranian authorities warned him that if he didn’t return to duty, his family members would face arrest.

Ilya Aziz
Ilya Aziz, 27, tried to flee Afghanistan in September 2015, hoping to cross Iran and reach Western Europe. On the border between Afghanistan and Iran, Iranian border guards fired at his group of 16 people, and then detained them. In the detention camp, the guards separated out Shia men from among the detainees, and pressured them to go Syria to fight, threatening them with deportation and offering them a monthly salary if they agreed:

They tried to put psychological pressure on us, trying to scare us. They said Afghanistan is not a safe country and that the deportation process is dangerous. They said all of this to urge us to fight in Syria. They knew some of us had been born and raised in Iran and had never been to Afghanistan. But we chose deportation over Syria.

All the men were deported to Afghanistan. Ilya then tried again to enter Iran, succeeded, and fled to Turkey and then Lesbos, where Human Rights Watch interviewed him.

Baktash Ahmad
Baktash Ahmad, age unknown, told Human Rights Watch on October 10, 2015, on Lesbos, that Iranian police detained two of his brothers, Mahmoud Ahmad, 20, and Rahman Ahmad, 32, in October 2014 in Tehran as they were going to work. Both men were threatened with deportation to Iran unless they agreed to fight in Syria, he said:

A year ago, they took two of my brothers from the streets to fight, and for a long time we had almost no news from either of them. My young brother came back from one round of fighting and was briefly in Tehran. We saw him for one day and he gave us some money.

We have had no news from my older brother, Rahman, for the past six months. They arrested him a year ago and threatened to deport him to Afghanistan if he didn’t go fight in Syria. The authorities said they would deport him to Afghanistan, and we said ok, but when I called Afghanistan and asked my relatives where he was, they said they did not know. After a while, some of his friends came back from fighting in Syria and told us that they had seen him fighting there. His friends have come back, but we have no news from him. He didn’t go voluntarily. They arrested him and forced him, he told his friends who fought with him in Syria. His wife and children are here with us [in Greece].

I had to flee because I am so scared of being sent to fight myself. All of my family panicked; my mother became scared for me and said we have to leave Iran, so we came to Greece.

Ali
Ali, 14, told Human Rights Watch by phone from Afghanistan that Iranian border guards detained him together with some 150 other Afghans after they tried to cross from Iran into Turkey. “They took us to a police station near the border, and we had to walk barefoot. They beat us with sticks like animals,” he said. “Then they put us on a truck and ordered us to keep our heads down; if we raised our heads they would beat us again.”

At the police station, the officers offered the men and the boys in the group the choice between going to fight in Syria or deportation to Afghanistan: “They said to us, ‘if anyone wants to go fight in Syria, we will take care of you; otherwise, we will deport you.” None of the men in the group agreed, and they deported all of them to Afghanistan.

Before his attempt to flee to Turkey, Ali said he lived in the city of Qum, working as a day laborer. Ten undocumented Afghans sharing his hostel said they were going to fight in Syria, he said, “partly because they had no money and feared deportation. They went to the mosque where they would register to fight. The Mullah registers you, and then the army collects you [for training].”

Hamid Ali 
[NOTE: Hamid Ali volunteered to fight in Syria, and was not coerced by the Iranian authorities, although he did tell Human Rights Watch that his decision was influenced by being arrested twice in one month and facing possible deportation. His statement is included here because some of the other Afghans he commanded were coerced, and because of the level of detail he provided Human Rights Watch about Afghans being coerced to fight in Syria by Iranian officials.]

Ali, 24, whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in Norway in early November, said he fled Afghanistan in May 2014, when his commander in the Afghan police tried to detain him on trumped-up charges following a personal dispute. He went to live in Tehran that month as an undocumented worker, but police detained him twice in his first month. He paid a bribe to secure his release the first time, and had an uncle bring his own son’s residency card to the police station to secure his release the second time. He found a job as a guard, he said but an Afghan man encouraged him to fight in Syria, citing the need to defend sacred Shia shrines, and gave him a phone number to call. For financial reasons and to escape police harassment, he said he decided to volunteer.

When he called the number, an Iranian official told him to come meet a group of Iranian recruiters who asked him his motivation for wanting to fight in Syria, confirmed that he was an Afghan citizen, and checked his legal status in Iran. After they were satisfied with his answers, they made him sign a series of documents and photographed him. He said the two detentions played an important role in his decision to volunteer. He said that other members in his unit told him Iranian authorities had coerced or pressured them to join, including an Afghan man who said Iranian police had jailed him following a motorbike accident and offered him early release if he went to fight in Syria, which he did to escape prison.

Following his acceptance as a volunteer, Ali was sent to a military training camp called Padegan-e Shahid Pazouki, in Varamin, 60 kilometers south of Tehran, where he trained with other Afghan, Pakistani, and Arab volunteers. They received 19 days of basic military training.

Then they were flown to Damascus, where they first visited the Sayyida Zaynab shrine, an important Shia pilgrimage site. His first deployment was with the all-Shia and mostly Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade for two months in Aleppo, and he received 2 million tomans per month in salary, plus 650,000 tomans in leave money for 21 days of leave. During his second deployment, he was made deputy commander of a unit of Chaharda-o-Neem and spent three months and five days deployed near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

He said the elite Iranian Quds forces were in charge of the Fatemiyoun Brigade:

The Quds Force organized all of this. We could see it from their uniforms. Some of the commanders supervising the Fatemiyoun told us they were Quds Force. They were supposed to wear the uniform specific to the Fatemiyoun, but they said they were Quds.

He said the Fatemiyoun force in Syria has military bases in Aleppo, Hama, Lattakia, Damascus, and Homs, and has at least 3,000 to 4,000 fighters active in Syria.

Without receiving any military leave, his unit was then redeployed to the Iraqi border region with a unit of 400 Afghan fighters. “They did not give us any heavy artillery or anything other than our AK-47s,” he said. “We were not even told where we were being taken until we arrived there. They just put us in a truck and pulled a tarpaulin over us, and only allowed us to come out when we got to where we were supposed to be deployed.” Within days, 200 of the 400 fighters were killed in combat.

Badly outgunned, Hamid decided to flee his unit, and made his way back to Tehran to get money to flee. While in Tehran, Iranian officials repeatedly called him and his family, saying he would be imprisoned if he did not immediately return to duty, and threatening unspecified harm to his relatives if he didn’t return to military duty. After he fled, his relatives had to change homes in an attempt to evade Iranian authorities and the consequences of his flight.