Bits of news
Ahmadinejad Under a Spell?
Hardline cleric Mesbah Yazdi claims that Ahmadinejad’s closest adviser has bewitched him, the Washington Post reports. The cleric said Ahmadinejad’s top adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, has used has hypnotism, spells or charms to take control of Iran’s electe
Take Action: Letter Writing Campaign
PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Persian, Arabic, English, French or your own language: Calling on Iranian parliamentarians not to pass the Bill on the Establishment and Supervision of NGOs, which would severely limit the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom
The Netherlands Removes Its Ambassador
Following the execution of Dutch citizen, Zahra Bahrami, the Dutch government has removed its ambassador from Iran. This move has been criticized by D66 as done to satisfy the parliament, rather than as part of a coherent strategy. (Read more in Dutch in the V
Keep Iran’s Hearts Beating
United4Iran has launched a new campaign, Keep Iran’s Hearts Beating, to call an end to executions in Iran. To participate click here.
Jasmine and Fire
As Tunisia struggles to develop a civil society that can fill the hole left by the dictatorial regime, Egyptians have taken to the streets. MideastYouth.com is following the story from Egypt here. The blogger states: In brief, Tunisia has made people, not only
Guidelines for Documenting Human Rights Violations
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has published guideline for documenting human rights violations in English (PDF) and Persian (PDF).
Who is Speaking Out About Human Rights Abuses in Iran?
Writing in the Huffington Post, Hadi Ghaemi and Aaron Rhodes of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran write about the politicization of human rights and the equivocation of the international community when dealing with abuses of those rights. The
The Great Persian Firewall
Via Cyrus Farivar, we learn that The Tor Project is reporting that the “Great Persian Firewall” is preventing people in Iran from connecting to circumvention tools such as Tor. The Tor Project reports: Over the past 48 hours it seems the Great Persian Firewall
Tragic suicide
Hamid Dabashi comments on the suicide of Alireza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Iran and the second of his children to take his own life, in a post on CNN. Like other young Iranians, the late Alireza Pahlavi and before him his late younger sister, Leila Pahl