Distinguished Director Talks About Wife’s Case and Women in Film

Distinguished Iranian filmmaker Nasser Taghvai spoke with International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran in an interview about the situation of his wife, Marzieh Vafamehr. Excerpts from the interview are below:

My wife’s temporary detention was extended for an additional month. One month has passed since Marzieh’s temporary detention and the judge had to decide the fate of the case. When I went to Branch 12 of the Culture and Media Court today, where my wife’s case is handled…

UN Working Groups tells Iran ‘Release Kiarash Kamrani’: Will Officials Ignore the High-Ranking Body?

On 8 June 2011, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Kiarash Kamrani’s detention in Iran is “arbitrary detention.” The Working Group urged the Iranian government to take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, including the immediate release of Kamrani and adequate reparation to him.

Release Women’s Rights Activists

Iranian judicial authorities should immediately release two recently detained women’s rights activists, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The Campaign added that the Judiciary should end the harassment and arbitrary prosecution of citizens engaged in lawful actions aimed at challenging Iran’s discriminatory laws.

Two women’s rights activists and members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, Maryam Bahreman and Mahboubeh Karami, were detained on 11 May and 15 May respectively. Bahreman is being held in an unknown location on charges of “acting against national security.”

Iranian-Canadian on Death Row Faced Torture and Unfair Trial

Hamid Ghasemi-Shall an Iranian and Canadian citizen, was arrested on 24 May 2008, and eventually charged with espionage and contact with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization. Ghasemi-Shall spent 18 months in solitary confinement. For the first eight months of his detention he had no access to family or lawyer. Ghasemi-Shall’s wife, Antonella Mega, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her husband was tortured while in detainment.

Release Ailing, 80-year-old Former Foreign Minister

(26 November 2010) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called for the immediate release for medical treatment of Ebrahim Yazdi, who has been in detention since 1 October, but has yet to be informed of the charges against him.

The Islamic Republic’s first Foreign Minister, Yazdi was arrested on 1 October in a private home in Isfahan for allegedly participating in “illegal prayer” when attending the memorial service for the daughter of a friend. He was subsequently moved to section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, which is operated by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.

Yazdi is recovering from bladder cancer surgery as well as heart surgery, and his family believes his life is in danger because of the physical and psychological strains of prison.

No Information About Jailed Artist Mehraneh Atashi

(1 February 2010) Internationally recognized photographer Mehraneh Atashi, along with her husband Madjid Ghaffari, were arrested on 12 January 2010 in their home in Tehran and detained, apparently in solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin prison, but authorities have released no information about charges against them, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today. Atashi and her husband have had no access to a lawyer. They have been allowed no visit by their family and only one brief telephone call they used to inform relatives they had been arrested.“The arrest and detention of Mehraneh Atashi and her husband are, unfortunately, typical of hundreds of other arrests where Iranian citizens have been

Release Imprisoned Cleric, End Persecution of Family

(20 January 2010) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called for the immediate release of Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Khalaji, who was arrested on 12 January at his home in Qum, and reportedly taken to Evin prison on 19 January and placed in solitary confinement. Members of Ayatollah Khalaji’s family have been searched and threatened with punishment by authorities if they protest against his arrest.

“For what legal reason was Ayatollah Khalaji arrested?” asked Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

Update: Detained Mothers Shuffled Between Emergency Rooms and Detention Center

(10 January 2010) Authorities transferred nine of the 33 detained members of the Mourning Mothers to emergency rooms following their detention yesterday, and later took them to Vozara Detention Center in Tehran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The nine mothers suffer from various illnesses and were taken back to Vozara Detention Center from Sajjad and Firuzgar hospitals in Tehran.

30 Members of Mourning Mothers Detained

(9 January 2010) Security forces attacked and detained 30 members of Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park and surrounding streets in Tehran today at around 4 p.m. local time, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported. Mourning Mothers is a group of mothers whose children have been killed in recent events. More than a hundred police and plain clothes agents attacked today’s gathering and transferred the detainees to the Vozara Detention Center in Tehran.

“No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers. How can this government, which claims to have moral and religious authority, treat mothers who have lost their children in such a way?,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.

Human Rights Organization Provides the Names of Prominent Detainees, Calls for Their Release

(23 June 2009) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today published lists of Iranian citizens it has confirmed killed and detained since the disputed 12 June presidential elections. The lists are not comprehensive and show the names of only some of the well-known detained citizens and only four of the dead.

The lists name a total of 240 detained persons, including 29 who were detained and then released, as well as 102 political figures, 23 journalists, 79 university students, and 7 university faculty who are still in detention.