Iranian 16-year-old Girl in Coma after Being Assaulted by the Morality Police | DW News

Oct 4, 2023 | According to the Kurdish rights group "Hengaw" a teenage girl in Iran is in a coma after being assaulted by the morality police in Tehran's subway. It says Armita Garawand was attacked for violating the Islamic republic's hijab rules. Iranian authorities deny the claims.

'Gender Apartheid' in Iran: Hijab Laws, Protests & Revolution in 2023 | Explained

Sep 28, 2023 | The parliament in Iran has just passed new hijab laws that could see women jailed for up to 10 years for dressing inappropriately. These laws have been labelled "a form of gender apartheid" by UN experts and described as a "a despicable assault on the rights of women" by Amnesty International. …

Persia before Khomeini - The History of Iran in 15 Minutes of Perfectly-restored Film Material

Premiered Aug 27, 2021

BBC World: Iran's "Sex-change" Solution | Reupload

Nov 13, 2014 | Ali Hamedani, BBC World service reporter, visits Turkey to meet LGBT exiles who have fled Iran in fear of being forced to change gender.

Ali Fatemi : «La société iranienne est devenue explosive»

LE QUOTIDIEN : Un an après la mort de Mahsa Amini et le soulèvement des jeunes Iraniens, Ali Fatemi revient sur l’impact de ces évènements sur la société iranienne et sur le devenir de son pays.

Ali Fatemi, le président de l’Association des jeunes Iraniens pour la démocratie et la liberté, s’inquiète de la situation sociale et économique de son pays.
Ali Fatemi a vécu jusqu’à l’âge de 23 ans en Iran. Entre répression et police de la moralité, il a décidé de quitter définitivement son pays en 2009. Depuis l’Europe et le Luxembourg, son lieu de vie depuis plus de treize ans, il est partagé entre deux sentiments : l’inquiétude à propos d’un régime dictatorial qui sème la terreur, mais aussi l’espoir nourri par «un peuple qui n’accepte plus de vivre sans liberté».

Il y a un an, le peuple iranien, surtout les jeunes, décidait de protester contre la mort de Mahsa Amini. Aujourd’hui, quelle est la situation en Iran ?

Ali Fatemi : Avant le soulèvement de septembre 2022, l’Iran en avait déjà connu d’autres : il y a cinq ans, puis deux ans, avant celui de l’année dernière. Mais celui que nous avons connu en 2022 était bien plus radical. Beaucoup de personnes y ont participé, au prix parfois de leur vie. Aujourd’hui, les Iraniens et surtout les jeunes ne veulent plus de ce régime dictatorial qui sème la terreur, la répression et les exécutions. Le soulèvement de l’année dernière se poursuit. Des citoyens, parmi lesquels des femmes et des jeunes, se regroupent à travers des groupes pour montrer leur opposition à ce régime. On sent que quelque chose est en train de se préparer. Si cela aboutit, cela sera encore plus fort qu’en septembre, car aujourd’hui la société iranienne est devenue explosive. » | De Emilie Dias | mardi 19 septembre 2023

Iran's New Anti-LGBTQ Laws: Executions, Criminalization and Social Injustices against Homosexuality

Feb 21, 2022 | Iran executed two gay men convicted for being homosexual. Homosexuality is illegal in Iran. This execution occurred is part of the state sponsored persecution and criminalization of homosexuality and LGBTQ people.

These two men, Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi spent six years on death row and were hanged as punishment for “sexual intercourse between two men.”

Last July, two other men were executed for the same charges. Last year, Iran executed 299 people accused of actions that are lesbian or gay, including 4 people convicted as children.

Currently, an Iranian LGBTQ activist is being held on charges linked to her appearance in a BBC documentary on gay rights. Zahra Sedighi-Hamadan was arrested while trying to flee to neighboring Turkey. Iranian prosecutors charged her for “spreading corruption on earth” and “promoting homosexuality.”

Homosexuality is banned in Iran withers penal code explicitly criminalizing sexual behavior between people of the same sex.

UN investigators have attempted to share the information about the alarming rate Iran continues to implement the death penalty. Following strict sharia law, homosexual relations are punishable by death. Under the same laws, sodomy, rape, adultery, robbery, and murder are among crimes that lead to the death penalty.


Caution: Discretion is advised when viewing this documentary. It is not suitable for children. – Mark

Meet Iran's Gay Mullah Forced to Flee the Country - BBC News | Reupload

Jun 8, 2026 | In Iran, homosexuality is banned and punishable by execution under its strict code of sharia, or Islamic law. In a country dominated by the religious class, being gay is taboo, and especially among the establishment. One Iranian gay cleric, who conducted gay weddings in secret, was forced to flee the country, and has been threatened with death. BBC Persian's Ali Hamedani reports. Video Journalist: Kelvin Brown

Tracks East - ARTE

Les filles d’Iran en colère : elles ne lâchent rien Irans wütende Töchter: Sie geben nicht auf
Sep 19, 2023 | In September 2022 the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody set off nationwide protests in Iran. One year on from this civil unrest, Tracks East meets the ultra-connected younger generation who demonstrate their opposition to the government through art and music.

These are brave young ladies. More power to them! Burn those damn rags! Defy the mullahs! Liberation is coming. – Mark Alexander

Iran Releases 5 Americans as U.S. Unfreezes Billions in Oil Revenue for Tehran

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The terms of the deal have generated intense criticism from Republicans, who accused President Biden of helping to finance Iran’s terrorist activities.


Iran released the five Americans after the United States agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and dismiss charges against five Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions.Credit | Reuters
Five Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran were allowed to leave the country on Monday, President Biden said, after two years of high-stakes negotiations in which the United States agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and dismiss federal charges against five Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions.

The announcement that the Americans took off in a plane from Tehran just before 9 a.m. Eastern came as Mr. Biden and Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, were to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders in New York on Tuesday.

The five Americans — some of whom had been held for years in Evin Prison, one of the most notorious detention centers in Iran — flew to Doha, the capital of Qatar, for a Cold War-style exchange with two of the five Iranians. Three others declined to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials.

In a statement, Mr. Biden said that “five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.” » | Michael D. Shear and Farnaz Fassihi, Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from New York. | Monday, September 18, 2023

Ein Jahr nach Mahsa Aminis Tod: Proteste im Iran verstummt? | auslandsjournal

Sep 16, 2023 | Vor einem Jahr beginnen schwere Proteste gegen das Regime im Iran: Hundertausende gingen über Monate auf die Straßen, Männer wie Frauen, und forderten mehr Freiheit. Der Auslöser: Der Tod einer 22-jährigen Kurdin in einem Krankenhaus in Teheran. Was von dem Protest übriggeblieben und wie die Stimmung im Land ist, zeigt ZDF-Korrespondent Jörg Brase. Zu Wort kommt zum Beispiel die Frauenrechtlerin Shima Ghoosheh: "Unsere Situation ist heute eine andere. Zum Teil, weil die Frauen ein Bewusstsein für ihre eigenen Rechte entwickelt haben. Eins davon ist das Recht auf den eigenen Körper. Trotzdem ist es noch ein langer Weg, bis wir uns damit wohlfühlen und das auch annehmen können."

Am 16. September 2022 stirbt die 22-jährige Mahsa Amini, drei Tage zuvor war sie auf einer Polizeistation zusammengebrochen. Die Sittenpolizei hatte sie festgenommen. Weil sie ihr Kopftuch nicht richtig getragen haben soll. Ihr Name und ihr Foto sind zum Symbol des Protestes geworden. Das Regime schlägt brutal zurück und erhöht den Druck auf seine Bevölkerung. Im August berät das Parlament im Iran über eine Verschärfung der Kopftuchpflicht und härtere Strafen.

Iran's Women a Year after Mahsa Amini's Death - BBC News

Sep 16, 2023 | One year on from Masha Amini's death, Iran’s protests may have subsided, but women have found new ways to defy the country’s regime.

Last year, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa after being detained by Iran’s morality police sparked unprecedented protests across the country. Today, several people in Tehran have described bold acts of rebellion that would have been almost unthinkable to Iranians this time last year.

But Iran’s regime is not backing down. A draft law, currently before parliament - the so-called Hijab and Chastity Bill, would impose new punishments on women who go unveiled.


Related.

It is so sad and tragic that this beautiful young Iranian lady has lost an eye whilst demonstrating for women’s rights to walk around in public without having to cover themselves in rags. Furthermore, it is incomprehensible that young women who attend school in France are fighting for their rights to cover themselves up with them. It really is a topsy-turvy world that we are now living in. – Mark

En Iran, le père de Mahsa Amini brièvement détenu par la police, un an après la mort de sa fille

LE MONDE : Les parents de la jeune femme kurde de 22 ans, morte en détention en septembre 2022, avaient déclaré en début de semaine que malgré les avertissements du gouvernement ils organiseraient une « cérémonie d’anniversaire » sur la tombe de leur fille.

Dans un contexte de sécurité renforcée à l’occasion du premier anniversaire de la mort de sa fille, le père de Mahsa Amini a été brièvement placé en détention samedi 16 septembre, selon des groupes de défense des droits de l’homme. » | Le Monde avec AFP et Reuters | samedi 16 septembre 2023

En rapport/Related.

‘An Innocent and Ordinary Young Woman’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A year after Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody ignited fierce anti-government protests, her family reminisces about the young woman they called Jina.

A protest outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul last year after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police. | Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Her face has lit up a billboard in Times Square, and been painted on murals in Paris and Berlin. It has been splashed on the Barcelona soccer team’s private jet and commemorated on T-shirts with the red, white and green colors of Iran’s flag. Vienna and Los Angeles have even named streets after her.

At rallies across Iran and the world last year, tens of thousand of men and women waved placards with her face shouting, “Say her name: Mahsa Amini. Mahsa Amini.”

Saturday will mark one year since the 22-year-old woman from Saghez, a small city in a Kurdish province in northwest Iran, died in the custody of the country’s morality police on allegations of violating the hijab law, which mandates women and girls cover their hair and bodies.

Her death in Tehran ignited monthslong protests nationwide, led by women and girls who tossed off their head scarves in defiance and demanded the end to the Islamic Republic’s rule. The uprising bearing her name, the “Mahsa movement,” morphed into the most serious challenge to the legitimacy of Iran’s ruling clerics since they took power in 1979. » | Farnaz Fassihi | Saturday, September 16, 2023

Related article here.

Iran's Women a Year after Mahsa Amini's Death: 'I Wear What I Like Now'

Many women in Iran have permanently taken off their headscarf
BBC: A young woman walks down a street in Tehran, her hair uncovered, her jeans ripped, a bit of midriff exposed to the hot Iranian sun. An unmarried couple walk hand in hand. A woman holds her head high when asked by Iran's once-feared morality police to put a hijab on, and tells them: "Screw you!"

These acts of bold rebellion - described to me by several people in Tehran over the past month - would have been almost unthinkable to Iranians this time last year. But that was before the death in the morality police's custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been accused of not wearing her hijab [veil] properly.

The mass protests that shook Iran after her death subsided after a few months in the face of a brutal crackdown, but the anger that fuelled them has not been extinguished. Women have just had to find new ways to defy the regime.

A Western diplomat in Tehran estimates that across the country, an average of about 20% of women are now breaking the laws of the Islamic Republic by going out on to the streets without the veil.

…

"Society won't go back to the pre-Mahsa time," she believes. "In the streets, in the metro and in bazaars, men now admire women and praise their courage… Remarkably, even in some very religious cities like Qom, Mashhad and Isfahan, women no longer wear a headscarf." » | Caroline Hawley, BBC News | Friday, September 15, 2023

Der lange Atem der iranischen Frauen | ARTE Info Plus

Sep 8, 2023 | Am 16. September 2022 führte der Tod Mahsa Aminis im Iran zu einem Volksaufstand. Wegen des Vorwurfs, sie habe ihren Schleier nicht richtig angelegt, prügelte die Sittenpolizei sie zu Tode. Die Niederschlagung der Kundgebungen forderte 500 Todesopfer – Zehntausende wurden verhaftet. Gestürzt wurde die Regierung zwar nicht, die Ablehnung des Regimes im Gottesstaat sitzt seit dem Aufstand jedoch tief.

Angesichts des anstehenden Jahrestags der Ereignisse analysiert die Anthropologin Chowra Makaremi für uns, wie diese Bewegung ein Teil der langen Geschichte der Islamischen Republik wurde und warum sie einen wesentlichen Bruch für die Zukunft der iranischen Gesellschaft darstellt. Eine ausführliche Analyse ist nachzulesen in Chowra Makaremis Buch „Frau, Leben, Freiheit“ – es erscheint am 7. September bei „Editions La Découverte“


Le même reportage en français se retrouve ici.

Iran from Above - In the Mountains | DW Documentary

Sep 17, 2023 | Iran’s mountainous terrain has always been an important part of people’s lives. Years ago, these mountains were populated by legendary horsemen. Today, they are the subject of scientific investigation.

This film provides the viewer with stunning arial views of these mountains. It unfurls the rich tapestry of Iran’s history, from the legendary Order of the Assassins to the Mongol invasions.

We also get to know Iran by meeting some of the fascinating people who live there. Take Ali, a world champion of mounted archery. Despite its waning popularity, the sport has endured in Iran due the importance of horses throughout Iranian history. We get to explore the historic Tabiz bazaar, which is still a bustling market and kaleidoscope of cultures today. There, we meet Dschebrael, a stall owner who speaks Azeri, the official language of Azerbaijan. In fact, Azeri can be heard throughout the market, which serves as a meeting place for Iran’s many ethnic groups, and thus as a microcosm of the country’s cultural diversity.

The film introduces us to beekeepers and violinmakers, as well as young people living in Iran who want to travel and express themselves freely on social media -- even though it is forbidden.

Secret Interviews: Inside Iran’s Resistance | Foreign Correspondent

Aug 17, 2023 | A Foreign Correspondent exclusive – secret interviews from inside Iran’s protest movement.

Almost a year since widespread protests erupted on the streets of Iran, young dissidents who continue to defy the country’s repressive regime, have participated in secretly recorded interviews with Foreign Correspondent. …

Iran bringt umstrittene Strafreform der Kopftuchpflicht auf den Weg

ZEIT ONLINE: Frauen im Iran drohen Geld- oder gar Haftstrafen, wenn sie die islamischen Kleidungsregeln künftig missachten. Eine umstrittene Strafreform hat das Parlament passiert.

Im Iran hat die Kommission des Parlaments die umstrittene Strafreform der Kopftuchpflicht gebilligt, berichtete die Nachrichtenagentur Tasnim. Der Gesetzentwurf sieht drakonische Strafen bei Missachtung der islamischen Kleidungsregeln vor. Diese umfassen bei mehrfachen Verstößen etwa Geldbußen, Ausreisesperren oder auch Haft. » | Quelle: ZEIT ONLINE, dpa | Montag, 21. August 2023

Please Help Save Mohammad’s Life and Help Shine a Spotlight on Iran’s Horrific Execution Program

AVAAZ: The world in action

“Mohammad is now on death row, and could be hanged any day. Iran is already under pressure - and global outcries have stopped executions before. There’s no time to waste: share with all your friends now, and when it’s huge, Avaaz will bring our voices to the UN Rights Chief and key governments - and we’ll make Mohammad’s story famous in the media.”

Please help save this young man’ slife and sign the petition here.

Iranian Women Continue to Defy Dress Code Laws as Government Promises Crackdown | DW News

Aug 9, 2023 | Iran has stepped up the enforcement of headscarf rules for women. Many have been defying the dress code since the death of a woman in 'morality police' custody sparked mass protests. DW spoke to several women after the morality police returned to the streets.

Der Bericht auf Deutsch.