by Steve Dew-Jones | 8 Dec 2020 | News
Embed from Getty Images The US State Department has re-designated Iran as a “Country of Particular Concern” for “engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom”. Iran is one of only 10 such countries, alongside Myanmar, China,...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 7 Dec 2020 | News
Article18 has joined 36 other rights group in calling on UN member states to ratify the recently adopted resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran at a plenary session of the General Assembly later this month. The resolution, which was passed...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 4 Dec 2020 | News
Clockwise from top-left: Afshin Sajedi (IOPHR), Sharon Nazarian (ADL), Mansour Borji (Article18), Alireza Nader (FDD), Ebrahim Ahrari Khalaf (Kalemeh TV), and Farhad Sabetan (BIC). Iran’s religious minorities are today facing the greatest threat to their existence...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 3 Dec 2020 | Features
Today is the 30th anniversary of the hanging of Iranian Christian convert Rev Hossein Soodmand for “apostasy”. Hossein had been arrested a few weeks beforehand, and was executed following a ruling by an Islamic clerical court, without his family’s knowledge. His wife,...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 26 Nov 2020 | News
Aziz (Andreas) Majidzadeh is 56 years old and lives in Tehran with his wife and two children. Two Iranian Christian converts have overturned on appeal a combined 10-year prison sentence for their leadership of a house-church. Aziz Majidzadeh, known as Andreas, and...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 20 Nov 2020 | Features
This Sunday will be the 15th anniversary of the brutal murder of Iranian Christian convert Ghorban Tourani, whose still-bleeding body was dumped onto his doorstep on 22 November 2005. Ghorban’s murder – he was stabbed in the stomach, throat and back –...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 19 Nov 2020 | News
The UN General Assembly in New York (Photo: Patrick Gruban / Flickr / CC) The UN’s General Assembly has passed a resolution expressing “serious concerns” about the situation of human rights in Iran, including “severe limitations” and “increasing restrictions” on...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 18 Nov 2020 | Features
Iranian Christian convert Kavian Fallah-Mohammadi has spoken exclusively with Article18 about his arrest at a Christmas gathering in 2014, at the home of Iranian-Assyrian pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz, his subsequent 10-year prison sentence, and the eventual rejection of...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 17 Nov 2020 | News
Mehdi Akbari (left), known as Yasser, and Mehdi Rokhparvar are now in Evin Prison. Four Christian converts have been sentenced to a combined 35 years in prison. Mehdi Akbari, Fatemeh Sharifi and Simin Soheilinia were given 10 years, and Mehdi Rokhparvar five, all...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 16 Nov 2020 | News
Saheb Fadaie. Despite international condemnation of the recent flogging of an Iranian convert for drinking Communion wine, a second convert has now received the same punishment. Zaman Fadaie, who prefers to be called Saheb, received 80 lashes yesterday, one month and...
