by Steve Dew-Jones | 24 Apr 2020 | Case Studies
(Last updated: April 2025) Clockwise from top-left: Shahrooz Eslamdoust, Mehdi Khatibi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Hossein Kadivar, Mohammad Vafadar, Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad, Behnam Akhlaghi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Kamal Naamanian Case referenced by Article 18, Middle East...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 22 Apr 2020 | Features
(Photo: Wikipedia) While today relations between Iran and America are severely strained, there remains, even today, an American revered by many in Iran for giving his life in the fight for democracy. Howard Baskerville died on 19 April 1909, days after his 24th...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 21 Apr 2020 | News
Twenty-one-year-old Iranian Christian convert Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi has been sentenced to three months plus one day in prison, and ten lashes. The sentence relates to Mary’s alleged participation in anti-government demonstrations following the downing of a...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 21 Apr 2020 | News
The Council of United Iranian Churches (Hamgaam) has called on Iran to immediately release all prisoners of conscience to “prevent a serious humanitarian disaster”. In a statement released yesterday, the council welcomed the reported release of around 100,000...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 21 Apr 2020 | Analysis
Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, has addressed the often cited discrepancy between the Iranian government’s claims that there is “total religious freedom” in Iran, and rights groups’ insistency that Iran is one of the world’s worst persecutors. ...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 20 Apr 2020 | News
Rajaei Shahr Prison, Karaj (Photo: Ensie & Matthias / Flickr / CC) A group of UN human rights experts have called on Iran to release all prisoners of conscience, in line with its obligations as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 16 Apr 2020 | News
Mohammad Reza Faghani takes charge of an Iranian football match in February 2017. A top-level Iranian football referee has revealed that he was asked if he had converted to Christianity because he officiated at the final of an annual Iranian-Armenian football...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 16 Apr 2020 | News
An Iranian Christian convert serving a 10-year prison sentence for his membership of a Tehran house-church has written a letter thanking those who are praying for him. Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who is 58 years old, remains in the Iranian capital’s Evin Prison, despite...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 15 Apr 2020 | Features
Ebrahim Firouzi tells Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, about the months he has spent in exile since his release from six years in prison in November. Ebrahim’s two-year term in exile was recently extended by 11 months owing to an unauthorised leave of...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 14 Apr 2020 | News
Iranian woman convert Fatemeh (Aylar) Bakhtari has been told she does not need to return to prison to complete her sentence. The 36-year-old is the third convert in the past few weeks to receive such news, after Rokhsareh (Mahrokh) Ghanbari, 62, and Amin Khaki, 36....
