Crumbs of human rights

Mohammad Ali Taheri, the founder of a new spiritual group Erfan-e Halgheh, has been on hunger strike for a few days. He is protesting the limbo his case is in. His five-year prison sentence is about to terminate soon, however, the court that had previously sentenced him to death has resumed its investigation into his case. Mohammad Ali Taheri has been held in solitary confinement for the past nearly five years in Tehran’s Evin Prison. His contact with his inmates and the outside world has been very limited. The only connections that have given him hope and energy are the weekly meetings with his wife and the irregular calls the prison authorities allow him to have with his family. Mohammad Ali Taheri always looks forward to these events, as he doesn’t have anything else to occupy himself with: he hasn’t even had access to books, a piece of paper or a pen for a very long time. Imprisoned for his teachings and belief   Mohammad Ali Taheri established the Erfan-e Halgheh ...

In ‪Iran‬, followers of the Baha’i faith face discrimination, arrest and arbitrary detention, some have even been executed because of their religion. But the Baha’i community has chosen to respond to the oppression through ‘constructive resilience’, while taking an active part in the life of the Iranian society. Please find the summary of my event dedicated to the Baha'i religious minority here . >>TAKE ACTION!  Please join us in urging the Iranian authorities not to persecute Baha’is, but to respect their right to freedom of religion and to education. Please send the below tweet to the authorities. Tweet #EducationIsNotACrime

God save you from the execution The executions in Iran are never ending. We can also see a pattern that if EU officials travel to the country, the authorities threaten to execute even more people, especially juvenile offenders. A recent example is Salar Shadizadi, whose scheduled hanging coincided with the visit of Laurent Fabius (the Foreign Minister of France) and Federica Mogherini’s (the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) visit in Iran. Thank God, Salar’s execution was postponed for the second time as well, but, unfortunately, no one knows for how long. As per Amnesty International, the Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing694 people between 1 January and 15 July 2015. This number is really terrible. Especially, if we think about how many of them could be juvenile offenders or innocent people forced to confess against themselves under duress. They have not even stopped the hangings for Ramadan this year, ...