Funeral of Iranian Former Police Aide Held Amid Tight Security

The staff were summoned to the disciplinary committee after they signed a statement against the wave of chemical attacks on schools.

Back in March, over 300 university professors condemned the organized chemical attacks in hundreds of schools across the country which have since last year seen thousands of students made sick or hospitalized.

"Despite claims to protect domestic and cross-border security, the government has not taken preventive measures in the face of this obvious threat to national security," read the statement.

The action against the academics is part of a widespread crackdown on universities as the hotbed of anti-regime sentiment. Having been one of the main centers of popular protests, the regime has increased the number of security agents at campuses and beefed up inspection of the students’ belongings.

Iran's Student Union Council reported on Monday that during the past week, "a large number of students" of The University of Science and Technology were summoned for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab and what the officials called "improper outfits".

The report also claims security forces continue to threaten and harass the students in the university campus under the pretext of not wearing proper hijab while several female students have been summoned for not returning to their dormitory on time.

In the past few months Iran’s security forces summoned dozens of students to punish them for staging protests against the poisoning of schoolgirls across the country.

“We discussed the rich history between our peoples and the opportunities for future collaboration not only between Israel and a secular, democratic Iran but across the Middle East,” Pahlavi tweeted on Monday. “Together, let’s bring in a new era,” he said.

No further details have been released from the meeting between the two.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ramped up threats to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, the Iranian opposition figure, Pahlavi, seems to be a uniting point between the people of Iran and Israel.

Gantz who was in the previous Israeli government is also a strong opponent of the Iranian regime, its nuclear program and interventions in the region.

In April, Pahlavi toured Israel as part of his efforts to unite international support against the Islamic Republic and in support of the uprising in Iran.

During a press conference in Tel Aviv, Pahlavi said that Iranians are the extreme opposite of the country’s current rulers, and that the regime does not represent the Iranian nation. “They have no antagonism to any nation or any faith. I know that Iranians and Israelis see how important it would be for our future to be strategic partners, to work together, to address many issues. I come here to convey this message to Israeli citizens,” he said.

According to a confidential letter leaked by the hacktivist group ‘Uprising till Overthrow,' the deputy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces for cultural and propaganda affairs, Abolfazl Shekarchi, presented a list of measures to take to quell possible protests and strikes by teachers and workers.

In the letter dated April 30, it is apparent that the regime is rattled by protests and strikes and is trying to find ways to portray them as different from the widespread antiregime rallies. The document said rallies on teacher’s day and worker’s day are an opportunity for anti-regime demonstrations.

It also referred to the poisoning of schoolgirls, saying that Persian media abroad seek to portray the country as stricken by crises and in a state of emergency.

The recurring theme in the letter is that the regime wants to make the best use of the differences among different opposition camps and discredit the foreign-based media.

The letter also indicates that a large part of differences among opposition forces are accentuated by the supporters of the regime, known in social media as the cyber army.

One of the suggestions directly points to exaggerating the failure of the Mahsa Charterand the George Town alliance of opposition figures. A group of prominent Iranian dissident figures, which calls itself the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran, issued a Charter of Solidarity and Alliance for Freedom after announcing its existence in a February event at Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) -- titled ‘The Future of Iran’s Democracy Movement.'

The alliance fell apart following the resignation of Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion and the ensuing arguments between monarchists and supporters of other forms of governments.

The leaked letter called on several regime organizations to try to highlight the differences among the different opposition forces and portray them as dependent on foreign “hostile” governments.

The document also called for delegitimizing teacher and worker activists by finding pro-regime experts among them and highlighting their views in state media outlets.

The hacktivist group ‘Uprising till Overthrow' claimed on May 29 that it breached 120 servers at the presidential office, getting access to internal communications, meetings minutes, President Ebrahims Raisi’s online conference platforms and about 1,300 computers inside the office.

In the new cyberattack, the group is said to have gained access to “tens of thousands confidential documents” but is releasing them in daily batches.

Earlier in May, the group, affiliated with the Albania-based opposition Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) group -- People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, hacked into the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry servers, disabling 210 sites and online services and leaking another large batch of documents.

Killed with multiple hammer blows to the head, Rozhin Azimi, was murdered on Saturday in Divandarreh, according to Hengaw Human Rights Organization.

Kurdpa news website confirmed her death saying the father and brother of Rozhin are under arrest.

On Tuesday, news websites also reported the murder of another young woman named Parastou Shahbazi who was also a victim of child marriage.

According to Hengaw and Kurdpa, Shahbazi, 18, from Dehgolan city of Kordestan province, was first hanged by her husband and then her body was stabbed.

Shahbazi's husband is allegedly addicted to drugs, but no information has been published about the motives of the murder.

Iran's Islamic Penal Code stipulates that fathers and paternal grandfathers cannot be sentenced to death for killing a child or grandchild. In such cases the perpetrator may be sentenced to prison and payment of blood money to the next of kin, that is the mother, if demanded. Mothers can also completely forgive the murderer and forego the blood money.

Perpetrators of honor killings are often not brought to justice as most families do not demand harsh punishment for them, particularly if the perpetrator is the victim’s father.

Honor killings are prevalent in some parts of Iran mostly due to societal beliefs and the Islamic Republic’s lax laws and light sentences that encourage the behavior.

Mansoureh Sagvand is the latest such case to mysteriously die in the wake of detention. From the southern city of Abdanan, IRNA state news agency quoted officials from Ilam University of Medical Sciences who claimed her death was caused by cardiac and respiratory arrest.

The brave young woman posted her defection publicly on Instagram. Along with a photo of her in police uniform, she wrote: “I have been working as an honorary member of Khorramabad police force, but I will not have any cooperation with the armed forces and proudly stand with my fellow countrymen.”

The judicial and security authorities of Ilam are yet to provide an explanation about the "suspicious death". The regime also claimed that Mahsa Amini, whose death in morality police custody caused a nationwide uprising since September, died of a heart attack.

The Islamic Republic is disposing of and silencing its critics in ways including shooting them on the streets, executions, torture and psychological pressure.