Iranian Protester's Lawyer Summoned For Criticizing Legal Proceedings

The call, published on the organization's Telegram channel in Farsi on Monday, highlights the systemic harassment and persecution experienced by women in Iran, with particular emphasis on the issuance and execution of flogging and imprisonment sentences.

"The real dimensions of the organized assault on women's rights, particularly the issuance and execution of flogging and imprisonment sentences against them, remain hidden," added the announcement by Amnesty.

The Iranian government's continued enforcement of mandatory hijab laws, despite nationwide protests triggered by the killing of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality-police, has drawn international condemnation. The methods employed, including seizing cars and imposing widespread social deprivation, underscore the severity of the situation.

Amnesty's call emphasizes the importance of shedding light on such issues by requesting affected women, along with their relatives, lawyers, and other witnesses to share relevant documents such as court rulings and evidence of administrative actions by February 27.

Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human rights activist imprisoned in Iran and recipient of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, last month called upon the United Nations Secretary-General to recognize sexual and gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. Mohammadi's plea, articulated in a letter from Evin Prison published on January 26, drew parallels between this form of oppression and racial apartheid, urging international action.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government's efforts to reinforce hijab enforcement include attempts to pass a law entitled "Chastity and Hijab,"which imposes severe punishments on women who resist compliance. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Speaker of the Parliament, has announced that the bill's amendments are in their final stages, indicating imminent communication to the government following approval by the Guardian Council.

In fact, Iran’s election watchdog, the Guardian Council, packed with hardliners, has banned almost all Reformists from running in the March 1 parliamentary vote, leaving little choice to a coalition of parties known as the Reformists.

The February 10 statement by the Reform Front is effectively a call for boycotting the elections, although it states that it is only in Tehran that "Reformists find it impossible to take part and present a list of candidates" as none of their nominees had their qualifications endorsed by the Guardian Council. This way of putting their protest forward, acquits the Reform Camp of possible accusations of defying the regime.

Although the Reform Front’s statement stops short of outright boycotting the March 1 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, a group of 110 self-proclaimed reform-minded intellectuals, civil, political, and media activists issued a call for reformists to participate. They argue that participation could provide a small avenue for reform-minded individuals to voice their concerns in parliament.

Citing extensive monitoring and evaluation of political developments, the Reformist Front emphasized the need for meaningful, competitive, and fair elections. They condemned arbitrary vetting and disqualification of candidates, which they believe undermines the people's choices and contributes to political, economic, social, and cultural crises. "We cannot take part in a meaningless, non-competitive, unfair election which is not going to have an impact on the way the country is governed."

The Front said that it has already "warned the government about the consequences of limiting the people's choices through arbitrary vetting and disqualification of the candidates," adding that "The discretionary supervision by the Guardian Council that limits the people's choices is one of the main reasons for the inefficiency of the Iranian government and has led to many political, economic, social, and cultural crises."

The Reforms Front further warned that "The officials and institutions that have made the polling box useless in Iran shall be responsible for the low turnout in the elections and its consequences" for the regime’s legitimacy. The Reformist Front further pointed out that "The only way to solve the country's problems is establishing a powerful and independent parliament and government by holding free and fair and competitive elections."

Announcing that this was a collective decision made by all the reformist parties in Iran, the front also expressed concern that measures including biased vetting that limits the voters' choices have been constantly on the rise during the past years.

Meanwhile, a statement issued on February 12 by a group of around 100 activists, including former Reformist lawmakers and media owners, urged people to participate in the elections and support a coalition of moderate and reform-minded candidates endorsed by the Guardian Council. Despite acknowledging the lack of fairness in Iran's elections, they advocated for participation to counter political purification efforts by the ruling conservatives.

The move dividing the Reformists could have well been encouraged by hardliners, as their media outlets jumped on the news to highlight that not all reformists have boycotted the elections.

Regardless of their all-out support for the government the activists in their statement acknowledged that "Like all of the elections in Iran's contemporary history, the upcoming plebiscite is totally far from free and fair and its organizers have been working hard to implement the idea of political purification" which means monopolizing political power in Iran in the interest of the ruling conservatives.

Social media users have accused the group of opportunism and looking for a weak and useless minority in the parliament. One social media user said: "They would take part in any Saddam Hussain-style election Khamenei may hold."

The men are currently imprisoned in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj according to rights group Hengaw.

In addition to the cases, reports from human rights sources indicate that Pakhshan Azizi, a former Kurdish journalist and political prisoner, faces similar charges by the Iranian judiciary.

Furthermore, the Iranian Free Workers Union recently reported that Shahab Naderi, a political prisoner, has also been sentenced to execution by the Tehran Revolutionary Court on similar grounds.

Earlier reports from the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) revealed that in 2023, Iran witnessed the execution of at least 791 citizens, including 25 women and two child offenders, marking a significant increase of over 33% compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, UN experts disclosed in a separate report that Iran executed at least 834 people in the same year, with eight individuals linked to nationwide protests that commenced in 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in morality-police custody for not wearing her hijab properly.

In a statement released by the group, closely affiliated with the Albania-based opposition Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization, it was disclosed that the attack reached 600 of the the main servers of the parliament, commission servers, main chamber servers, parliament assistant servers, parliament bank server, and other servers related to administrative functions.

The timing of the cyberattack is notable as it coincides with the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 1st, which have been marred by extensive disqualifications of candidates, raising concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.

This isn't the first time Uprising till Overthrow has targeted Iranian government agencies. In June, the group exposed documents from the Iranian presidential system, shedding light on activities of the Revolutionary Guards in suppressing protests.

In addition to Uprising till Overthrow, other hacking groups have also conducted successful cyber operations against Iran's infrastructure and government servers. Gonjeshk-e-Darande or Predatory Sparrow, for instance, disrupted gas station activities across Iranian cities in December through a cyberattack on fuel systems. Another group, Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice), hacked CCTV cameras in Evin Prison and targeted the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the Judiciary in recent years.

“Nowhere is safe for those powers who seek to threaten our security,” IRGC commander Hossein Salami said in a thinly veiled threat to the United States and its allies, suggesting that Iran’s “ocean-liners” can get within range of any target.

Tasnim news released videos showing the launch of a missile from the deck of a vessel, however the type of the missile has not yet been verified. If true that a long-range ballistic missile was fired from a vessel, it would mark a significant moment, since Iran has always maintained that its military posture is purely defensive. But boasting about warships appearing “at any spot in the oceans” with long-range missiles is not.

So far, no images of a test has been revealed, and Iranian government media on Tuesday did not follow up on the claim, but Salami's statements shows the IRGC is pursuing some project the use ships as a launching pad for long-range missiles.

In the last few years, Iran has moved from a largely subdued, albeit disgruntled, regional power to one constantly flexing its muscles and daring confrontation –probably because it knows it will not get one.

At every turn in his term, President Joe Biden has made it clear that he’s not looking for conflict with Iran, specially since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. Around 170 attacks by Iran's proxies on US forces has not altered that US policy –not even after a drone strike in Jordan last month that killed three American soldiers and wounded many more.

President Biden did react to the loss, of course, authorizing a “multi-layered” strike on targets related to Iran’s IRGC in Iraq and Syria. But his critics were not satisfied. He had waited “too long”, they said, “telegraphing” the military’s intentions, which helped the IRGC move out of the way and avoid a costly embarrassment.

It is this cautious approach, Biden critics say, that has emboldened Iran to a dangerous degree.

Far more worrying than an unverified missile launch, however, and far more telling in terms of Iran’s growing belligerence, is Iran’s nuclear program.

On Monday, not long before Salami claimed a new missile test, Iran’s former head of Atomic Energy Organizations signaled that his country was closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. 

In a televised interview, Ali-Akbar Salehi was asked about Iran’s capability to develop a nuclear warhead. He refused a direct answer but said, “think about what a car needs; it needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, a gearbox. You ask if we've made the gearbox, I say yes. Have we made the engine? Yes, but each one serves its own purpose".

"We have [crossed] all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology,” he summed up.

Iranian officials have always insisted that the country’s nuclear program is peaceful, but experts including the head of the UN nuclear watchdog say enriching uranium to such levels as Iran has done (60%) cannot be justified or even explained by peaceful intentions.

Once more, Biden critics point at him and his administration.

“Iran is within weeks of testing nuclear weapons and the Biden Administration has helped make an additional $100 billion available to them since Biden took office to help fund the project,” said former White House official and Director of Allison Center for National Security. “We’re getting to the threshold in which only military force may be required.”

President Biden hoped (and tried from his first day in office) to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran or forge some form of agreement to at least slow Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons. He abandoned Trump's ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran, taking most threats off the table and looking the other way as Iran pocketed billions shipping oil to China. To top it all, the administration released billions in frozen Iranian funds.

But all it has received in return is more belligerence, more missiles and suicide drones –which, ironically, may force Joe Biden to enter a confrontation he’s tried so hard to avoid.