Posts Tagged ‘Iran’
May 10th, 2012
An
Iranian cartoonist has been sentenced to
25 lashes after drawing a caricature of a MP. Cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye depicted local conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani dressed as a footballer. Iranian politicians were recently criticised for interfering in sports in the country. The politician took offence at the cartoon and sued the artist for insulting him, resulting in a Markazi province court sentencing Shokraye to lashing. Many have taken to social media to express their outrage at the sentence.
May 1st, 2012
An 80-year old head of a banned opposition party in
Iran has been ordered to
serve eight years in prison. Ebrahim Yazdi, activist and former foreign minister, was convicted
in December 2011 on charges of “attempting to act against national security”. Yazdi, who is currently suffering with cancer and a heart condition was informed on 16 April by Evin prison that he had 20 days to surrender to serve the 2011 sentence. The elderly activist, who was a key figure in the 1979 Islamic revolution, refuses to acknowledge that the charges against him are valid.
April 19th, 2012
A popular
Iranian singer has been sentenced to a year in prison
after releasing pro-opposition songs online. During the protests that occurred in the wake of the disputed 2009 presidential elections, Arya Aramnejad angered officials by uploading songs about the
Ashura protests, when government security forces opened fire on demonstrators during a Shia holy day. Later, Aramnejad released another song condemning the government crackdowns. Aramnejad was arrested in February 2010, according to a friend, the singer has been convicted of acting against national security and spreading propaganda against the regime.
April 12th, 2012
Mohammad Solimaninya, an Internet and social network expert who has been detained for the past three months, is
reportedly being pressured to work with the Iranian government on the creation of a
National Internet. Solimaninya ran u24, a popular social networking website for Iranian professionals, and created websites for many Iranian NGOs. He was arrested on 10 January after being summoned before a revolutionary tribunal in Karaj, a town 20 km north of Tehran. According to his family, is now on a second hunger strike in protest against his detention conditions. No charges have been brought against him.
March 15th, 2012
An
Egyptian university
banned the screening of an award winning Iranian film last week. The film A Separation”was due to be screened at Cairo University on 8 March, but objections from fundamentalist university groups led to the screening permit to be revoked. The film, which has won several international awards, tackles issues relating to immigration. The fundamentalist groups who objected to the screening of the film claimed it promoted Shiasm, secularism, and al-Assad’s regime at the expense of Syria, though these are not said to be themes of the film.
March 9th, 2012
Iran’s Supreme leader has ordered
the creation of an “internet oversight agency” to control the web. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the creation of the “Supreme Council of Cyberspace” which aims to prevent harm to Iranians who go online. Dangers expected to be tackled by the Council include computer viruses created by Iran’s rivals aimed at sabotaging its industry, and a “culture invasion” which would undermine the Islamic Republic. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will head the cyberspace council, along with powerful security figures.
February 15th, 2012
Iranian blogger Mehdi Khazali’s wife and daughter have allegedly been kidnapped by security forces and moved to an unknown location, it was
reported yesterday. Khazali, a staunch critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s state policies, was
sentenced to 13 years and 10 months in prison and 10 years in exile on 7 February for “insulting the supreme leader”. The blogger has been on hunger strike for 38 days.
February 13th, 2012
Internet censorship has
dramatically increased in
Iran over the last week. On 7 February, internet users in Iran began reporting an increase in the blocking and filtering of certain kinds of internet traffic in the country. Many users complained of not being able to access HTTPS websites, the secure and encrypted version of HTTP protocol. Many banks, Google services, Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft Hotmail use HTTPS to protect private data. Though there have been no official announcements regarding the changes, it is widely believed to be the first step towards a
Halal internet.
