Iran Focus

London, 08 Feb – A special meeting in support of the widespread Iran uprising, which has now spread to 142 cities and to all 31 provinces, was held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, February 7.

The meeting, which took place on the 39th anniversary of the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution, was chaired by Gérard Deprez, Chair of the Friends of a Free Iran intergroup, and Tunne Kelam.

Guest speakers included Dr Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former vice-president of the European Parliament, and Farzin Hashemi from the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Iran Focus

London, 08 Feb – The favourite Quran reciter of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was recently acquitted on sexual assault charges, but many believe that the corrupt Iranian justice system working on behalf of Khamenei allowed a predator to go free.

Saeed Toosi, who was charged with two “acts of public indecency” and “making immoral statements to encourage corruption and depravity and to sexually arouse teenagers” in 2012, was initially given a four-year sentence, but this was dismissed upon appeal in January.

Iran Focus

London, 07 Feb – Iran has arrested the son of a famous Shiite cleric in Qom for describing the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as “the pharaoh” during a lecture, according to Farsi-language news sites.

Hussein al-Shirazi, the son of Grand Ayatollah Sadiq al-Shirazi, was arrested on Monday morning for openly criticising the Iran’s practices and principle laws, according to the prosecutors of Qom’s clerics’ court on Shirazi’s arrest warrant, which was published by the microphone news site.

During the lecture, Shirazi compared the mullah’s rule to that of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, said that Iran was a tyrannical, religious dictatorship, and criticised Iran’s oppressive treatment of protesters, critics and dissidents.

A clip of this lecture was uploaded to YouTube a few weeks ago.

Iran Focus

London, 06 Feb – Iran boasts of its respect for religious freedom and tolerance for religious minorities, while President Hassan Rouhani even promises equal rights, but political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh assesses that this is just empty words on the part of a dictatorship that is pretending to be a democracy.

Indeed, there are countless reports from human rights organizations that document systematic violations of religious freedom, as well as persecution and discrimination against religious minorities.

The largest religious minority in Iran in Sunni Muslims (5-10% of the population) but their religious leaders are frequently the targets of Iran’s attacks, according to Dr. Majid Rafizadeh.