Wife Of Exiled Iranian Prince Joins Pro-Israel Rally In Washington

In the past week alone, there have been reports of the arrests of two female former political prisoners in Tehran, two female environmental activists and journalists as well as two female writers, and a female animals rights activist in Rasht, two male citizens in Izeh who participated in the anniversary ceremonies for two of last year’s protest victims – nine-year-old Kian Pir-Falak and sixteen-year-old Milad Saeedianjou – as well as the latter’s sister in the same city and several others elsewhere.

Security forces who raided the home of female journalist and former political prisoner Shaghayegh Moradi in Tehran on Monday morning seized some of her personal belongings and took her with them to her mother’s house to search the premises. It is not clear which security body is responsible for the arrest and where she is being kept.

Mahnaz Tarrah, former political prisoner, however, was violently arrested on the street and taken to a court stationed at Evin Prison.

Farzin Rezaei-Roshan, also a former political prisoner, who was with Tarrah at the time of her arrest said in a video he released on social media that he was violently assaulted by the over a dozen agents who arrested his friend.

Rezaei-Roshan who is seen in the video in bloodied clothes says the agents used tasers and broke his head before taking his friend away.

In Rasht, capital of the northern province of Gilan, writer Rozita Rajaei was arrested Saturday and journalists Nasim Tavafzadeh and Helaleh Nategheh were arrested two days later. Both journalists had carried out research and written extensively about waste management, a big environmental problem in the region.

Like most other cases, there is very little information on these arrests in Rasht, but writer Nina Golestani’s husband said in an Instagram post that his wife was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organization on her way home from shopping.

Due to censorship regulations, the mainstream media in Iran do not report on the majority of dissidents’ and activists’ arrests, which often involve unnecessary violence and maltreatment as well as confiscation of computers and mobile phones of not only the person being arrested, but of all other members of the family.

Information including reason for arrest and place of detention is often withheld even from the families of detainees by the authorities.

Social media users, however, actively inform the public of the arrests the regime strives to hide from the public and its human rights violations.

Pressure has also been high on Sunnis and followers of the Baha’i and Yarsan (Ahl-i Haqq) faiths that the regime does not recognize and considers as heretical unlike Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism which have legal status in the Constitution.

The homes of the followers of the Baha’i faith, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, who have been persecuted since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 were raided in these cities by armed security agents last week with at least 19 people arrested and their personal belongings including electronic devices impounded.

The recent arrests have raised the number of Bahai’s arrested in the past month to at least 32 all of whom are still in prison.

The four members of the mystical Yarsan faith’s advisory council arrested in Kermanshah Province on Friday were reportedly freed after a few hours of interrogation but there is very little information on a Sunni cleric Abdulhakim Shahbakhsh who was arrested by security forces in Zahedan on November 8.

The report released by the Canadian outlet Global News focused on the ongoing threat against Iranian dissidents given the number of regime insiders operating in Canada.

Pierre Poilievre called the immense scope of the problem “shocking” and the number of agents mentioned in the report, which is approximately 700, “staggering”.

“To think that we might have terrorist-linked Iranian regime thugs operating with impunity, spending stolen money and intimidating Canadian Jews and Iranians is appalling,” he told Global News. The situation necessitates “immediate action to kick them out of this country,” the prime ministerial candidate added.

The Conservative leader had already pledged that his administration would list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization in Canada if elected, along with the US which took the move in 2019.

Among the non-governing parties in the House of Commons, Pierre Poilievre's Official Opposition Party has the most seats. Polls and projections indicate that the Conservative party will lead the upcoming federal election, for the 45th Canadian Parliament, scheduled for October 20, 2025.

Currently, Canada has expanded targeted sanctions against some IRGC members and amended its Magnitsky legislation in order to allow it to go after individuals accused of human rights abuses and corruption, but the opposition says that these measures do not suffice.

According to the popular Telegram channel of the National Student Unions Council, Tarbiat Modares University students held their strike on Sunday and Monday under the slogan "End the Repression”.

Described as an "occupation" of the university, the document presented by the group details the oppression that the students feel as if it were a form of “martial law”. Since the suppression of protests last year, when security forces killed more than 500 civilians and arrested around 22,000 others, the authorities began cracking down on university students, who played a major role in the "Women, Life, Freedom” movement.

“Protesting and speaking out results in violence, insults, and disciplinary action," it said. "Every day we are harassed by the university security forces; insults, physical attacks, threats, and invasion of privacy are part of our daily lives."

The students believe the regime's behavior is intended to "scare, depress, and isolate” them so that their voices cannot be heard, the union claiming the regime's "goal is to silence us through force”.

Activists say that since the beginning of the new academic year, Iran's universities have been experiencing severe security measures, which include "mass summons from intelligence and security agencies and disciplinary committees" as well as "temporary suspension" and "expulsion" orders issued to students and professors.

In their statement, the students outlined their demands. They stated that since students feel oppressed in the university environment, they propose that security forces stay away from the campus, remain at guard posts, and wear uniforms with their names on them.

Moreover, they want an end to the verbal and physical harassment of students, physical violence, phone calls, and filing of disciplinary complaints for the way students dress.

The students also demanded the overturning of new regulations governing student entry and exit from the university including gender-segregated gates.

Their statement states that the strike was the first step of an ongoing campaign and that they will continue protesting in various forms until their demands are met and university management and security make the necessary changes to make the university environment more conducive to students.

In the aftermath of last year's uprising in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, the harsh treatment of students has intensified.

A video was released on social media last week showing the head of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tehran attacking and insulting students, referring to the faculty as a "brothel" and the students as "prostitutes". 

After the incident, students from another university, Tabatabai University Faculty of Social Sciences, issued a statement in support of the students who were insulted and said: "University officials have a fundamental hatred for knowledge and students."

After the backlash, Gholamreza Jamshidiha claimed that male and female students had been "kissing" and "shaking hands".

At the beginning of the current academic year, a joint statement by 12 university trade unions announced that after a year since the people's uprising, the student movement has entered a new phase of activism and resistance which will render the “government's repressive measures ineffective.”

As the new academic year approaches, "with the accumulation of experience and along the path of no return, it is time to reclaim and redefine the university as a place for building the future", it said.

A statement said, "Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have had a phone call initiated by Belarus. The Armenian prime minister informed the Belarusian president that he will be unable to take part in a CSTO Collective Security Council meeting, and said he expected his CSTO counterparts to treat this decision with understanding ."

CSTO is a post-Soviet collective security organization under Russia’s umbrella, with Armenia having been a founding loyal member since the 1990s. Yerevan’s security policy was shaped by its conflict with Azerbaijan and it maintained close cooperation with Russia and Iran as a way to safeguard its security.

However, Armenia was defeated in 2020, when Azerbaijan attacked to re-capture lost territories. Russia, CSTO, or Iran did not intervene to defend Armenia, which has turned to the USA and France for security support. Both nations are not only endorsing reforms within the Armenian Armed Forces but are also actively involved in arms sales and providing military equipment to bolster Armenia's defense capabilities.

Simultaneously, an important development is occurring in Armenia's relations with the European Union. The foreign ministers of the EU have granted approval for the expansion of the observation mission in Armenia, underscoring a deepening engagement.

Discussions on visa liberalization and military assistance to Armenia are poised to commence, following a decision made during the Foreign Affairs Council meeting. The council also addressed pivotal issues concerning Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, highlighting the complex geopolitical landscape in the region for the small nation bordering Iran.

The arrest occurred three days before the anniversary of her brother's death. Fatemeh Heydari, sister of another victim of the nationwide protests, Javad Heydari, disclosed on Monday that Saeedianjoo was detained when the Islamic Republic forces forcefully entered their residence in Izeh, located in the southern part of Iran.

The arrest comes on the heels of news in mid-October, which reported Saeedianjoo's dismissal from her job and the reception of "death threats" from unidentified motorcyclists.

There is a growing concern about the intensified pressure from security forces on the families of individuals who lost their lives during the protests. Numerous reports have surfaced in recent days detailing efforts to hinder commemoration ceremonies for those who were killed.

In a related incident, Maysam Pirfalak, the father of Kian Pirfalak, an 8-year-old boy who lost his life in Izeh last year during the protests, made an announcement on November 9. Through a video posted on his Instagram page, Pirfalak revealed that the commemoration ceremony for his son took place a week earlier beside Kian's grave in the village of Parchestan in Izeh, amid what he described as "tightened security."

Further exacerbating the situation, reports from human rights media indicate the separate detentions of Mahnaz Tarrah and Shaqayeq Moradi, by security agencies in Tehran. The Follow-up Committee of Iranian Detainees reported on Tuesday that security forces conducted a search at Moradi's residence.

Mahnaz Tarrah, with a history of past detentions and enduring judicial sentences, was released from prison in February following the “amnesty” granted to some political prisoners.

As of now, no information has been made public regarding the reasons for the recent detentions and the charges brought against the two citizens.