File picture of a protestor holding a poster with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Tehran on March 10 strongly condemned a UN report on the Islamic republic’s response to mass protests in 2022, denouncing Western countries’ “Iranophobia”.

The report was built on “baseless claims” and “false and biased information, without a legal basis”, foreign affairs ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

Also Refer | Iranian singer who won Grammy for Mahsa Amini protest anthem is sentenced to prison in Iran

International experts said the repression of mostly peaceful protests beginning in September 2022 and “institutionalised discrimination” towards women and girls have led to “crimes against humanity”.

The UN Human Rights Council mandated the experts’ investigation – in which Iranian authorities refused to take part – following massive protests which shook the Islamic republic after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini.

A 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Amini had been arrested by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.

“Not only did the expert committee not establish the truth, but it also deliberately distorted the facts,” Mr. Kanani said.

The report, he said, “was prepared by the Zionist regime (Israel), the United States, and some Western countries”, who were “continuing a project of Iranophobia and defamation of Iran”.

These countries were “angry at the failure of their interventions during the riots”, Mr. Kanani said, referring to the protests.

Iranian authorities say the “riots” were fomented by the “enemies” of the Islamic republic, especially the United States.

The spokesman said a special committee charged by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi with investigating the protests had “recently sent its final report to the president”, without giving details on its findings.

The UN experts said “no less than 551” protesters were killed by security forces, who “used unnecessary and disproportionate force”.

The Iranian singer who won a Grammy presented by U.S. President Joe Biden’s wife said on March 1, 2024, that he had been sentenced to over three years in prison over his anthem supporting the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.
| Photo Credit: AP

An Iranian singer who won a Grammy presented by U.S. first lady Jill Biden has been sentenced to more than three years in prison over his anthem supporting the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.

Shervin Hajipour posted on Instagram on Friday, the same day that Iran held its parliamentary election, what appeared to be part of the judgment against him.

It said Mr. Hajipour received a three-year, eight-month sentence on charges of “propaganda against the system” and “encouraging people to protest.” The court issued its sentence in part because it found he hadn’t properly expressed regret over publishing the song.

Also read: Explained | Mahsa Amini and the widespread protests in Iran 

It also imposed a two-year travel ban and ordered him to create a song about “U.S. crimes,” as well as make posts about those crimes online.

Mr. Hajipour thanked his lawyers and his agent for their support.

“I will not mention the name of the judge and the prosecutor so that they don’t get insulted and threatened, because insults and threats are not in the religion of humanity,” he wrote. “Finally, one day we will understand each other. Until then.”

Mr. Hajipour already had served some prison time, but was out on bail pending the court’s decision. It was unclear if he had already reported to serve his sentence.

Iranian state-run media, focused on the election Friday, didn’t note Mr. Hajipour’s sentence. Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Hajipour’s song “Baraye,” or “For” in English, begins with: “For dancing in the streets,” “for the fear we feel when we kiss.” The lyrics list reasons that young Iranians posted online for why they had protested against Iran’s ruling theocracy after Amini’s death in September 2022, allegedly for not wearing her mandated headscarf to the liking of security forces.

The protests quickly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers. A subsequent security crackdown killed more than 500 people, with more than 22,000 detained.

Jill Biden awarded Mr. Hajipour the Grammy’s new song for social change special merit award during the ceremony last year.

“This song became the anthem of the Mahsa Amini protests, a powerful and poetic call for freedom and women’s rights,” Biden said at the ceremony. “Shervin was arrested, but this song continues to resonate around the world with its powerful theme: Women, life, freedom.”

Mr. Hajipour’s sentencing comes as other activists, journalists and artists have faced arrest, imprisonment and harassment since the demonstrations. Among those imprisoned is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran condemned Hajipour’s sentencing Friday, and demanded Iran immediately release him from the sentence.

“This blatant violation of Shervin’s rights to free speech and expression is a grave injustice and a clear affront to human rights principles,” the center said. “His imprisonment serves as a chilling reminder of the ongoing repression faced by artists, activists and dissenting voices in Iran.”

PEN America similarly criticized Iran for ordering Hajipour to prison as well as sentencing rappers and others over their music critical of the government in Tehran.

“Shervin Hajipour’s sentencing is another awful attempt to suppress the independent voices who channel the demands of the Iranian people for basic freedoms,” said Julie Trébault, director of PEN’s Artists at Risk Connection. “The Iranian government fears the power of music to give hope and inspire citizens to dream of a better and more equitable future for all.”

In this image from surveillance video aired by Iranian state television, women pull 16-year-old Armita Geravand from a train car on the Tehran Metro in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

An Iranian teenage girl injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s Metro while not wearing a head scarf has died, Iranian state media reported Saturday.

The death of Armita Geravand comes after her being in a coma for weeks in Tehran and after the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests it sparked.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported her death.

What happened in the few seconds after Armita Geravand entered the train on October 1 remains in question.

Explained | Mahsa Amini and the widespread protests in Iran 

While a friend told Iranian state television that she hit her head on the station’s platform, the soundless footage aired by the broadcaster from outside of the car is blocked by a bystander. Just seconds later, her limp body is carried off.

Geravand’s mother and father appeared in state media footage saying a blood pressure issue, a fall or perhaps both contributed to their daughter’s injury.

Activists abroad have alleged Geravand may have been pushed or attacked because she was not wearing the hijab. They demanded an independent investigation by the United Nations’ fact-finding mission on Iran, citing the theocracy’s use of pressure on victims’ families and state TV’s history of airing hundreds of coerced confessions.

Women take part in a rally on the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini which prompted protests across the country, in Istanbul, Turkey on September 16, 2023. The Banner reads, “We revolt against the world for Mahsa Amini”.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Iran’s judiciary on October 22 announced lengthy jail sentences for two female journalists who were arrested after reporting on the death last year of Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests.

Elaheh Mohammadi, 36, and Niloufar Hamedi, 31, were both found guilty of collaboration with Iran’s arch enemy the United States, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

In its ruling, the Revolutionary Court sentenced Ms. Mohammadi to six years in jail, and Ms. Hamedi was handed seven years in prison, said Mizan.

The pair were also each given five-year sentences for conspiring against state security and one for propaganda against the Islamic republic, the website said, adding that the sentences would be served concurrently.

Ms. Mohammadi, a reporter for Ham Mihan newspaper, and Ms. Hamedi, a photographer for Shargh newspaper, have been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since September 2022. Their trials started in May.

Ms. Hamedi was arrested less than a week after Amini’s death when she went to the hospital where the young woman was being treated and posted a photo of the grieving family on social media.

Ms. Mohammadi was arrested after going to Amini’s hometown of Saqez, in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, to cover her funeral which turned into a demonstration.

The verdicts against Ms. Hamedi and Ms. Mohammadi, who were tried separately, are subject to appeal, Mizan said. Their lawyer has yet to react to the rulings.

In August, Iranian media reported that authorities had questioned or arrested more than 90 journalists since the protests triggered by Amini’s death in different cities erupted across the country.

Elaheh’s sister, Elnaz, also a journalist, was arrested and kept in Evin prison for a week in February and given a three-year suspended sentence in September.

On the first day of her trial, Ms. Hamedi told the court she had worked “as a journalist within the framework of the law and had not committed any act against the security of Iran”, according to comments reported by her husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou, on social media.

Their trials were held behind closed doors and criticised by their families and lawyers.

International organisations defending journalists, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), have also condemned the trials and demanded their release.

In August, the judiciary said their trials were not only linked to Amini’s death but also to their alleged cooperation with the United States, according to the NGO United for Iran based in California.

Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled the US-backed shah.

The lawyer for the two journalists, Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi, was detained in early January for more than three weeks before being released on bail.

During the months-long Amini protests, several hundred people including security forces were killed and thousands were arrested over their participation in the demonstrations.

Seven men were also hanged over their links with the “riots”— the term Iranian officials use to describe the protests.

The latest court ruling follows the sentencing of Amini’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, last week to one year in prison for propaganda against the state and speaking with foreign and local media about the case.

In February, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed to pardon or commute the sentences of a “significant number” of convicts, although Ms. Mohammadi and Ms. Hamedi were not among those released.

People take part in a protest against the Islamic regime of Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, in Berlin, Germany, on December 10, 2022.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize on Thursday.

The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.

Other finalists this year included Vilma Núñez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez — two emblematic figures in the fight for the defense of human rights in Nicaragua — and a trio of women from Poland, El Salvador and the United States leading a fight for “free, safe and legal abortion.”

Amini died on Sept. 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that day will “live in infamy,” adding that her ”brutal murder” marked a turning point.

“It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history,” she said as she announced the awarding of the prize to Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

“The world has heard the chants of ‘Women, Life, Liberty.’ Three words that have become a rallying cry for all those standing up for equality, for dignity and for freedom in Iran,” Metsola said.

Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly removing the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.

The 27-nation EU has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials and organizations — including ministers, military officers and Iran’s morality police — for human rights abuses over the protests.

“We stand with those who, even from prison, continue to keep women, life and freedom alive,” Metsola said. “By choosing them as laureates for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2023, this House remembers their struggle and continues to honor all those who have paid the ultimate price for liberty.ʺ

Amini died three days after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police. While authorities said she suffered a heart attack, Amini’s supporters said she was beaten by police and died as a result of her injuries.

Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.

Authorities responded with a violent crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 others were detained, according to rights groups. The demonstrations largely died down early this year, but there are still widespread signs of discontent. For several months, women could be seen openly flaunting the headscarf rule in Tehran and other cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer.

The award ceremony will take place on Dec. 13.

Last year’s prize was awarded to the people of Ukraine and their representatives for their resistance to Russia’s invasion and defiance during the ongoing war.

Sporadic protests continued in Iran on Sunday amid a widespread crackdown by security forces a year after a young Kurdish woman’s death in custody set off some of the worst political unrest in four decades.

The death on September 16 last year of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by the morality police for allegedly flouting mandatory dress codes, triggered months of some of the biggest protests against the Islamic Republic’s Shi’ite clerical rule ever seen and drew international condemnation.

On Saturday, Mahsa’s father, Amjad Amini, was arrested briefly and warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter’s death, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said, and the family was not able to hold a planned vigil at her grave.

A social media video on Sunday showed protesters in the western city of Hamadan, clapping and shouting “Death to Islamic Republic”, while another video showed protesters running away after apparent shooting by security forces. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the videos.

Following the publication of the videos, the semi-official Tasnim agency carried a video appearing to show that the streets of Hamadan were calm.

Rights groups, including the activist HRANA news agency, reported that a number of people were arrested in the Kurdish cities of Saqez and Sanandaj. State media reported detentions of dozens of “terrorists” including an individual allegedly planning a suicide attack.

Meanwhile, authorities said unidentified gunmen in southern Iran on Saturday opened fire on the Basij paramilitary volunteer militia, which has played a prominent role in the crackdown, killing one and wounding three. It was not immediately clear if the incident was linked to the current unrest.

Iran’s intelligence minister warned that Iran may take unspecified action against overseas media which Tehran accuses of fomenting violent unrest in the country.

Iran International, a London-based television station critical of the Iranian government, in February said it was moving its live broadcasting studios to the United States following threats it faced in Britain.

“(Iran) International is a terrorist network, and we will take action wherever and whenever we recognise any terrorist act,” the semi-official news agency Fars quoted the minister, Esmail Khatib, as saying.

Mahsa Amini “Inspires A Movement”

In the demonstrations that followed Mahsa Amini’s death more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested, rights groups said. Iran carried out seven executions linked to the unrest.

US President Joe Biden in a statement on Friday said Mahsa Amini “inspired a historic movement … that has impacted Iran and influenced people across the globe.” Hundreds of Mahsa Amini’s supporters rallied in front of the White House on Saturday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected as “double standards and lies” Western expressions of support for women’s rights in Iran.

In a report last month, Amnesty International said Iranian authorities “have been subjecting victims’ families to arbitrary arrest and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims’ gravestones”.

Many journalists, lawyers, activists, students, academics, artists, public figures and members of ethnic minorities accused of links with the protest wave, as well as relatives of protesters killed in the unrest, have been arrested, summoned, threatened or fired from jobs in the past few weeks, according to Iranian and Western human rights groups.

Iran blames the unrest on its Western foes and rejects criticism of its legal system, saying it is based on a lack of understanding by rights groups of its Islamic laws.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Women hold placards during a global protest in solidarity with Iranian women in New York on September 16, 2023, on the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in custody. 
| Photo Credit: AFP

Gunmen opened fire on a group of paramilitary forces in southern Iran, killing one of them and wounding another three, state media reported Sunday.

Local media did not give a motive for Saturday’s attack, which occurred on the anniversary of the death while in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the outbreak of nationwide protests. It was unclear if the attack was linked to the anniversary.

The official IRNA news agency said the attack targeting members of the paramilitary Basij occurred late Saturday in the town of Nourabad, some 630 km (390 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

In a separate incident, a man was shot and wounded by security forces near the city of Saqqez, in Iran’s western Kurdish region. IRNA said he was shot after entering an area under military restrictions, without elaborating on his condition. The Kurdish rights group Hengaw had earlier reported that he was in critical condition, while the semi-official Fars news agency said he was stable.

The anniversary saw a heavy deployment of Iranian security forces in Tehran as well as Kurdish areas, where rights groups said there was a general strike.

Amini, who was from the Kurdish region, died Sept 16, 2022, after being detained by Iran’s morality police in the capital, Tehran, apparently for violating the country’s strict dress code. Women are required to wear an Islamic headscarf, known as a hijab, in public.

The protests over her death spread to all areas of the country and featured calls to overthrow Iran’s four-decade-old Shiite theocracy. Authorities responded with a heavy crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 detained, according to rights groups.

The protests largely died down early this year but there are still widespread signs of discontent with the country’s clerical rulers. For months after the protests women could be seen flaunting the hijab law, prompting authorities to launch a renewed campaign to enforce it over the summer.

Tehran, Iran:

Iranian security forces foiled an assassination attempt Saturday on the father of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in custody one year ago sparked nationwide protests, state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the attempt on Amjad Amini’s life took place as he was on his way to visit his daughter’s grave at the Aichi cemetery in the western town of Saqez.

Saturday marked the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death.

“Security forces arrested several members of a terrorist group who wanted to assassinate Amjad Amini,” the official IRNA news agency said, citing the deputy governor of Kurdistan province, Mehdi Ramezani.

It did not identify those arrested or the “terrorist group” to which they allegedly belonged, saying only that the attempt on Amjad Amini’s life “was foiled”.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody on September 16 last year following her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.

Her death triggered months-long demonstrations which saw hundreds killed, including dozens of security personnel, in what Tehran labelled as “riots” fomented by foreign governments and “hostile media”.

Seven men have been executed after being convicted in protest-related cases of murder or other violence against security forces.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People hold a placard with pictures of, as Iranian call them, martyrs, during a rally of Iranian diaspora in Europe, on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, which prompted protests across their country, in Brussels, Belgium on September 15, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Iranian security forces briefly detained the father of Mahsa Amini on September 16 and spread across mainly Kurdish areas of the country, a year after her death in police custody set off some of the biggest protests since the fall of the Shah in 1979.

State-affiliated media reported arrests of several “counter revolutionaries” and “terrorists” in different Iranian cities and said security forces had foiled plots to create disturbances around illegal demonstrations.

The death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by the morality police last year for allegedly flouting mandatory dress codes, triggered months of some of the biggest protests against the Islamic Republic’s Shi’ite clerical rule ever seen and drew international condemnation.

Also Read | A year ago, an Iranian woman’s death sparked hijab protests

On Saturday, the first anniversary of her death, a massive security force presence was deployed in Iran’s mostly Kurdish areas on Saturday in anticipation of unrest, according to human rights groups.

But footage on social media showed apparent protests in areas including Gohardasht, a neighbourhood of the city of Karaj west of the capital Tehran, and in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

One video posted on social media showed a group of demonstrators in Gohardasht chanting “We are a great nation, and will take back Iran” while drivers honked their horns and shouted encouragement. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the video.

Also Read | Iran says Mahsa Amini died of illness rather than ‘blows’

Mahsa’s father, Amjad Amini, was warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter’s death before being released, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said. Iran’s official IRNA news agency denied that Amjad Amini was arrested, but it did not say if he was briefly detained or warned.

Earlier, social media and reports by rights groups spoke of security forces taking up positions around Amini’s home in Saqez, in western Iran.

In a statement on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said: “Mahsa’s story did not end with her brutal death. She inspired a historic movement — Woman, Life, Freedom — that has impacted Iran and influenced people across the globe.”

Britain on Friday imposed sanctions on four Iranian officials and the U.S. said it was sanctioning more than two dozen individuals and entities connected to Iran’s “violent suppression” of protests.

According to social media posts, Amini’s parents had said in a statement earlier this week that, despite government warnings, they would hold a “traditional and religious anniversary ceremony” at their 22-year-old daughter’s grave in Saqez.

Widespread strikes were reported in multiple cities in Iran’s Kurdistan region.

Explained | Mahsa Amini and the widespread protests in Iran

However, IRNA said Amini’s hometown of Saqez was “completely quiet” and that calls for strike in Kurdish areas had failed due to “people’s vigilance and the presence of security and military forces”.

It quoted an official in the Kurdistan province as saying: “A number of agents affiliated with counter-revolutionary groups who had planned to create chaos and prepare media fodder were arrested in the early hours of this morning.”

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The father of Mahsa Amini was briefly detained on Saturday, human rights groups said, amid a heavy security force presence on the first anniversary of his daughter’s death in Iranian police custody that sparked months of anti-government protests.

Amjad Amini was warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter’s death before being released, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said. Iran’s official IRNA news agency denied that Amjad Amini was arrested, but it did not say if he was briefly detained or warned.

Earlier, social media and reports by rights groups spoke of security forces taking up positions around Amini’s home in Saqez, in western Iran.

The death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police last year for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code triggered months of protests that represented the biggest show of opposition to the authorities in years.

Many called for an end to more than four decades of Shi’ite clerical rule.

According to social media posts, Amini’s parents had said in a statement earlier this week that, despite government warnings, they would hold a “traditional and religious anniversary ceremony” at their 22-year-old daughter’s grave in Saqez.

A massive security force presence was deployed in Iran’s mostly Kurdish areas on Saturday in anticipation of unrest, according to human rights groups.

Widespread strikes were also reported in multiple cities in Iran’s Kurdistan region.

However, IRNA said Amini’s hometown of Saqez was “completely quiet” and that calls for strike in Kurdish areas had failed due to “people’s vigilance and the presence of security and military forces”.

It quoted an official in the Kurdistan province as saying: “A number of agents affiliated with counter-revolutionary groups who had planned to create chaos and prepare media fodder were arrested in the early hours of this morning.”

In the protests that followed Amini’s death more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested, rights groups said. Iran carried out seven executions linked to the unrest.

In a report last month, Amnesty International said Iranian authorities “have been subjecting victims’ families to arbitrary arrest and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims’ gravestones”.

Many journalists, lawyers, activists, students, academics, artists, public figures and members of ethnic minorities accused of links with the protest wave, as well as relatives of protesters killed in the unrest, have been arrested, summoned, threatened or fired from jobs in the past few weeks, according to Iranian and Western human rights groups.

Iran’s Etemad daily reported in August that the lawyer for Amini’s family also faced charges of “propaganda against the system”. If convicted, Saleh Nikbakht faces a jail sentence of between one and three years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)