Iran’s Regime Struggles To Enforce Hijab As Women Resist

He further noted in a tweet that he has found out that based on the order his bank accounts will be blocked and he will be deprived of his citizenship rights.

Ronaghi is an Iranian blogger, human rights activist and political dissident who was arrested on September 24. 2022, along with his lawyers in front of the Evin Prison prosecutor's office and transferred to jail where he was tortured.

In protest, Ronaghi went on a hunger strike after his arrest amid antigovernment protests and refused liquid nourishment and water.

Tehran residents rushed to the hospital in November after his brother wrote in a tweet that security agents had moved Ronaghi from prison to a hospital. He said his brother “got on an ambulance fully awake after talking to his mother,” adding “whatever happens to Hossein is nothing more than a pre-planned scenario because they intend to kill him.”

Ronaghi, 37, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, has for years been one of the most fearless critics of the Islamic Republic who has stayed in the country.

Iranian authorities on November 26 released Ronaghi on bail.

In previous rounds of torture, the dissident has lost one kidney and his second kidney is functioning at 60 percent, according to human rights sources.

Hossein Ronaghi has been arrested and jailed several times in the past 13 years. He was detained in 2009 for his role in the post-election protests. Ronaghi was arrested again in February 2022 after criticizing a bill that would limit internet access in Iran.

Referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's recent speech in which he said, "The enemy has started to prepare its artillery against the upcoming elections in Iran," conservative commentator Mohammad Mohajeri quipped in a column in the reformist Etemad newspaper: "What can the enemy do to harm the elections?" and explained that "downplaying the importance of voter turnout, manipulating the election process, rigging the elections, and helping unqualified people to win the elections are among the things the enemy can do to that end."

The commentator was referring to the interference of the Guardian Council, an undemocratic body inserted into the constitution, that rejected hundreds of candidates in the parliamentary election in 2020, and again rejected qualified contenders in the 2021 presidential vote. 

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Mohajeri pointed out that the enemy cannot interfere with the process of elections. Those who interfere are Islamic Republic officials. executives, supervisory bodies, and security organizations. The enemies will begin their attacks and propaganda only after state officials and institutions make big mistakes by intervening in the election process with the aim of changing the results, he said.

Mohajeri added: "The Guardian Council is where most of such mistakes are made. It is involved from the beginning to the end of the elections and its behavior has always been controversial. The council vets the candidates and appoints the inspectors and supervisors." 

He further pointed out that many of those who have been disqualified by the Guardian Council in previous years are well-known political figures who would have been more useful than the current members of the parliament. 

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Meanwhile, reformist commentator Abbas Abdi accused current officials of making the government useless by bringing it into constant confrontation with the people and their demands. This approach, he said, “will tire everyone including yourselves and I can see the signs of this fatigue in your behavior.”

"The government's interventionist approach and its insistence on excessive and often unnecessary control and punishment, as well as its confrontational approach and its refusal to hold any dialogue have a destructive impact on many economic, political, social and cultural processes including the country's foreign policy," Abdi said.

"When we follow the news, we see many examples of that confrontational behavior for instance in trying to control prices through issuing orders. Everyone, except the government, knows that this does not work. Not only it does not work, it also leads to corruption. The government uses the same wrong methods to fix interest rates, foreign exchange rates and the price of eggs, utilities, fuel, rent and so on. 

The government intervenes in everything, including dress code and childbirth, which are issues that cannot be regulated through confrontation, penalties and imprisonment," Abdi added. 

The prominent commentator stressed that such methods can only widen the gap between the people and the government. 

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Meanwhile, shedding light on the bigger picture, former government spokesman and moderate politician Ali Rabiei wrote in article in Etemad that "All revolutions in the Middle East have given governments in the region a license to violate citizenship and human rights as well as democratic rules."

He suggested that governments that rule in the name of revolutions need to find a way to reconcile revolutionary values and citizens' rights by giving the people the right to complain to the judiciary system if government officials undermine their essential rights. 

The telegram channel of the Amir Kabir University said Yusef Sevizi, a mining engineering master's student suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday in the dormitory while the university authorities did not provide medical service.

On Wednesday last week, another student named Basir Ebrahimpour suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the Abureihan building of the university.

According to the channel, the emergency department of the university caused the death of these two students within a week by "failing to send medical staff and taking care of them in time".

Mohammad Shahriari, Head of Tehran's Criminal Affairs Prosecutor's Office, said Sweizi's body was transferred to the forensics department claiming the cause of his death will be announced after "toxicology and pathology tests".

Farsi media has speculated that the two were poisoned, but so far, there has been no confirmation.

In an article in Time magazine, she urged the British government to take more measures to stop the IRGC and its terrorist activities around the world.

“The situation in the UK had already become so dire that Iran International—a Persian language media outlet which has invited the chagrin of the regime for daring to beam reliable news into Iran via satellite—was forced to flee the UK,” added Alinejad.

She went on to question how the UK, with one of the most sophisticated security apparatuses in the world, cannot even protect people on its own soil.

The authorities of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly threatened Iran International and its employees, significantly following the coverage of the Iranian people's uprising in recent months.

Alinejad, who has had multiple threats on her life from the IRGC and was recently under 24-hour police protection during a UK visit, said: “The UK has not even punished the Islamic Republic after its own citizens were maimed and killed. For instance, in July 2021 after the IRGC’s Aerospace Force attacked the Mercer Street commercial vessel killing two European nationals, including one British citizen, not even one sanction was levied on the Islamic Republic.”

The challenge facing Europe is not only about protecting its own citizens but also about standing up for the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, underlined Alinejad.

She said by designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization, the UK prime minister can send a powerful message that he will not tolerate state-sponsored terrorism and will defend those who fight for justice and liberty.

Her work brought human rights in Iran into sharp focus after the death of Mahsa Amini last year, presenting the case to the UN Security Council, US Senate Human Rights Caucus, British Parliament, and a number of other forums around the world.

The Peace Prize jury said Boniadi was selected from a strong field of nominations “for drawing attention to human rights violations, for lending a powerful voice to support Iranian women and girls and their Woman Life Freedom movement, and for using a high-profile platform to promote freedom and justice in Iran.”

On accepting the Prize, Boniadi said: “Receiving the Sydney Peace Prize is an extraordinary honor. As my compatriots in Iran are subjected to unspeakable assaults on their minds, bodies and souls and risk their lives to speak out against the injustices they experience daily, I can only dedicate this recognition to them.”

The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia’s international prize for peace that recognizes leading global voices that promote peace, justice and nonviolence.