Iran-backed groups must bounce back after Israeli blows, FM says

The bureau has released posters seeking information on the two men with a combined reward of up to $25 million - $5 million from the FBI and $20 million from the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program - for information leading to Levinson's location.

The two Iranian intelligence officers identified by the FBI are Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai. The FBI alleges that Baseri and Khazai, acting as officials of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), orchestrated Levinson's abduction, subsequent detention and likely death.

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The former FBI agent vanished during a freelance investigation in Kish Island, southern Iran, in 2007. His disappearance has remained an open case for the FBI, which has vowed to bring him home.

Iranian officials have never acknowledged detaining Levinson.

"The FBI remains steadfast in our commitment to return Bob to his family," said Sanjay Virmani, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division.

“Our extensive investigation continues to develop new leads and intelligence, and we will pursue all options to hold every Iranian official involved in his abduction accountable.”

The US Treasury Department previously sanctioned both Baseri and Khazai in December 2020 for their roles in Levinson's disappearance.

His family announced that he was presumed dead in March 2020, on the advice of US officials.

The Levinsons said in a 2023 statement, “We will never stop demanding that Iranian leaders answer for what happened to Robert Levinson, the greatest man we have ever known. His abduction on Iranian soil in March 2007, his years of imprisonment with a total lack of any human rights or decency, and ultimately his murder, are on their hands.”

Mai Sato addressed Article18’s joint side event at the UN in Geneva in late January, calling it a “timely opportunity” to assess the reality faced by Christian communities in Iran. Article18, a nonprofit organization, advocates for persecuted Christians in Iran and promotes religious freedom.

Sato spotlighted the plight of Christians in Iran the day before the country's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a key UNHRC mechanism aimed at improving human rights, with Iran being one of 14 countries under review by the UPR Working Group.

Sato noted that previous UN rapporteurs had raised concerns about the systemic persecution of Christians in Iran in 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2020, yet little progress has been made.

“The violations reported in these communications mirror the very issues that presenters at this event will be discussing today,” she said, citing multiple breaches of Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Iran ratified in 1975.

These include restrictions on religious freedom, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, privacy, and non-discrimination.

Titled "Christians in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Legal Protections vs. Lived Realities," the Article18 event also included testimonies from individuals affected by religious persecution.

Sato urged civil society and what she called other stakeholders, to continue sharing evidence of Christian persecution and other religious minorities, saying the reports help keep the issue on the international agenda.

UN Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Nazila Ghanea also contributed to the event.

In her remarks, Ghanea noted Article18's latest report's findings of the Iranian government's discriminatory treatment of Christian converts, citing severe sentencing in 2024, with 96 Christians facing 263 years in prison, 37 years of internal exile, and substantial fines, emphasizing the human cost behind these figures.

Although Christians are acknowledged as a religious minority in Iran, authorities impose severe penalties, particularly on those who convert from Islam to Christianity.

The judiciary said the women were detained during a domestic match between Persepolis and Tractor FC for allegedly engaging in “immoral behavior " but did not specify details or the exact charges they face.

Women have been banned from attending football matches in major stadiums like Azadi since the 1979 revolution, with authorities citing concerns over the stadium environment.

While FIFA and human rights organizations have pressured Iran to lift the ban, access remains highly restricted, the government using the country's strict Islamic laws to enforce segregation in what the UN and rights groups have termed "gender apartheid".

In 2019, FIFA intervened after the death of Sahar Khodayari, known as the "Blue Girl," who set herself on fire after being arrested for trying to enter a stadium disguised as a man.

In 2022, a limited number of women were briefly allowed into domestic league matches in Mashhad, though many were blocked from entering despite having tickets.

In spite of the bans at home, Qatar's World Cup in 2022 saw huge numbers of women turn out to support Iran.

A report by the judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency said legal proceedings on the case took place in "recent days" but did not provide further details.

Boroumand, a filmmaker and puppeteer, is best known for her contributions to children's television, while Babak is a veteran actor in Iranian theater, television, and cinema industry.

Under Iran’s Islamic laws, physical contact between unrelated men and women is generally prohibited in public, including handshakes.

While enforcement of the law varies, authorities have prosecuted public figures in the past for similar incidents.

In 2015, Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani was charged with "indecent conduct" and "illegitimate sexual relations" after allegedly shaking hands with her male lawyer.

At the time, Amnesty International condemned the charges against Faraghdani saying, “It is clearly both absurd and a violation of the right to privacy to consider a man and a woman shaking hands as a criminal offence.”

The shopkeepers protested around Molavi Street, Mohammadieh Square, and South Khayyam Street, an area known as a historic trading region of Iran's capital, holding up signs demanding economic stability and relief from soaring prices.

Similar protests were staged last year in late December when business owners and employees in Tehran’s historic bazaar staged a rare strike, spurring demonstrations in other commercial hubs in the capital.

On Tuesday, every US dollar was exchanged for 843,100 rials in the open market.

Iran’s currency has lost more than 30% of its value since early September last year, and inflation of consumer good has spiked to 50%, based on media reports from Tehran.

The Iranian rial’s sharp depreciation has had ripple effects across the economy. For merchants, it has created an untenable mix of higher costs and reduced consumer demand as at least one third of Iran is now living below the poverty line.

Since 2018, when the US re-imposed economic sanctions under the maximum pressure policy, Iranian currency has dropped nearly 20-fold. In the last five months alone, the rial has lost a further 30% of its value.

Over one third of Iranians are now living below the poverty line amid the worst economic crisis since the founding of the Islamic Republic.

Since the crisis kicked in back in 2022, it has led to many Iranians bartering for food items.