JINA MAHSA AMINI
The face of Iran's protests. Her life, her dreams and her death.

Read all about the Iranian Zan, zendagi, azadi  (Women, life, freedom) revolution in 2023!
 .
Gino d'Artali
Indept investigative journalist
CLICK HERE ON HOW TO READ ALL PARTS OF THIS SPECIAL DEDICATED TO JHINA MAHSA AMINI AND ALL OTHERS ASSASINATED BY IRAN'S DICTATORSHIP.

Click here for the 2022 'Chapters'

When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali

Note by Gino d'Artali: The Zan, zendagi, azadi!> (Women, life, freedom) has just started and will only then end when khamenei and his puppets i.e. the morality police and the basijis give way or go away!!
So here is where the protests continue and I'll continue to inform you about it. That's my pledge.
 

Jinha
Women news agency
In reference library
9 Dec 2021
<<A glance at the conditions of women in Iranian prisons - women's rights are human rights
On World Human Rights Day, we have a glance at the conditions of women in Iranian prisons. The conditions of women in Iranian pri-sons are deplorable. The clerical regime sends prisoners to exile and deprives them of their minimum rights, making the inhuman prison conditions worse. The conditions of women in prisons across Iran are particularly dire in the Covid-19 pandemic as most provinces are in the red zone. Prison health is feeble, and the virus has spread un-controllably in most prisons. The regime also refused to take the slightest step to provide health and care facilities for prisoners and to grant them leave or furlough. The concentration of prisoners in prisons prevents social distancing and increases the possibility of disease transmission. And in most prisons, there is no separation between the infected persons and other prisoners. Many women political prisoners have been infected with Covid-19. They included Zeinab Jalalian, Massoumeh Senobari, Nejat Anvar Hamidi, Forough Taghipour, Parastoo Mo'ini, and Yasaman Aryani. They did not have access to medical treatment throughout their illness. Amnesty International says it has seen copies of four letters written by offi-cials from the prison organization. The Prisons Organization operates under the auspices of the Judiciary. The officials wrote to the Minis-try of Health warning of severe shortages of personal protective equipment, disinfectants, and critical medical equipment and supplies. But the Ministry of Health has ignored these requests, and Iran's prisons are catastrophically lacking the necessary equipment in the face of the spread of infectious diseases. The Coronavirus crisis provided an opportunity for the mullahs' regime to physically elimi-nate its resilient opponents or torture them through denial of treat-ment. The daily news of the virus' deaths worldwide helped prevent sensitizing public opinion and invoking international condemnation.
The Iranian resistance has repeatedly called for the release of prisoners, especially political prisoners, albeit temporarily until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and stressed the need to send an international fact-finding mission to visit prisons and meet with prisoners, primarily political prisoners. Following is a brief review, albeit based on the information available, on the situation of women's wards in various prisons.>>
Read it here:
https://women.ncr-iran.org/2021/12/09/the-conditions-of-women-iran-prisons/

France 24
3 Feb 2023
By Eljani Ershad
<<Iranians liken photos of pacifist protester on hunger strike to 'Auschwitz' treatment
New photos of Farhad Meysami, a pacifist Iranian political activist, after spending weeks on a hunger strike in prison, have enraged Iranians on social media. His worrying state of health, evident in these pictures, prompted some Iranians to compare his situation to that of prisoners in Nazi death camps. With bones jutting out from his skin and eyes staring out into space, the man's face is unre-cognisable. This is no longer the same man who went on a hunger strike four months ago. On February 3, the BBC's Persian service published new images of activist Farhad Maysami in the notorious Rajaei Shahr Prison in the suburbs of Tehran. Meysami is an Iranian political activist known for his pacifist beliefs. He was arrested in August 2018 after he publicly criticised Iran's mandatory veiling laws by designing a button badge that read <I am against the compulsory hijab>.
....
He was sentenced to six years in prison for <anti-state propaganda> and <assembly and collusion against national security> for designing the buttons. When he began his hunger strike after the outbreak of the latest wave of protests in Iran, Meysami said his intentions were to demand an end to the execution of protesters in Iran, the imprisonment of political and social activists and the har-rassment of women under the pretext of hijab laws. He repeated these intentions on February 3 in a message published by the BBC.
Despite describing these demands as a <mission impossible>, Meysami reiterated his dedication to the hunger strike and implored others to join his efforts.>>
Read more here:
https://observers.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230203-iran-prison-hunger-strike-activist-farhad-meysami 

The Guardian
19 Jan 2023
By Maryam Foumani and Patrick Wintour
<<Iran to execute mentally ill man for allegedly burning Qur'an during protest
A 35-year-old man from a small village in northern Iran has been sentenced to death on charges including apostasy for allegedly burning a Qur'an and <insulting holy things> during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Javad Rouhi has not been entitled to a lawyer of his choice in court and suffers from a severe mental illness. Human rights groups say he was tortured so terribly in a detention centre run by the feared Revolutionary Guards that he lost his ability to speak and walk, and became incontinent. Rouhi was sentenced to death on 3 January on three generic charges - waging war against God, corruption on Earth, and apostasy - and the specific charge of inciting people to fight and kill each other in relation to an alleged incident in Nowshahr, Mazandaran province, on 21 September. He was accused with two others of entering the headquarters of the traffic police in Nowshahr, setting it on fire, throwing items from inside on to the street and burning items, including a Qur'an. According to the Mizan news agency, run by Iran's judiciary, the chief justice of the province said Rouhi had <confessed to the fact that he destroyed the headquar-ters and set it on fire>. Habibullah Qazvini, Rouhi's state-selected defender, said his client did not know a Qur'an had been burnt, and that in any event according to the transcript of the verdict, <the review of the CCTV footage and the statements of Javad Rouhi only show his presence at the gathering place, and there is no evidence that he participated in burning and destroying public property>. A copy of the verdict was obtained by Dadban, a Turkey-based coun-selling and legal education centre. Rouhi was tortured in the first days of his detention and forced to confess, and no other evidence exists of his involvement, a rights group has said. Rouhi's family were allowed to visit him just once before his court hearing. <They didn't allow any more visits or phone calls after that,> his father said in a video message published on social media on 26 December. Rouhi has a mental health illness, his father said. A source said he regularly took the strong painkiller Tramadol.
....
The court said the guilty verdict on incitement charges was in rela-tion to the deaths of five people, whom it named as Hanane Kia, Hossein Ali Kiajori, Mehrzad Awadpour, Mohsen Malmir and Amir Hossein Shams - all protesters apparently killed by security agents. No members of the security forces were killed on that day in the town. The two other men sentenced to death are 19-year-old Mahdi Mohammadifad and 18-year-old Arshia Takdastan. The Oslo based Iran Human Rights, said: <At least 109 protesters are currently at risk of execution, death penalty charges or sentences. This is a minimum, as most families are under pressure to stay quiet; the real number is believed to be much higher.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/19/iran-to-execute-mentally-ill-man-for-allegedly-burning-quran-during-protest

NCRI
Womens news agency
2 Feb 2023
<<January 2023 Report - Female journalists detained in Iran
An unprecedented number of female journalists in the largest prison for reporters. Next week, the Iranian people's nationwide uprising will enter its sixth month. During the past five months, the mullahs' regime has been trying to prevent the dissemination of news and
information about the extent of the suppression of protests and the dimensions of its crimes by arresting journalists and cutting off the Internet. Due to the lack of transparency of the Iranian regime, the number of journalists and photographers arrested since the begin-ning of the uprising varies between 70 and 100. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has estimated the number of journalists arrested since the beginning of the protests on September 16, 2022, to be 71 people, some of whom have been temporarily released on bail, and 28 people, including 14 women, are still in jail.
In its annual report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the detention of reporters and journalists during the uprising as a sign of massive repression. Reporters Without Borders noted that an unpre-cedented number of female journalists have been arrested and imprisoned in Iran. Reporters Without Borders has placed Iran in 178th place among 180 countries in the World Press Freedom index in 2022, after China, Myanmar, and Turkmenistan. Only Eritrea and North Korea are behind Iran. The Committee to Protect Journalists announced Iran as the top jailer of journalists in 2022. China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus lag Iran in the CPJ index. According to the CPJ, Iranian authorities have imprisoned a record number of female journalists, a reflection of the prominent role they have played in covering this women-led uprising.>>
Read more here including portraits and ages of the women and full report:
https://women.ncr-iran.org/2023/02/02/female-journalists-detained-in-iran/

France 24
2 Feb 2023
<<Text by News Wires-
Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been jailed for the past six months, said he has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention, according to a statement published by his wife Thursday. Panahi, whose films have won prizes at all of Europe's main film festivals, was arrested in July even before the current wave of protests that have shaken the regime started in September.
There were expectations last month that the judiciary could order his release, but he remains behind bars in Tehran's Evin prison. He star-ted his dry hunger strike, refusing food and water, from Wednesday, he said in the statement. <Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest against this inhumane behaviour with my dearest possession -- my life,> said Panahi. <In protest against the illegal and inhumane behaviour of the judicial and security appa-ratus and this hostage-taking, I have started a dry hunger strike as of February 1. I will refuse to eat and drink any food and medicine until the time of my release. <I will remain in this state until per-haps my lifeless body is freed from prison. Panahi, 62, was arrested on July 11 and had been due to serve a six-year sentence handed down in 2010 after his conviction for <propaganda against the sys-tem>. But on October 15, the Supreme Court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial, raising hopes among his legal team he could be released.>>
Read more here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230202-imprisoned-iran-filmmaker-jafar-panahi-says-on-hunger-strike

France 24
2 Feb 2023
By Eljani Ershad
Iran: 'Sham' courts hand out severe sentences for passive protest
After months of strikes and protests in Iran, thousands of people have been arrested and now face harsh sentences by the courts, including death. Activists, journalists and lawyers have received long prison terms for supporting the demonstrations or expressing their opposition to the regime, even passively. Activists and NGOs say that the Iranian judiciary is increasing the pressure on those arrested, handing out absurd charges, forcing confessions through extortion and torturing detainees. Since the start of the <Woman, Life, Freedom> protests in Iran in mid-September 2022, at least 19,000 people have been arrested by the Islamic regime, according to human rights organisations. Thousands of them, indicted by the Attorney General's Office, are now facing trials, which Amnesty International qualifies as <unfair> and <shams>. Some sentences have already been handed out by the courts.>>
Read more here:
https://observers.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230202-iran-arrested-protesters-courts-severe-prison-sentences

NCRI - Womens committee
Womens news
1 Feb 2023
<<Massoumeh Senobari re-arrested, MEK political prisoners to be banished
Massoumeh Senobari in a dreaded Karaj prison; Political prisoners Zahra Safaei and Parastoo Moini are exiled instead of being released
According to the news published in recent days, Massoumeh Senobari was arrested on December 31, 2022, in Karaj and transferred to the city's Fardis Prison (Kachouii). Ms. Senobari's family is unaware of her condition and is worried about her. Massoumeh Senobari, the daughter of Mohammad Ali, was born in 1988 in Tabriz and has a daughter. She had been sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of <propaganda against the state> and <insulting> the mullahs' supreme leader and was imprisoned in the women's ward of the Central Prison of Tabriz. Massoumeh Senobari was arrested on February 24, 2019, and was transferred to the detention center of the Intelligence Department of Tabriz. She was brutally tortured during interrogation and could not walk due to vicious whipping. Due to the blows to the head, her vision was blurred. Her leg broke under the torture, and her heel cracked. She was released in August 2019 on a bail of 600 million tomans until her trial. Massoumeh Senobari was arrested again on February 5, 2020, without a previous summons, at her sister's house and subjected to severe torture. In October 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak in the Central Prison of Tabriz, she was infected with the Covid-19 disease. Political prisoner Massoumeh Senobari also suffers from heart problems, but the Tabriz prison authorities prevented giving her the medication provided by her family. She was eventually released from prison in 2021. Ms. Senobari was again arrested in Karaj and transferred to Fardis Prison (Kechoui) on December 31, 2022, and there is no information about her condition.
MEK political prisoners Zahra Safaei and Parastoo Moini notified of banishment
On January 30, 2023, the clerical regime's Judiciary informed the MEK political prisoners Zahra Safaei and Parastoo Moini that they would be banished to Qom prison. The two political prisoners are currently detained in Evin Prison. Security forces arrested political prisoners Zahra Safaei and Parastoo Moini on February 24, 2020, and transferred them to the solitary cells of Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Ac- cording to a verdict on January 23, 2021, political prisoner Zahra Safaei, her daughter, Parastoo Moini, and her son, Mohammad Massoud Moini, were sentenced to eight years, six years, and six years of imprisonment, respectively.Zahra Safaei and her children are accused of <assembly and conspiring to act against national security through communication with the Mojahedin (MEK),> <fulfilling their goals,> and <participating in Mojahedin circles and gatherings.> Their other charge is <propaganda activity against the state through writing slogans, reading statements and letters, and installing banners on public roads.> The decision to banish political prisoners Zahra Safaei and Parastoo Moini is communicated to them when two-thirds of their prison term has passed, and they should be released.>>
Read more here:
https://women.ncr-iran.org/2023/02/01/massoumeh-senobari-re-arrested/

Jinha
Womens news agency
1 Feb 2023
<<Iran: Fatemeh Gorji sentenced to five years in prison
News Center- Fatemeh Gorji, a master's student at the University of Semnan, has been sentenced to five years in prison and additional punishments, including ban on travelling abroad for two years, living Semman and Tehran for two years and participating in cultural-educational and social activities for two years. The student activist will be able to live only in the Borazjan and Bushehr cities for two years and she has been sentenced to two-year community service.
Fatemeh Gorji was arrested at protests on October 14, 2022. Pre-viously, she was sentenced to one year in prison and 74 lashes and banned from travelling abroad and being a member of political par-ties for two years on charges of <Acting against national security, propaganda against the regime, insulting regime's authorities and disturbing public order.> >>
Source:
https://jinhaagency1.com/en/actual/iran-fatemeh-gorji-sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison-32716

The Guardian
Agence France-Presse in Paris
31 Jan 2023
<<Iranian couple filmed dancing in Tehran are jailed for 10 years
An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of more than 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran's main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists have said. Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance, Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, were arrested in early November after a video went viral showing them dancing roman-tically in front of the Azadi Tower. Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, in defiance of Iran's strict rules. Women are also not allowed to dance in public, let alone with a man. A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as imposing bans on using the internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said. The couple, who already had a following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of <encouraging corruption and public prostitution> as well as <gathering with the intention of disrupting national security>, it said. HRANA cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings, and attempts to secure their release on bail had been rejected. It said Haghighi was now in Qarchak prison for women, outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists. Iranian authorities have clamped down severely on all forms of dissent since Mahsa Amini's death in September. The death of Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules, sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime. At least 14,000 people have been arrested, according to the United Nations, ranging from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets. The couple's video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi at one moment lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind. One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the futuristic Azadi (Freedom) Tower is a place of huge sensitivity. It opened under the rule of the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in the early 1970s, when it was known as the Shahyad (In Memory of the Shah) Tower.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/31/iranian-couple-filmed-dancing-in-tehran-are-jailed-for-10-years
Note by Gino d'Artali: the actual number of protesters in (secret) prisons today, 31 January 2023 is 20.400 or more.

The Guardian
30 Jan 2023
By Patrick Wintour - Diplomatic editor
<<Iranian protesters sentenced to death were tortured, says Amnesty report
The alleged torture of three young Iranian men facing the death penalty has been detailed in a report by Amnesty International that raises deep concerns about the country's judicial system. One of the men, Mehdi Mohammadifard, was raped by prison guards and severe-ly beaten, the rights group said. Amnesty said it had learned that Mohammadifard suffered anal injuries and rectal bleeding that required treatment in a hospital outside the prison where he was being held. The 19-year-old went into hiding after being summoned for questioning by the Revolutionary Guards before his arrest in the early hours of 2 October. During his arrest he was thrown to the floor and suffered a broken nose, Amnesty said. Mohammadifard was sentenced to death along with 18-year-old Arshia Takdastan and 31-year-old Javad Rouhi in connection with protests in Noshahr, in Mazandaran province, on 21 September that broke out in response to the death in police custody five days previously of Mahsa Amini.
Their convictions on charges including <corruption on Earth> and <enmity against God> are subject to appeal at the supreme court.
Amnesty said it had obtained information that Rouhi was subjected to severe beatings and floggings, including on the soles of his feet and while being tied to a pole, and that ice had been placed on his testicles. Takdastan has also been repeatedly subjected to beatings, Amnesty said. Amnesty said the accused were denied the right to a lawyer of their choice at a hearing lasting less than an hour. It has called for the death sentences to be quashed. Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa, said: <The fact that Arshia Takdastan, Mehdi Mohammadifard and Javad Rouhi and their anguished relatives live under the shadow of execution while Revolutionary Guards' agents and prosecution officials reasonably suspected of responsibility or complicity in their sexual abuse and other forms of torture enjoy absolute impunity highlights the sheer cruelty and inhumanity of Iran's judicial system.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/30/iranian-protesters-tortured-amnesty-report

BBC
28 Jan 2023
By Megan Lawton & Tom Richardson
Newsbeat reporters
<<Iran protests: Woman, Life, Freedom inspires dance music album
You're at an underground rave. The location's a secret to everyone except the hundreds of people crammed inside. All around you, people are dancing. The music is loud and the vibes are good.
But in Iran, raves aren't just a night out. They're an act of defiance.
A wave of protests has swept the country since September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. Demonstrators - many of them women - want to get rid of Iran's strict religious leaders and rules that limit what they can wear or do in public. In response, the government has been cracking down on protests. Hundreds have been jailed. Some say they've been tortured for confessions and others have been sentenced to death. The penalties for speaking out can be harsh, but Iranians are still finding ways to oppose the current system. And one of those is dance music.
'A huge risk'
<You would basically think that you are in a warehouse in Europe or in the US somewhere when you go into these underground parties,> says Aida. <Because nothing really looks different. <But it's a huge risk for the people who attend, the people who organise and the DJs.>
DJ Aida says music and dancing are a sign of freedom
Aida, 30, is a DJ and music producer who was born in Iran and relocated to Canada aged 12. She still has relatives and friends in the country, and watching from afar made her want to do something to help. So Aida has teamed up with fellow DJ Nesa Azadikhah to produce Woman, Life, Freedom - an electronic compilation by a group of female Iranian women, producers and musicians. They hope the album will raise awareness of the protest movement back home, and plan to donate the money it makes to organisations helping women in Iran.>>
Read more here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-64425840
Read also the embedded articles/links:
- 15 minutes to defend yourself against the death penalty
- Why reporting on Iran comes at a heavy price
- 'I use Call of Duty to speak to my family in Iran'

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