Journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, Who Reported on Mahsa Amini’s Death Stand Trial in Iran
New Age
Islam News Bureau
01
June 2023
• Journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, Who Reported on Mahsa
Amini’s Death Stand Trial in Iran
• First Arab Woman, Rayyanah Barnawi, Returns from Space Station
• ‘Loss for Iran’s Wildlife’: Aras Amiri Jailed in Tehran Calls for
Environmentalists’ Release
• 255 Days since Mahsa Amini's Death, Iran Has Yet To See End of Protests,
Executions and Closed-Door Trials
• Afghan Authorities Continue to Intensify Repressing Women and Girls: HRW
• Iran Women Volleyball to Compete At Asian Games after Half a Century
• ‘Excellent Arrangements’: Pakistani Women Pilgrims Laud Hospitality ByHajj
Mission In Madinah
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/niloufar-elaheh-mahsa-iran/d/129902
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Niloufar
Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi and their newspapers insist they were just doing
their jobs
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Wed May 31, 2023
Two journalists
responsible for breaking the story of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman
killed after being held in custody by Iran’s morality police last year, stood
trial in an Iranian court this week.
Niloufar Hamedi and
Elaheh Mohammadi have been imprisoned in Iran for the past eight months and
face charges of “conspiracy and rebellion against national security” and
“anti-state propaganda” – charges carrying a possible death penalty, according
to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The two women
separately stood trial on Monday and Tuesday in a revolutionary court presided
over by notorious judge Abolghasem Salavati, according to Iranian pro-reform
outlet SharghDaily.
The trial comes
after nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as anger over the regime’s
treatment of women and other issues flared up after the death of 22-year-old
Amini.
Authorities
violently suppressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the
biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a
decade.
Hamedi was arrested
after visiting Amini in hospital and reporting on her serious medical condition
and coma after she was in police custody, according to RSF.
Shargh Daily said
Hamedi was denied access to lawyers for most of her detention, while the UN
said the journalist has been held in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin
Prison since September.
In her trial on
Tuesday, Hamedi denied all accusations and highlighted her journalistic duties
within the law, her husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorloo, wrote on Twitter.
Mohammadi, who also
stood trial in a separate hearing, was arrested after reporting on Amini’s
funeral in September, according to RSF and the UN.
The families of the
journalists were informed of the charges seven months after the arrests were
made, RSF said.
Hamedi, Mohammadi
and another detained journalist, Narges Mohammadi, were awarded the prestigious
2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for outstanding contribution
to press freedom.
“We are committed
to honoring the brave work of Iranian female journalists,” Zainab Salbi, the jury Chair, said according to a UN statement,
adding “They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey
the truth.”
The Iranian
government has continued to clamp down on dissent with several recent death
sentences handed down to protesters. Critics say the regime has taken capital
punishment to a new level.
Source: edition.cnn.com
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/31/middleeast/iran-journalists-arrest-mahsa-amini-intl/index.html
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First Arab Woman,
Rayyanah Barnawi, Returns from Space Station
Rayyanah
Barnawi made calls with school kids about her experiments while she was on
board the ISS/ Reuters
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May 31, 2023
An all-private
astronaut team of two Americans and two Saudis, including the first Arab woman
sent into orbit, splashed down safely off Florida on Tuesday night, capping an
eight-day research mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The SpaceX Crew
Dragon capsule carrying them parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast
of Panama City, Florida, after a 12-hour return flight and blazing re-entry
plunge through Earth's atmosphere.
The splashdown was
carried live by a joint webcast presented by SpaceX and the company behind the
mission, Axiom Space.
It concluded the
second space station mission organized, equipped and trained entirely at
private expense by Axiom, a 7-year-old Houston-based venture headed by NASA's
former ISS program manager.
The Axiom 2 crew
was led by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 63, who holds the U.S. record
for most time spent in orbit with 665 days in space over three long-duration
missions to the ISS, including 10 spacewalks. She now serves as Axiom's
director of human spaceflight.
"That was a
phenomenal ride. We really enjoyed all of it," Ms Whitson radioed to
mission controller’s moments after splashdown.
Ax-2's designated
pilot was John Shoffner, 67, an aviator, race car driver and investor from
Alaska.
Rounding out the
crew as mission specialists were the first two astronauts from Saudi Arabia to
fly aboard a private spacecraft - Ali Alqarni, 31, a fighter pilot for the
Royal Saudi Air Force; and RayyanahBarnawi, 34, a biomedical scientist in
cancer stem-cell research.
MsBarnawi is the
first woman from the Arab world ever launched into Earth orbit and the first
Saudi woman to fly in space, an achievement that came barely five years after
women in the Gulf kingdom gained the right to drive in June 2018.
In August 2022,
Sara Sabry became the first Arab woman and the first Egyptian to fly to space
on a brief suborbital ride operated by the Blue Origin astro-tourist venture of
Jeff Bezos.
The ISS stay of
Alqarni and Barnawi was also notable for overlapping with that of Sultan
Alneyadi, an ISS Expedition-69 crew member from the United Arab Emirates,
marking the first time three astronauts from the Arab world were aboard the
space station together.
The Axiom 2
mission, which launched on May 21, was the latest in a series of space
expeditions bankrolled by private investment capital and wealthy passengers
rather than by taxpayer dollars as NASA seeks to expand commercial access to
low-Earth orbit.
Axiom, which sent
its first four-member astronaut team to ISS in April 2022, also has signed a
contract with the U.S. space agency to build the first commercial addition to
the orbiting laboratory.
California-based
SpaceX, founded by Twitter owner and Tesla Inc electric carmaker CEO Elon Musk,
supplied the Falcon 9 rocket and crew capsule that ferried Axiom's team to and
from orbit and controlled the flight.
NASA furnished the
launch site at its Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and assumed
responsibility for the Axiom crew during their stay aboard the space station,
orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
Source: ndtv.com
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/astronaut-crew-including-1st-arab-woman-in-orbit-returns-from-space-station-4083769
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‘Loss for Iran’s
Wildlife’: Aras Amiri Jailed in Tehran Calls for Environmentalists’ Release
Thu 1 Jun 2023
Patrick Wintour
Aras Amiri has kept
a low profile since she was released from Iranian detention two years ago,
avoiding interview requests after returning to the UK. But now, the British
Council employee, who spent three years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison,
wants to speak. An injustice has compelled her: the detention of seven friends
and environmentalists she left behind.
Kept in solitary
confinement for 69 days, Amiri was allowed to return to Britain after serving
just under a third of a 10-year prison sentence. In the women’s ward, she not
only met fellow British-Iranian NazaninZaghari-Ratcliffe, but NiloufarBayani
and SepidehKashani, two of the seven members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage
Foundation in jail since 2018. Of the nine originally jailed, one has been
released after serving his two-year sentence and another, the founder of the
group, KavousSeyedEmami, died in his prison cell only two weeks after his
arrest. The authorities called it suicide, but produced no autopsy.
Amiri said she had
previously turned down interview requests because she finds newspaper framing
of Iranian prisoners reductionist and populist. But the only crime of her
environmentalist friends, she said, had been to try to save nature from
extinction.
“They are so close
to my heart,” she said. “Can you imagine these people were always under the sky
and now, for such a long time, being in a confined space? Lack of freedom is
very difficult for anyone, but maybe for those that are used to living in
nature, it is made harder.”
Amiri said she
learned about Iran’s environment and wildlife through conversations with them
in prison, where they held informal workshops for the detainees. “They made
prison a better place just by their presence,” she said.
“They always taught
if you want to do conservation in a sustainable way, you need local people to
trust you so that they continue to support the work, and that applies to
conserving the Asiatic cheetah, or dolphins in Qeshm Island, or wild sheep in
Larestan, or the Iranian leopard in Golestan national park,” said Amiri. “What
makes it more appalling is that the more their imprisonment is prolonged, the
greater there is an irreversible loss for Iran’s wildlife, and Iran’s wildlife
is also the world’s wildlife.”
For World
Environment Day on 5 June, Amiri has helped organise an event at which leading
environmentalists will pay tribute to the importance of the group’s work, and
again call for their release.
Dr Christian
Walzer, now director of health at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New
York, who has worked with members of the Iranian group since 2007, said they
were “really instrumental” in work to get the near-extinct Asiatic cheetahs
defined as a distinct subspecies and to get collars on the animals to track
their movement across huge areas.
Unfenced roads,
drought, the decreasing population of the prey species, and habitat loss have
all led to the decline to as few as 12 Asiatic cheetahs, although Walzer said
the precise data was unclear. In March, a female cheetah pregnant with three
cubs was killed by a car. Walzer said since the group’s arrest, international
cooperation with Iran had withered.
Asked why this
group was targeted, he said: “It is incomprehensible. … Putting up camera traps
[treated as espionage by their accusers] is standard practice all over the
world. We might talk about politics, but just as normal chit-chat. They would
talk about rock climbing or fixing Land Cruisers so we could chase animals.”
If there was
anything distinctive about the group, it was that some members, such as
MoradTahbaz, a British-Iranian-American trinational, had international
connections.
Asked why they were
arrested, Amiri said: “Everyone has their own reading. Often stopping the
exploitation of nature conflicts with those in power, including governments and
big corporations. This is true in Iran and elsewhere ... It is hard to find a
direct logic. Sometimes it can be random: perhaps it is to create fear.”
But Amiri cannot understand
why the group has been treated so harshly, even by the standards of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two weeks of solitary confinement is difficult, she
knows from her own experience, so two years is unimaginable. One of the
prisoners, Bayani, sent a letter detailing the interrogation techniques used
against her, including sexual threats and warnings that she would end up dead.
Amiri was arrested
after she had flown to see her grandmother, who was in a coma in Tehran. She
was charged with forming a group to subvert the regime. She said all her work
at the British Council had focused on fostering knowledge of Iranian art and
artists in the UK. “It was transparent, and agreed with the foreign ministry.”
Despite living in the UK since the late 80s, she had an Iranian passport, and
chose not to campaign for her release in the UK, hoping discreet lobbying by
her family would make the judiciary grant her appeal.
“The principle for
me was not to collaborate if I could tolerate the pressure. It is hard if the
threats are to your life and people that you know and love,” she said. “The
interrogators know their job very well.”
Source: theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/loss-for-irans-wildlife-woman-jailed-in-tehran-calls-for-environmentalists-release
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255 Days since
Mahsa Amini's Death, Iran Has Yet To See End of Protests, Executions and
Closed-Door Trials
May 30, 2023
Last year, when a
22-year-old Iranian woman died in police custody after she was arrested for not
wearing her hijab properly, protests erupted throughout the country on a scale
that had not been seen in a very long time.
Demonstrators,
especially women, took to the streets, voicing their discontent by chanting
'Death to the Dictator,' cutting off their hair and setting their hijabs on
fire. This woman, Mahsa Amini, whose grave was vandalized recently, was
arrested by Iran's notorious 'Morality Police' on September 13, 2022,
reportedly due to her wearing a loosely tied hijab. She died just three days
after being arrested.
The protests
against the Iranian regime has lasted for 255 days, claiming the lives of more
than 500 individuals.
At the outset of
the protests, there was widespread anticipation that these demonstrations could
serve as a catalyst for change in Iran's strict authoritarian regime. Many
people worldwide saw them as a crucial moment, with speculations circulating
about the government potentially banning the morality police (although this did
not ultimately happen). However, the protests have persisted, and in response,
the government has intensified its efforts to suppress the demonstrations.
Recently, the grave
of Mahsa Amini was vandalized. Photos from her family revealed that a pane of
glass covering her tombstone and portrait was shattered. Mahsa's brother,
Ashkan Amini, shared on Instagram that this was the second attack in recent few
months.
Although he did not
directly accuse anyone, he expressed his determination to repair the damage and
challenged those responsible.
According to BBC,
the family's lawyer, Saleh Nirbakht, confirmed that the grave was targeted by
'individuals known for such destructive acts'.
He also mentioned
that authorities previously obstructed the installation of a protective canopy
over the grave by threatening a local welder with business closure.
Ever since the
beginning of the protests, dozens of men have been executed for taking part in
the protests. The most recent one took place on May 19, when three men who were
sentenced to death in relation to the nationwide "anti-government"
protests last year, were executed by the authorities.
Why? According to
the government, these individuals are convicted for their alleged participation
in a shooting attack that resulted in the deaths of three security personnel in
Isfahan in November.
These trials,
according to Amnesty International, are 'unfair' and it said that people who
have been arrested are often tortured.
In another recent
turn of events, two Iranian journalists faced a 'closed-door trial' on Monday
(May 29) for charges related to their reporting on the funeral and protests of
Amini. Experts fear that close-door trails generally mean executions.
Iran protests reach
Cannes
In a demonstration
against the execution of Iranian citizens, MahlagnaJaberi, a 33-year-old model
from Iran, made a statement by wearing a black body-hugging dress created by
designer Jila Saber.
The dress
incorporated a halter-neck style designed to resemble a beige noose around her
neck, along with a cutout on the bust. Jaberi used this outfit as a means of
expressing her protest. The back of her dress had 'Stop executions' written on
it.
Source: dailyo.in
https://www.dailyo.in/news/255-days-since-mahsa-aminis-death-iran-has-yet-to-see-end-of-protests-executions-and-closed-door-trials-39888
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Afghan Authorities
Continue to Intensify Repressing Women and Girls: HRW
June 1, 2023
The head of the
women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch said, on the one hand, the
Taliban are persistently pleading for recognition and inflow of international
aid, and on the other hand, they continue to intensify repressing Afghan women
and girls.
Heather Barr,
interim co-director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch on
Wednesday said on Twitter that the Taliban are reluctant for meaningful talks.
Reuters news agency
has revealed that Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s Prime Minister met
with the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in southern Kandahar
province on May 11.
The group’s supreme
leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada is reluctant to interact with the
international community, Reuters reported quoting from local sources.
Barr said on
Twitter she does not think this meeting signals Taliban interest to engage with
the international community. She believes this issue has been raised mostly at
a meeting of a senior Qatari official with Hebatullah Akhundzada.
Previously, the
Taliban spokesperson had said that Mullah Hassan Akhund, the group’s acting
deputy prime minister in a meeting with his Qatari counterpart had urged Qatari
officials to play a decisive role in building trust between Afghanistan and the
international community.
Over the past 20
months, Taliban leadership has continuously issued restrictive orders against
Afghan women and girls’ rights to education and work. In the latest decree, the
group has barred female staff from working for the United Nations agencies and
aid organizations.
Despite close
relations between Qatar and the Taliban, Doha has criticized the gender
policies of the Taliban against women. Meanwhile, Qatar’s foreign minister had
previously said that the Taliban’s restrictive policies barring women’s
education and work are not acceptable for Qatar.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-authorities-continue-to-intensify-repressing-women-and-girls-hrw/
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Iran women
volleyball to compete at Asian Games after half a century
May 30, 2023
TEHRAN – Iran’s
women’s volleyball team will participate in the Asian Games after about half a
century.
Team MelliBanovan
competed in the 1974 Asian Games for the last time held in Tehran.
Now, the team are
to play in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Iran’s women’s team
will first participate at the 2023 AVC Challenge Cup for Women and the
tournament will serve as part of the team’s preparatory program ahead of the
2022 Asian Games .
The competition
will be held from June 18 to 25 in Gresik, East Java, Indonesia.
Iran, headed by
Fatemeh Rashidi, are drawn in Pool B along with Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong in
AVC Challenge Cup.
Source: tehrantimes.com
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/485330/Iran-women-volleyball-to-compete-at-Asian-Games-after-half-a
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‘Excellent
arrangements’: Pakistani women pilgrims laud hospitality by Hajj mission in
Madinah
June 01, 2023
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistani women pilgrims this week lauded “excellent arrangements” made by the
country’s Hajj mission in Madinah, describing their experience so far as
smooth, with travel and accommodation excellently catered to, and helpful
guidance regarding the pilgrimage provided in detail.
Over 31,000
Pakistani pilgrims have already arrived in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj
pilgrimage later this summer. More than 27,000 are still in Madinah while 4,000
have reached Makkah by bus, the Pakistani religious affairs ministry said on
Wednesday.
In January, Saudi
Arabia removed COVID-19 restrictions for the 2023 Hajj season and said it would
host pre-pandemic numbers of pilgrims. Pakistan’s pre-pandemic Hajj quota of
179,210 pilgrims was also restored and the upper age limit of 65 for pilgrims
was removed.
Around 80,000
Pakistani pilgrims will be performing the pilgrimage this year under the
government scheme, while over 91,000 will use private tour operators. Hajj
flights from the country commenced on May 21, with the final flight set to
depart for Saudi Arabia on June 21.
Hajj is expected to
begin on June 26.
“[The Pakistan Hajj
mission] has made excellent arrangements for Hajj pilgrims and we have not
encountered any issues so far,” Dilshad Bibi, a Pakistani pilgrim from
Rawalpindi, told Arab News.
“We are grateful to
Almighty Allah for granting us the opportunity to be His guests,” she said,
describing the hospitality as “exceptional” and hotel arrangements as being of
“high quality.”
Zara Ahmed, who is
planning to perform Hajj for the first time and hails from Lahore, expressed
satisfaction with the arrangements in Madinah and urged others to appreciate
the “good things.”
“I came on Hajj for
the first time and the arrangements are very good,” she told Arab News, adding
that she had posted on social media about her experience to help provide
guidance to others.
“We should learn to
appreciate the overall experience rather than focusing on complaining.”
Another pilgrim
from Karachi, Hiba Farooq, said she was “surprised” by how good the
arrangements were after reaching Madinah.
“The government has
made excellent arrangements, which we were not expecting, but the food quality
and everything else are very good,” she told Arab News.
“They have also
made good arrangements for women pilgrims, and the rooms are also
satisfactory.”
Farooq urged
pilgrims to cooperate with the authorities in managing the rush and learn to
stand in queues: “We should also demonstrate cooperation by patiently waiting
for our turn as starting a sudden uproar benefits no one.”
Another pilgrim,
Nusrat Javed, appreciated the training provided to pilgrims by the Pakistani
Hajj mission to prepare them for the journey ahead.
“They [the Pakistan
Hajj mission] explained all the steps of performing Hajj in great detail, and
this is crucial because even the slightest mistake is not acceptable in this
process,” she told Arab News.
Sehar Aslam, a
pilgrim from Islamabad, said the arrangements had been “incredibly smooth,”
from the collection of passports from the Hajj camp to the administration of
vaccines, appreciating Hajj mission representatives and volunteers for being
“available everywhere” to assist pilgrims.
“The entire process
was timely,” she said. “From our flight departure to landing, and the hotel we
are staying in is excellent, and everyone is cooperating very well.”
Source: arabnews.pk
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2313906/pakistan
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/niloufar-elaheh-mahsa-iran/d/129902