Iran’s Reformists, Rights Defenders React To Recent Arrests

Hashem Dadashpur, a deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, said on Saturday that "In this academic year, Iraq has adopted strict conditions in its evaluation system."

The list is for Iraqi students who want to continue their studies abroad on government’s scholarships.

He explained that the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education used Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, and Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities to evaluate foreign universities, which led to the omission of some Iranian institutions. 

Dadashpur said the decision is not specifically related to Iranian universities and many universities from Belarus, Jordan and Lebanon are also removed from the list, noting that 14 Iranian universities are still in the list. 

According to him, currently 56,000 Iraqi students are studying in Iranian universities. 

Several of the Iranian universities are institutions established after the 1979 revolution to promote Shiite Islamic ideology.

In recent years, numerous reports have been published about the decline in the quality of education in Iranian universities, which has led to the migration of elite students from the country.

The 2022 World Games, an international multi-sport event meant for disciplines or categories that were not contested in the Olympic Games, was inaugurated in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 7. 

The president of the Iranian federation, Gholamreza Shabanibahar, said Iran plans to voice its official protest to the World Archery Federation in the coming days.

Last week, the Iranian karate team was also denied visas to enter the US for the World Games. Fox News claimed that the national team has direct links to the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) that is designated as a terrorist organization by Washington. The report said opponents of the regime and Gold Star families – a name given to immediate family members of the killed US service members -- called for an immediate ban.

Beverly Wolfer, sister of Major Stuart Adam Wolfer, who was killed in Iraq on April 6, 2008 by an Iranian-backed terror cell, said, “Allowing Iranian sports teams to compete in the US legitimizes a terrorist regime by flying its flag and playing its anthem on American soil.” 

The captain of the karate team, Zabihollah Poursheib, told ISNA, "America did not issue visas for various teams, including wrestling, which shows that the Americans mix non-sports and political issues with sports."

The Islamic Republic, especially since Ebrahim Raisi took office, has appointed several former IRGC officers as top managers of government organizations such as sports federations.

In May, Canada Soccer cancelled a controversial friendly match with Iran’s national team after many Iranians objected to the visit of Iranian football officials.

In short reports, websites affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard said Tajzadeh was arrested on charges of “assembly and collusion against state security,” an accusation routinely used to jail all opponents and even those who are considered generally loyal to the principle of having an Islamic Republic.

Tajzadeh was deputy-interior minister during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami in 2000s and had become an outspoken critic of policies pursued by dominating hardliners in Iran in recent years. He spent seven years in prison after months of nationwide protests to the results of 2009 presidential elections reinstating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a second term.

But in the past three years, Tajzadeh became increasingly vocal against the hardliners and even Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. From his public comments it was apparent that he remained loyal to the concept of an Islamic Republic but otherwise criticized almost every aspect of the political system Khamenei has nurtured.

In recent days, Tajzadeh vehemently opposed the increasingly harsh methods to enforce hijab in his tweets. In March he opposed the government's policy of not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

"Iranians still remember the bitter experience of Saddam Hussain's war (1980s) and his aggression against Iran, a neighboring country. For this, Iranians condemn the military attack" on Ukraine, he tweeted in March.

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Late Friday, the government’s official news website IRNA announced that two film directors, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Alehahmad have also been arrested. They were signatories of a collective statement titles “Lay down the gun” issued by more than 100 film industry personalities in the end of May calling on military and security forces who “have become tools for cracking down on the people,” not to suppress protesters who simply want their basic rights.

Dozens of Rasoulof’s films have won international awards and he is known as an independent filmmaker, who spent one year in prison for filming without a permit from the censors of Iran’s clerical regime.

After the public statement by filmmakers, Rasoulof wrote on his Instagram page that security forces were calling signatories asking them to renounce their signatures or give interviews to state media discrediting the statement.

Some Iranian activists tweeted on Friday and Saturday that Tajzadeh’s arrest puts an end to any notion that even loyal reformists would be allowed to exist in Iran.

Mehdi Nasiri, a regime insider who was once the editor of the conservative flagship, Kayhan Daily tweeted, “Mostafa Tajzadeh’s arrest…who was still defending reforms and opposing political violence for regime change, only means that the rulers are not able to discern their own interests, or those of the people and Iran.”

In a statement on Thursday, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences confirmed the presence of hijab police and teams from what the Islamic Republic calls the ‘Enjoining right and forbidding vice headquarters’ in hospitals to inspect the dress codes of the personnel and interns in medical centers.

Social media users earlier reported the presence of such teams in various wards of hospitals and medical centers, with some reports of pressures on hospitals to separate male and female patients admitted to the ICU.

Esmail Rahmani, deputy public prosecutor of the religious city of Mashhad has recently ordered the municipality to prevent ‘bad-hijab’ women from using public transportation including the metro and threatened to take legal action against such officials for failing to do so. He has also ordered the governor to ban services in banks and government offices to ‘bad-hijab’ women.

Iran’s hardliner president has recently ordered all government entities to strictly implement a “chastity and hijab” law after weeks of stricter measures on the streets.

Harsher than usual enforcement of hijab this summer has raised protests from many in Iran including some moderate religious and political figures.

No one knows if the enforcement of strict religious rules is related to the authorities attempt to show force, but some citizens see the effort as a scheme to pit people against one another.

Impatient with the quiet lobbying of the administration that produced limited results, the families have started to collectively urge Biden to make the issue a higher priority and take more concrete steps such as arranging further prisoner swaps with foreign governments, Reuters reported on Thursday. 

In a guest essay for the New York Times written "while caged in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison,” Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, who is the longest-held Iranian American prisoner, asked Biden to “End This Nightmare.”

Russia's April release of former US Marine Trevor Reed – who was exchanged with a Russia pilot after three years of detention -- intensified calls by relatives of others held overseas for Biden to act.

Neda Shargi, the sister of jailed Iranian-American businessman Emad Sharghi (Shargi), said, "The momentum and collective voice that you see among the families was... really sparked by the Reed release." "We are stronger together than in our individual advocacy." 

Some families have launched the Bring Our Families Home Campaign and even demonstrated outside the White House to make their efforts more visible.

The US government has not disclosed an official number of Americans detained abroad. The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation lists more than 60 US citizens wrongfully in countries including Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen, and Iran.