Latest news with #KurdishIranian
Shafaq News
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Kurdistan's Interior Minister: Iran border threat eliminated
Shafaq News/ Iranian Kurdish opposition groups no longer pose a military or security threat along the shared border, Kurdistan Region Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed stated on Wednesday. Ahmed confirmed to reporters that the joint high committee established by Iran, Iraq, and the Kurdistan Region had completed its mandate, emphasizing that bilateral relations have now reached a 'constructive and advanced stage.' Addressing concerns over Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, he noted that 'appropriate measures' had been taken and 'these forces no longer represent a security or military threat along the shared border.' In September 2023, the joint high committee overseeing the implementation of the Iraq-Iran security agreement announced the complete evacuation of camps and headquarters belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region, in preparation for reclassifying them as refugees. The disarmament deadline under the Iraq-Iran security pact expired on September 19, 2023. Iranian officials had earlier threatened military action against the groups if Baghdad failed to implement the terms. About Kurdish Iranian Opposition The Iranian Kurdish opposition comprises various political and armed movements advocating for Kurdish rights, many of which have been based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Below is a summary of the key groups: • Kurdi stan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI): Founded in 1945, led by Mustafa Hijri • Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan: Founded in 1969, led by Abdullah Mohtadi • Khabat (Or ganization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle): Founded in 1980, led by Babashekh Hosseini • Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK): Founded in 1991, led by Hussein Yazdanpanah • Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK): Founded in 2004, led by Siamand Moeini and Zilan Vejin Iran has also launched cross-border strikes targeting their facilities, with operations by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involving missiles and drones. Tehran has accused these groups of contributing to unrest within its borders. Earlier, the Kurdistan Regional Government stated that it does not permit any group to use its territory to threaten neighboring states.
New York Times
12-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
It's a Mistake to Leave Human Rights Out of Iran Talks
When the Islamic Republic of Iran marked its 46th anniversary in February, protests erupted in the remote southwestern city of Dehdasht. Iranians chanted anti-regime slogans and held signs reading, 'From Dehdasht to Tehran, unity, unity.' The demonstrations were part of a national movement that has been simmering since 2022, after the killing of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, prompted tens of thousands of Iranians to take to the streets to seek justice and demand freedom. The Women, Life, Freedom uprising has continued through rooftop chants, daily defiance of the regime's hijab law and sporadic, smaller protests across the country. President Trump should not forget the Iranian people's resolve when his Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sits down for talks with Iran's foreign minister over its nuclear program on Saturday in Oman. The Trump administration has reinstated a maximum pressure policy designed to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon and counter its influence abroad. But so far, the administration has conspicuously omitted a critical issue for Iranians: human rights. It's a stark departure from Trump's first-term agenda, which condemned violations in Iran and framed human rights as a fundamental component of its foreign policy vision. More important, it's a grave miscalculation. Decades of U.S. precedent show that upholding human rights has been integral to helping keep America secure. The Carter and Reagan administrations, in particular, used human rights diplomacy as a critical tool to negotiate with the Soviet Union, using public and private pressure to secure arms control agreements, advocating for oppressed populations behind the Iron Curtain and bringing to a close one of the most dangerous eras of the 20th century. Mr. Trump still has an opportunity — arguably, an obligation — to push for human rights as a central element of talks with Tehran. Doing so would place him on the right side of history, bolster U.S. credibility among many Iranians and strengthen his negotiating position. Without it, many Iranians who oppose the Islamic republic will see any potential agreement as merely throwing a lifeline to an increasingly unpopular regime. Uprisings are bound to persist amid heavy repression. Without accountability, justice and improvement in the human-rights situation, these waves will almost certainly cause instability in Iran and the region. Protests that erupted in December 2017 — at the time, the most widespread geographically since the 1979 revolution — sparked waves of uprisings against the regime's mismanagement, corruption and repression. According to the U.N. Human Rights Council's Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, human-rights violations during the 2022 uprising amounted to crimes against humanity: Security forces killed at least 551 protesters and bystanders, including 68 children, and arrested as many as 60,000. Since then, the clerical establishment has continued to discriminate against women and girls, in what Iranian activists and human-rights defenders — including the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who is on furlough from a more than 13-year prison sentence — call gender apartheid. A draconian hijab and chastity bill passed in December imposes still harsher restrictions on women; penalties now include death. While the law has been paused, parts are being enforced. The Islamic republic also continues its longstanding use of executions to instill fear, particularly among minority groups such as the Kurds and Baluchis, as exemplified by the risk of execution of Pakhshan Azizi, Sharifeh Mohammadi and Verisheh Moradi. At least 901 people were executed last year — the most in a decade in Iran and the most per capita globally. In an environment where authorities act with impunity, families of the victims of protest crackdowns, prisoners and dissidents don't have the right to seek justice. If they demand it, they face reprisals through state harassment and prison sentences, such as with Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirbisheh, the parents of the slain protester Pouya Bakhtiari. Nearly every American president in the past half-century has recognized that human rights and national security are inextricable — even if merely through statements. The Carter administration attempted to center human rights in its foreign policy, ultimately with uneven application and mixed results, including in Iran. The Reagan administration advocated an aggressive policy grounded in military and moral strength against the Soviet Union, with human rights forming the heart of that moral stance. The Reagan administration continued Carter-era support of Poland's anti-Communist Solidarity movement, which emerged in 1980, and monitored Soviet compliance with human-rights provisions of international agreements, including the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. Unlike Jimmy Carter, who saw human rights as a goal in its own right, Ronald Reagan took a conservative approach, wielding human rights as a Cold War weapon against Communism. As a result, while the administration attacked Communist governments' human-rights records, it supported anti-Communist authoritarian regimes that violated human rights in regions like Latin America. Mr. Reagan also embraced a more narrow definition of human rights, focusing primarily on religious freedom and civil and political rights violated by the U.S.S.R. Still, his efforts increased global pressure on the Soviet Union and emboldened dissidents in the Eastern bloc. Although U.S. support for authoritarian governments elsewhere was highly problematic, the Reagan administration's human-rights diplomacy proved successful in the Eastern bloc. When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985, he and his advisers recognized that improving their human-rights record was necessary for advancing negotiations with the United States and the West. Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev went on to hold talks on nuclear weapons limitations that culminated in the signing of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — a diplomatic win for Mr. Reagan. Just two years later, the Solidarity movement toppled Poland's Communist government, triggering a wave of mostly peaceful revolutions across Eastern Europe that rolled back Communism and contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Though the end of the Cold War had multiple causes, U.S. pressure on human rights was indisputably a critical factor. Of course, Iran and Soviet Union differ ideologically and in the types and scale of their human-rights violations, especially regarding the oppression of women. But Cold War policy precedent nevertheless offers useful lessons for the Trump administration. U.S. negotiators have a range of issues they can use as leverage, as outlined by the recommendations in the March 2025 report of the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, such as demanding the release of political prisoners, ending abusive and punitive hijab-related practices and imposing a death penalty moratorium. Human rights, of course, are not simply bargaining chips. They are the bedrock of any meaningful and lasting diplomatic effort. When the United States firmly stands with the Iranian people in their pursuit of accountability and positive change, it builds good will and credibility — not only among Iranians but also among America's allies in the region, which have common concerns over security and stability. As the first Trump administration itself acknowledged, 'Respect for human rights and democracy also produces peace, stability and prosperity — making it an integral component of U.S. national security.' In the negotiations, the Trump administration must demonstrate it stands with the Iranian people by addressing Iran's atrocious human-rights abuses. Failing to do so risks alienating Iranians and — when they ultimately prevail in their decades-long struggle against the Islamic republic — being remembered in history as the administration that abandoned them.
Shafaq News
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Kurdish Iranian prisoner faces imminent execution, activists warn
Shafaq News/ On Monday, human rights activists and political figures raised alarm over the potential execution of Kurdish Iranian political prisoner Verisheh Moradi, detained for over a year and a half. A statement signed by 247 political and civil activists warned that her death sentence could soon be upheld by Iran's Supreme Court and carried out at any moment. Moradi was arrested on August 1, 2023, by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj and later transferred to Tehran's Evin Prison. In November 2024, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced her to death on charges of "armed rebellion against the state" (baghi) due to alleged links with Kurdish opposition groups. According to activists, she spent five months in solitary confinement, enduring "severe psychological and physical pressure" before her sentencing by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. They denounced the trial process, highlighting that "neither she nor her lawyer was allowed to present a defense." Moradi's contributions to women's empowerment in Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria were also emphasized, with advocates arguing that her case is a "crackdown on Iranian women's rights, not just an isolated incident." Iran has witnessed a rise in executions, particularly against ethnic minorities and political dissidents. In 2024, at least 31 women were executed, marking the highest number recorded by Iran Human Rights (IHR). Calls for an immediate halt to executions have intensified, with human rights organizations urging Iranian authorities to overturn death sentences against political prisoners and ensure fair trials. The growing crackdown has drawn global scrutiny, as more than 50 Kurdish political detainees and thousands convicted on drug-related charges remain at risk of execution.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani Returns to L.A. for The 2025 Farhang Foundation Nowruz Celebration
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani never wanted to leave Iran. It's the country where she grew up, and where her family and friends remain, but her artistry and desire for freedom was something she was unable to fully express in her a musician, Mohammadkhani faced restrictions in Iran. Under the conservative religious government, Iranian women are only able to sing in public if they're part of a choir, or as solo artists for female-only audiences."I never had any permission to perform in the country, and all my performances were always outside of Iran," she this, Mohammadkhani is a globally acclaimed classical Iranian singer."I've always wanted to stay in Iran, even with all the restrictions that were imposed on me as an artist," Mohammadkhani tells me. "But I have [left] because of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement and the Mahsa Amini incident."She's talking about the 2022 tragedy when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in custody of Iran's morality police (the Gasht-e Ershad) after she was detained for not wearing her hijab properly (as part of the mandatory Islamic dress code). Following Amini's death, the country fought back and protests rang all throughout the region and the movement quickly grew under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom."Mohammadkhani's global performances have only recently resumed because as punishment for her support of "Woman, Life, Freedom," her passport was confiscated and she was stuck in Iran until January 2024. "Over the last few years [in Iran] I was also forbidden to work, even as a [music] instructor, and I was forbidden to leave the country to go and perform outside of Iran," she feminists have been protesting and organizing against the conservative religious rule since its theocratic government was established in 1979, but the government has continued to rule. Amini's death gained global recognition and it became the largest act of protest since the 1979 revolution. This series of protests in Iran left close to 20,000 people arrested and more than 500 dead, as reported by the Human Rights Mohammadkhani's travel ban was lifted, she fled to Dubai, where she currently resides."In picking a country for exile, I selected a country that is closest to my homeland. And in a way, I feel like I still have connections to Iran through the Persian Gulf. I feel my roots there," Mohammadkhani living in Dubai, Mohammadkhani has resumed performing and is "determined to focus on [her] career and expand [her] recordings and live performances," she says. As part of her return, the Iranian singer has come to the United States for the first time in over a decade to perform at the Farhang Foundation's Nowruz concert at Royce Hall UCLA on Sunday, March 9. The concert is part of the Foundation's annual Iranian New Year Celebration in L.A., which begins with a day-long Nowruz festival."Our sole mission is to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the global community," says Alireza Ardekani, the CEO of the Farhang Foundation. The Farhang Foundation is a non-political, non-religious, and not-for-profit organization that was founded in 2008 by a group of philanthropists in Southern California."The reason the organization was established was because our founders felt that what the general [public] sees about or hears about Iran is what they see on the news, and specifically, what the current government of Iran is doing," he says. "All the beauty of our culture, our history, our poetry, our every contribution that Iran and Iranians have made to the world over centuries was really simply forgotten."The California-based organization is one of the largest Iranian cultural and arts organizations in the world—globally, they reach over 8.1 million people. This year's free day-long Nowruz festival will begin at 12 p.m. at UCLA's campus. The 6 p.m. concert following the festival will be held at Royce Hall and features Mahdieh Mohammadkhani, Cameron Shahbazi, and The Iranshahr Orchestra."We invite everyone to come and celebrate Nowruz because Noruz is a festival that you don't have to be Iranian to celebrate," Ardekani says. "It's a celebration of mother nature, spring, rebirth, and just the beauty of nature." Plan Your Perfect Weekend! Get the best events, dining, and activities around Los Angeles delivered to your inbox. Sign up for Los Angeles Magazine's Weekend Guide below or by clicking here.
