( RFE/ RL ) – Record temperatures, prolonged droughts, and the drying up of rivers and lakes are displacing tens of thousands of Iranians each year, experts say.

Many of the climate migrants are farmers, laborers, and fishermen who are moving with their families from the countryside to major urban areas in Iran in search of alternative livelihoods.

Iranian officials have blamed worsening water scarcity and rising desertification on climate change. But experts say the crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement and rapid population growth.

While the exact number of climate migrants is unknown, Iranian media estimated that around 42,000 people in 2022 were forced to migrate due to the effects of climate change, including drought, sand and dust storms, floods, and natural disasters. The estimated figure for 2021 was 41,000. Observers say the real figures are likely much higher.

Experts say a growing number of Iranians are likely to leave rural areas as more areas of Iran — where most of the land is arid or semiarid — become uninhabitable every year.

“It is visible because Iran is very dry, there is little rainfall, and a significant part of the country is desert,” Tehran-based ecologist Mohammadreza Fatemi told RFE/RL. “As a result, the slightest change in the climate affects the population.”

Fatemi cited the drying up of the wetlands and lakes in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan as an example. The Hamun wetlands were a key source of food and livelihood for thousands of people. But as the wetlands have diminished, many locals have migrated to the cities.

“Many people lived there, [but] they all moved to [the provincial capital] Zahedan and [the city of] Zabol,” said Fatemi. Now, he adds, many are moving from these cities to other provinces.

Environmentalist Mehdi Zarghami from Tabriz University recently estimated that some 10,000 families have left Zabol for other parts of Iran during the past year due to drought and sandstorms.

Fatemi estimates that around 70 percent of migration inside Iran is driven by the effects of climate change. “We’ve entered the phase of crisis. The next level could be a disaster,” he said.

‘Water Bankruptcy’

Some Iranian officials have warned that many parts of the Islamic republic could eventually become uninhabitable, leading to a mass exodus from the Middle Eastern country.

In July, officials warned that more than 1 million hectares of the country’s territory — roughly equivalent to the size of Qom Province or Lebanon — is essentially becoming unlivable every year.

Aljazeera English: “Iran drought: Residents flee villages as water shortages set in”

In 2018, then-Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that drought and water scarcity could fuel “massive migration” and eventually lead to a “disaster.”

Iran is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change in the Middle East, which is warming at twice the global average.

Ahad Vazifeh of Iran’s Meteorological Center said in October that average temperatures in Iran had increased by 2 degrees in the past 50 years.

But experts say that climate change only partly explains the environmental crisis that Iran is grappling with.

Tehran’s failed efforts to remedy water scarcity, including dam building and water-intensive irrigation projects, have contributed to the drying up of rivers and underground water reservoirs.

Kaveh Madani, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Iran’s “water bankruptcy” had been fueled by government mismanagement and the building of dozens of dams.

“Iran’s consumption is more than its natural sources of water,” he said. “Therefore, [the authorities are] using underground sources of water. [In response,] the wetlands have dried up, rivers have dried up, and now climate change has added to this equation.”

“Temperatures are rising, there’s more dust, soil erosion will increase, and desertification will increase,” predicted Madani, a former deputy head of Iran’s Environment Department.

The government’s mismanagement of Iran’s scant water resources has triggered angry protests in recent years, especially in drought-stricken areas.

Water scarcity has also led to conflict. Iran and Afghanistan engaged in deadly cross-border clashes in May after Tehran demanded that its neighbor release more upstream water to feed Iran’s endangered southeastern wetlands.

Social Problems

Some experts say rapid population growth in Iran has also contributed to the environmental crisis, although growth has slowed in recent years.

Iran’s population has more than doubled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, rising from about 35 million to almost 88 million, with about 70 percent of the population residing in cities.

Climate migration has put a growing strain on infrastructure and created socioeconomic problems in Iranian cities, including rising poverty, homelessness, and overcrowding, experts say.

Researcher Mohammad Reza Mahbubfar told the Rokna news site in February 2021 that Tehran was a major destination for many of the country’s climate migrants. “Contrary to what officials say — that Tehran has a population of 15 million — the [real] figure has reached 30 million,” he said.

Mahbubfar added that “unbalanced development” had “resulted in Tehran being drowned in social [problems].”

The influx has led some wealthier Tehran residents to move to the country’s northern provinces, a largely fertile region that buttresses the Caspian Sea.

“My mother, who has a heart problem, now spends most of her time in our villa in Nowshahr,” a Tehran resident told Radio Farda, referring to the provincial capital of Mazandaran Province.

“My husband and I are hoping to move there once we retire to escape Tehran’s bad weather and pollution,” the resident said.

Reza Aflatouni, the head of Iran’s Land Affairs Organization, said in August that about 800,000 people had migrated to Mazandaran in the past two years.

Local officials have warned that Mazandaran is struggling to absorb the large influx of people.

Elahe Ravanshad of RFE/RL’s Radio Farda contributed to this report

Via RFE/ RL

The Big Issue

( RFE/RL ) – A revolutionary court in Iran this week began the trials of two female journalists who helped break the story of Mahsa Amini’s death.

Amini’s death in September soon after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law triggered months of nationwide protests against the clerical establishment.

Reporters Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi helped expose the case of Amini to the world by reporting, respectively, from the hospital where she died and her funeral.

The women, who have been held in pretrial detention since September, face a number of charges that include “collaborating with the hostile government of America, conspiracy and collusion to commit crimes against national security, and propaganda against the establishment.”

The trials are being held behind closed doors, despite widespread calls inside and outside Iran for them to be open to the public. The women have complained that they were allowed to meet their lawyers only last week.

Hamedi denied all charges against her as her trial began on May 30, her husband said. The 30-year-old said she “had performed her work as a journalist within the framework of the law and did not take any action against Iran’s security,” her husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlu, wrote on Twitter.

Mohammadi’s trial began a day earlier. Her lawyer, Shahabeddin Mirlohi, said the Tehran Revolutionary Court was not qualified to rule on the cases. Revolutionary courts mainly deal with prominent political cases and are seen to be less regulated and more hard-line in their judgments than ordinary courts.

Reporters Nilufar Hamedi (left) and Elahe Mohammadi helped break the story of Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody sparked outrage in Iran. (file photo)

Why It Matters: Hamedi and Mohammadi are being tried for simply doing their job.

Hamedi of the Shargh daily had reported from the Tehran hospital where Amini died from the injuries she allegedly suffered in custody.

Mohammadi of the Hammihan daily reported from Amini’s funeral in her hometown of Saghez, where the first protests erupted.

Their cases have highlighted the Iranian authorities’ renewed crackdown on dissent in the wake of the antiestablishment protests.

What’s Next: Rights groups and media watchdogs are closely watching the trial of Hamedi and Mohammadi, who have both been hailed for their reporting and honored by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Shargh editor-in-chief Mehdi Rahmanian expressed hope that the two will be acquitted and able to return to their jobs.

But the fact that the trials are being presided over by hard-line judge Abolqasem Salavati, who is known for handing out harsh sentences, is potentially bad news for the reporters . . .

That’s all from me for now. Don’t forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Golnaz Esfandiari

Via RFE/RL

Copyright (c)2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations, seven years after the regional foes cut formal ties.

In a statement issued on March 10, Tehran and Riyadh pledged to reopen their embassies within two months and reactivate a security cooperation pact. The sides also confirmed their “respect for the sovereignty of states and noninterference in their internal affairs.”

The deal was brokered by China, a major buyer of Iranian and Saudi oil. Beijing is also one of the few allies of Iran’s clerical regime, which has come under mounting pressure from the West.

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016, when protesters attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after Riyadh executed a revered Saudi Shi’ite cleric.

Since then, tensions between Shi’a-majority Iran and Saudi Arabia, a predominately Sunni Muslim kingdom, have soared. The two rivals have fought proxy wars across the Middle East, including in Yemen and Syria. Pro-Iranian armed groups have been blamed for drone and missile attacks on Saudi soil.

Why It Matters: If the agreement holds, it could help deescalate tensions in the Middle East, where the two longtime foes have competed for influence for decades.

For Iran, repairing relations with a regional foe would alleviate the growing pressure it has faced at home and abroad recently. The clerical regime has been rocked by months of anti-regime protests, the biggest challenge the authorities have faced in decades. Tehran has also been under mounting Western pressure over its supply of combat drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.

“The Islamic republic is under significant pressure, both domestically and regionally,” Thomas Juneau, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, told RFE/RL. “By stabilizing its relations with its Saudi rival, even if only partially, it provides it with some breathing space.”

What’s Next: It’s unclear if the Iran-Saudi deal will lead to a lasting rapprochement between the countries.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan struck a cautious note, saying on March 13 that “agreeing to restore diplomatic ties does not mean we have reached a solution to all disputes between us.”

Juneau of the University of Ottawa expressed doubts that there would be a “significant improvement” in Iran-Saudi ties, although he added that tensions might be “better managed.” “The pattern in Saudi-Iranian relations in recent decades has been fairly consistent: Tension ebbs and flows, but never goes below a high floor,” he said.

Via RFE/RL

( RFE/RL ) – Assal appeared in public for months without a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, in solidarity with the antiestablishment protests that rocked Iran.

Even as the demonstrations that erupted in September have waned in recent weeks following a deadly state crackdown, the Tehran resident has continued to flout the country’s hijab law, in a direct challenge to Iran’s clerical regime.

“I want to demonstrate to [the authorities] that this revolution is still alive, and our people will [fight] them with any means they can,” the 32-year-old obstetrician, who requested that her full name not be used for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

“When I walk past [security officers in the street] without a hijab, it’s not easy. My whole body shakes. But I will never back down. I will keep protesting,” she added.

Tanya, another Tehran resident, said women are removing their head scarves to take a stand against the clerical establishment that has deprived them of their most basic rights, including the right to choose how they appear in public.

“Women see it as their absolute right, a right they have been denied for years,” said the psychologist, who also requested that her full name not be used. “I’m protesting the status quo.”

Assal and Tanya are among a growing number of Iranian women who are appearing in public with their hair uncovered, including in the streets of major cities as well in restaurants, cafes, and shopping malls. They have been emboldened by the anti-regime protests in which women played a major role.

The demonstrations erupted following the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini soon after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the hijab law.

The protests began as a rebuke against the brutal enforcement of the hijab law but soon snowballed into one of the most sustained anti-regime demonstrations against Iran’s theocracy, with protesters calling for an end to clerical rule and demanding their social and political freedoms.

During the demonstrations, women and girls removed and burned their head scarves. With the protests subsiding after a state crackdown that left over 500 dead, women are venting their anger through acts of civil disobedience.

Tehran-based women’s rights activist Leyla Mirghafari said the antiestablishment protests have intensified women’s opposition to the hijab, a key pillar of the Islamic republic.

Many Iranians have had enough of the “unjust, repressive, and anti-women law,” Mirghafari, who was arrested in 2018 for removing her head scarf in public, told RFE/RL.

‘The Youth Are Fearless’

The hijab became compulsory two years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The law requires women and girls over the age of 9 to wear a head scarf in public.

Many women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable, including exposing more of their hair and wearing smaller and more colorful head scarves.

In 2018, dozens of women protested the hijab law by standing on utility boxes in major cities and waving their head scarves, in unprecedented acts of defiance.

Under President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate who was in office from 2013 to 2021, the enforcement of the hijab law was relaxed. But under ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s morality police have become increasingly active and violent in enforcing what the authorities have called the “complete hijab.”

That has fueled growing opposition to the hijab, which has long been a symbol of the state’s repression of women.

Mahsa, a mother of two, said that even in the holy city of Mashhad an increasing number of women are appearing in public without a hijab.

“I go shopping without my head scarf. I keep it around my neck. But the youth are fearless. Some don’t even have a head scarf,” Mahsa, who requested that her full name not be used for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL.

Authorities announced in December that the morality police, which enforced the hijab rule, had been abolished. But they warned that the judiciary would continue to regulate women’s public appearances and behavior.

In recent weeks, officials have warned women to respect the hijab law and threatened to punish violators. The authorities have also shut down businesses, restaurants, cafes, and in some cases pharmacies, due to the owners’ or managers’ alleged failure to observe Islamic laws and hijab rules.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei warned on March 6 that women who violate the hijab rule will be punished, saying that removing the head scarf shows “enmity towards the establishment and its values.”

Assal is aware that she could be arrested or fined for flouting the law. But she remains defiant.

“Even if they arrest me, they can’t do [much]. My protest is more important,” she said.

In recent weeks, even women newly released from prison have appeared in public without their head scarves.

They include filmmaker Mojgan Ilanlou, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 74 lashes after appearing in public without a hijab in October.

After being released in February as part of an amnesty ordered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ilanlou stood outside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison without a head scarf and flashed the victory sign.

Some commentators inside Iran have suggested that the authorities are fighting a losing battle.

“The number of women who appear in the streets without a head scarf is impressive,” conservative commentator Mohammad Mohajeri wrote in an opinion piece published in November.

“It is possible that what we’re seeing will become the norm,” he said, comparing the hijab rule to laws banning satellites dishes and receivers that Iranians widely ignore.

Canada-based rights activist Azam Jangravi said the hijab is the symbol of “the problems women face in Iran.”

“The [mandatory] hijab is the naked face of all the injustice and oppression women have faced,” Jangravi, who was among women arrested in 2018 for protesting the hijab, told RFE/RL.

Via RFE/RL

Copyright (c)2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

( RFE/RL) – Hundreds of schoolgirls have fallen sick and scores have been hospitalized in Iran’s holy city of Qom in recent months, with some parents and officials suspecting they were poisoned.

But the authorities, which have launched an investigation into the mysterious wave of illnesses, have not found any evidence of poison. No deaths have been reported.

The incidents have prompted public anger, with some Iranians accusing the government of negligence. Some parents have refused to let their children attend school.

In the latest incident, 15 schoolgirls were transferred to a hospital in Qom on February 22, the Qom News outlet reported, saying the students were in stable condition and under observation.

The first incident is believed to have occurred in November, when 18 schoolgirls in Qom were taken to a hospital after complaining of symptoms that included nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, and numbness and pain in their hands or legs.

Since then, hundreds of students in Qom, mostly girls, have fallen ill with similar symptoms in a number of public schools, which are segregated by gender. Dozens have received treatment, while others have been hospitalized.

Authorities said they have not yet been able to determine the cause of the mysterious wave of sickness, despite conducting toxicology tests.

Medical experts have not found any bacterial or viral infections in blood samples taken from sick students. The authorities have not yet dismissed the possibility that poisonous gas could have caused the illnesses, with some students reporting a strange smell in their classrooms.

Iran’s chief prosecutor, Mohammad Javad Montazeri, suggested on February 21 that the incidents could be deliberate. In a letter to the state prosecutor in Qom, Montazeri said the “worrying wave of some kind of poisoning” in schools in the city indicate “the possibility of intentional criminal actions.”

Earlier, Mojtaba Zolnour, a lawmaker from Qom, said the illnesses were “abnormal” and security officials were investigating. Another parliamentarian from Qom, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, suggested that fear and hysteria could have played a role.

Some have speculated that religious extremists, in a bid to create fear and prevent girls from attending school, could be behind the incidents.

Last week, Nafiseh Moradi, a researcher of Islamic studies at Al Zahra University, an all-female public university in Tehran, said in a commentary that it was suspicious that girls, not boys, were mainly affected by the illnesses. The article on Qom News was later removed.

Many Iranians have accused the authorities of not doing enough to find the cause of the illnesses and prevent new cases. Some angry parents have refused to send their children to school.

“Of the 250 students in our school, only 50 attended classes,” a teacher in Qom, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda last week.

A correspondent at the reformist Shargh daily who traveled to Qom reported this week that some schools in the city were “unofficially” closed.

Last week, angry parents protested outside the governor’s office and called for a transparent investigation. They also demanded that classes be held online, amid reports that the authorities were pressuring students to attend school.

An unnamed teacher at a girls’ school in Qom told Shargh that they have been ordered to teach “even if only one student” was present in class. She also said students have been told not to share notes with classmates in an apparent bid to push more pupils to attend school in person.

Some students who have fallen ill have complained of an “unknown” or “unpleasant” smell.

“My son recalled that for a moment there was the smell of rotten fish in the classroom,” an unnamed woman whose son became sick was quoted as saying by the Tejarat News outlet. “Then the school gave students face masks and told them to leave the classroom.”

“Some of the children felt more ill than the others. Several of them were transferred to medical centers. My son was among them,” the woman said, adding that her son had suffered from stomach pain.

A student who fell ill in early February told Shargh that she spent three days in a hospital.

“I still feel some weakness in my legs after 20 days, and I have problems while moving my legs,” the unnamed student said, adding that two of her friends were still in the hospital.

Similar waves of mysterious illnesses affecting schoolgirls have been reported in recent years in neighboring Afghanistan and in Central Asia. In many cases, the authorities were unable to find evidence of poison. Most of the incidents were blamed on mass panic and hysteria.

Via RFE/RL

Copyright (c)2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Now, opposition figures and civil society groups inside Iran have shared proposals that would transform or even replace the current theocratic system with a democracy.

The proposals for a post-Islamic-republic system come amid growing calls for political change in Iran, which has been ruled by the clerical establishment since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The nationwide protests, which erupted in September but have waned in recent weeks, are the biggest challenge to the authorities in decades. The establishment has responded by waging a brutal crackdown in which hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.

On February 14, around 20 labor unions, student organizations, and civil society groups inside Iran published a joint charter in which they laid out their vision for a “new, modern, and humane society.”

The charter demands gender equality, the right to free speech, the release of all political prisoners, the abolition of the death penalty, and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities.

The document was released after opposition figure Mir Hossein Musavi called for the “fundamental transformation” of Iran’s political system.

In a statement issued on February 4, the 80-year-old called for a “free” referendum and the drafting of a new constitution that would pave the way for a democratic system in Iran.

The proposal by Musavi, a former prime minister who has been under house arrest since 2011, has received support from prominent figures inside and outside the country.

Iran’s top Sunni cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has also called for a referendum on the protesters’ demands. A key dissenting voice inside the Islamic republic, the outspoken cleric has used his sermons to denounce the state’s human rights abuses.

A group of Islamic scholars in Iran’s western Kurdistan region, which was the epicenter of the protests, recently called for a referendum that would be overseen by international observers and the trial of those involved in state repression.

Meanwhile, a group of exiled Iranian opposition figures met at Georgetown University in Washington on February 10, including the former crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, and rights activist Masih Alinejad.

The group said it was working on establishing a charter for a transition to a new, secular democratic system that would be followed by free elections. It is unclear if the group of eight exiled opposition figures and their proposals would receive support inside Iran.

Washington-based political analyst Ali Afshari said a “revolutionary process” inspired by “Woman, life, freedom” — the main slogan of the anti-regime protests — has taken shape in Iran.

Afshari, a former student leader who was jailed in Iran for his activism, said calls for a referendum and the publication of a charter by local civil society groups had created a “promising outlook” for the protest movement.

Peyman Jafari, a historian and assistant professor at the College of William & Mary, a public research university in Virginia, said the charter drafted by grassroots organizations in Iran was a “potent reminder that radical change will come from inside and from below.”

“It provides a set of demands that are concrete and can unite millions of Iranians around achievable goals,” he said.

Via RFE/ RL

Copyright (c)2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

( RFE/RL ) – In late November, three Iranian doctors traveled to the country’s western Kurdistan region, the epicenter of ongoing antiestablishment protests, to help treat wounded demonstrators.

But within days of their arrival, the medical professionals were arrested on security charges. Before they were released on bail last month, the three men were tortured in custody, informed sources told RFE/RL.

The men were charged with “disrupting national security” and “committing crimes against the country’s internal and external security” due to their attempts to treat “rioters,” a term the authorities have used to refer to antiestablishment protesters.

Yaser Rahmanirad, a general practitioner from the western city of Khorramabad; Behnam Ohadi, a psychiatrist from Tehran; and Homayoun Eftekharnia, an anesthesiologist from the capital, could face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.

 

They are among the dozens of medical workers who have been arrested for taking part in the protests or treating demonstrators wounded in the state crackdown.

The authorities have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands of people since the demonstrations erupted in September. The protests are the biggest threat to Iran’s clerical establishment in years.

Kurdistan has been the scene of some of the deadliest crackdowns by the authorities, who have deployed heavily armed troops to the region and used live ammunition against protesters. Many demonstrators injured in the clampdown have refused to be taken to a hospital for fear of arrest.

Solitary Confinement

On November 30, Rahmanirad, Ohadi, and Eftekharnia headed to the city of Saghez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death after her arrest by Iran’s morality police triggered the nationwide protests.

After treating several people and distributing medicine to those in need in Saghez, located in Kurdistan Province, the three doctors travelled to neighboring West Azerbaijan, another province with a significant Kurdish population.

Just hours after arriving in the city of Mahabad on December 3, the doctors were arrested by security forces, who seized their medicine and equipment. They were then taken to prison, where they were subjected to torture, informed sources said.

The three men were held in solitary confinement for more than a month and subjected to sleep deprivation, the sources said. The interrogators also falsely told them that their family members had been killed, in an attempt to break them, the sources added.

After hours of interrogations, the men were exposed to bright lights and loud sounds, including the Islamic call to prayer, to prevent them from sleeping, the sources said.

One of the interrogators told them that “those opposing the Islamic establishment deserve to die because if they receive treatment they will again engage in riots,” one of the sources told RFE/RL.

Another interrogator said that by attempting to treat injured protesters themselves, the doctors had undermined trust in state health facilities and spread “propaganda against the establishment,” the source said.

Interrogators also accused Rahmanirad, a former student activist who had been arrested in the past, of having ties to exiled Kurdish opposition groups that the authorities have blamed for the unrest in Kurdistan, the sources said.

‘Constantly Watched’

Rahmanirad, Ohadi, and Eftekharnia are among the dozens of doctors, nurses, and other medical workers arrested during Iran’s crackdown on the antiestablishment protests.

Homa Fathi, a Canada-based activist and member of the International Iranian Physicians and Healthcare Providers Association, told RFE/RL that she had documented the arrests of at least 53 medical workers as well as 54 medical students during the crackdown.

Fathi said the majority had been released on bail, but added that the real number of those arrested is likely to be much higher. “They don’t have a good situation,” she said. “Some have been [prevented] from working. They’re being constantly watched.”

Last month, the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that Mohsen Sohrabi, a doctor at a hospital in the western city of Sanandaj, had gone missing a day after being summoned by security officials. Sources said Sohrabi had been repeatedly threatened by security officials.

In December, Aida Rostami, a doctor who allegedly treated injured protesters in Tehran’s Ekbatan neighborhood, died under mysterious circumstances. The authorities said she had fallen off a pedestrian bridge following an argument with a man who was later arrested. Other sources said she was targeted by security forces.

Also in December, Iran sentenced to death Hamid Qarahasanlou, a radiologist who had been involved in charity work, over the killing of a member of the security forces during protests in the city of Karaj. Later in January, Qarahasanlou’s death sentence was overturned due to flaws in the investigation and amid protests by the international medical community.

In November, reports emerged that Shoresh Heydari, a pharmacist in the city of Bukan in West Azerbaijan Province, had been arrested. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said Heydari had offered medical tips to protesters on his Instagram page. Another source said the pharmacist had also treated protesters.

In October, security forces in Tehran used tear gas to prevent a protest by health workers, who were calling for an end to the state crackdown and the misuse of ambulances for holding and transferring detained protesters.

Via RFE/RL

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