Kurdish parties of Iran sign cooperation agreement

ERBIL, Aug.22 (AKnews)- Revolutionary Organization of the Toilers of Kurdistan (best known as Komala) and Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK), two Kurdish opposition parties of Iran, signed an agreement for cooperation, said a member of the central committee of Komala.

Komala General Secretary Abdolla Mohtadi and his counterpart in DPK, Mostafa Hejri, met yesterday in the politburo of DPK, said Salar Pashayi.   Read more

Iran: Two death and two prison sentences for four Kurdish activist brothers

Iran: Two death and two prison sentences for four Kurdish activist brothers

HRW: Iran report

Human Rights Watch WORLD REPORT 2012: In 2011 Iranian authorities refused to allow government critics to engage in peaceful demonstrations. In February, March, April, and September security forces broke up large-scale protests in several major cities. In mid-April security forces reportedly shot and killed dozens of protesters in Iran’s Arab-majority Khuzestan province. There was a sharp increase in the use of the death penalty. Read more

Iran: Kurdish activists sentenced to death

Two Kurdish activists has been sentenced to death by the Iranian courts for ‘waging enmity against God’ through ‘propaganda activities’ and ‘membership in a dissident group’ according to the Mokerian News Agency.

Ali and Habib Afshari were arrested last year, and are currently imprisoned at Oroumiyah Prison. Ali Afshari was arrested on December 2010, and shot during the arrest. According to Iran Human Rights, both of his hands were paralysed consequently.

by Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar Read more

Iran: Kurdish woman death sentence lifted, say reports

Iranian authorities allegedly lifted the death sentence imposed on Kurdish woman activist Zeyneb Jalalian.

Jalalian’s lawyer Dr. Mihemed Serif stated that Iranian authorities had after a long-standing silence turned the death sentence into imprisonment.

1982-born Zeyneb Jalalian was arrested in the mid 2008 in Kirmasan city. On 14 January 2009, Revolutionary Court sentenced her to death penalty with charges of cooperation with PKK and combatant. Jalalian was tried without the presence of her chosen lawyer, and her court session had reportedly lasted only seven minutes. Jalalian has been held at Kirmasan prison since then. Read more

GoPetition: Save Loghman and Zanyar Moradi

Sign the petition: Twenty Kurdish asylum seekers will be deported next week from Sweden to Iran

Twenty Kurdish asylum seekers will be deported next week from Sweden to Iran, where they face detention, torture and possibly execution, unless you stop it.

With their lives on the line, the asylum seekers — all of whom are documented refugees with the United Nations — have taken the extraordinary step of going on a hunger strike to protest their deportation. Several of them have been hospitalized after collapsing from hunger. Those remaining have sewn their mouths shut.

Carin Zellerman is a Change.org member from New York City. She happened to meet the Kurdish asylum-seekers while she was visiting Stockholm last week, and now she’s working to raise a massive international outcry to make the Swedish Ministry for Migration and Asylum Policy reverse its deportation order and save the asylum seekers. Read more

Kurdish political prisoner executed in Iran

KERMAN, — According to the latest correspondence the Iranian prison officials of Kerman prison have secretively executed a Kurdish political prisoner named Eziz Xakzad in the morning time of October 4^th.

Eziz Xakzade was hanged while his sentence had been reduced to five years. His family and his lawyer weren’t informed of the execution. Read more

Jiyar Gol meets PJAK women on the borders

Jiyar Gol: Two weeks ago I took a journey to border mountains to meet members of The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, PJAK. The conflict between Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and PJAK has intensified in the past days. Iran says it will continue the military activities until PJAK is pushed out of Iran, PJAK says it will continue fighting until they are allowed to do political activities in Iran: click here -  Meeting PJAK’s Women

Kurdish Studies and language classes at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)

At the direction of President McPhee, plans were developed to create a Middle East Center (MEC), which officially came into being in December 2006.  From July 2006 through June 2009 MTSU had a Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages grant to initiate language programs in Arabic and Hebrew, develop courses for a new Middle East Studies (MES) minor, support faculty members working in MES, and offer workshops for middle and high school teachers in the region that presented ways to incorporate the study of the Middle East in their curriculum.   Read more

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