Roxana Saberi

Please take a moment to sign this online letter calling on Iran’s government to release all student prisoners of conscience; end its practice of discrimination in university admission and enrollment; and allow students to freely practice their right to expression, association, and assembly.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran:

Video:  Iran’s Future Held Captive

Between April 2009 and September 2011, Iranian authorities arrested at least 436 students, and sentenced 254 students, many of whom were mistreated in prison. At least 364 students have been barred from continuing their education, many for their political as well as religious beliefs. Currently, … Read the rest

10 Most Censored Countries

Los Angeles Times
April 30, 2012

TEHRAN — As hundreds of thousands of bookworms converge on this capital, Iranian writers are pleading with the government to loosen its grip and allow a banned publisher into the Tehran International Book Fair.

The 10-day book fair, which kicks off Tuesday at the Grand Mosque Mosalla, bills itself as “the most important publishing event in Asia and the Middle East,” drawing an average of 550,000 visitors a day. Though most publishers come from the Islamic world, the festival also welcomes Western companies hawking scientific or technical titles such as “Bioeconomics of Fisheries Management” and … Read the rest

Reporters Without Borders
April 25, 2012
(In Farsi)

PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2012.

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the arrest of Narges Mohammadi, a journalist and spokesperson of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Centre for Human Rights Defenders. She was detained in the northern city of Zanjan on 21 April after receiving an intelligence ministry summons and was transferred to Tehran’s Evin prison to serve a six-year jail sentence.

The press freedom organization also deplores a 21 April government decree making it obligatory for news agencies and other news media to always identify the source of any information

… Read the rest

ANGELS OF IRAN | A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS: ROXANA SABERI

The story of Roxana Saberi’s time in prison with Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, two of The Yaran (“the Friends”), sentenced to 20 years in prison simply for helping administer the needs of the Baha’i community in Iran. Featuring journalist Roxana Saberi and Elise Auerbach, Iran Specialist for Amnesty International USA.

Roxana:  ”I think the lessons that Mahvash and Fariba taught me in prison are universal. And they can apply to anybody, anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be in prison. We have our own prisons, are … Read the rest

McClatchy Newspapers
By Lesley Clark
April 23, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama took aim Monday at Syria and Iran, imposing new sanctions on the two regimes as well as the “digital guns for hire” that develop technology enabling the two governments to monitor, track and harass their own people.

The same satellite communications, mobile phone and Internet technology used by activists across the Middle East and North Africa to speak to the outside world is being used against them in Syria and Iran, amid a “deplorable and deteriorating human rights situation” in both countries, the White House said.

Obama … Read the rest