Sunday, March 25, 2018

NEWS)))))) 

After 50 days of hunger strike, physical condition of political prisoners Golrokh Iraee has badly deteriorated in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, Tehran Province. Golrokh has lost 20 kilograms and she's suffering from various symptoms of hunger strike including kidney dysfunction and swelling of her legs. Golrokh Iraee has been on hunger strike since February 3, 2018, in protest to her unlawful exile from Evin Prison to Qarchak Prison, in violation of the principle of separation of prisoners of different categories, on January 24. Four UN experts issued a statement on March 19, calling for immediate release of political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee. Also on March 15, Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee (DROI) of the European Parliament, expressed alarm by the detention of two women human rights defenders in Iran.

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The state-run Salamat News March 22 reported that according to Mohammad Sahrifi, Vice-President of the Nursing Organization in Iran, Twenty-eight nurses were physically beaten up last year in Iran. He added: “Nurses continue to suffer from injustice in the country’s health system and they believe they have been deprived of their rights… This is while nurses do the greatest service to patients in medical centers.”
Sharifi believes “the nursing community shoulders the main burden of the country’s health system and is at the forefront for responding to patients. As a result, they are exposed to many dangers. Nurses are threatened by dangers due to their job such as skeletal and muscular problems, problems due to chemotherapy and the issue of beating of nurses which unfortunately, has been on the rise.”  The state-run Salamat News cited the Minister of Health as saying that the Nursing Services Tarrif Act, passed 10 years ago but not implemented since, has not been validated and no budget considered for it. Homayoun Hashemi, member of the parliamentary Health Committee, also announced that Iran faces a shortage of 100,000 nurses, while 1,000 nurses immigrate from Iran every year.

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Women and men residing in Sarpol-e Zahab, the center of earthquake in western Iran, protested a visit by Rouhani’s deputy heading the Planning and Budget Organization to this city. They called the government “liar” and made Nobakht and his accompanying delegation including the governor of Kermanshah, leave the scene. The suffering people of Sarpol-e Zahab have been living in tents, four months after the earthquake. Their living conditions are unsanitary and very difficult as they are living among the rubble, garbage and sewage. The freezing cold weather in Kermanshah Province led to the deaths of a number people in this area, including a number of children and infants.

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A young woman singing for a traditional Persian music group was prevented from singing on March 17, at a concert in Karaj. The young woman was singing when agents of the State Security Force entered the hall and ordered the group’s leader to stop the woman from singing otherwise they will not be permitted to perform their concert. A woman among the audience protested the audience and everyone present in the scene who did not show appropriate reaction in defense of the young woman singer.
Women in Iran are banned from singing and performing in public and on many occasions, concerts have been cancelled or female members of the orchestra ordered to leave the stage befor starting the concert.