Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the number of students and intellectuals housed there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.
Masoud Behnoud is an Iranian journalist, He began his career as a journalist in 1964. Since then he has worked as an investigating journalist for different newspapers.
Rooz was a Persian and English news website. It was mostly staffed by exiled Iranian journalists including Masoud Behnoud, Ebrahim Nabavi, Farah Karimi, and Nikahang Kowsar with occasional articles by activists and journalists inside Iran, including Shirin Ebadi and Ahmad Zeidabadi. Another contributor is Hossein Derakhshan, who has been under arrest in Tehran since 1 November 2008.
The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been regarded as very poor. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions. The government is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for "extrajudicial" actions by state actors, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians. Capital punishment in Iran remains a matter of international concern.
Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand is an Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist born in Divandarreh. He was the editor of Payam-e Mardom. He is also the founder of Kurdistan Human Rights Organization. Founded in 2005, the organization is a politically and religiously independent body. It has offices in Tehran and Kurdistan province.
Roxana Saberi is an American journalist who currently works for CBS News as a correspondent and former Miss North Dakota pageant winner. In 2009, she was held prisoner in Iran's Evin Prison for 101 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently wrote a book about the experience.
Majid Tavakoli is an Iranian student leader, human rights activist and political prisoner. He used to be a member of the Islamic Students' Association at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology, where he studied shipbuilding. He was arrested at least three times by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, during the student protests over the disputed Presidential Election of 2009. In response to allegations that he cross-dressed as a disguise to avoid arrest, a campaign protesting his imprisonment featured men posting photos of themselves wearing hijab.
Masoud Lavasani, is an Iranian journalist and blogger. Lavasani was the culture editor of the newspaper Aftab Yazd in Tehran and has also worked for Shargh, Hamshahri and Etemad as well as the Mehr News Agency.
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki better known as Hossein Ronaghi is an Iranian human rights activist and blogger. He has spent a total of 6 years in prison since 2009 for his activities. In 2022, after his re-arrest he became one of the well-known faces of Mahsa Amini protests.
Kouhyar Goudarzi is an Iranian human rights activist, journalist and blogger who was imprisoned several times by the government of Iran. He previously served as an editor of Radio Zamane. He is a member of Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), serving as the head from 2005-2009.
Mohammad Davari is an Iranian journalist. After he documented abuses of prisoners at Kahrizak detention center, he was sentenced to five years in prison by the Iranian government, drawing international protest on his behalf.
Mahsa Amrabadi is an Iranian journalist.
Kasra Nouri is an Iranian journalist and political activist. He was the CEO of "Majzooban-e noor" website, which covered news about the Dervish religious community, Nouri was last arrested with his family during 2018 Dervish protests and sentenced to 12 years in prison and 148 lashes.
Jason Rezaian is an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post. He was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Iran in 2015.
Elaheh Mohammadi is an Iranian journalist who reports on society and women's issues for the daily Ham-Mihan newspaper. She has also worked with state-controlled media outlets such as Shahrvand, Khabar Online and Etemad Online in the past years. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.
Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian hip hop artist mainly known for his protest songs concerning Iran's societal issues and the policies of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Yalda Moaiery is an Iranian photojournalist, she is known for war, protest, natural disaster, and conflict photographs. In 2019, she gained international notoriety after Donald Trump had used one of her photos on social media to support an attack on Iran, which she publicly spoke out on. During the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022, she was one of around twenty journalists arrested in Iran. She is a member of the Iranian Photojournalists Association (IPJA).
Masoud Kordpour is an Iranian journalist and editor-in-chief of the Kurdish Mukrian News Agency.
Vida Rabbani, also known as Vahideh Rabbani, is an Iranian women's rights activist and journalist. She was arrested by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Mahsa Amini protests.
