Iran

79 million people
4,520 USD GNI (PPP)
Internet:
Not Free
Press:
Not Free
Not Free

News & Updates

Two children and their mothers Zahra Nik-A’in and Taraneh Torabi, who were imprisoned in July for following the Baha’i religion, recently fell ill in Iran's Semnan Prison and were transferred to a hospital. A third Baha'i mother, Mona Majidi, was sentenced in December and is also confined with her infant child in Semnan Prison. Freedom House calls on the government to immediately end its inhumane imprisonment of these women and children and its persecution of religious minorities.

 

Regions: 

Freedom House expresses concern with the deteriorating health of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, and calls on Iranian officials, in particular Jafari-Dowlatabadi, the Public Prosecutor General for Tehran, to end the unjust imprisonment of Sotoudeh, cease its harassment of her family, and allow her immediate access to medical care.



David J. Kramer and Arch Puddington outline what President Obama's democracy agenda should be in his second term in the following Washington Post op-ed.

Signature Reports

Special Reports

Leaping Over the Firewall: A Review of Censorship Circumvention Tools

Internet censorship poses a large and growing challenge to online freedom of expression around the world. Censorship circumvention tools are critical to bypass restrictions on the internet and thereby to protect free expression online.
 
This document provides a comparison among different circumvention tools, both in terms of their technical merits, as well as how users of these tools describe their experience with them. The countries included in this report are Azerbaijan, Burma, China and Iran.

 

Programs

Freedom House supports Iran's pro-democracy movement and human rights defenders as they resist the Iranian regime’s surveillance and repression.