In May 2024, Ebrahim Raeesi, the former Iranian president, was killed in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, which led to an early election in June that put Masoud Pezeshkian as the new President of Iran in office. Iranian authorities continued to repress all forms of peaceful dissent and political protest. The crackdown targeted women human rights defenders, members of ethnic and religious minorities, and family members of some of those arrested or killed in the 2022 anti-government protests. Additionally, there was an alarming increase in executions. A report by Human Rights Watch found that Iranian authorities are carrying out the crime against humanity of persecution against Baha’is in Iran. Authorities expanded penalties for women violating the country’s discriminatory dress codes, trials remain unfair, and impunity for serious human rights abuses endures.

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Iranian students protest at the University of Tehran during a demonstration driven by anger over economic problems, in the capital Tehran on December 30, 2017.

Iranian authorities ignore or punish peaceful dissent and have launched a sustained crackdown on civil society, from labor activists, lawyers and human rights defenders to journalists and even former senior political leaders. Follow our blog which will document official repression and civil society activists’ attempts to push for respect for human rights during this tumultuous period.

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