Aug. 12 – Farmers in Iran will be launching a demonstration to protest the rising cost of farming equipment and supplies, according to Crisis24, an international company monitoring risk around the world.
The demonstration is believed to be taking place on Aug.14 outside the parliament building in Tehran, with dozens to hundreds of farmers expected to attend the protest.
Farmers held protests in November to demand that authorities open up a dam which was blocking their access to water for their crops. Officials have diverted water away from several farming locations to supply other areas, leaving farmers without water.
The UK Foreign Office expressed concern that Baha’is in Iran were facing increased arrests and persecution by Iranian authorities, in a press release published on the Foreign Office’s website.
British Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon expressed deep concern about reports which indicated that houses belonging to Bahai’s had been demolished and former spiritual leaders from the faith detained.
Lord Ahmad said, “The persecution of religious minorities cannot be tolerated in 2022. We strongly condemn the increasing detention of members of the Baha’i community in Iran.” The lawmaker added that the Foreign Office was working closely with international partners to hold Iran to account.
And Iranian authorities warned clothes makers and retailers that their businesses would be shut down if they produced or sold women’s cloaks in ‘loud’ colors.
The knee-length cloaks are a standard item of clothing for women in Iran, normally worn over a shirt and trousers. However despite the requirement to avoid loud colors, the government added that no policy or law was in place to define what the ban meant in practice.
Women in Iran are required to follow a dress code, which includes the compulsory hijab. Protests have erupted in recent months over the country’s crackdown on the hijab, with women nationwide increasingly choosing to defy regulations and remove their headscarves in public.
