Mosques to Reopen in Iran's Low-risk Areas

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AFP file photo
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AFP file photo
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Mosques to Reopen in Iran's Low-risk Areas

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AFP file photo
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AFP file photo

Iran plans to reopen mosques and schools in areas that have been consistently free of the coronavirus as President Hassan Rouhani's government starts to ease restrictions that were aimed at containing the outbreak.

"Mosques will reopen in 132 low-risk or 'white cities' and towns from Monday. Friday prayer sermons will resume in those areas as well ... However, all these steps will be taken by respecting the health protocols," Rouhani said in a televised meeting.

Iran's health ministry has divided the country into white, yellow and red areas based on the number of infections and deaths.

Rouhani did not give the names of the counties affected by the measure or the number of mosques due to reopen on Monday.

The ministry said on Saturday that the trajectory of infections has started a "gradual" downward trend in Iran.

On Sunday the health ministry said the country's coronavirus death toll had risen to 6,203 after 47 people died in the past 24 hours, and the total number of diagnosed cases had reached 97,424.

Iran has already lifted a ban on inter-city trips and malls, with large shopping centers resuming activities despite warnings by some health officials of a new wave of infections.

School and university closures were maintained and cultural and sports gatherings are also still banned, though Rouhani said the plan is for some schools to reopen soon.

"The schools in the white and low-risk areas will reopen from May 16 ... However, we will continue to review the situation," he said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Sunday announced they were cancelling the annual day of protests against Israel known as Quds (Jerusalam) Day seemingly over the coronavirus pandemic.

Spokesman Ramezan Sharif, quoted by Fars news agency, said the move was in line with the cancellation across Iran of other ceremonies and the closing of holy places.

"Let's not worry about what the enemy might say," he added.



ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.

The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.’”

The warrants were issued against Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the head of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, The AP news reported.

The court said in a statement that the Taliban have “severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion. In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January.

Global advocacy group Human Rights Watch welcomed the decision.

“Senior Taliban leaders are now wanted men for their alleged persecution of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people. The international community should fully back the ICC in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through concerted efforts to enforce the court’s warrants," Liz Evenson, the group's international justice director, said in a statement.