Over 600 Iranian Women Arrested During Anniversary of Amini’s Death

An Iranian woman passes through the women’s entrance at Qarchak Prison in Tehran. (Mizan)
An Iranian woman passes through the women’s entrance at Qarchak Prison in Tehran. (Mizan)
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Over 600 Iranian Women Arrested During Anniversary of Amini’s Death

An Iranian woman passes through the women’s entrance at Qarchak Prison in Tehran. (Mizan)
An Iranian woman passes through the women’s entrance at Qarchak Prison in Tehran. (Mizan)

The Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees revealed that at least 600 women were arrested last week in Tehran and other cities during the first death anniversary of Mahsa Amini.

The Committee added that most of the detainees were released on bail while dozens were referred to the Iranian public prosecution.

The Persian media abroad reported that Iran transferred 130 of the detainees to temporary cells in the prison of Qarchak.

Amini was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran's strict dress code for women. She spent three days in hospital in a coma before her death on September 16.

Her death sparked week-long protests that were specifically led by women who challenged the authority by removing their veil.

Months after that, the momentum of the protests vanished in parallel with a crackdown that resulted in 551 deaths, including 68 children and 49 women, by the security forces, as revealed by the Norway-headquartered Iran Human Rights.

Over 22,000 were arrested, according to Amnesty International.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attributed the protests to Western countries.

Neither the government nor the Iranian judiciary commented on the report regarding the arrest of hundreds of women.

Meanwhile, BBC Persian reported from well-informed sources that engineer Zeinab Kazemi was arrested by the security police.

She was earlier sentenced to 74 lashes for removing her veil during a conference for the Tehran Association of Engineers.

Last year, a video of Kazemi went viral showing her throwing her headscarf on the ground before Iranian officials in objection to the quashing of protests.

Sources reported that Kazemi was transferred to Qarchak Prison.

"I have never regretted raising my voice for justice and against oppression, and I still don't," she said in a new video on Amini’s death anniversary.

Iran escalated strict security measures to prevent the families of the victims of the protests from commemorating the anniversary.

In the city of Qazvin west of Tehran the security forces used tear gas to disperse individuals attempting to commemorate the first anniversary of one of the dead.

Fatemeh, the sister of Javad Heydari who was killed last year by live ammunition, reported that security forces fired tear gas into their house and deployed troops to quash any gatherings.

Iran’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory headscarf. The bill would take effect for a preliminary period of three years.



Israeli Air Force Deploys First Laser Interception System

FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
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Israeli Air Force Deploys First Laser Interception System

FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa

Israel's defense ministry said on Sunday it had deployed a new "Iron Beam" laser system for the air force to intercept aerial threats.

The laser system's main developers, the ministry's research and development department and defense contractor Rafael, delivered it to the air force at a ceremony in northern Israel.

"For the first time globally, a high-power laser interception system has achieved full operational maturity, successfully executing multiple interceptions," Defense Minister Israel Katz said at the ceremony, according to a statement.

"This monumental achievement... delivers a critical message to our enemies, near and far alike: do not challenge us, or face severe consequences," AFP quoted him as saying.

The handover marks a major milestone in a project more than a decade old.
"Israel has become the first country in the world to field an operational laser system for the interception of aerial threats, including rockets and missiles," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael.

The laser system seeks to enhance and slash the cost of Israel's interception of projectiles, and will supplement other aerial defense capacities such as the more well-known Iron Dome.

Iron Dome offers short-range protection against missiles and rockets. The David's Sling system and successive generations of Arrow missiles are Israeli-American technology built to bring down ballistic missiles.

The defense ministry announced in early December that the laser system was complete, and would be deployed by the end of the month.

During the 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran in June, the country's missile defense system failed to intercept all the projectiles fired by Tehran toward Israeli territory.

Israel has since acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the war with Iran, resulting in 28 deaths.


Trump Says Had 'Productive' Call with Putin Ahead of Zelensky Meeting

US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
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Trump Says Had 'Productive' Call with Putin Ahead of Zelensky Meeting

US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

US President Donald Trump said he had a productive telephone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday ahead of a planned meeting in Florida with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I just had a very good and productive telephone call with President Putin of Russia" before the planned talks with Zelensky at Trump's Florida estate at 1:00 pm local time (1800 GMT), the US leader said on Truth Social.

Putin said Ukraine was in no hurry for peace and if it did not want to resolve their conflict peacefully, Moscow would accomplish all its goals by force.

Putin's remarks on Saturday, carried by state news agency TASS, followed a vast Russian drone and missile attack that prompted Zelensky to say Russia was demonstrating its wish to continue the war while Kyiv wanted peace.


Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
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Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)

Russia on Sunday sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit, the second such launch since July, Iranian state television reported.

The report said that a Russian rocket sent the satellites to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit from the Vostochny launchpad in eastern Russia. The three satellites are dubbed Paya, Kowsar and Zafar-2.

The report said that Paya, weighing 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is the heaviest satellite that Iran has ever deployed into orbit. Kowsar weighs 35 kilograms (77 pounds), but the report didn't specify how heavy Zafar-2 is.

The satellites feature up to 3-meter resolution images, applicable in the management of water resources, agriculture and the environment. Their life span is up to five years.

Russia occasionally sends Iran's satellites into orbit, highlighting the strong ties between the two countries. In July, a Russian rocket sent Iranian communications satellite Nahid-2 into orbit.

Russia, which signed a “strategic partnership” treaty with Iran in January, strongly condemned the Israeli and US strikes on Iran that came during a 12-day air war in June and killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Retaliatory missile barrages by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.

As a long-standing project, Iran from time-to-time launches satellite carriers to send its satellites into space.

The United States has said that Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in 2023.