Iran

Maryam Majd, a women’s sports photographer, arrested on her way to film the Women’s Soccer World Cup in Germany, has been released on bail, of 100,000 US Dollars, because of poor health. Maryam Majd disappeared on her way from Tehran, Iran, to Dusseldorf in Germany on the 17th of June 2011. She was held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, in ward 2A, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. Ms Majd was expected in Germany for two months during the Women's Soccer World Cup 2011, in order to produce a photographic record of the different soccer teams. 

Britain says Iran's government has recently arrested several female activists as part of a campaign to stifle dissent. The U.K. Foreign Office named photographer Maryam Majd, filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi, journalist Zahra Yazdani and women's rights advocate Maryam Bahrman as being among those who have been detained in the past weeks.

A prominent Iranian documentary film-maker and women's rights activist, whose work includes banned films about Iran's society, has been arrested by unidentified officials. Mahnaz Mohammadi, 37, was picked up from her home in the capital Tehran by security officers who refused to show a warrant for her arrest and was taken to Evin prison, where many activists are being held. Speaking by phone from Tehran, her lawyer told the Guardian that Mohammadi had been denied access to her family or proper legal representation and was being kept incommunicado.

Using a human rights based approach, this documents the reality of stoning in Iran in 2004. This was at a time when stoning was not widely reported, the Iranian regime denied the existence of stoning in the law, and many in the international community were unaware that stoning still occurred in Iran.  Thus the primary goal of the document is to expose the reality of stoning at the time and demonstrate that stoning still occurs in Iran.