In the final episode of ARTICLE 19’s podcast series on Iran, journalist and producer Jo Glanville discusses online harassment with Simin Fahandej, the representative of the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office in Geneva, and Azadeh Pourzand, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Siamak Pourzand Foundation.

Last month, the UN fact-finding mission on Iran warned of an increasing crackdown since the war with Israel in June, with more than 21,000 arrests and mistreatment of minorities and journalists. There’s evidence that digital harassment is on the increase within this climate of repression, not only in Iran but transnationally as well. Tactics include smear campaigns, hacking, surveillance and direct threats which all are a chill on free speech, creating insecurity and fear. Despite this, Fahandej and Pourzand both see evidence of a vibrant civic space in Iran.

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In the third episode in our series on Iran, Jo Glanville meets Professor Karima Bennoune, Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and former UN rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. Professor Bennoune is leading a campaign for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime against humanity. The term describes the institutionalised oppression of women based on gender. Professor Bennoune, alongside campaigners in Afghanistan and Iran, wants to change that, and is calling for gender apartheid to be included in a UN treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity.

Digital freedom in Iran

In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the violent state crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability.

Episode 2: The search for justice
Jo Glanville meets Gissou Nia, founder and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, and Bahar Saba, a senior researcher at ARTICLE 19. They discuss the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 and the fight for accountability for the victims. As a landmark UN Fact-Finding Mission continues its investigation into human rights violations and crimes under international law related to the protests in Iran, the podcast’s guests consider the Iranian authorities’ ongoing repressive response to the protesters, the challenges for collecting evidence, historical and systemic impunity and the pursuit for justice.

Jo Glanville is a journalist and audio producer. She regularly produces and presents documentaries for the BBC. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and London Review of Books, among other publications. She was an award-winning editor of Index on Censorship and a former director of English PEN. She is editor of Looking for an Enemy: eight essays on antisemitism (Short Books/WW Norton) and Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women (Telegram/Saqi).

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