On July 18, 2016, Siavash Hayati, Amin Abbasi, and Noshad Taheri, three Yarsani citizens who had sewed their lips together to protest against discrimination against the Yarsani community, were arrested by security forces.

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They had staged this act in order to show the government’s indifference to the Yarsanis demands for civil rights and equal protection before the law. Following their arrest, a group of Yarsanis peacefully gathered in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”) main office in the city of Kermanshah requesting the release of the arrested activists. The security forces, however, cracked down on them and arrested at least 30 individuals, many of them were later released temporarily on bail. There is no reporting on the outcome of these arrests.

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