Watchdog

Official Iranian news agencies report that Payam Fazlinejad, a journalist with the influential hard-line newspaper "Kayhan," is in the hospital following an attack by unknown assailants. The details about the attack and his condition remain sketchy.

According to a report by the semiofficial Fars news agency, Fazlinejad was attacked late last night (around 9:00 p.m. Tehran time) by assailants on motorcycles. The agency says Fazlinejad was hit in the head with a "sharp object."

The official news agency IRNA has quoted a nurse at the Baghiatollah hospital where Fazlinejad is being treated as saying that he was attacked with a "cold arm."

IRNA also quote an unnamed police guard at the hospital as saying that that "the assailant or assailants" were able to escape.

The hard-line "Rajanews" has reported that Fazlinejad was attacked and badly injured on his head by "a team of terrorists that included seven members on motorbikes." The website as also posted a picture of Fazlinejad at the hospital.

Fazlinejad reportedly used to be a reformist journalist. More recently, he has been working with "Kayhan" and attacking reformists and accusing them of being foreign agents. The hard-line Fars news agency report that Fazlinejad's book "The Knights Of Cultural NATO," which according to Fars unveiled information about "those working to overthrow the Iranian establishment within the reformist camp," was a political bestseller. IRNA says the work of Fazlinejad, who is also a member of "Kayhan"'s research institute, focuses on "Western intelligence agencies and the velvet coup project" in Iran.

“Women In Shroud,” a documentary coproduced by RFE/RL's Radio Farda broadcaster Mohammad Reza Kazemi, was awarded by the Cinema For Peace initiative that promotes humanity through film.

The film explores the injustice toward women in Iran’s legal system and the "Stoning of Soraya M." by director Cyrus Nowrasteh, shared the Cinema for Peace Award for Justice at a February 15 gala ceremony attended by stars and personalities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The ceremony was held on the sidelines of the International Berlin Film Festival.

“Women in Shroud,” coproduced by Kazemi and Farid Haerinehad, documents the efforts of Iranian human rights lawyers to fight discriminatory laws and their struggle to save women facing stoning sentences over alleged adultery.

The film features a prominent women’s rights advocate, Shadi Sadr, who presents the case of several women facing stoning.