Crumbs of human rights

Throughout 2015, the human rights situation of women in Iran hasn’t got any better. In the spring, Amnesty International has begun an intensified campaign, when the Iranian Parliament held its legislative session and considered Bill 315 . This draft law proposes various harmful and discriminatory measures aimed at encouraging early marriage and repeated childbearing. Furthermore, this bill would allow discrimination against female job applicants, particularly if they are single or childless. It would also make divorce more difficult for couples, by incentivising judges to settle family disputes.    Last month, this draft law moved one step closer to entering into force : its general principles were passed by an overwhelming majority in Parliament. Currently, the legislature's Cultural Commission is analysing the budgetary costs necessary to the bill’s incentive schemes, which would be entitled to families with three or more children. (Source: www.epa.eu) Over 2015,

In the past month, Amnesty issued several updates on juvenile offenders, who were about to face the gallows. Because of that, names like Salar Shadizadi, Saman Naseem, Alireza Shahi or Milad Azimi might all sound familiar to you – unfortunately. There have been some good news and some bad news, as well. As of the good, the execution of Salar Shadizadi has been postponed. This is to allow the murder victim’s family to pardon him. However, Salar remains at risk. The authorities should grant him a fair retrial, making sure that there will not be a recourse to the death penalty. As of the bad news: sadly, Alireza Shahi , a 25-year-old man was executed in the morning of 24 November 2015.  By now, Saman Naseem has become a person, whose fate we have been following closely. In this year’s Write for Rights campaign, you might already have signed a card for him or you might do so with your local group within the next days. Amnesty International is asking the Iranian regime to grant

In ‪Iran‬, followers of the Baha’i faith face discrimination, arrest and arbitrary detention, some have even been executed because of their religion. But the Baha’i community has chosen to respond to the oppression through ‘constructive resilience’, while taking an active part in the life of the Iranian society. Please find the summary of my event dedicated to the Baha'i religious minority here . >>TAKE ACTION!  Please join us in urging the Iranian authorities not to persecute Baha’is, but to respect their right to freedom of religion and to education. Please send the below tweet to the authorities. Tweet #EducationIsNotACrime

Graffitis on Tehran’s walls, close to some specific places sent a Kurdish filmmaker to prison. The new film of Keyvan Karimi, ‘Writing on the City’ was shot at scenes related to the protests following the 2009 presidential election. Two weeks ago, Karimi was sentenced to six years in prison and 223 lashes by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. His charges: 'insulting the sacred' and 'illegitimate relations'. As Karimi's lawyer highlights “ The maximum penalty for insulting the sacred is five years, but…Judge Moghisseh has condemned him to six years in prison ”. The lawyer added: Iran’s Islamic Penal Code states that an individual should serve no more than the maximum sentence for the charge carrying the heaviest penalty, in cases of multiple charges. Based on that, the sentence imposed on Karimi was unlawful.  A source close to the filmmaker said that Karimi’s Kurdish and Sunni background may also have contributed to his harsh sentence. Iran’s Kurdish ethn

An ideal solution for the regime to increase the number of the population would be: Not to sacrifice more lives. Amnesty International has received reports of more than 700 executions so far this year. Having a look at the numbers of juvenile offenders, it shows that 75 executions took place between 2005 and 2015 . This year itself, at least three juvenile offenders have faced the death penalty. More than 160 are believed to be currently on death row in prisons across the country.  Fatemeh Salbehi was one of the recent cases. The 23-year-old woman was hanged on 13 October for a crime she allegedly committed when she was 17. She had been sentenced to death in May 2010 for the murder of her 30-year-old husband. She had been forced to marry Hamed Sadeghi at the age of 16. A few days earlier, Samad Zahabi had been hanged for shooting a fellow shepherd during a row over who should graze their sheep. He committed this, when he was 17. Samad had been sentenced to death by the Pro

Mohammad Ali Taheri, the founder of a new spiritual group Erfan-e Halgheh, was on hunger strike for about 70 days. He was protesting his death sentence for “spreading corruption on earth” through his spiritual beliefs and teachings. Furthermore, he has risen up against the Iranian authorities’ refusal to allow him access to his lawyers and to get a copy of the court verdict. On 21 October, his family confirmed that Taheri ended his hunger strike . (Source: amnesty.org ) Taheri he has not been able to meet his legal representative since 22 August, a few days after the lawyer submitted an appeal against the death sentence. While waiting for any information about the status of the appeal, Taheri’s physical health is deteriorating. He has lost weight and is suffering from low blood pressure. He was taken to the prison clinic for a few hours on 18 September after he lost consciousness. Mohammad Ali Taheri established the Erfan-e Halgheh institute in Tehran, using healing con

Since the presidency of Ahmadinejad, students and academics have been targeted for their political activism, engagement in peaceful protests or for exercising their right to freedom of expression. In the aftermath of the 2009 election, the authorities sought to tighten their grip over the universities even more. Professors have been fired or forcibly retired; many academics have been persecuted for attending conferences abroad, having connections to other academics in their field or being linked to reformist political groups. Retired professor seen as enemy because of his party affiliation   The latter seems to be the trigger for the imprisonment of the retired chemistry professor, Mohammad Hossein Rafiee Fanood (Hossein Rafiee). He was arrested without a warrant by Ministry of Intelligence officials in mid-June and later transferred to the Evin Prison. So, why exactly is he serving a prison sentence for his peaceful political activism? Because of his “membership of an illegal grou

The Iranian Female Football Star can’t take part in the next international tournament due to the travel ban imposed by her husband. Niloufar Ardalan (alias Lady Goal) is one of Iran's best female players and the captain of the national team. She was meant to kick the ball at the Asian Football  Confederation's championship in futsal, held at the end of September in Malaysia. (Source: www.dailymail.co.uk) As Ms Ardalan said, her husband has refused to grant her permission to travel abroad. Allegedly, the reason: her husband wants her to be at home on the first day of school for their 7-year-old son. In Iran, married women need the consent of their spouses to leave the country . They can be banned from travelling abroad if their husbands refuse to sign the papers needed to get or renew a passport. This is not the first discriminatory measure that favours men, related to sports. We have learnt from the story of Ghoncheh Ghavami that women aren’t allowed to enter sta

The Iranian prisons have never promised any kind of humane treatment. Not only the lack of light and hygiene threaten the health conditions of prisoners of conscience, but it is fairly easy to develop infections and severe diseases there. Moreover, the prospects of getting adequate medications and accessing specialised medical care are drastically low. The authorities frequently transfer prisoners in need of medical care to hospital, but they are very often not provided actual treatment, instead are simply returned to prison. There are two recent and significant cases I’d like to draw your attention to.  The first, I’d like to mention to you is the case of Narges Mohammadi, that already know quite well. But in the meantime, her health conditions have been further worsened. Our latest information about her: Narges was taken to hospital on 1 August. On that day, she was  suffering from partial paralysis. Although doctors at the hospital advised her to be examined by a specialist

God save you from the execution The executions in Iran are never ending. We can also see a pattern that if EU officials travel to the country, the authorities threaten to execute even more people, especially juvenile offenders. A recent example is Salar Shadizadi, whose scheduled hanging coincided with the visit of Laurent Fabius (the Foreign Minister of France) and Federica Mogherini’s (the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) visit in Iran. Thank God, Salar’s execution was postponed for the second time as well, but, unfortunately, no one knows for how long. As per Amnesty International, the Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing694 people between 1 January and 15 July 2015. This number is really terrible. Especially, if we think about how many of them could be juvenile offenders or innocent people forced to confess against themselves under duress. They have not even stopped the hangings for Ramadan this year,

Our high-profile human rights defender of the month is Narges Mohammadi, who is well-known within Iran and beyond. In early May, she was arrested at her home. Security forces took her to Tehran's Evin Prison. Amnesty International considers Narges Mohammadi a prisoner of conscience, who has been held solely for the peaceful exercise of her rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Latest information: Amnesty International's has just learnt that Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital on 1 August suffering from partial paralysis. She is being denied the specialis ed treatment she needs, and is facing charges based on her human rights activities. You can read more about her case and take action for her here. Send your own tweet! Tweet #FreeNargesMohammadi You can also read the latest tweets about here below. Feel free to post your own tweet on Twitter and use the hashtag #NargesMohammadi to join the conversation. #NargesMohammadi Tweets

Today Amnesty International has issued a media advisory on juvenile offender Salar Shadizadi who is at imminent risk of execution. Salar Shadizadi, who is now 24, is due to be hanged on Saturday 1 August, after he was convicted of murdering a friend in 2007. He was 15 years old at the time of the offence. “To execute Salar Shadizadi, who was a child at the time of his arrest, flies in the face of international law. The Iranian authorities must immediately halt any plans to carry out the execution and ensure that Salar Shadizadi’s death sentence is commuted without delay," said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “The Iranian authorities’ pledges to respect children’s rights ring disturbingly hollow when they plan the execution of a juvenile offender just months before Iran’s review session at the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.” At least 72 juvenile offenders are believed to have been executed

On 15 June, shortly after the day of solidarity with Iranian women (12 June), about three dozen people gathered at Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre to take part in an event on women’s rights in Iran. They came to learn more about Iranian women’s fight for gender equality and take various actions for female human rights defenders. The evening kicked off with an excellent documentary by Sheema Kalbasi, which gave the audience a good overview on the restrictions imposed on women’s daily lives. With the help of this film, ‘Women on the Front Line’, we learnt about the discriminatory laws and practices that exist in the country, such as the fact that a woman’s testimony at court is valued half as that of a man. Or to name another typical example: the law says that the guardianship of a child is with her father. After the film, we turned to our special guests who enlightened us about the situation of women in some specific contexts. Our first speaker, Dr

Article 18 and 19: these two articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights are left out for  the majority of people, as restrictions on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Opinion and Information are hand in hand in Iran. News on trampling on Freedom of Expression have lately become regular. On World Press Freedom Day, while we were chanting and tweeting slogans such as “#FreePress” and “Journalism is not a crime”, we hadn’t been able to digest the few-day-old news that Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American journalist of the Washington Post had been charged with violating Iran’s national security . The judges evoked crimes such as “spreading propaganda against the system” and“collaborating with hostile governments”. We might also recall a few other examples of journalists and bloggers who fell victim to the authorities’ curbs on freedom of expression and the media , such as Soheil Arabi or Masood Seyed Talebi. The message seems to be clear and simple as Susanna Flood, the M

Co-operating with the Iranian authorities to guarantee basic human rights to all is not an easy job. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Ahmed Shaheed has experienced it very often. Since the creation of the mandate (in 2011) by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Dr Shaheed hasn’t been allowed to visit the country and undertake field research and make reports with the locals. Although many countries called on Iran to co-operate with the United Nations Special Procedures , and follow up on the requests of visits of Special Rapporteurs, the country still continues to refuse any kind of partnership or support.  (Source: shaheedoniran.org)  Therefore, Dr Shaheed has followed the evolution of human rights in Iran with the help of his Special Rapporteur colleagues and other sources and means. This was also the case in relation to his latest report, released in early March. As he highlights, “ information for th

There is nothing new about the Islamic Republic ranking second for number of executions , after China. But the fact that the official number almost reached 300 (to be precise: 289) in 2014 is harsh.  It is also obvious that this number and the statistics shown in previous years are certainly below reality, since there are no publicly available data on capital punishment carried out in the country. Reliable sources informed Amnesty International that the figure might be even bigger than 740. According to some ethical principles, all, but only guilty people deserve to be punished, and of course, in proportion to the severity of their crime .  And what does the international law say about the death penalty? It calls on states to guarantee that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life .”   The law also provides that “In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence o

What doesn’t work throughout the year is possible for one day: every year, on 21 March the fragmented Iranian nation unites. Male and female, young and old, ethnic Iranians, Kurds and Azeris among others celebrate the ancient festivities of Nowruz.  This festival marks the beginning of the solar year as well as that of the New Year on the Iranian national calendar. Now, we have entered into the year 1394. (Source: irantraders.net)   People inside and outside the country come together with their family and friends and gather around the table, which is set with special treats: delicacies for offering to guests to eat, such as baklava and other Persian sweets and some things, which hold symbolic meaning, such as garlic (symbolising health) or apples (symbolising beauty and love).    As President Rouhani put it in his new year message, Nowruz is an “ancient heritage” that Iran and the regional states share in their culture . Beside the Islamic Repub

I n the Western world we are used to the process that women or the partners together decide on whether to have kids, how many of them and over what period. Iranian women have exercised the same rights. But if the parliament adopts two new bills (Bill 446 and Bill 315) within the next few weeks, politicians will determine women’s family life in the future. These bills would mean taking several steps back regarding ending discrimination against women . www.amnesty.nl Let’s examine the two bills in more details. The so-called Bill 446 (or as its full title says “ The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline”) concentrates on methods as to how a rapid increase in the Iranian population could be reached, not taking into account the threats, which this bill would impose on women’s sexual and reproductive health. This bill would restrict women’s access to modern contraceptive methods and proscribe spreading information about them. It would also demolish sta

For years, the Iranian regime has talked about a giant Intranet that the government wants to build for all of its citizens, which would isolate the Iranian cyberspace from the rest of the world. The country already has one of the world’s toughest Internet censorship regimes: it routinely blocks thousands of websites deemed offensive, immoral or threatening to the country’s national security. Not long ago, the government unveiled its next step in their efforts to control ordinary people’s online activities: it launched an Iran-only search engine called “Yooz” . www.yooz.ir According to the project manager, Mehdi Naghavi the domestic search engine will help Iranians circumvent the US-led economic sanctions  and will introduce the Persian web to academia. But as always, the pervasive filtering and the harsh restrictions have had an unintended consequence: large numbers of Iranians internet users have become skilled in using various circumvention technologies such as VPNs

Having opposing views than that of the government is quite dangerous in Iran. Let me take the example of the 2009 presidential election, after which several hundreds of people were arrested. Among them were prominent reformist politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and students. www.aljazeera.com But how did that happen? In 2009 Iranian people were about to appoint their president for the next four years, after the controversial presidency of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  In the previous four years, the inflation had risen and the property values, especially in the capital, had increased sharply. Moreover, Mr Ahmadinejad focussed on Iran's nuclear program, which resulted in the United Nations’s sanctions on the Iranian government. So in the election of 12 June 2009, three new candidates, running beside Mr Ahmadinejad, promised to change the current economic and social situation and bring reforms, namely:  - Mir-Hossein Mousavi , a reformi