Crumbs of human rights

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ent...

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 s...