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 2...

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 ...

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 ...