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March 15, 2006 VOLUME 22
E-ZAN VOICE OF WOMEN AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM IN IRAN
To our readers,
International women’s day of 2006 marked an impressive milestone for
equality movement in Iran. Women from all walks
of life took to streets to express their opposition to fundamentalism regime
ruling Iran while demanding rights and gender equality. Rally held by women in
three locations of Iran capital, Tehran, has a very clear political message for
the misogynous tyrants in Iran and those who still advocate policy of
engagement with Tehran’s regime.
Since women’s rally on March 8th, other anti-regime protests
have taken roots in various cities in Iran. In preparation for Nouroz festivities (Persian New Years) and in spite of
regime’s call to cancel all celebrations, Iranians launched a week-long
cultural “fire celebration” that in many places turned into anti-government
protests and clashes. In central Tehran several vehicles
belonging to the State Security Forces and a number of government buildings
were attacked and set on fire. In
various cities such as Tehran, Ahwaz, Esfahan, and many others pictures of Khomeini (founder of 1979 Islamic
Republic), Khameinie (Supreme Leader), Khatami
(former president), and other government officials were set on fire.
Iranian people are using culture, sports and internationally recognized
celebrations such as Women’s Day as weapons against the regime. Best put by Mehri Amiri, a women’s activist
in Tehran, “price of freedom is high, but we are willing to pay”.
In recent weeks, the bravery and courage seen by men and women of Iran, particularly among
protesters and political prisoners should resonate with the freedom loving
people of the world.
We hope in this time of courage, the world community takes the side of
the Iranian people and their female leaders. The time has come to close the
chapter of misogyny in Iran and draft the
democratic chapter of Iran’s history.
As the Iranians, Iraqis, Kurds and all those who celebrate the ancient
festivities of Nouroz in Spring
of 2006, we celebrate their courageous women who stand up for equality, freedom
and peace.
E-Zan Featured Headlines
The Virginian-Pilot – February 22, 2006
Women may vote, but they cannot hold high office. They need
their husbands' approval to leave the country. Their
testimony often counts half as much as a man's. And when they remarry, they
automatically lose custody of their children. "This legal system is not
for Iran," women's rights
activist Mehrangiz Kar said
of her homeland Tuesday night at Old Dominion University. "It is for some
other society from 200 years ago or 300 years ago. "Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has drawn worldwide alarm for his
suspected nuclear ambitions and his comments advocating the destruction of Israel. His ascendancy last
year also has imperiled his own citizens, including female activists, Kar said. Anyone challenging the government could be
accused of working against Islam. "That's why it's very dangerous in that
political system," Kar said. "That's why I
am here. I am not inside the country that I love."
NCR-Iran Website – February 26, 2006
The Swedish Euro MP and Vice-chair of
EP's Women's Committee, Ms. Eva Britt Svensson,
joined her colleagues in condemning the human rights violations in Iran and emphasized that her presence in
the meeting was aimed to show her solidarity with the Iranian Resistance. Karin
Resetarits, Austrian MEP from the Liberal Group,
strongly condemned the regime's nuclear activities and called on her government
which holds the EU presidency to review terror list. She described Mrs. Maryam
Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, as the hope of millions of
Iranians who oppose the religious dictatorship ruling Iran and emphasized that the best policy
for the EU would be to open a dialogue with Mrs. Rajavi.
Iran Focus – March 2, 2006
State Security Forces attacked female
football fans in Tehran on Wednesday after they held a
defiant protest against the government decision to ban women from football
stadiums. Dozens of young women, who had bought tickets and hoped to cheer on
their national team, were all banned from entering Tehran’s Azadi
Stadium. The ban has been in force for years, but a few dozen women have
challenged it in recent months. President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s hard-line government recently decided to enforce the ban more
strongly. After being refused entry into the stands, the women organised a demonstration outside the stadium and quickly
brought to the scene banners which read, “Azadi
Stadium: 100,000 men-only arena” and “We also want to cheer on our national
team”. They were immediately threatened with arrest by police who had been
placed on standby. Within minutes, the security forces started to attack the
teenage girls and young women. They were all forced into a bus and driven away.
Iran Focus – March 2, 2006
There are currently over 300,000
homeless women roaming the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran, according to a government expert.
The latest figure was announced by Amanollah Qaraei-Moqaddam, a long-time social analyst, in an
interview with the state-run news agency ILNA. Qaraei-Moqaddam
blamed the economy instability and families’ financial perils as causes of the
high figure. One contributing factor to the high level of homeless women
roaming the streets was that women were being “marketed”, he said. He added
that the average prostituting age was between 11 to 17 years of age. “The
reason for this is the very large number of street-girls who entered the
prostitution market because of being orphans, maltreated, losing a parent,
psychological torment, or restrictions placed on them by their families”, Qaraei-Moqaddam said.
State-controlled Rooz Newspaper – March 3, 2006
"Previously, the registering of young Iranians for the
martyrdom units had been perceived [primarily] as psychological warfare against
the West; however, the operation of the martyrdom seekers website, the
continued activity of the World Islamic Organization's Headquarters for
Commemorating the Shahids, and the call to join
Iranian martyrdom units indicate that organized and planned activity is
afoot.... Headquarters spokesman Muhammad 'Ali Samedi...
has claimed that so far... 53,900 have signed up." "The Planners of This Apparatus for Suicide Missions Have Succeeded
in Attracting More Iranian Women and Girls Than Men"…
"Religious Commandment" page of the website offers Muslim women religious
justification for exposing their hair: "Should a Muslim who seeks
martyrdom be compelled not to maintain her [head] covering in order to carry
out the important thing that she has undertaken [i.e. martyrdom], she will
commit no crime. One of the principles of Islam is that in time of need, some
prohibitions become permitted..."
Iran Focus – March 6, 2006
Iranian security officers forcefully removed several hundred
women spectators from an indoor stadium as they were watching athletes
performing in the 2006 Gymnastics World Cup tournament being held in Tehran, eye-witnesses reported. The action
took place on the opening day of the tournaments as fans gathered in Tehran’s 12,000-seater Azadi
indoor stadium to watch the international gymnasts compete. Little more than 10
minutes after the start of the games, intelligence officials from the
government’s sports institution entered the stalls of the arena and demanded
that all women exit the facility. Among those asked to leave were several
female translators for the international teams that were competing on the day.
As the roughly 250 women were being led out, a number began to protest loudly
and chanted slogans against gender inequality in the Islamic Republic. Some
international athletes took photos of the women being forced out.
Iran National News Agency
(exiled) – March 6, 2006
Official from Ahmadinejad administration announced that
women are not allowed to have any “gatherings” or event commemorating 2006 International
Women’s Day. Sassani, Director of Women’s Affair,
said: “Under no circumstances women will be allowed to hold an event on March
8, 2006”. This news came as women’s organization
announced their plan to hold rallies in Park-e Laleh
and elsewhere in Tehran.
CNS News –
March 9,
2006
Demanding freedom for women and political prisoners, protesters
in Iran gathered Wednesday to celebrate
International Women's Day, only to be beaten by police. According to one of the
organizers in Tehran -- Mehri Amiri of the Society for Defense of Women's Rights in Iran -- about 2,000 protesters gathered
in Laleh Park, but were immediately attacked. She said 300 were able to make it into the
park to voice their opposition to religious fundamentalism in Iran and the subjugation of women that
they allege has accompanied the fundamentalism. "On this day, in different
countries of the world, they give presents to women, congratulate them and
commemorate this day of national celebration. They heed women for their
increasing activities and steadfastness," said a statement from the
Women's Rights Association of Iran. "Contrary to this point of
view of the civilized world, sits our imprisoned country." "The
Iranian women have reached the conclusion that within this regime there is no
future for them. The women are alienated and suppressed," Amiri said. "The reality is the government in Iran, since the first day they came to
power -- the fundamentalists, not just the current regime -- day by day they
have made it very difficult for Iranian women to live. Now, the current regime
and the coming to power of terrorist Ahmedinejad, the
situation is far worse than before," she said, referring to the Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
"We have reached a level where women on the streets are being
killed," Amiri said. She argued that other
countries should isolate Iran because the money the Iranian
government earns from petroleum is spent on weapons. "What we are asking
from the world is to stop appeasing the Iranian government. The government must
completely go away and the regime must be changed."
The Associated Press –
March 9, 2006
Police armed with batons charged into about 200 mostly
female demonstrators demanding equal rights for women in a Tehran park, beating protesters, witnesses
said Thursday. An international rights
group accused Iran of using violence to suppress peaceful
protest. The protest Wednesday afternoon in Daneshjoo Park was largely ignored by Thursday's
media, and the two reports that did appear – one on a Web site and the other in
a small-circulation paper – did not mention the police charge. It was not known if the government tried to
suppress reports on the police action. A government spokesman could not be
reached for comment because of the late hour. A news photographer who saw the
incident said police confiscated journalist's cameras. The photographer, who
spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he feared
problems with the authorities, said his camera was not taken, but his paper did
not report on the protest. He declined to say why. The group of mostly women
and a few male supporters had assembled at the park to mark International
Women's Day. They held banners calling for equal rights, with one reading:
“It's a shame to have to ask men for our rights.” Another banner condemned the
fact that since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women have not been allowed to
serve as judges in Iranian courts. “The right to be a judge is essential for
women,” it read. Police told the protesters to disperse because they did not
have a permit from the Interior Ministry, said a woman who took part in the
demonstration. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from
the authorities. When the women refused to leave the park, the police charged
the demonstrators with batons and dispersed them, she said. The photographer said the police chased the
women down the streets near the park to prevent them from reassembling.
Iran Focus – March 11, 2006
An Iranian opposition satellite channel aired on Saturday
footage of a demonstration in Tehran by hundreds of women celebrating
International Women’s Day, and a brutal raid by Iran’s security forces to break up the
rally. The rally took place on Wednesday afternoon in Tehran’s Laleh Park. Numerous women were beaten up by
truncheon-wielding policemen and dozens were arrested as they resisted attempts
by security agents to disperse the demonstrators. The television, Simaye Azadi -- “Vision of
Freedom” in Persian – said the film was taken by women activists in Tehran. Click here to view the film
Iran Focus – March 14, 2006
Police fired tear-gas and used force
on Monday to disperse protesting students at Sharif
University of Technology in Tehran, eye-witnesses reported. The
disturbances broke out after hundreds of students tried to prevent the burial
of three “unidentified martyrs” on the university campus. The students, many of
them women, carried placards against the takeover of universities by Islamist
groups affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards. These include the paramilitary Bassij Daneshjui and Jihad Daneshgahi.
Iran Focus – March 14, 2006
Young people set fire to pictures of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and former leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini in Tehran, according to dissidents in the
Iranian capital who sent a photo of their activities to Iran Focus. Protestors
gathered and burned down posters of Iranian leaders hung on lampposts in Mirdamad Street in Tehran. Despite a massive crackdown to
prevent this year’s “fire festival” from turning into scenes of anti-governments
protests, young people have taken to the streets across Iran to defy the government ban and
celebrate the last Tuesday of the Persian year with a big bang. During the
festival, known as ‘chaharshanbeh souri’
– literally, Feast of Wednesday – people jump over bonfires to “drive away
evil”. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, Iran’s theocratic leaders have made
strenuous efforts to stamp out the festivities, but to no avail. In recent
years, there have been extensive clashes between festive crowds and the
security forces deployed to prevent street celebrations. This year the event
falls on March 14.
E-Zan Featured Reports
Women should rally for
basic Human Rights
By Kathryn Lopez
The Times Union
February 28, 2006
March 8 marks what the United
Nations designates "International Women's Day." I'll be thinking
about an 18-year-old Iranian girl named Nazanin that
day. Instead of letting activists waste the day denouncing George W. Bush and
other protectors of human rights and freedom, the United Nations ought to use
its bullhorn to insist that Nazanin become a
household name. Nazanin and her 16-year-old niece
were about to be raped last year when the older girl stabbed two of their three
attackers, killing one. Nazanin reportedly told a
criminal court that "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not
want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do
because no one came to our help." But she was sentenced to death earlier
this year for her crime. Her (insane) sentence is subject to higher court
review. International Women's Day this year should be Save Nazanin
Day. It's not only this one young woman who might be saved, but countless
unknowns in similar situations. It's a hard position for the United Nations.
The United Nations is an institution whose secretary-general continues to pass
the buck on investigations into its relationship with former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, and a group that has a "human rights" watchdog
commission that laughably includes the likes of Sudan, Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia. And the United Nations isn't
nudged in the right direction when Amnesty International seems to miss the
point of outrage in Nazanin's sentence. An Amnesty
International press release in January on the matter proclaimed: "Amnesty
International calls for end to death penalty for child offenders." Offender? The girl killed a man in self-defense while being
assaulted. She was not the criminal here. And the next question Amnesty
International should have asked while condemning the sentence was: What if Nazanin had not killed the attacker? Would she have been
punished for rape in their sharia court? (Rape often
translates into "adultery" as far as their sharia
court is concerned, often requiring multiple male Muslim witnesses to the crime
for it to be considered a legitimate rape case. As you might expect, such
witnesses do not often materialize.) Instead of asking tough questions --
politically incorrect, but vitally important questions -- Amnesty outrageously
puts Nazanin in league with a teen who
broke into a home allegedly for a burglary, but wound up a convicted murderer.
In 2003, the life of a Nigerian woman named Amina Lawal was spared, most likely because Westerners were
paying attention. Divorced, she was charged with adultery; she testified that
she had been raped. A court ordered her stoned to death, but she was ultimately
allowed to live on appeal. Still, as Asra Nomani, author of "Standing Alone in Mecca: An
American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam" has written, "every
day there are untold numbers of Muslim women who abort their pregnancies, dump
their babies in rubbish piles or secretly abandon their children so they don't
face the consequences of having a child out of wedlock." Nomani conceived a child out of wedlock while working as a
reporter in Pakistan -- premarital sex is a crime of 100
lashes there; but as a West Virginian, she was spared the whip, coming home to
have her boy.
At a time when the world is on fire
-- literally when you look at, say, the Danish embassy in Syria burned down by
protesters, for instance, over lame cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published
in a Danish newspaper and now around the world -- rallying to Nazanin's cause represents more than saving one woman's
life. Shedding a much-needed light on inhumane sharia
punishments and so-called honor killings would be an important step in calling
Islamic regimes to account for their wrongdoing and encourage moderate Muslims
the world over to reclaim their religion. This should be a top priority for
Western feminists. On International Women's Day, they should stand with
moderate Muslim women and women like Amina Lawal and call for an end to the terrorizing of women like
her and Nazanin. And all those women whose names
we'll never know. Instead of naive hysterics about wage gaps and Gitmo, someone ought to break out the smelling salts and
get an army of feminists and human-rights groups occupying a room at the United
Nations to use their public voices to fight for those who can't. I'll never see
eye to eye with some of these folks on the whole of their agendas (so long as
feminists insist protecting the right to destroy an unborn life is sacred,
their bill of goods is fatally tainted), but where we can stand together --
basic human rights for women, even -- we should. I'd like Nazanin
to one day be thankful that we rallied to save her life.
Courageous Resistance: Iranian political prisoners
By Ramesh Sepehrrad
The American Chronicle
March 2, 2006
This article is
dedicated to Hojjat Zamani,
a political prisoner who was executed on February
7, 2006 by the Iranian regime.
"The Iranian regime
settles scores in an old fashion way, by executing opposition at home and
assassinate them in exile", said Bruce McColm,
who is a former Executive Director of Freedom House and current co-chair of the
Iran Policy Committee (IPC). Mr. McColm delivered
this quote in a speech at a congressional briefing in the House on February
16th. The conference included a bi-partisan panel of members, hundreds of
congressional staffers as well as the leaders of Iranian-American communities.
Moments before the briefing, the news of the execution of Hojjat
Zamani, 31-year-old teacher was released. Zamani was a supporter of the main Iranian opposition
group, and his execution was confirmed by his family in Gohardasht, Iran.
Zamani served four years in
Iranian prisons prior to his execution. He was executed because he was, and
would still be if he were alive, a supporter of Mujahedin-e-Khalq
(MeK), translated as the People's Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI). Since his execution, political prisoners in
notorious Evin and Gohardasht
prisons have began a hunger strike. Exiled Iranians across the world, including
Washington DC, Berlin, Copenhagen, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and elsewhere held
candle light vigils and rallies in his memory. While the regime has not yet
handed over his body to his family, Zamani's
execution took place just three days after Iran's nuclear file was
reported to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It appears as though the killing of Hojjat Zamani was a retaliatory
gesture targeted at the MeK/PMOI network, the main
source of exposing Tehran's illegal nuclear
activities. Indeed, Tehran's regime is shameless
in settling scores. News, also confirmed by Radio Farda
and other media outlets, indicate that the visitation rights of political
prisoners have been suspended in various cities throughout the country. More
specifically, the Iranian regime has threatened to massacre all political
prisoners, particularly those associated with MeK/PMOI,
if Iran is referred to the UN
Security Council next month. If carried out, this would not be unprecedented.
More than 30,000 political prisoners were systematically executed in summer of
1988.
On February 18, 2006, the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI) issued a statement that describes the Iranian regime's strategy to
create the conditions for the massacre of political prisoners. In its
statement, the NCRI explained the conditions in Ghohardasht
prison where Zamani was killed, and said: "At
the instigation of prison authorities, the regime's agents posing as ordinary
prisoners assembled in front of the wards housing political prisoners on
Wednesday night (February 16) and shouted, 'death to political prisoners,'
'death to counter-revolutionaries,' and 'Mojahedin prisoners must be
hanged.'" NCRI also warned on the intensified wave of executions given
that 13 people were publicly hanged or executed in just one week. Listing the
13 cases from the Iranian regime's own media sources, NCRI urged the
international community to condemn the Iranian government for its recent
escalation of violence against its own citizens.
Threats against
political prisoners have continued since Zamani's
execution. On February 26th, the NCRI issued a statement listing the names of
those prisoners who have been threatened with execution. The list includes Mr. Valiollah Feiz-Mohammadi, Mr. Saeed Massouri, Mr. Gholamhossein Kalbi, Mr. Amir Parvizi, Mr. Alireza Karami Kheir-Abadi, Mr. Khaled Hardani, Mr. Shahram Farhang-pour and Mr. Mansour
Pour-Farhang. At their core Iranian officials are
fanatical reactionaries, without respect for international democracy. Reacting
to the consequences of its referral to UNSC, the Iranian government is
desperate. Its record of recent executions occurring over the last several
weeks is engineered to instill fear among political prisoners and the Iranian
society. It is clear that the Iranian regime fears the people of Iran, particularly political
prisoner, who maintain the flame of resistance, keeping it bright in the dark
cells of Evin, Ghohardasht
and numerous other prisons or secret torture chambers across the oppressed
Iranian state. The circumstances in Iran are dire. Without a
doubt, resistance has become an inalienable right of the Iranian people. As
Bruce McColm said at the briefing, "Now is time
to stop looking at Iranian people as victims, instead, look at them as
resources." The right and privilege of regime change in Iran belongs to the Iranian
people. Those familiar with American or the French revolution are adept to
recognize the determination among the Iranian populace. For 27 years, with
thousands of people executed, tortured, imprisoned or exiled, the Iranian
people have declared that irreconcilable differences exists between them and
the government presiding over them.
It is truly remarkable
that Hojjat Zamani was only
4 years old when the so-called Islamic Revolution of 1979 took place. His
knowledge and experience of the MeK/PMOI was gained
under the intense suppression and constant state monitoring in Iran. It should be noted
that two of Hojjat’s brothers were also murdered by
the Iranian regime. His older brother, Khaz'al Zamani, a member of MeK/PMOI, was
killed in Ilam's mountainous terrain in 1999 and his
other brother, also a MeK/PMOI member, was killed in
March 2001 in the Haft-Cheshmeh region of Ilam. His maternal uncle, Abdullah Naderi,
was also killed under torture by the regime in 1989. One can only imagine the
pain and suffering inflicted on the Zamani's family.
Sadly, they are not alone; there are thousands of families who have endured
such losses. In July of 1981, a Time Magazine article entitled: "Terror in
the name of God" reported the news of 12 girls who were brutally executed
by the government of Iran because they took part
in a demonstration for democracy. The article said: "The Islamic judge who
sentenced them—Ayatullah Mohammadi
Gilani—did not even know who they were. The twelve
girls, the oldest 18, the others under 16, refused to identify themselves in
court. When Gilani asked their names, each in turn
replied, "Mojahed" (member of MeK/PMOI). To the question "Child of?" each
replied, "The people of Iran." Gilani solved the problem of identifying the girls by
having them photographed. Then he consigned them to the firing squad. Islamic
guards led the dozen girls to the courtyard of Evin
Prison in Tehran…As the guards began to
blindfold them, the girls started chanting, "Death to fascism! Death to Khomeini!"…Three days later, the clergy-controlled
newspaper Ettela'at printed the girls' pictures with
a terse message asking the parents to call for the bodies…"
There is no difference
between wanton brutality and justice in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As McColm said at the briefing on February
16, 2006, "the Iranian regime is neither Islamic nor Republic."
In reference to the Iranian people’s resistance, he said: "this talented
opposition has been quietly waging a war on the Iranian regime without our
support for decades. Among them, there are the finest minds and talents Iran has ever produced.
There are generations who have experienced different periods of Iranian history
and were participants in major events of the last several decades. They deserve
to be consulted and listened to. The Iranian-American community, for instance,
dominates the hard science fields in the United States and has become one of
the most prosperous and successful communities of recent immigration...Attempts
by the United States and the European Union
to placate the leadership of Iran by placing the MEK on
the proscribed list of terrorist organizations should end. It is way past time
to take back Iran's lone diplomatic
victory over the past fifteen years. De-List the MEK and the NCRI now. It is
the right thing to do."
Although the Zamani's and all those who lost their lives for the cause
of Iranian freedom are no longer, their message of resistance and struggle
continues through the hopes of millions who continue the call for regime change
and possess the will to join the fight for democracy in Iran on the D-day. In
concluding his speech, Bruce McColm said:
"Before his execution, Hojjat Zamani wrote Kofi Annan a letter to encourage the United Nations
investigation of the status of the families of political prisoners in Iran. He was too aware that
the Iranian regime has been adroit in blackmailing families of those involved
in activities considered contrary to the regime. This practice continues to
this day. The international community should create a fund in Zamani's name to subsidize the families of political
prisoners so as to alleviate their financial suffering." One would only
hope the international community will act with courage, and in time to support
the Iranian people's resistance, political prisoners and their families.
Fighting Tehran from afar
By Marcus Dysch
The Edgeware
Times
March 6. 2006
"Even
here I do not feel safe. Something can happen at any time," says Iranian
exile Marzieh, speaking at a secret location in East Barnet. Marzieh
has spent the past 20 years looking over her shoulder since fleeing from her
home town in northern Iran, and is too scared to
tell us her surname. As a member of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), she
was opposed to the Islamist regime headed by Ayatollah Khomeini, making her a
target for the Revolutionary Guards loyal to him. "There was a lot of
support in my home town for the PMOI because people were more
open-minded," she said. "In June 1981, the Revolutionary Guards
raided many homes, including those of my parents, cousins and friends. They
were arrested and some friends were executed. It was as quick as overnight it
was horrible." Marzieh, 45, recalls the events
in stuttering English, shaking as she speaks. "I was lucky I was not at
home that night otherwise my fate would have been
something different," she said. She fled to Britain in 1985 to claim
political asylum and since then has studied events in the Middle East with interest. Recently
she has become increasingly concerned as Tehran has resumed a uranium
enrichment programme, which the West fear could lead
to Iran developing nuclear
weapons.
Together
with friends who sympathize with Iranians opposed to the regime, she set up the
Anglo-Iranian Society (AIS) in Barnet last year, a group which aims to educate
the people of Britain and give a voice to the
millions of Iranians who cannot speak out in their home country.
Thomas
Darby, chairman of AIS, said the group supports the National Council of
Resistance of Iran (NCRI), effectively a government-in-waiting, based in France. The NCRI has an
elected leader, Maryam Rajavi, who would be proposed as the new national leader
should President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime be
toppled. Mr Darby said: "We support their call
for a change in Iran that will hopefully
lead to the downfall in some way of the current regime." Georgina Oliver,
as a volunteer for AIS, approaches churches in the borough to discuss the
situation with clergymen, who can then share the information with people in
their communities. Mrs Oliver said: "It is slow
work, but it is happening. We are also contacting libraries to give out our
information and we are going to have a DVD available to people who wish to look
into things a bit further." She plans to send information to universities
and aims to arrange fundraising events to allow the group to expand. Since Mr Ahmadinejad came to power in June, relations between Iran and the governments of
the Western world have deteriorated further. In October, he was criticised after calling for the destruction of Israel. Marzieh
believes people have a misguided view of the Iranian people because of the
president's outbursts. "One of our objectives is to combat
fundamentalism," she said. "The regime says Israel should be wiped off the
map, but we are totally against that and we need to educate people to make them
see that is not how all Iranians think. It is not what the Iranian people want, it is only the fundamentalist regime which thinks like
this." Marzieh said her resistance to Mr Ahmadinejad's regime was influenced by several factors.
"Women are treated as second-class citizens," she said.
"Discrimination is written into the law and women cannot be judges or
leaders. I am a Muslim and I wear my headscarf through choice, I do not want
someone to force me to wear a hijab." She continued:
"Since the events of September 11, the Madrid bombing and the London bombings in July, I realise that fundamentalism is increasing rapidly and being
exported to other countries by Iran. The root of
fundamentalism is in Iran. "Every day we see
suicide bombers in Iraq many of them have been
trained in Iran. Although the London bombers were English,
their thinking was from Iran. Even in Pakistan, where the London bombers were trained,
that ideology comes from Iran.
"The
security of the world is threatened because of this Islamic
fundamentalism." The group believes the international community now has
three options to deal with Iran. They do not favour two of them, appeasement and military intervention,
but, they say, the NCRI could bring about a revolution if supported by
countries such as Britain and America. Mrs
Oliver said: "The Western countries have decided to appease Iran, but you cannot appease
people who are hell-bent on domination through Islamic fundamentalism."
Death Penalty Rare for Women, But On
the Rise in Iran and China
By Alison Langley
InternPress Service News Agency
March 7, 2006
A 17-year-old Iranian girl known only as Nazanin
fought off two men trying to rape her, and is said to have fatally stabbed one
of them. In January, almost two years after the incident, a Tehran court
sentenced her to death. A 17-year-old Iranian girl known only as Nazanin fought off two men trying to rape her, and is said
to have fatally stabbed one of them. In
January, almost two years after the incident, a Tehran court sentenced her to
death. Nazanin
is one of at least 19 women believed to be on the death row in Iran, says Elisabetta
Zamparutti, head of Hands Off
Cain, a Rome-based organisation working to abolish
the death penalty around the world. While
the number of women facing the death sentence appears to be on the rise in some
countries, like Iran and China, worldwide, women are less likely
than men to be condemned to death. Women
commit fewer heinous crimes like murder, for which death can be the ultimate
sentence, and there is a cultural repugnance to killing a woman that does not
hold for men. "Legally there is no
discrimination" between men and women in Egypt, Amr Abdel Motaal, senior partner at a
Cairo law firm, told IPS. "Males and females are equal
before the law, although judges, who are typically men, tend to be more lenient
towards female defendants. The number of women who receive the death penalty is
very small." Only China, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam regularly execute women without
any apparent gender bias, according to the Capital Punishment U.K. website. The
penal codes of most countries prohibit the execution of pregnant women, who are
either reprieved at once or, in theory, liable to be executed after they have given
birth. While
overall the number of executions around the world is seeing a downward trend,
according to Amnesty International, they appear to be increasing in a few
countries, notably China and Iran, where Nazanin
lives. Following the election of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, the number
of executions in Iran has increased sharply. According
to news articles in the Iranian media compiled by Hands Off
Cain and Human Rights Watch, between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20 alone the judicial
authorities executed 10 prisoners and condemned another 21 to death. Last year
at least two Iranian women were executed and another 13 were given death
sentences, Zamparutti said. Of those, two, Delara Darabi and a young woman
known only as Fakhteh, were minors like Nazanin, Zamparutti said. The
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for crimes
committed before the age of 18. These treaties also prohibit the use of torture
and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments. Iran is a party to both treaties, Zamparutti said, but appears to ignore them. The death
penalty continues to be used extensively and arbitrarily in China, says Amnesty International.
People were executed for non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and embezzlement,
as well as for drug offences and violent crimes. Because authorities keep
national statistics on death sentences and executions secret, AI researchers
said it is difficult to come by accurate figures. Based on the available public
reports, the human rights watchdog estimates that at least 3,400 people had
been executed and at least 6,000 sentenced to death in 2004. There is no
breakdown in the number of women killed by the Chinese state. The reasons women are sentenced to death and
the way they are killed sometimes differ from men. Of the 13 women in Iran sentenced to death, three face
stoning as punishment for alleged adultery. Stoning is a particularly painful
way to die. "Only women are sentenced to death by stoning for
adultery," Zamparutti said. Men, on the other
hand, are hanged, if they are sentenced to death for that crime at all. Ma Weihua, a woman
facing capital punishment on drugs charges in China, was reportedly forced to undergo
an abortion in police custody in February 2005, apparently so that she could be
put to death "legally," according to Human Rights Watch. Chinese law
prevents the execution of pregnant women.
In the wake of public protests, Ma's trial eventually was suspended
after her lawyer provided details of the forced abortion, HRW said, and she was
eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. There are 55 women
currently on death row in the United States. Frances Newton was killed by the
southern state of Texas on Sep.
14, 2005. Since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976 after a three-year
suspension, 11 female offenders have been put to death. Still, death sentences
and actual executions for female offenders are rare in comparison to male offenders
in the United States. In fact, women are more likely
to be dropped out of the system the further the capital punishment system
progresses. While women account for one in ten murder arrests, only one in 97
are actually executed. In a 1983 ruling,
India's Supreme Court said the death sentence should be awarded only in
"the rarest of rare cases" but the country has yet to abolish the
death penalty altogether. Capital punishment is carried out by hanging, without
exception, and this method is considered to be devoid of suffering and
humiliation -- it is never done publicly. The last woman to be executed in India was in the 1920s.
In Latin America, the death penalty is rare for
men and women alike. Only Cuba and Guatemala still have the death penalty on
the books for criminal offences, beyond crimes in the military arena or in
times of war. The last time Cuba implemented capital punishment
was in 2003: three men were condemned to death for stealing a boat in an
attempt to escape the island. And Guatemala is debating the abolition of
capital punishment altogether.
Amnesty International
condemns violence against women demonstrators in Iran
March 10, 2006
Public Statement
Amnesty International
condemns the violent action taken by Iranian police, Revolutionary Guards and
others on 8 March to forcibly disperse about 1,000 women who had gathered
peacefully in Tehran to commemorate
International Women’s Day. Scores of women are reported to have been beaten by
the police and those assisting them. The women had gathered in Daneshjoo (Students) park, where they began a peaceful
sit-in and displayed banners with slogans such as ‘discrimination against women
is an abuse of human rights’, ‘women demand their human rights’, and ‘Iranian
women demand peace’. Initially, there were about 100 police present but as the
protest continued busloads more police and also members of the plain clothes Basij militia, and special anti-riot forces belonging to
the Revolutionary Guards, arrived at the park. They filmed and photographed the
women protestors and then ordered them to disperse, on the grounds that the
gathering had not been officially authorized. However, the protestors did not
do so and at 4.20pm, after one of them read
out a statement calling for greater rights for women, the security forces
charged them and began assaulting them. Many were beaten with batons, some by
teams of security men. For example, Simin Behbehani, an elderly feminist poet with poor sight, was
beaten with a baton and kicked repeatedly by security forces. Journalists
present at the protest who had filmed the event were reportedly arrested, only
released from custody after their film and photographs were confiscated. Amnesty
International is calling on the Iranian government to undertake an immediate
investigation into this excessive use of force by police and other security
forces and to ensure that those responsible for the assaults and violence
against demonstrators are brought to justice promptly and fairly. The
organization is also calling on the Iranian authorities to respect the right to
freedom of assembly and expression, in accordance with Iran’s obligations under
international law. The organization reminds the Iranian authorities of Article
12 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. This states
that “Everyone has the right…to participate in peaceful activities against
violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The Declaration requires
states to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection…against any
violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure
adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence
of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present
Declaration.”
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