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Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in

Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          

Public Statement

CONTACT: press@wfafi.org                                                                      

January 6, 2005

State Sponsored Violence against Women by the Fundamentalist Regime in Iran

Boston, MA – 2004 marked the year of gross human rights violations in Iran. According to the Iranian media and sources inside the country, as of the end of the year the following women were facing execution or stoning in Iran:

 

  1. Afsaneh Norouzi, age 32, sentenced to stoning
  2. Kobra Rahmanpour
  3. Najmeh Vosouq-Razavi - law student from Mashhad
  4. Hajiyeh Esmaeilvand, sentenced to stoning
  5. Mandana Nikkhou
  6. Shahla Jahed
  7. Faeze A. – full last name is unknown
  8. Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajou - for defending her daughter from a rapist
  9. Leyla Mafi, age 19 - the mentally ill teenager who was forced to prostitution by her mother from age 8
  10. Sara - last name unknown
  11. Zahra - last name unknown
  12. Raheleh - last name unknown
  13. Tayyebeh - last name unknown
  14. Shahnaz, - last name unknown; age 35

 

In addition, in 2004, four women were executed:

 

  1. Monireh Ghasempour, hanged in public in Tehran on July 11;
  2. Atefeh (Sahaleh) Rajabi, 16 years old, hanged in public in the northern town of Neka on August 15;
  3. Diba Zomorodian, a microbiology student, hanged in Qazvin (western Iran) on June 29;
  4. Unknown woman hanged in Qazvin on July 12.

 

Recently, WFAFI has received information on a mass stoning of 10 women in the city of Bushehr, southeast of Tehran, which took place in 1989. Another mass stoning took place in the province of Bakhtaran (also known as Kermanshah), southwest of Tehran, where 6 women were stoned to death simultaneously in a similar fashion.

 

 Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran condemns these barbaric acts and calls on all the governments and organizations to take action. The oppressed women of Iran hold those governments that appease Iran’s fundamentalist regime responsible for the ongoing sufferings and violence. Policies such as appeasement, engagement and dialogue will only embolden state sponsor of violence against women in Iran. Mullahs’ regime deserves our scorn and will be removed from power in the hand of Iranian people, particularly its women. Policies that will weaken the Iranian regime, such as economic and international isolation, are the only solution the western governments can put forth in expediting Mullah’s removal from power. We need to stand behind the efforts of those who want to send this barbaric regime to the dustbin of history.

 

 

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http://www.wfafi.org

WFAFI

P.O.Box 15205,

Boston, MA 02215

Tel: (617) 590-1665

Fax: (610) 862-9110