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Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          

Public Statement; ACTION ALERT

CONTACT: press@wfafi.org   

January 9, 2006

 

Ahmadinejad begins 2006 with escalated violence against women and new gender apartheid policies in Iran

BOSTON, MA - In recent days, Iranian women have seen a new wave of nationwide suppression, attacks and violence sponsored by Ahmadinejad's regime. Alarmed by ongoing protests and strikes throughout the country, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his government are once again targeting and escalating violence against women to instill fear in society. While there must be a concerted effort to politically criticize the misogynous regime in Tehran, WFAFI urges the rights advocates, women's groups and international NGO's to launch a campaign in support of Iranian women. Recent violence includes:

 
January 1 - Iran's notorious Islamic court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges but Iran's Supreme Court upheld her sentencing. Darabi, who is now 19, is an artist and engaged to a man who is also sentenced to imprisonment for his involvement in the alleged crime.
 
January 2 - Ahmadinejad ordered the closure of a daily newspaper and banned a planned women's publication. His Cultural Ministry issued the ban order stating: "The Supervisory Board on the Press agreed to the temporary closure of Asia newspaper and Nour-e Banovan and ordered their cases sent to court."

 

January 4 - Iran's Paramilitary forces (Basijis and Ansar-e Hezbollah) launched an "acid attack" on two female university students in the town of Shahroud, northeastern Iran to intimidate women. Acid was splashed in the faces of the two female students, aged 21 and 22, because they were not observing the strict Islamic dress code in Ferdowsi Street, Shahroud. Islamic vigilantes on a motorbike threw acid on the two women as they were walking. Ahamdinejad regularly addresses meetings of these Islamic vigilantes and praises their efforts "to purify the Islamic Republic of the vestiges of corrupt Western culture" and urges them to step up the campaign against the "mal-veiling" of women and girls.

 

January 7 - Iran's notorious Islamic court has sentenced a 18-year-old female rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece, according to state-run daily Etemaad. Nazanin, 17 at the time of the incident, and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh, were attacked by three men and she killed one of the men in self-defense.
 
January 7 - Ahmadinejad plans to segregate Iran's pedestrian walkways on gender basis, according to Fatemeh Alia, a deputy in Iran's Majlis (Parliament) and one of Ahmadinejad's closest allies. As part of the government plan called "Increase the hejab (veil) culture and female chastity", the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has received orders to construct separate pedestrian walkways for men and women, according to Alia.

 

ACTION ALERT

You can make a difference. Write to your elected officials and ask them to criticize Ahmadinejad's gender apartheid policies and practices. In addition:

 

  1. Please write to UN Special RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
  2. Please write to Secretary General Kofi Annan to condemn Ahmadinejad's regime
  3. Please submit the information through Violence Against Women form on these cases.
  4. Please write to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and urge them to issue a statement on the following cases and mobilize their network.

 

 

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http://www.wfafi.org

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Fax: (610) 862-9110