Feminist Peace Network

The following is from the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI):

UK Daily Mail - June 20, 2007 A man and woman have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in Iran but the judiciary has ordered a stay of execution, Iranian news agencies reported today. A report in the Etemad-e Melli daily and women’s rights activists said that the two were to be stoned Thursday morning in a cemetery in the town of Takestan in the northern province of Qazvin. The report also stated that the executions were so near that “the required plans to carry out the verdict were made.” Further details were not given on what preparations were carried out. Western countries and rights groups have criticised Iran for issuing stoning sentences.The penalty of stoning usually involves victims being buried up to their midriffs and then pelted to death with stones that are not big enough to kill instantly.  A male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. The spectators and officials attending the public execution start throwing stones and rocks at the convict, who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself. Iranian judiciary officials say stonings have not been carried out for years, adding that such sentences are routinely commuted to other forms of execution or lighter sentences.

The Associated Press - June 20, 2007 Iranian judicial authorities have halted the planned stoning to death of a man and woman convicted of adultery following protests from Norway and other countries, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. An Iranian justice official denied that any such stoning had been planned. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere summoned the Iranian ambassador to Oslo on Wednesday after an Iranian human rights activist said the man and woman were set to be stoned to death Thursday in Qazvin province, west of Tehran. In a statement, Stoere said he had told the ambassador that which violated human rights. He also told the ambassador that the Norwegian  parliament’s foreign affairs committee would likely cancel a planned visit to Iran next week if the stoning was carried out. Later Wednesday, Stoere told Norwegian news agency NTB that he had received information that Iranian judicial  authorities had stayed the execution. Western diplomats in Tehran had also raised the issue with Iranian authorities, a Norwegian Foreign Ministry official said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, the official said the Western protests may have influenced the Iranian auhtorities’ decision to stop the stoning.

Agence France Presse - June 20, 2007 An Iranian-French journalism student is being prevented from leaving Iran after spending a month in jail for interviewing opposition members, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday. Mehrnoushe Solouki has been under de facto house arrest in Tehran since March when she was freed from Tehran’s Evin prison where she was interrogated and confined to a cell with a permanently-lit neon light, the group said. Solouki, a doctoral student in Montreal, Canada, had obtained permission from Iranian authorities to produce a documentary film on the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, said Ajar Smouni, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders. But she was arrested on February 17 after interviewing family members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen who said they had been victims of repression, Smouni said. Solouki, 38, who holds Iranian and French citizenship, was freed on March 19 after posting bail of 80,000 euros (107,000 dollars) and has since been under house arrest in Tehran. Iranian authorities confiscated her notes and film footage and have since called her in for questioning, according to her lawyer in France, William Bourdon, who said they have threatened to jail her again unless she cooperates. The lawyer said Solouki had been given her French passport back, but that authorities were refusing to let her leave. “This is a very worrying situation,” said Bourdon, who has raised her plight with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The foreign ministry said it was in contact with Tehran about Solouki’s case, with spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei saying that “we obviously hope that the situation can be resolved and that she will be able to have full freedom of movement.”

Iran Focus - July 3, 2007 Iran’s judiciary has sentenced a women’s right activist to lashes and prison time for taking part in an anti-government protest last year, state media reported. Delaram Ali, who had taken part in a demonstration in Tehran on 12 June 2006 demanding greater women’s rights, was sentenced to 10 lashes and given a 2-year-and- 20-month suspended prison term sentence. The announcement was made by Nasrin Sotoudeh, Delaram’s lawyer. Her comments were carried by the government-owned news agency ILNA. Delaram had been charged with “participating in an illegal gathering”, carrying out “propaganda activities against the state”, and “disturbing public order”.

Reuters News Agency - July 4, 2007 Activists should not try to change Islamic laws relating to women’s rights, Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday, two days after one campaigner was reportedly sentenced to 34 months in jail and ten lashes. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also lambasted the West for using women as a tool to advertise products, make money and to satisfy “disorderly and unlawful sexual needs,” state television said. He was addressing a group of women, most dressed conservatively in head-to-toe black chadors, in Tehran ahead of Thursday’s anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammad’s daughter, Fatima, when Iran honors mothers and women. Campaigners say Iranian women face difficulties in getting a divorce and criticize inheritance laws they say are unjust and the fact their court testimony is worth half that of a man’s. The Islamic Republic rejects allegations it is discriminating against women, saying it follows sharia law. “We are witnessing in our country that some women activists and some men are trying to play with Islamic laws … in order to harmonize them with international conventions related to women,” Khamenei said. “This is wrong.” “They shouldn’t see the solution in changing Islamic jurisprudence laws,” Khamenei, Iran’s highest authority, was quoted as saying. But he indicated some Islamic rules regarding women could change if jurisprudence research led to a new understanding, state television said. Although women are legally entitled to hold most jobs in Iran, it remains a male-dominated society. They cannot run for president or become judges but in recent years they have started to work in police and fire departments.

UK Daily Mail - July 11, 2007 An Iranian woman faces being stoned to death for having an affair with a married man. Mother- of- two Mokarrameh Ebrahimi has spent the last 11 years in jail for adultery with Jafar Kiani. Authorities in Tehran confirmed yesterday that Kiani had been executed last week. Now human rights groups fear 43-year-old Ebrahimi will suffer the same brutal fate. A stoning pit, in which she will be buried up to her neck, has already been prepared for her. Under Islamic law a male convict is buried up to the waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female is usually buried up to her neck. Spectators and officials then carry out the execution by hurling rocks and stones. The stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not big enough to kill the person in just one or two strikes. Kiani and Ebrahimi were jailed in 1996 and their two children, one aged 11, are believed to live in prison with their mother. The stoning of Jafa Kiani brings to at least 110 the number of executions - by public hanging - carried in Iran this year. The death penalty is automatically imposed for murder, rape, armed robbery, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery, prostitution, treason and espionage. Of the 24 juvenile offenders executed in Iran since 1990, 11 were still children by the time they died. Others were held in prison until their 18th birthday before being hanged.

NCRI Website - July 13, 2007 On Wednesday, the mullahs’ regime sentenced eight women to death who are currently serving time in the Iranian prisons, the state-run daily Etemad-Meli reported.  The paper reported, “Eight women have received death sentences by stoning in the Iranian prisons. At least, two of them are in Evin Prison in Tehran, two in Sipedar Prison in [the south-western city of] Ahwaz, one in [the northern city] of Tabriz, one in Varamin [in suburban Tehran], one in Chobin Prison in [the western city of Qazvin], and the last one in Orumieh Prison [northwestern Iran], are spending time in fear and despair.”

Iran Focus - July 15, 2007 Iranian authorities hanged a woman in public in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported on Sunday. The unnamed woman was hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the daily Tehran-e Emrouz wrote. The report put her age at 29. She was accused of murder and conspiring to kill. Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery, drug smuggling, and murder. In May 2006, at least 100,000 Azeris rallied in Tabriz against the publication of an insulting cartoon in the official daily Iran. The city has since been prone to anti-government demonstrations and full-scale riots.

Reuters News Agency - July 15, 2007 Iranian police will intensify a crackdown on women flouting Islamic dress code, a police official told a newspaper on Sunday, in the first reinforcement of regular summertime campaigns. Such crackdowns have become a regular feature of Iranian life, but it is the first time police have pledged to toughen up measures that began in April. A human rights group on Saturday criticised Iran for abuses like police crackdowns on violations of the Islamic dress code. It said some 488 men and women were detained during the first days of the crackdown. “From Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront such immoral behaviour,” the Farhang-e Ashti daily quoted Tehran police chief Ahmad Reza Radan as saying. Under Islamic sharia law, imposed after Iran’s 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment. Many young women, particularly in wealthier urban areas, challenge the limitations by wearing calf-length Capri pants, tight-fitting, thigh-length coats in bright colours and scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair. The Islamic dress code is less commonly challenged in poor suburbs and rural areas. Radan said those women who resisted the guidance of police would appear before the courts. “First, those who breach the dress code will be warned by the police … But if they continue their ignorance … they will be sent to courts,” the police chief said. Since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005 after promising a return to the values of the revolution, hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on “immoral behaviour”. Iran has repeatedly rejected criticism by rights groups over such crackdowns, saying the country’s efforts were aimed at “fighting morally corrupt people.”

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities