WLUML: What Is Happening To Women In Iran

From Women Living Under Muslim Law (WLUML):

Daily Times – March 18, 2008 A former top Iranian police commander appeared in court on Sunday after his arrest reportedly on suspicion of a morality-related crime, the ISNA news agency reported. “A former commander in the police appeared this morning before the 76th branch of the Tehran court and the investigation against him has started,” the student news agency said. Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi confirmed last week that a high-ranking police officer had been arrested, released on bail and put under investigation. “We will announce the accusations against him at a later date as the investigation is still at a preliminary stage,” he said. But the conservative Internet news site Tabnak reported that the prominent police commander had been arrested “on accusations of immorality”.

BBC News- March 18, 2008 An Iranian woman under threat of being stoned to death for adultery has been freed, her lawyer has said. Mokarrameh Ebrahimi was released from prison in Qazvin province on the orders of Iran’s judiciary’s amnesty commission, said her lawyer Shadi Sadr. Ms Ebrahimi’s partner, Jafar Kiani, was stoned to death in July 2007, causing an international outcry. The reasons for Ms Ebrahimi’s release are unclear, but Ms Sadr said rights campaigns had certainly played a part.Death by stoning is still enshrined under Iranian law. Ms Sadr says it is unclear what led the judiciary to free Ms Ebrahimi. But “you cannot deny the role of public opinion and domestic and international pressures”, said Ms Sadr, herself a prominent women’s rights and anti-stoning activist. Amnesty International says a total of 12 people – mainly women – are currently at risk of being stoned to death in Iran.

International Herald Tribune – March 19, 2008 Switzerland’s foreign minister, already under fire for a natural gas deal with Iran, also is provoking an outcry at home because she wore a headscarf at the meeting with Iran’s hardline president when the accord was signed. “Like a submissive woman,” the Lausanne daily tabloid Le Matin said Wednesday in a front-page story showing a photo of Micheline Calmy- Rey wearing a white, semitransparent headscarf. “Calmy-Rey wears the veil of discord,” Tribune de Geneve said in its lead headline. Numerous members of parliament also have voiced anger and incomprehension over Calmy-Rey’s choice of attire when she met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday in Tehran to witness the signing of the multibillion-dollar deal between Swiss energy trading company EGL and the state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Co.

The New York Sun – March 19, 2008 The study, “Discrimination and Intolerance in Iran’s Textbooks,” examined about 95 different school textbooks that are mandatory for first- through 11th- grade students in Iran. Authored by Paris-8 University sociologist Saeed Paivandi, it is the most comprehensive look to date at the books being used in Iranian schools…”The discourse of the textbooks has not been written with the concept of equality of all human beings, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the study concludes. “In the textbooks’ reasoning, human beings cannot be equal with one another on this earth, in the same way that, on the day of reckoning, they will be subject to divine judgment for their identity and actions.” Based on the analysis of the Iranian textbooks, Paivandi surmises that different people have different places in society; those who aren’t high on the status ladder will be victimized by prejudice.”Some individuals are born first-class citizens, due to their identity, gender and way of thinking, while others become second- and third- class citizens,” the study states. “Those who are excluded from the inside are victims of this discriminatory system.”

RFE/RL – March 19, 2008 Iranian authorities have closed down nine, mostly lifestyle, magazines this week for publishing photos of “immoral” Western celebrities and reporting about their private lives. Thirteen other publications were warned to avoid printing similar photos and stories — or face losing their publishing licenses. The Culture Ministry announced the closures, accusing them of publishing stories about “immoral and corrupt” Hollywood stars and for promoting “superstitions.”

NCRI Website – March 31, 2008 Seyed Ahmad Alam-al-Hoda, Friday prayer leader in the holy city of Mashhad called for criminal prosecution against those he described as offenders of Islamic dress codes, reported the official news agency IRNA on Friday. Alam-al-Hoda told the worshipers that it is a crime not wearing a proper Islamic dress and the security forces must prevent it at all costs.”Mal-veiling is the root of many other criminal behaviors in the society,” said he.”Some officials based on an incorrect logic believe that ‘mal-veiling’ should be cured through a cultural campaign. However, such appearance in the public is a crime which should be suppress swiftly,” Alam-al-Hoda furiously added.He reminded the zealot worshipers, mainly members and families of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other security agencies, of the bills ratified by the High Islamic Council on Cultural Affairs and mandatory for all government employees on proper Islamic dressing in 2006. Alam-al-Hoda said that as soon as the “Chastity Plan” was approved the State Security Forces (SSF) throughout the county was ordered to make its implementation a top priority. As a final word, Alam-al-Hoda threatened the security forces with legal action for not properly dealing with the offenders. Last year alone, over 1,200,000 people were stopped on the streets by the mullahs’ police to receive verbal warnings and many were arrested, beaten or humiliated in public for what they chose to wear.

AKI News – April 9, 2008 Iranian men and women may from Wednesday contract short-term marriages online, according to a religious edict (fatwa) signed by Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Sadeghi Rouhani. The edict says that couples must clearly establish how long the marriage will last. They must also guarantee there are no legal impediments to the marriage, and agree on the amount of money the man must pay the woman when it ends. No comment has so far been issued by religious authorities in the holiest Shia city of Qom. Shia Islam allows a man and woman to marry for a fixed period of time, ranging from an hour to a century. A man can also have any number of temporary marriages – or sigheh, as they are known. Iran first started promoting temporary marriage as an alternative to co- habiting 15 years ago. Then president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said it was a way for men and women to satisfy their sexual needs.

AKI News – April 10, 2008 A top Shia cleric in Iran has said that unveiled women are a serious danger to Iranian society as they cause men to be “transformed into beasts”. “Women without the veil are a danger that the authorities underestimate,” said Hojatolislam Seyyed Ahmad Elmalhoda, a powerful cleric who leads the Friday prayers in Mashad, a site considered sacred for Shia Muslims as it houses the shrine of Imam Reza. “This situation is very serious in that if men see these bad women, they will turn into beasts, and then the whole of society will have to pay the consequences.” According to the Shia cleric, women who do not respect conservative Islamic dress rules are “sources of all that is bad in society.” “Respecting the chador (a long, black cloak that covers the arms and legs and is usually worn with a hijab) is the law of the state and the authorities must severely punish anyone who does not respect this law, in the same way that they punish thieves and murderers,” said Elmadhoda. He is who is also a member of the Council of Experts – a powerful body of 86 senior clerics which elects, supervises and can dismiss the country’s supreme leader. He was speaking to journalists who were reporting on president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the shrine of Imam Reza. “A women who does not wear the entire veil is like a fire which burns anyone who comes into contact with her,” said Elmalhoda. “Our youth, even those who are educated by families who believe and respect the words of the Prophet, when they come into contact with this fire [the women who are not properly veiled] they burn and become ash,” he said.

BBC News – April 12, 2008 Hundreds of civil society activists in Iran have signed an open letter calling for the release of women’s rights defender Khadijeh Moghaddam. Mrs Moghaddam, who is also a campaigner for the environment, was arrested on 8 April and accused of acting against national security. She is very involved in the drive to gather one million signatures opposing laws that discriminate against women. The open letter was sent to newspapers and websites across Iran. Bail for Mrs Moghaddam, 56, was set at more than $100,000 (63,000 euros). Human rights groups say Mrs Moghaddam was arrested at her home on Tuesday. Earlier this week Amnesty International said it believed she was being held solely on account of her peaceful activities in support of equal rights for Iranian women. Among those calling for her release are prominent writers, journalists, lawyers and reformist politicians.

NCRI Website – April 13, 2008 On Saturday, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, chief of the State Security Forces (SSF)-the suppressive police — for the greater Tehran, in an interview with state-run television, promised more suppressive measures for next year in comparison to those carried out during the last Iranian year which ended on March 20, 2008. Enforcement of public security and moral ethics in matters concerning improper clothing, hooligans and thugs, petty drug dealers, thieves as well as security in parks, and all matters related to the people’s soles and minds will continue to be pursued strongly through new Iranian year, 1387. You must have witnessed the [unacceptable] behavior of some motorcyclists on the roads and the worries of car drivers. One other area that we would be taking into consideration, besides the public security, would be the social discipline…,” said Radan. Since the start of the new Iranian year the mullahs’ inhuman regime has taken every opportunity to threaten the public, specially the youth and women with suppressive measures. The mullahs’ regime takes advantage of every opportunity to threaten public with more suppressive measures in order to cover fear of its downfall. However, public upheavals by Iranian people and in particular those of women and youths have given unforgettable lessons to the leaders of the Iranian regime in the past year.

Agance France Presse – April 15, 2008 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday ordered the police to protect Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who said she had received death threats, the state IRNA news agency reported. “Following reports about threatening notes to Ms Shirin Ebadi, the president ordered the police chief to immediately adopt measures to provide security to this Iranian citizen and alleviate concerns,” IRNA said

NCRI Website – April 15, 2008 Thirty-one girls and thirty-six boys were arrested in a crackdown by the State Security forces (SSF) — the suppressive police — in the northern suburbs of Tehran, Iran’s capital, reported the semi-official daily Jomhouri-Islami on Monday. SSF agents raided the party arresting some 67 teenagers for dancing together in what the authorities described as “improper behavior.”SSF agents were dispatched to the house where the party was already in progress in Moqadas-Ardibily Street, according to eyewitness accounts. All The participants, not having a “decent appearance,” were arrested by the security forces, added a local official. “Some bootlegged liquor bottles were also seized by the SSF agents in searching the premises for illegal items,” said a SSF official on the scene. Attacking parties has been a longtime practice of under the mullahs’ rule in Iran.

Arrests, Torture and Heavy Verdicts for the Families who visited their Children
Situation of Human Rights Activists in Iran:
Translated By WFAFI from Peykeiran site
March 30, 2008
Based on the reports received from Gohardasht prison in Karaj, on February 5th, 2008, the 50 year-old Mrs. Zahra Asadpour Karaji and her 22 year-old daughter, Ms. Fatemeh Joshan were kidnapped by the notorious Intelligence Ministry agents in Sasan Square in Karaj. That afternoon the agents of the Intelligence Ministry attacked and inspected their home and destroyed their possessions. They took with them the family’s computer, CDs, books and other personal belongings. They transferred Mrs. Asadpour to the solitary confinement in the ward 8 of the prison known as the Guards ward (this ward is similar to ward 209 of the Evin prison and is run by the Intelligence Ministry agents and Revolutionary Guards Security forces). She was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 30 days. In the February cold weather, she was placed in a cell where the glasses of the windows were broken and the cell lacked insulation. During the period in the solitary confinement, she was under constant interrogation. The interrogations happened at night and were accompanied by severe physical and psychological tortures. They would first expose her to extreme physical tortures and then during questioning would try to force her to admit to the interrogators accusations. The Intelligence Ministry agents would also expose her to various psychological tortures such as threatening to kill her or her daughter. They would also tell her how they had raped or hanged numerous girls and women in the same cell.

This practice was repeated during the 30 days of her imprisonment. In response to the severe tortures, Mrs. Asadpour went on a dry hunger strike for several days and committed suicide. Mrs. Asadpour’s poor health forced the agents of the Intelligence Ministry to take a doctor to her cell. While in prison, Mrs. Asadpour was not informed of the whereabouts and the situation of her daughter. The interrogators who tortured Mrs. Asadpour were Mohebi and Reza Aref. They are located in the Karaj office. The head of Gohardasht prison, Haj Kazem and Ali Mohammadi also had a direct role in their torture.
Mrs. Fatemeh Joshan was transferred to the ward in Gohardasht prison where women criminals were kept. She was attacked and beaten by the prison guards and dangerous prisoners on several occasions.

Since the kidnapping of his spouse and daughter, Mr. Joshan and his family regularly visited the Revolutionary Judiciary and other offices where they were treated with threats and insults and given no information about their whereabouts. Two weeks after their detention, he was informed that they were arrested by the Intelligence Ministry. Mohebi and Reza Arefi, the agents of the Intelligence Ministry ordered the father and son of the family to their office on a daily basis and questioned them. The rest of the family members are also being physically threatened and on the verge of losing their jobs. After 33 days of persistently referring back and forth, the family finally briefly met with the mother and daughter who had lost a lot of weight. The visit was at the presence of the interrogators. The visits of the family with a person named YarMohammadi in the Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Judiciary who is in charge of the case and with the Judge, Mir-Ghafari in the 3rd branch of Karaj Revolutionary Judiciary have been so far futile. The family is treated harshly and amid 25 million Rials of bail set for each one, their loved ones are still kept in detention. They are also told that they will be tried after the Norouz holidays and are subjected to harsh treatment because they visited their children in Ashraf camp in Iraq last year.

It is noteworthy that in the past 2 years, several members of the families who visited their children in Ashraf* have been arrested, tortured and condemned to long imprisonments. Some of those are: 62 year-old Ms. Zahra Aghili, 50 year-old Ms. Shahla Zarinfar who was recently exiled to Gohradasht prison, 64 year-old Mr. Abbas Asgarizadeh, 65 year-old Mr. Javad Aligholi, 60 year- old ShirMohammad Rezaei who is a survival of the 1988 prisoner massacre, former prisoners Asghar Banazadeh and Hamid Banazadeh.

* The City of Ashraf is situated northeast of the Iraqi town of al-khalis, approximately 80 km from the Iraqi capital Baghdad and 70 km to the West of the Iran-Iraq border. Ashraf was founded in 1986, the year that the PMOI moved its headquarters to Iraq.