Sun’s departure will leave a void in the party’s upper echelons

Sun Chunlan, China’s “Iron Lady” and the only woman in the ruling party’s Politburo, is due to step down from her post at the 20th Communist Party Congress this week. There’s no guarantee that another woman will succeed her, providing yet another example of the systemic under-representation of Chinese women in leadership positions, which can have very real consequences for the world’s most populous nation.

Yemeni women face ‘unprecedented’ and horrifying pattern of abuse in Houthi areas…

While western news outlets cover news about the Saudi-led coalition, the terror Yemeni women face under Houthi role is ignored, and neglected by the politically motivated western mainstream media.

Houthi crimes against Yemeni women include murder, maiming, humiliation, rape, sexual abuse and torture, yet the mainstream media won’t tell you that.

Houthi rebels have killed hundreds of women since the start of Yemen’s civil war, the country’s human rights minister said in 2018. Yemeni SABA news agency cited, Mohammed Askar, as saying that the Houthi militia killed 814 women and injured 4,179 between 2014 to 2018.

Although Yemeni officials and human rights advocates, spoke about these crimes in the western media. They ignore those horrifying accounts that detail the survivors’ stories, and their justice remain on hold because of the double standard view the west about the Yemeni conflict.

In 2020, the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Yemen, identified a Houthi network, involved in the repression of women who oppose Houthis, through intimidation and sexual violence.

In its report addressed to the President of the Security Council, the Panel documented a set of violations committed by Houthis , which included arbitrary arrest, detention of women, looting, sexual assault, beating, torture, and facilitation of rape in secret detention centers.

According to the report, Houthi women constitute an intelligence agency. Among their tasks are searching women and homes, teaching the militias’ ideology and maintaining order in women’s prisons.

The report documented, an increased repression against women. It reported, the detention of 11 women, who were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted due to their political affiliations, or their participation in political activities or public protests.

Women were threatened with being charged with prostitution, or with organized crime if they continue acting against Houthis. Some were brutalized and raped, and some didn’t survive to their stories.

The Security Council Resolution 2467 (2019), which confirmed the increasing repression of women who express political opinions, or participate in demonstrations and stressed that, this affects their ability to participate in conflict resolution efforts and decision-making processes

Houthi’s crimes were documented, through the testimonies from several humanitarian actors on the militias’ intentional rejection of NGO projects related to women, peace and security or women’s empowerment. Yet the western mainstream media still ignored the voices of the victims .

Among the many victims are cases of women who were arrested and detained for reasons related to their humanitarian work and providing food and medicine to the people.

Sadly prominent NGO’S like Human Rights Watch documented numerous incidents of parties to the conflict using schools for military purposes, yet they ignored or turned a blind eye to the horrors women face under Houthi rule.

This is inexcusable but expected from these NGO’S that Yemeni women face ‘unprecedented’ and horrifying pattern of abuse in Houthi areas, activists and experts say yet the mainstream media and western politicians turn a blind eye to these crimes, can you tell these victims why they don’t deserve justice?

Khaled Homoud Alshareef holds PhD in Business and he earned Masters in Philosophy. He often writes about Islamism, Islamist factions and modern Terrorism. He tweets under @0khalodi0.

On Monday, the 3rd Branch of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced Nika Pakzadan, Faraneh Daneshgari, Sanaz Eshaghi, Nekisa Hajipour, and Naghmeh Zabihian to one year of prison each for “spreading propaganda against the state by being Bahai”.

According to the Human Rights News Agency, the Bahai women were first detained in Mashhad on November 15, 2015 by security forces. On the same day, 11 other Bahai citizens were detained in Tehran and Isfahan, central Iran.

An informed source said that the case will be sent to a court of
appeals.

Naghmeh Zabihiyan was also detained before this in the winter of 2011, along with other Bahai citizens, for holding a Handicraft gallery in the home of a Bahai citizen. She was sentenced to six months of prison for “spreading propaganda against the state”.

Bahai persecution in Iran

Iranian Bahais are deprived of freedom of religion as stated in Article 18 of the Core International Human Rights Treaties.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”

Unofficial sources say that there are more than 300,000 people following the Bahai Faith in Iran.

However, the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism and does not recognize Bahaism.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Iranian Bahais have been
systematically persecuted as a matter of government policy.

During the first decade of this persecution, more than 200 of Iran’s Bahais were killed or executed. Hundreds more were tortured or imprisoned, and tens of thousands lost jobs, access to education, and other rights – all solely because of their religious belief.

The persecution of Iran’s Bahais is still ongoing with dozens of Bahais languishing in prisons throughout Iran.

Islam honours women greatly. It honours women as mothers who must be respected, obeyed and treated with kindness. Pleasing one’s mother is regarded as part of pleasing Allaah. Islam tells us that Paradise lies at the mother’s feet, i.e. that the best way to reach Paradise is through one’s mother.

And Islam forbids disobeying one’s mother or making her angry, even by saying a mild word of disrespect. The mother’s rights are greater than those of the father, and the duty to take care of her grows greater as the mother grows older and weaker. All of that is mentioned in many texts of the Qur’aan and Sunnah Prophetic traditions). 

For example, Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And We have enjoined on man to be dutiful and kind to his parents” .[al-Ahqaaf 46:15] 

“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honour. And lower unto them the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: ‘My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they did bring me up when I was young’”. [al-Isra’ 17:23, 24]

Ibn Maajah (2781) narrated that Mu’aawiyah ibn Jaahimiah al-Sulami (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I came to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allaah, I want to go for jihad (battle) with you, seeking thereby the Face of Allaah and the Hereafter. He said, “Woe to you! Is your mother still alive?”  I said, Yes. He said, “Go back and honour her.” Then I approached him from the other side and said: O Messenger of Allaah, I want to go for jihad with you, seeking thereby the Face of Allaah and the Hereafter. He said, “Woe to you! Is your mother still alive?”  I said, Yes. He said, “Go back and honour her.” Then I approached him from in front and said, O Messenger of Allaah, I want to go for jihad with you, seeking thereby the Face of Allaah and the Hereafter. He said, “Woe to you! Is your mother still alive?”  I said, Yes. He said, “Go back and honour her (lit. stay by her feet), for there is Paradise.” 

Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Sunan Ibn Maajah. It was also narrated by al-Nasaa’i with the words: “Stay with her for Paradise is beneath her feet.” 

Al-Bukhaari (5971) and Muslim (2548) narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: A man came to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and said: “O Messenger of Allaah, who is most deserving of my good company?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Then your father.” 

And there are other texts which we do not have room to mention here.  

One of the rights which Islam gives to the mother is that her son should spend on her if she needs that support, so long as he is able and can afford it. Hence for many centuries it was unheard of among the people of Islam for a mother to be left in an old-people’s home or for a son to kick her out of the house, or for her sons to refuse to spend on her, or for her to need to work in order to eat and drink if her sons were present. 

Islam also honours women as wives. Islam urges the husband to treat his wife in a good and kind manner, and says that the wife has rights over the husband like his rights over her, except that he has a degree over her, because of his responsibility of spending and taking care of the family’s affairs. Islam states that the best of the Muslim men is the one who treats his wife in the best manner, and the man is forbidden to take his wife’s money without her consent. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “and live with them honourably”. [al-Nisa’ 4:19] 

“And they (women) have rights similar (to those of their husbands) over them to what is reasonable, but men have a degree (of responsibility) over them. And Allaah is All-Mighty, All-Wise”. [al-Baqarah 2:228]

And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I urge you to treat women well.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 331; Muslim, 1468. 

And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The best of you is the one who is best to his wife, and I am the best of you to my wives.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 3895; Ibn Maajah, 1977; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi. 

And Islam honours women as daughters, and encourages us to raise them well and educate them. Islam states that raising daughters will bring a great reward. For example, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever takes care of two girls until they reach adulthood, he and I will come like this on the Day of Resurrection,” and he held his fingers together. Narrated by Muslim, 2631. 

Ibn Maajah (3669) narrated that ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “Whoever has three daughters and is patient towards them, and feeds them, gives them to drink and clothes them from his riches, they will be a shield for him from the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah. 

Islam honours women as sisters and as aunts. Islam enjoins upholding the ties of kinship and forbids severing those ties in many texts. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “O people! Spread (the greeting of) salaam, offer food (to the needy), uphold the ties of kinship, and pray at night when people are sleeping, and you will enter Paradise in peace.” Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 3251; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah. 

Al-Bukhaari (5988) narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah, may He be exalted, said to the ties of kinship: ‘Whoever upholds you, I will support him, and whoever breaks you, I will cut him off.’” 

All of these qualities may co-exist in a single woman: she may be a wife, a daughter, a mother, a sister, an aunt, so she may be honoured in all these ways. 

To conclude: Islam raised the status of women, and made them equal with men in most rulings. So women, like men, are commanded to believe in Allaah and to worship Him. And women are made equal to men in terms of reward in the Hereafter. Women have the right to express themselves, to give sincere advice, to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil, and to call people to Allaah. Women have the right to own property, to buy and sell, to inherit, to give charity and to give gifts. It is not permissible for anyone to take a woman’s wealth without her consent. Women have the right to a decent life, without facing aggression or being wronged. Women have the right to be educated; in fact it is obligatory to teach them what they need to know about their religion. 

Anyone who compares the rights of women in Islam with their situation during the Jaahiliyyah (pre-Islamic days of ignorance)or in other civilizations will understand that what we are saying is true. In fact we are certain that women are given the greatest honour in Islam. 

There is no need for us to mention the situation of women in Greek, Persian or Jewish society, but even Christian societies had a bad attitude towards women. The theologians even gathered at the Council of Macon to discuss whether a woman was merely a body or a body with a soul. They thought it most likely that women did not have a soul that could be saved, and they made an exception only in the case of Mary (Maryam – peace be upon her). 

The French held a conference in 586 CE to discuss whether women had souls or not, and if they had souls, were these souls animal or human? In the end, they decided that they were human! But they were created to serve men only. 

During the time of Henry VIII, the English Parliament issued a decree forbidding women to read the New Testament because they were regarded as impure. 

Until 1805, English law allowed a man to sell his wife, and set a wife’s price at six pennies. 

In the modern age, women were kicked out of the house at the age of eighteen so that they could start working to earn a bite to eat. If a woman wanted to stay in the house, she had to pay her parents rent for her room and pay for her food and laundry. 

See ‘Awdat al-Hijaab, 2/47-56. 

How can this compare to Islam which enjoins honouring and kind treatment of women, and spending on them? 

Secondly: 

With regard to the changes in these rights throughout the ages, the basic principles have not changed, but with regard to the application of these principles, there can be no doubt that during the golden age of Islam, the Muslims applied the sharee’ah (Islamic law) of their Lord more, and the rulings of this sharee’ah include honouring one’s mother and treating one’s wife, daughter, sister and women in general in a kind manner. The weaker religious commitment grew, the more these rights were neglected, but until the Day of Resurrection there will continue to be a group who adheres to their religion and applies the sharee’ah (laws) of their Lord. These are the people who honour women the most and grant them their rights. 

Despite the weakness of religious commitment among many Muslims nowadays, women still enjoy a high status, whether as daughters, wives or sisters, whilst we acknowledge that there are shortcomings, wrongdoing and neglect of women’s rights among some people, but each one will be answerable for himself.

Anyone who experiences it, be they refugee or visitor, agrees that it feels like a hell on earth.

At Camp Moria, a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos close to the shores of Turkey, everything is in turmoil. In the midst of it all, there are children with nothing much to do, and some of them scramble among the trash, crowds of people everywhere they try to go. Illness has spread everywhere and the garbage is piled up high. By official count, more than 20,000 refugees live in Camp Moria in converted temporary Conex units and in tents. The rest, the unofficial numbers — we do not know how many — live in tents in the forests and on the streets. A large number of people also live in the island’s ruined buildings.

Amidst this mayhem, lone women and women with children have their own stories to tell.

The women’s section is on the right after you enter Camp Moria. Thousands of women refugees, alone or with their daughters, live in this place, which was designed for just 200 people. The extreme overcrowding has forced many of them to live in the men’s section or under tents in the woods around the camp. They too take shelter in nearby ruins, and most of them prefer it to Camp Moria. According to human rights organizations, a human catastrophe has unfolded in the camp. Anyone who experiences it, be they refugee or visitor, agrees that it feels like a hell on earth.

I stepped into the women’s section amidst a commotion that never seems to subside. A solitary woman refugee told me her story of sexual harassment. She has lived in the camp for a year without any prospects and is awakened every night by nightmares. One night, as she was returning from the city to the camp by herself, several men attacked and tried to rape her. She screamed loudly and a group of people luckily came to her rescue. Now she refers to the incident as “that horror” and never leaves the camp by herself.

We started walking around the camp with a few other women so they could tell me about the camp’s polluted environment and the lives of other refugees. But every step of the way we were chastised, a group of men shouting sexual insults at us. It was impossible to ignore.

Refugees from Domestic Violence

Most of the Iranian woman refugees who live in Camp Moria’s women’s section, and many like them who live in Athens or Turkey or other countries that take in refugees, have escaped domestic violence — a type of violence that is not considered a crime in Iran. There are no laws there to adequately address it. 

On this visit, I talked to a woman who told me she was forced to escape Iran because of domestic violence. Another said that her family tried to force her to marry a man she didn’t want to so she packed her bags and reached this island without letting her family know. “I wanted to commit suicide in Iran and here I also attempted suicide once,” she said as we were walking. “So they have given me tranquilizers.” She reached into her bag and showed me a plastic vial with some pills. She did not know the name of the pill, but it had stripped her body of all its hair. Still, I could see the shadow of a smile on her face and she spoke calmly.

A woman who had arrived at Lesbos with her son and her daughter and who lived in one of the tents outside the camp told me that she had been stuck on the island for more than 13 months. “My husband continuously beat us,” she said. “He would even beat my children. He was a drug addict and he wanted us to get him drugs. I took the children and came to Greece because of their future, but this is where we have ended up.” Did she have guardianship of her children? I asked her. “It would have taken years to get a divorce,” she said. “He refused to give me a divorce so I escaped.”

In another tent an Afghan woman told me about her illness, and her child’s. “My daughter throws up blood but the doctor says that she is all right,” she said. “My kidneys ache and the doctor says I might have kidney stones. But they do not give us any medication. They just tell us to drink water.”

Another woman living in a tent had recently given birth. “For a whole month neither me nor my baby have had a bath,” she told me.

There is no hot water. If people are lucky, the water is lukewarm. But often it is cut off, and it is the same with the electricity. The washstands and lavatories are dirty and there is a single food line for more than 20,000 refugees. Fights and violent clashes are common and weapons such as knives and machetes can be bought and sold easily. Illicit drugs are readily available. All the violence and crime happens right before the eyes of children, as well as adults, many of them vulnerable. Fires, fights, hunger, poverty, long waits and an uncertain future have pushed up the rate of suicide attempts.

No Medicine, No Money and Not Enough Doctors

Many people in the camps suffer from an illness everyone refers to as “scratchy.” Putrid boils appear on the skin and when the affected person scratches the boils, they spread all over the body, including to the genitals. But there is no medicine, no money and not enough doctors. Human rights organizations do their best under these primitive conditions, distributing tampons, diapers, clothing, and sometimes medicine. Most of the women I spoke to said, “The only thing we want is to be delivered from this hell.” And there can be little doubt that everyone in or near the camp feels this way. 

There are also many women in the camp who live with their own families, but this does not necessarily make their lives much better. One woman told me that her husband took out the frustrations of living in Camp Moria by beating her. Another woman was asking for help to get a certificate saying her husband had a “nervous ailment” so that they might be allowed to leave the island. And a woman who had arrived on Lesbos with her only daughter pleaded with me: “Can you teach me everything you know? I promise to learn it well and work for you.”

Most of the time, when the women trapped on this island tell me their stories, they do so through tears. They start to talk, but soon their chin begins to tremble and their eyes fill with tears. They all hope to come across an “angel of rescue.”  Like other refugees trapped in Greece, they complain about the politicians. They don’t understand why they have to suffer these conditions for months and even years.

In 2016, the European Union, Greece and Turkey signed an agreement that specified that refugees that arrive on the countries’ islands must remain there until their asylum applications are processed. If their application is rejected, they must be returned to Turkey and, in exchange, the European Union will give asylum to the same number of refugees accepted by Turkey. However, Turkey has objected to the plan in practice and this agreement has not been carried out.

On the other hand, according to the police and to refugee rights activists, the number of refugees on both of these islands and in Athens, all of whom are trying to get to Western Europe, is increasing day by day. Some lose their lives along the way, some simply lose their way and some are arrested and have to spend several months in prison and detention centers where, sometimes, life is even worse than in the camps.

Now the new Greek government has promised to cut short the time that it takes to process applications for asylum, close Camp Moria and turn it into a detention center. Human rights activists, however, are afraid that this might hurt the chances of refugees because their asylum applications might not be processed with adequate care and, as a result, they will then be imprisoned in closed camps.

Meanwhile, it’s Getting Worse

In the meantime, the situation at Camp Moria is now worse than it was some months ago. Every day there are more refugees, but the facilities have remained the same. Greece itself has to deal with an economic crisis — there are many homeless Greek citizens on the streets — but, in line with agreements with the European Union, Greece must now shield Europe from what some term the “invasion” of refugees. It’s a task that Greek journalists, activists and lawyers do not believe Greece is able to carry out on its own.

In this theater of horrors, news reports and rumors are on the whole more frightening for women than for men. Not only are they are in constant fear of sexual assault, they are afraid that if the Greek government hears of their protests through the media, they can easily be deported to Turkey, or they will be sent back to the countries where they came from. Consequently, many of them avoid reporters and the media and believe that nobody can or will help them. It feels to them as if the walls of the refugee world are pushing on them from every side, especially on the Greek islands.

Despite these fears and pressures, on January 30, hundreds of female refugees from Camp Moria went into the city to protest against the conditions under which they live. They protested against the absence of medicine and hygiene and the increasing violence in the camp that has robbed them of their peace. They say that it is this peace that they risked their lives for, crossing the sea, often on small sailboats or dinghies. Now they are trapped among tents, shipping containers, trash, pollution and neglect. On the day of the protest, and every day, what are they asking for? Escape from Moria.

Article first published on Iran Wire.

The Iranian regime is the top executioner of women and holds the record on per capita executions in the world.

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran, October 2019

Iran top per capita executioner

Hundreds of people in Iran are sentenced to death annually. October 10, the World Day against the Death Penalty, reminds us of the thousands of death row prisoners lingering in jails in Iran.

Iranian regime officials have never heeded to the International community’s calls to abolish the death penalty.

Iran’s deliberate use of capital punishment has been a constant source of international outrage and condemnation. According to several independent international bodies, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran and Amnesty International, Iran is the leading state in executions per capita, second only to China in terms of figures. Iran also tops the charts in the number of executions of minors and juvenile offenders.

Iran Human Rights Monitor has recorded the execution of more than 200 individuals since the beginning of 2019 in Iran.

At least eight juvenile offenders and 10 women were executed, and 12 executions were carried out publicly.

There are six political prisoners among those executed.

The Iranian regime uses execution as a tool to suppress and silence a disgruntled public the majority of whom live under the poverty line, are unemployed and deprived of freedom of expression.

In March 2019, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, appointed a former notorious judge responsible for mass executions as the head of judiciary to keep a lid on social unrest.

Since then Ebrahim Raisi, who has participated in “death commissions” that ordered the 1988 massacre of thousands of prisoners, at least 173 people have been executed across Iran.

At least nine women have been executed in a period of slightly over eight months, while in a year-long period from 2016 to 2018, the number of women executed by the Iranian regime in the whole year ranged between 6 and 10. At the same time, the execution of drug-related prisoners escalated.

On March 5, 2019, the U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino denounced Raisi’s appointment as the head of Iran’s all-powerful judiciary calling it a “disgrace” and a “mockery of legal process” since Raisi is responsible for the deaths of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, including the 1988 massacre.

Palladino tweeted (both Farsi and English): “Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi), involved in mass executions of political prisoners, was chosen to lead Iran’s judiciary. What a disgrace! The regime makes a mockery of the legal process by allowing unfair trials and inhumane prison conditions. Iranians deserve better!”

Executions carried out in prisons across Iran:

Executions in Iran contrary to international law

Death penalty violates the most fundamental human rights, the right to life and the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

160 countries across the world have either abolished the death penalty or at least called a moratorium on its use.

The Iranian regime has not only refused to abolish the death penalty, but it executed:

• 12 people in public
• Eight juvenile offenders
• Mentally disabled
• 10 women
• 33 people on drug related charges
• People convicted of vague charges such as “waging war on God” or “corruption on earth”
• People on other non-violent crimes such as financial offences and ape

Furthermore, because of the clerical regime’s failure to categorize murders according to their degrees, anyone committing murder is sentenced to death, regardless of their motives.

At least 10 women hanged

At least 10 women were executed since the beginning of 2019.

On September 26, 2019, Leila Zarafshan was hanged in the Central Prison of Sanandaj.

An unidentified woman was hanged along with seven male prisoners on September 25, 2019, Raja’i Shahr Prison of Karaj.

A 38-year-old woman was executed in Mashhad Central Prison, on August 25, 2019.

Four women were executed in eight days in July. They include Maliheh Salehian hanged in the central prison of Mahabad, Zahra Safari Moghadam, 43, hanged in the Prison of Nowshahr, and Arasteh Ranjbar and Nazdar Vatankhah who had already spent 15 years in prison, hanged in the Central Prison of Urmia.

The Iranian regime is the top executioner of women and holds the record on per capita executions in the world.

Many of the women convicted of murder in Iran are themselves victims of domestic violence against women and have committed murder in self-defense.

The inhuman verdicts of execution particularly for Iranian women are carried out at the end of a non-standard and illegal due process.

Iran execute eight child offenders

At least eight people have been executed in Iran in 2019 for offences allegedly committed when they were children.

In a flagrant violation of international human rights, the Iranian regime in April flogged and executed two teenage boys without notifying their family or lawyers.

Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, two 17-year-old cousins, were executed on April 25 soon after being transferred to Adelabad prison in the southern Fars province. Both were arrested in more than two years ago, when they were 15 years old, and convicted on rape charges.

The boys’ families were granted a visit to the prison the previous day but were not told that it was in preparation for their execution, the human rights group said.

The families reportedly learned of the news when they received telephone calls from Iran’s Legal Medicine Organisation.

Both bodies were reported to have been laden with lash marks, indicating that they had been flogged before their deaths.

Amnesty International said in a statement on April 29.”The Iranian authorities have once again proved that they are sickeningly prepared to put children to death, in flagrant disregard of international law.”

International law strictly prohibits the use of capital punishment in all cases in which the accused was under 18 at the time of the crime.

Iran is a signatory of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids use of the death penalty. 

In 2013 changes to the penal code designed to protect minors in Iran’s criminal justice system were introduced allowing judges to use discretion in sentencing for capital punishment crimes. 

However, according to Amnesty International the changes had not been meaningfully implemented, allowing the authorities to “whitewash their continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile offenders.”

More than 90 other juveniles remain at risk of execution. Many of them have spent prolonged periods on death row – in some cases more than decade.

Executions on political grounds

Iran has executed several people on vague charges with little transparency or due process.

At least eight prisoners convicted of “waging war on God” or “corruption on earth” has been executed in 2019.

They include Seyyed Jamal Haji Zavvareh, Maliheh Salehian, Abdullah Karmollah Chab, Ghassem Abdullah, Hamid Derakhshandeh, Behrouz Abdipour, Hossein Roshan and Mohsen Kounani.

At least 40 inmates convicted of similar charges are on death row in Iran.

Iran is also notorious for executing people for crimes that do not meet the basic international standard of limiting capital punishment to the most serious offenses.

In a recent case, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) to death.

According to the sentence, the PMOI activist Abdullah Qasempour was sentenced to death and eight years of prison on charges of “enmity with God by membership in, endorsement of and cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran”.

The Court accused 34-year-old Abdullah Qasempour of filming the incident and sending the video to media affiliated with the PMOI/MEK.

The judiciary’s long record of violating detainees’ rights and applying of the death penalty without due process have raised grave concerns.

Two prisoners Abdullah Karmollah Chab and Ghassem Abdullah, from Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority, were executed on August 4, following months of torture during which both were forced to make false confessions.

In August Iranian authorities executed Hamidreza Derakhshandeh, a man who had killed the regime’s Friday Prayer Leader in Kazerun.

Friday Prayer leaders are mullahs who directly represent Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, in different cities, which makes them much hated among the Iranian population who are fed up with the repression and corruption of regime officials.

Last year, Kazerun was shook by popular protests by thousands of citizens who were enraged by the regime’s policies to change the municipal divisions of the city, which would pave the way for more embezzlement by regime officials and result in lower services to the city’s inhabitants.

Popular protests across Iran regularly target Iranian regime officials, including Friday Prayer leaders, for their role in government corruption.

In comments following the killing of the regime’s Friday Prayer leader in Kazerun, Derakhsan had said, “Dear people of Iran, I love all of you, I love the poor people of Iran, those who don’t have bread to eat at night, those who have become sick of having to borrow money to make ends meet…

“I had heard and seen cases of injustice. Hundreds of these cases. There’s only so much I can do to buy and give to the poor. I saw these crimes. I’m not a criminal. This was my first time. My friends know me. I’m not a criminal.”

Targeting opponents of the death penalty

On June 18, 2019, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran examined a new case filed against Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Atena Daemi for their protest while in detention to the executions of three Kurdish dissidents.

The court sentenced them to 1.5 years’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the state” and to 2 years and one-month imprisonment for “insulting the leader (i.e. Ali Khamenei).”

Amir Raissian, lawyer of Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, told the press on September 5, 2019, that the same verdict had been upheld in the revision stage without being examined by the Revision Court.

They have been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state,” and to 2 years and 1 month for “insulting the leader (Ali Khamenei).” Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was released from prison in April after more than three years in jail.

In September 2019, on the first anniversary of the executions of Kurdish political prisoners Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi and Ramin Hossein Panahi, Atena Daemi sent an open letter out of Evin Prison emphasizing her opposition to death penalty.

In part of her letter, she referred to her new sentence, writing, “What an honor to receive another prison sentence for my opposition to death penalty and for defending humane living.”

Call for the elimination of the death penalty

On the eve of October 10 which marks the World Day against the Death Penalty, Iran Human Rights Monitor urges all international human rights organizations, especially the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, journalists and the media, to condemn horrendous executions in Iran and take immediate action to stop these medieval crimes being carried out in the twenty-first century.

We want an Iran, free of any executions.

Article first published on Iran Human Rights Monitor.

Okaz Arabic daily reported that, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) will now allow women, who arrive in the Kingdom for tourism, to stay in tourism accommodation facilities on her own without the need of a mahram.

According to the new law, it is mandatory for the Saudi woman to present her original national identity card or her family registration while the foreigner women should present passport when they apply to stay in the tourism facilities.

“SCTH has asked tourism accommodation facilities not to provide accommodation to women who do not hold identification papers, unless they are accompanied by a male relative, whose data ought to be registered”, Saudi Gazette reported.

However, there is no official announcement to endorse the loose media reports that stranger male and female can stay together in one room.

Two women were hanged at dawn on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 in the Central Prison of Urmia, north-west Iran.

They were identified as Arasteh Ranjbar and Nazdar Vatankhah and had already spent 15 years in prison. They were accused of murder and complicity in murder, respectively.

According to an informed source, the two women had previously been given one month to attract the agreement of the victim’s parents; but they had not managed to do so, and their death penalties were carried out.

They were transferred to solitary cells Monday morning, July 22, to be prepared before being sent to the gallows, according to the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

With these latest executions, the number of women executed during six years of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency has reached 93. Four of them were executed in the past 8 days alone, indicating heightened suppression and targeting of women in Iran.

Maliheh Salehian from Miandoab was hanged on July 16, 2019, on the charge of murder in the Central Prison of Mahabad, in western Iran.

On July 17, 2019, another female prisoner, Zahra Safari Moghadam, 43, was hanged in the Prison of Nowshahr, in northern Iran.

Some 3,700 persons have been executed in Iran in the past six years under Rouhani. The Iranian regime is the world’s record holder for executions per capita. It carries out the death penalty as a tool to maintain its grab on power and silence a disgruntled population, the majority of whom live under the poverty line, while unemployment is rampant in the country and there is no freedom of speech.

Rule 61 of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) reads, “When sentencing women offenders, courts shall have the power to consider mitigating factors such as lack of criminal history and relative non-severity and nature of the criminal conduct, in the light of women’s caretaking responsibilities and typical backgrounds.”

The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran has condemned the execution of the two women by the mullahs’ regime since they are victims of misogynist laws and policies of the clerical regime and their destruction of the economy. The NCRI Women’s Committee urged the international organizations defending human rights and women’s rights to take action to stop the death penalty in Iran.

Article taken without a single change from NCRIran, however Feature Image is changed.