Amnesty International: Iran, Arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture Negin Sheikholeslami

Amnesty International: Iran, Arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture Negin Sheikholeslami Amnesty International-USA    PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/148/2008 14 October 2008 UA 280/08 Arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture IRAN ;Negin Sheikholeslami (f), human rights defender, journalist, aged 34   According to the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan (HROK), Negin Sheikholeslami, a human rights activist from the Kurdish minority in Iran, was arrested at her home in Tehran by members of the security forces at about midnight on 4 October. She is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment and needs medical attention for her respiratory problems. A guest who was staying with her was also detained for about an hour, and then released Negin Sheikholeslami's initial whereabouts were unknown, but her husband was told on 9 October 2008 that she was being held in Section 209 of Evin Prison, which is controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence. He was not told the reasons for her arrest and was informed that she would not be allowed to meet anyone until the investigation into her case was complete. Negin Sheikholeslami is the founder of the Azar Mehr Women's Social and Cultural Society of Kurdistan, which was founded in Sanandaj in Kordestan Province in 2000. It organizes training and sports activities for women in the city of Sanandaj and elsewhere in Kordestan Province. She is also associated with another human rights organization, the HROK, which reports on human rights violations against Kurds in Iran. According to the HROK, a month before Negin Sheikholeslami was arrested, she underwent heart surgery and was still recovering from the operation at the time of her arrest. She also has respiratory problems and is in need of medical treatment. Negin Sheikholeslami has previously been arrested in February 2001 for participating in a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Tehran, and was released two months later. She was also arrested in January 2002 and was released three months later. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Several prominent Iranian Kurdish human rights defenders are currently detained or imprisoned in Iran after being charged or sentenced on vaguely-worded "security" charges in violation of their right to freedom of expression and association. The founder of the HROK, prisoner of conscience Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand is serving an 11-year sentence in Tehran. Another activist associated with the HROK and with the women's movement, Zeynab Beyezidi, was arrested in July 2008 and sentenced to four years' imprisonment to be spent in internal exile. Her sentence was confirmed on appeal on 23 August 2008. Two other members of Azar Mehr, Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi, have been detained since October and November 2007. Hana Abdi was sentenced to five years' imprisonment to be spent in internal exile; this was reduced on appeal to 18 month's imprisonment to be spent in Razan, Hamedan province. Ronak Safarzadeh is still awaiting the outcome of her trial. Iran's Kurdish population live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in Kordestan and neighbouring provinces, bordering Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq. They have long suffered extensive discrimination. Iranian Kurdish human rights defenders, including community activists and journalists, risk arbitrary arrest and torture. For more information on human rights violations against the Kurdish minority in Iran, see AI report: Iran: Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority, at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/088/2008/en RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Arabic, English, French or your own language: - asking to be informed of the reasons for Negin Sheikholeslami's arrest and the current place of her detention; - calling for her to be allowed immediate and regular access to all necessary medical treatment, and to her family and a lawyer of her choice; - urging that she be protected from torture and other ill-treatment while in detention; - calling for her immediate and unconditional release unless she isto be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried promptly and fairly. APPEALS TO: Minister of Intelligence Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Salutation:Your Excellency Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.irThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (In subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi) Salutation: Your Excellency COPIES TO: Director, Human Rights Headquarters of Iran His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary) Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 3390 4986 (please keep trying) Email: int_aff@judiciary.irThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (In the subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani) Leader of the Islamic Republic His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: info@leader.irThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Salutation: Your Excellency and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country. PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 25 November 2008. American Institute of Indian Studies 1130 E. 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 773-702-8638 http://www.indiastudies.org vokradio.com

Hanged for being a Christian in Iran

Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer. Alasdair Palmer reports.
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Amnesty International update on Hassanpour/Butimar

vokradio.com PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/146/2008 07 October 2008 Further Information on UA 39/07 (MDE 13/017/2007, 16 February 2007) and follow-ups (MDE 13/039/2007, 30 March 2007; MDE 13/090/2007, 24 July 2007; and MDE 13/133/2007, 13 November 2007) - Fear of torture/Arbitrary Arrest/Death Penalty IRAN Adnan Hassanpour (m) aged 27, Kurdish journalist and cultural rights activist Mansour Tayfouri (m), Kurdish journalist and translator Abdolwahed Butimar, known as Hiwa (m), aged 29, Kurdish activist and environmentalist Adnan Hassanpour's death sentence was overturned by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court on 3 September. The Head of the Judiciary ordered that because he had been convicted of charges which did not amount to moharebeh (enmity with God), he should be retried on the charge of espionage. He will be retried by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court, in the city of Marivan, in the western province of Kordestan. He began a hunger strike on 25 August, along with more than 50 other Kurdish prisoners, in protest against continuing torture, executions and other gross abuses of human rights A branch of the Revolutionary Court in Marivan is now known to have reimposed the death penalty on Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar on 14 April 2008. Adnan Hassanpour was convicted after a closed trial in June 2007 of espionage and other related offences, which in the opinion of a branch of the Revolutionary Court in Marivan amounted to moharebeh. Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar was convicted of similar charges by a branch of the Revolutionary Court in Marivan. Both were sentenced to death. In November, Branch 32 of the Supreme Court upheld Adnan Hassanpour's death sentence but overturned Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar's sentence on procedural grounds, and sent his case back for retrial. Adnan Hassanpour sat on the editorial board of a Kurdish-Persian weekly magazine called Aso (Horizon), which the authorities closed down in August 2005. Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar heads an environmental organization called The Green Mountain Society, and wrote articles for Aso. According to the judiciary, the two men were prosecuted not for their work, but for taking up arms against Iran. According to his lawyer, before his first trial Adnan Hassanpour confessed under duress, but later retracted this confession. Under Iranian law, to be admissible in court, such "confessions" should be repeated in the presence of the trial judge, which Adnan Hassanpour did not do. It is important that this "confession" is not accepted as evidence at his retrial. We have no further information on Kurdish journalist Mansour Tayfouri. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The range of capital crimes in Iran is extraordinarily large and includes vaguely-worded charges such as moharebeh (enmity against God), which is usually applied to those accused of taking up arms against the state, or armed robbery, and can also be applied to those accused of spying. Offences for which judges have discretionary powers to impose the death penalty include those relating to national security. Iran is a state party the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states in Article 6(2): "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes." The UN Human Rights Committee, the independent body that reviews states' implementation of this treaty stated in 1982: "The Committee is of the opinion that the expression 'most serious crimes' must be read restrictively to mean that the death penalty should be a quite exceptional measure." RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Kurdish, English, French or your own language: - urging the authorities to commute Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar's death sentence immediately; - welcoming the decision to retry Adnan Hassanpour; - acknowledging that governments have a responsibility to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but stating your unconditional opposition to the death penalty, as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life; - asking for information on Kurdish journalist Mansour Tayfouri, including any charges brought against him and details of any trial proceedings, and calling on the authorities to release him unless he is to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence; - calling on the authorities to ensure that none of the men are tortured or ill-treated or executed. APPEALS TO: Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.irThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (In subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi) Salutation: Your Excellency COPIES TO: President His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Fax: +98 21 6 649 5880 Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.irThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it via website: http://www.president.ir/email/ Governor of Kordestan Governor Esmail Najjar Email: In Persian and Kurdish, send via feedback form on the website: http://www.ostan-kd.ir/Default.aspx?tabId'150&cv'4@0_1 In English, French or other language, use the feedback form on the website: http://en.ostan-kd.ir/Default.aspx?TabID'59 COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country. PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 18 November 2008.

Ms. Negin Sheykh Alaslami has been Arrested

vokradio.com  Monday, October 06, 2008 Ms. Negin Sheykh Alaslami has been Arrested Ms. Negin Shaykh Alaslami who is a human rights activist, a journalist, former president of Cultural Association of Women of Azarmehr Kurdisatan, as well as a women's rights activist and a member of One million signature campaign was arrested by the Security Forces on Sunday October 5th 2008 and taken to an unknown location. Ms. Shaykh Alaslami has worked hard towards equality for women and is a well known women's rights activist in Kurdistan of Iran. The authorities have not disclosed the reason behind Ms. Shaykh Aleslami's arrest. Ms. Shaykh Alaslami's family, people in "Kurdistan" of Iran as well as many human rights activists in Iran including women's rights activists are extremely concerned about her health and well being. Published By:A Anderyari arezandaryari@gmail.com  This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Translated by: S Hassan

I Ran Into Myself in the Street and Asked

Society for Human Rights, Southern California held an event on October 5th 2008 at UCLA for the 20th Anniversary of the 1988 Political Prisoners Massacre in Iran.     I Ran Into Myself in the Street and Asked To the audience- I met my own ignorant self on the street and asked: Me: Have you ever heard of "a Prisoner of Conscious"? Me2: Well, no! But I'm a smart woman, I'm sure I can guess what it is. Me: Go ahead, take your best shot! Me2: Nice choice of words. I think, it means people locked up for having no conscience. You know, just to prevent them from doing something really bad, like murder, in the future. To the audience: (I laugh) I thought this was my ignorant self, not my moronic self! Me: (to the audience) No! Let me tell you who a "prisoner of conscious" is: Imprisoned, prosecuted for what is in his/her mind- NOT for what they have actually done! Yes, here thoughts are louder than actions, and the profundity of these words should echo loud in your minds, because this means YOU (pointing at audience), and YOU and YOU and YOU and YES I (pointing at myself) too should all be "Prisoners of Conscious", it means 1984 manifested, it means "thought crime", it means, WE ARE ALL criminals! It means we all deserve to be as severely punished as the jurisdiction of life allows. It means if you think; you are dangerous! SO I begin with a quote, because in the system of oppression of the towers of academia, my creativity was beaten, and instead I was bombarded by clichés. I was told to begin every essay with either a profound definition or the words of a wise man. Who cared what my own hands could produce? A deaf Jam slam poet, says: "I am not angry; I am anger! I am not dangerous; I am danger! I am abominable stress, Iliadic relentless, I am a breath of vengeance; I am the death sentence!"  Let me tell you who a "Prisoner of Conscious" is. Not to you! (Point to the audience) Not you, the men and women, who were once there, not you the human right activists who injected me with the truth and were blamed for carrying the syringes of reality. I don't want to preach to the choir. I speak to my own moronic self in the street. Hence, this piece is written in English, because I want these words to ring, and ring, and ring, and echo, and echo, and echo all over the world, it must and it shall! I don't want the solitary cells of Evin to be a secret anymore! I don't want this to be our burden any longer; I want everyone to know who a "Prisoner of Conscious" is: Once a young boy who had just formed the mustache above his lips, a young girl not yet reached puberty, tortured, brutally, ruthlessly in the invisible walls of Evin and Gohar Dasht, and so many unnamed provinces of Iran, once a young mom, she had just given birth, once a young man he had just proposed. But ethereal romance was too good for those times; a "Prisoner of Conscious" devotes body and his "lack of soul" to ideas, to ideals, to his manifesto, to his book of truth, not the holy book. A "Prisoner of Conscious" is an unknown man, a statistically insignificant, and yet a powerful force in this world, a nameless threat, he is flesh, she is flesh, flesh and bones! An idealist, a dreamer, she hoped, he wished, she desired, he fought for something more than the status quo. And that was their crime! How many? 8000? 10,000? Who were they really? What were they names? What did they like? What did they dream of? Were their affiliations a manifestation of their time? Were they a victim of their surroundings, of their social standings? Let's play a game shall we? I will ask you a question and if you answer me wrong, you are sent to the gutters! But wait, don't answer! It's a rhetorical question! You were doomed poor child, way before you were brought before my eyes! And thus is the story of every "Prisoner of Conscious". I do have a story for you. It's my story! I was in my mother's womb when she was a "Prisoner of Conscious", thus I was a "prisoner of Conscious" before I was born! My father was a "Prisoner of Conscious" in Iran in the 1980s as well. I was 8 years old when I left Iran and I have never looked back since. My memories of Iran are neither sweet nor passionate. And what does the topic of ME has anything to do with the topic of YOU or the topic of the "Prisoner's of Conscious"? EVERYTHING! I am the next generation of Human Right activists for Iran; I am the future of this movement, and everything you have fought for. That title is much more a burden than an honor, believes me! But if you and my mother and my father do not find a way to teach me about how to carry on your legacy, how to continue this fight for human rights, for ideas that were once flesh, how to organize and become a united front, how not to repeat the same mistakes, you have allowed all of those "Prisoner's of Conscious" of 1988 and the hundreds of others dying on hunger strike in Iran right now, go on silent and go on silent and go on silent! If you do not find a way to reach out to my 15 year old brother who is completely disconnected with Iran, apathetic even, the silence and inaction will eventually bury them under history. That will be your intellectual genocide! And I want to run into myself in the street one day and say: I am glad we are finally victorious! I am glad we have triumphed!   Contact: cklaramoradian@yahoo.com

Iran Women Say No to Polygamy

Members of the first Majlis - Oct 7, 1906 - June 23, 1908
The Iranian "Family Protection Bill," which is anything but protective of families, has brought together one of the largest coalitions to oppose a bill since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In response to the efforts of this coalition, the Iranian parliament (known in Iran as the Majlis) has removed the two most contested articles of this bill, Articles 23 and 25, postponing the bill's floor discussion indefinitely. In addition, Iran's parliament will send the bill back to the Parliamentary Judicial Committee for further revisions.
This rare and temporary victory has energized young women activists in Iran.
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has called the Family Protection Bill a sign of the Iranian government's regression to many centuries ago. In an interview with the editor of the website Change4Equality, Ebadi said she and her colleagues would stage a sit-in at the Parliament (Majlis) Building should the bill be discussed on the Majlis floor.
On Sunday August 31 approx 100 women leaders and activists from various women's groups such as the One Million Signatures Campaign, Meydaan Zanan, Kanoon Zanan Irani, along with Shirin Ebadi and Simin Behbahani, Iran's "brave and popular" Iranian woman poet, met with members of parliament and expressed their opposition to the bill.
Simin Behbahani, in an interview with Iranian web publication, The Feminist School, summed up the meeting, "Today, we had a duty, and our duty was to voice the concerns of the women in our country to the representatives. Our visit to the parliament and our objection was because we don't want future generations to wonder why we did not protest such a bill. So, visiting the parliament and meeting with the MPs was important and necessary."
Although articles 23 and 25 of Iran's Family Protection Bill were not the only two articles which brought the large and diverse coalition together, articles 16, 17 and 18 also elicited protest by women activists.
One of these articles, that is a major concern for many Iranians, impacts Iranian women who marry foreign nationals. According to existing family law, citizenship cannot be passed to children from their mothers. Many Iranian women who have married Afghan and Iraqi men cannot get birth certificates for their children; hence these children cannot go to school. It is estimated that there are 100,000 children today in Iran without birth certificates who are denied their basic human right to education.
Farshad Ebrahimi April 23, 2007
Women adjusting hair on streets of Tehran to comply with public dress code. Image: Farshad Ebrahimi April 23, 2007
The Family Protection Bill imposing even stricter penalties upon women who marry foreigners, stipulates a harsh sentence, up to 9 months in detention, for women who marry foreign nationals prior to getting government permission.
Family and reproductive laws are very important global issues for gender equality activists. Women in Iran, as well as other women living under Moslem laws, are particularly focused on family law, as these laws define and redefine the position of women in society.
Religious fundamentalists/extremists of all religions often focus on gender as they construct and maintain gender differences as the core policies of their political identities.
Whether it is the Family Protection Bill in Iran, or debates related to reproductive rights in the US, religious extremists actions have resulted in taking away what women human rights activists have gained. Fundamentalist Iranian women in favor of easing polygamy laws in Iran, and US presidential candidate Sarah Palin, on the US Republican ticket for the 2008 presidential election, have a lot in common. Both parties rely on the most regressive religious interpretations of women's issues within their faith.
In a country where there is a significant gap between the demands for rights and the regressive laws imposed upon women related to polygamy and other discriminatory legislation, denial of rights will not go unchallenged. More than 60% of higher education students are female, yet their testimony in court counts for only half of a man's testimony. Human rights defenders and women activists in Iran demand equality and dignity - nothing more and nothing less.
Where more than 500,000 Iranian bloggers, many of them women, are active in cyberspace recording narratives of their lives, while at the same time needing their husbands' permission for obtaining passports, they face institutionalized discrimination that makes them second class citizens in divorce, inheritance, child custody and other aspects of life.
Iranian women activists and their male allies are well aware of the fact that they need to keep their guard up and keep moving forward until all discriminatory laws against women in Iran are eliminated.
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For VIDEO SEGMENT - Click first to Website Link:http://womennewsnetwork.net:80/Then scroll down to video and click arrow to start.
US media journalists, Matt Lauer and Richard Engel (with NBC news) outline current conditions for Iranian women, September 2007.