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Today, an Iranian Christian pastor’s life hangs in the balance as he sits in a prison in Iran.
Yousef Nadarkhani was handed a death sentence in 2009 after questioning the Muslim teachings that his children were receiving at school. While that was the original charge, the Iranian government now claims that Nadarkhani illegally converted from Islam to Christianity as well. The list of alleged crimes is growing.
Despite signing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Iran does not recognize the freedom to change religion. Sadly, worldwide religious persecution, specifically against Christians, has increased in recent years, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
With all the international attention, Iran could try to make an example out of the pastor by executing him to prove that anything but Islam will not be tolerated. But the outcome is still uncertain.
Heritage’s Jennifer Marshall notes that “because these individuals often suffer and die for their faith unknown to the rest of the world, the Iranian regime’s persecution of Nadarkhani is a witness we should heed on their behalf.”
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Gross human rights abuses continue to take place in Iran.
Photo: Iranhumanrighs.org
Images credit Iranhumanrighs.org
"Despite statements from Iran's Supreme Leader and president claiming support for the rights and freedoms of Iranian citizens and people in the region, the government continues its crackdown on all forms of dissent, belief and assembly." -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Gross human rights abuses continue to take place in Iran.
It's been two months since prominent human rights activist Kouhyar Goudarzi was arrested by Iranian authorities, who refuse to say where he is or what has happened to him. His roommate Behnam Ganji was arrested at the same time, held for several days in Evin prison, and released.
Acquaintances in Iran report Mr. Ganji was put under intense pressure in prison to incriminate Mr. Goudarzi. Three weeks after his release, Mr. Ganji committed suicide. In a tragic spiral, on September 28th a mutual friend, blogger Nahal Sahabi, also committed suicide. Mr. Goudarzi's mother, Parvin Mokhtareh, who had previously highlighted the regime's persecution of her son, was jailed in the city of Kerman, accused of insulting the Supreme Leader.
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Is it imaginable that in the 21st century a modern woman and outstanding actress receives lashes for her art? Sadly such brutality is common in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The most recent victim is the wonderful actress Marzieh Vafamehr. She received a jail sentence of one year and 90 lashes in a court trial last Saturday. Vafamehr had been arrested in July and held in Evin prison until the end of the month, when she was released on an unspecified bail. The Islamic Republic accuses her of violating the hijab -- the Islamic veiling forced on Iran's women for 32 long years.
The Iranian regime has a long and sad history of the most barbaric human rights abuses, and most tragic are explanations by regime officials that they are defending moral values and the security of their country. Crimes like flogging, amputations, executions and other forms of severe torture have nothing to do with defending moral values, but do all represent one thing: insanity.
The Iranian regime has lost legitimacy to defend the security of Iran and its citizens -- to be more precise, it never had any legitimacy in the first place. How could they when all that they can do is hijack the home of over 70 million Iranians and take them as hostages? One recent hostage is Marzieh Vafamehr.
Her "guilt" was to portray how the theater work of an actress was banned in Iran in the film titled My Tehran for Sale two years ago. What has happened to the figure she presented in this film is now happening to Marzieh herself. The actress Vafamehr portrays flees to Australia after being persecuted in Iran. It is a step that Marzieh might be facing now as well -- leaving her country after being targeted by the Iranian regime.
The gravity of current human rights abuses becomes more visible and shocking as just before Marzieh's sentence, a young student and activist was lashed over 70 times for expressing his criticism of Ahmadinejad. This barbaric act has left severe wounds on his back. While the international community is usually very quick in condemning these grave human rights violations, it is unfortunately also very slow in transforming public condemnation into concrete action to prevent further human rights abuses. This is not an issue that can be solved through negotiations and engagement -- there is only one language that this regime understands well: pressure.
Through political and economic pressure, the international community can use its power to make the regime's isolation complete and by that reaching out to the Iranian people. Those in Iran who care so much about democracy, freedom and respect for human rights -- and Marzieh Vafamehr is one brave example -- are in grave danger. Public condemnation by all democracies around the globe is a great step, but it can only be the first step and should immediately be followed by powerful measures to limit the Iranian regimes financial and logistical assets. Courageous voices like Marzieh Vafamehr are not only the Iranian society's talented artists, but also very visibly Iran's democratic future. To make this future become reality soon is something the international community can influence immensely.
As for Marzieh and Iran's brave civil society, every day counts.
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 HRANA News Agency – The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for two Kurdish political prisoners locked up in Rajai-Shahr Prison. Both prisoners, Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi, have been verbally notified of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the public defender assigned to these cases was unable to confirm the ruling although his clients have already been notified verbally by the authorities.
Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi have been accused of killing the son of Friday Prayer Imam in Marivan and two members of his entourage on the orders of the British Secret Intelligence Services (MI6) and with the help of a Kurdish political party. After their confessions were aired on the state television, Judge Abolqasem Salvati presiding over the Revolutionary Court, Branch 15, sentenced them to be hanged in public.
When Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi were transferred to Rajai-Shahr Prison, they wrote a letter detailing the account of physical tortures endured by them in prison and declared the confessions false and void since they were obtained under means of torture. In their letter, Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi further explained that in addition to being severely tortured, they were threatened to be raped using a bottle if they didn’t confess to the crime.
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 HRANA News Agency - On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, four individuals convicted of rape were publicly hanged in Khomeini Shahr’s Behesht Park. After the death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court, four rapists were hanged today while the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Esfahan Province and other local officials attended the event.
According to a report by Fars News Agency, the following individuals were hanged today after being convicted of charges of rape in Khomeini Shahr:
- Abbas (single, 24 years old, with prior convictions for kidnapping and inappropriate relations in 2004 and 2008)
- Rajab Ali (single, 23 years old, with prior convictions for consumption of alcohol, bullying and intimidation with a dagger and inappropriate relations)
- Asghar (single, 20 years old, with prior convictions for bullying and intimidation with a knife, consumption of alcohol and inappropriate relations)
- Mansor (single, 25 years old, with prior convictions for kidnapping in 2005)
On May 24, 2011, a group of women at a private party were abducted and gang raped at knife point in Khomeini Shahr.
More pictures of the public hanging can be seen here.
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 HRANA News Agency – Eight prisoners convicted of drug related charges were hanged in Fars Province.
According to a report by Public Relations of Fars Province Judiciary, eight prisoners arrested in Abadeh, Nayriz, Kazeron and Boanat counties. After legal proceedings, death sentences were issued for all eight prisoners, and the order to carry out the verdict was confirmed by the prosecutor’s office in Fars Province.
The following prisoners were hanged on charges of smuggling, possessing, buying and selling of narcotics. Some of those hanged also had prior convictions for the same crimes:
- Abdolmajad A.
- Mohammad Reza A.
- Abdolrasol T.
- Mohsen A.
- Ahmad K.
- Hadi K.
- Masih K.
- Mohsen Z.
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 HRANA News Agency – Seven days have passed since 1500 workers of Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex in Khuzestan Province began their strike. Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers has reported that security agents have arrested 3 workers and taken them to the Intelligence Agency located at the port city of Bandar Imam Khomeini.
According to reports issued by various labor organizations, three workers, Mansour Abbasi, Mohammad Bagher Bagheri and Jasem Bedrani were summoned by agents and then arrested. Two of the detainees are labor activists and representatives of the striking workers.
In March 2011, the workers of Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex were also on strike which ended after an agreement was reached between the workers, the management of this company and government officials. According to the signed agreement, Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex was given 3 months to dissolve contracting firms in order to offer a uniform corporate employment contract to all of its workers. Unofficial resources have reported that the terms of this agreement has not yet been fulfilled.
It has been reported that the Chief Operating Director of Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex has threatened 1500 striking workers during a speech in front of the managers of contracting firms. Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex is a government-owned corporation in Khuzestan Province.
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Human rights activist Kouhyar Goudarzi is still missing after being arrested alongside two friends who later committed suicide. Photograph: Guardian
Two Iranian bloggers have killed themselves after being detained by security officials thought to be fromIran‘s ministry of intelligence.Opposition activists believe Nahal Sahabi and her partner Behnam Ganji had been under intense pressure to testify against their friend Kouhyar Goudarzi, the prominent human rights activist. Goudarzi was arrested on the same day, 31 July, and remains missing.At the time, the authorities refused to acknowledge holding them.A week after the arrests Sahabi and Ganji were released from jail but Goudarzi, a member of the Committe for Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) in Iran is still missing, his lawyer said by phone from Tehran.Ganji killed himself on 1 September, followed by Sahabi on 28 September, according to an article on CHRR’s website.The reasons behind the double suicide is unknown but speculation is rife that the pair had been pressured while in jail to testify against Goudarzi.“She suffered from depression after Behnam had mysteriously committed suicide a couple days after he was released from prison,” said the CHRR article. “Kouhyar Goudarzi is still detained incommunicado.“There is no information on what happened to Behnam Ganji and Kouhyar Goudarzi in prison. Behnam Ganji’s suicide has raised serious concerns regarding Kouhyar Goudarzi’s unknown situation.”
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 During recent days, seven prisoners were hanged in prisons of Shahr Kord, Zabol, Qom and Varamin amounting to 62 executions in Iran in September. Twenty-three of them were executed on September 18 (22 in Gohardasht and Evin prisons and 1 in Ghazvin). At least 38 more prisoners have been executed secretly bringing the number of executions in September to 100. Among those executed were a 17 year old juvenile and two teens at ages of 19 and 20 who were under 18 at the time of their alleged offence.
Other suppressive measures of the mullahs’ regime during recent days have been lashing in public of prisoners in Tabas and southern cities for charges of theft, issuing brutal verdict of eye gouging for a young man, arbitrary arrests, assassination of opponents, repression of women under the fabricated banner of “Ifaf Project” (chastity), raiding residential houses using excuses such as rounding up satellite equipments and etc.
Resorting to such unbridled savagery is indicative of clerical regime’s failure to restrain the crisis that has engulfed this wicked regime in its totality and has escalated its fear of public anger explosion.
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 Nahal Sahabi and Behnam Ganji were until recently a carefree young Iranian couple, a kindergarten teacher and a student, very much in love and with high hopes for the future, The (London) Times reported Saturday.Today both are dead. They committed suicide four weeks apart, victims of a cruel and capricious regime that destroyed their lives simply because Ganji shared a flat with a human rights activist.The tale of their tragic end has spread rapidly on websites and shocked Iranians. “It’s a story of two young people who were not political, loved each other, and just wanted to get on with their lives, but all of a sudden end up in prison,” a mutual friend called Amir told The Times.“Everyone can identify with it. Everyone feels it could happen to them. No one is safe.”Farya Barlas, another friend, agreed, “They’re symbolic of what’s going on in Iran. Nobody is safe. You can be arrested just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or for knowing the ‘wrong’ people in the regime’s eyes.”Ganji, 22, was a student of applied sciences at Tehran University. He lived with Koohyar Goudarzi, 26, a close friend who was arrested in the demonstrations after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009. Goudarzi spent a year in prison, but was banned from returning to university following his release and resumed his activism.
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Opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, along with Mir Hossein
Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, are still being held under house arrest without an
arrest warrant, charge or trial. Mehdi Karroubi was moved to a small flat without his wife
on around 31 July 2011. The three have limited access to family members and no legal
representation.
In September 2011, Mehdi Karroubi’s wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, wrote a letter that has been made public to the
Head of the Judiciary detailing the illegality of the house arrest and expressing concern for her husband’s health.
She pointed out that during his house arrest, he had been deprived of access to books, newspapers, a telephone,
regular family visits and exercise. She had also said earlier that Mehdi Karroubi, aged 74, had been moved to a
small flat. Fatemeh Karroubi has also called for an independent physician to examine him.
Mir Hossein Mousavi’s children have also said that their parents are completely “cut off” from the outside world
and have no access to newspapers, radio or stationery for writing.
Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have not been seen in public since early February
2011 when Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi called for demonstrations in support of the people of Tunisia
and Egypt to be held on 14 February. Their whereabouts were initially unknown, but it later became clear that they
were being held under house arrest without any arrest warrant. Mehdi Karroubi’s wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, was
allowed to leave her home for medical treatment for a short period in April.. Amnesty International believes she has
not been held under house arrest since Mehdi Karroubi’s transfer to a small flat without her
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