Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- From Repression 1999 to Repression 2012 (Arseh Sevom)
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 8:23
The 18 Tir Protests, 1999The review of the week's developments inside Iran from Arseh Sevom, an NGO dedicated to human rights and promotion of civil society:
Sunday was the anniversary of the 1999 crackdown on demonstrations of Iranian students, described on page 10 of our report "Attack on Civil Society".
Many consider the 1999 demonstrations as a turning point that paved the way for later developments within non-violent movements in Iran. The events of that time also led directly to the strategies used to control later protests:
A strengthened and more professional Basij militia, under the control of the IRGC and acting on their behalf, answered the rise of the student movement with a renewed mission to protect the nation against the perceived domestic threat posed by liberalizing influences.
The opposition site Kalemeh offers an illustrated review of “18 Tir” events.
Ahwazi Arabs in Iran Face Execution
Four Ahwazi Arabs, three of them brothers, were executed in Iran in June after taking part in opposition protests. The four made a video before their execution, which was smuggled out of the prison. In it, Ali Sharifi asserts:
Thousands of families are living in poverty in the vicinity of Iran's largest steel plants, which employ people mostly from outside Ahwaz. The area has high unemployment and rampant drug abuse as well as poor health and social amenities, but suffer as a result of pollution from the oil and gas industries. Agriculture has been destroyed in Ahwaz due to river diversion projects and sugar cane plantations.
On Sunday six more men were handed death sentences.
Arseh Sevom has joined 15 other organizations in a statement:
We, the undersigned, condemn the execution of the four Ahwazi Arab political prisoners, and urge human rights defenders and organizations to reflect the voices of those on death row in Iran and act immediately to save their lives. We welcome the recent joint statement by the UN Special Rapporteurs condemning the executions and urge the United Nation’s Human Rights Council to react to these executions by issuing a statement. We also urge the UN General Secretary Bang Ki Moon to give urgent attention to the issue of the arbitrary executions in Iran.
Trial of Activists for Removing Embassy’s Flag
Last week four Iranian activists in France were tried on the charge of removing the flag and sign plate from the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The action was taken in response to the 2010 execution of five prisoners of conscience at Evin Prison in Tehran. The French-based “Independent Committee of Anti-Iranian Citizens Repression” warned against the extension of the Islamic Republic’s repression beyond Iran’s borders:
“The Islamic Republic must not dare to repeat such actions and spread its atmosphere of threat and intimidation against liberal Iranians outside the country. It is only the unity among all Iranians and the support of liberal forces from various countries that can stop spread of repression atmosphere that is dominant over Iran beyond the borderlines of the country.”
Arseh Sevom has a report on this story on our Persian website.
Last week a group of disabled people gathered in front of the Iranian Welfare Organization demanding their rights, citing the first article of the Comprehensive Disabled People Protection Law.
A more complete report is available for Persian readers on our website.
Shargh has quoted an Iranian Navy commander announcing a joint operation between the NAJA (The Iranian Police also known as the disciplinary force) and the Navy to combat what he described as “insecurity, bad-hijab, audio pollution, pestering females”. Colonel Hooshang Hosseini of Mazandaran province in the North of Iran said, “"e hope that this way we will manage to lower the number of drowned as well as the instances of bad hijab.”
The head of judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, announced plans to cease imprisoning men who are not able to pay dowries (mahrieh) promised to their wives, “due to insolvency".
Many men are currently behind bars for the failure to pay the dowries. One report states there were some “5000 imprisoned bride grooms” in Iran in 2010,
However, many Iranians fear that women will lose what little protection they receive under the Islamic Republic’s discriminatory family law with Larijani's proposed reform.
According to Kalemeh, the chairman of the Iranian House of Industry and Mines, Hadi Ghanimifard,has that all factories around the country plan to sound their whistles for one minute on 15 July to protest the economic situation in the country.
The plan follows another non-violent initiative which used social media and text messages to call for a boycott on the purchase of dairy products to protest their sky rocketing prices.
Iranian authorities have told service and goods providers to ask the for the papers of “foreign nationals". This came after news that Iran, with the tacit approval of the United Nations’ committee on refugees, will start repatriating Afghans, banning them from a number of cities.
Since then, many Iranians have voiced their opposition at discrimination based on ethnicity and nationality. A Facebook page has been established, “Asking for Forgiveness from Afghan Friends Campaign".
A post on this page explains:
Years ago Afghan friends found refuge with us because of their tough situation.
During the past three years, the Iranian people have found refuge in many countries.
One day [Iranians] shall return to Iran and bring souvenirs [and values] such as what they will have collected from universities, from technology, from civil culture, from immigration rights....
What will Afghans take from our country, unpaid construction labor? Deprivation of the right to education? Lack of civil rights? Denial of marriage rights? Delinquency grounds we have imposed on them? And punishment for Afghans and not only for the one who commits the felony. Punishment for them, for our guests....
I feel sick because of all these inhospitable hosts. Shame on them.-
Apple Did Not Listen, Will You?
Sahar Sabet, the 19-year-old Iranian-American who was reportedly denied purchase of an iPad has posted a video message to President Obama:
Mr. President, what happened to me wasn't the product of bigotry by a single person. It was the product of policies and sanctions that are hurting the ordinary Iranian people. And now Iranian- Americans are also feeling the effects of sanctions. These policies are pressuring businesses like Apple to profile us.
Protesting Sanctions in Front of the UN in New York
Last week, a group marched on the UN in New York to protest sanctions. Speaking to BBC Persian, one of the protesters, Ali Abdi, said: “Sanctions first and foremost hurt the people of Iran, not those who govern them...People who don’t get isolated by the world community are better equipped to deal with democratic change.
The organizers have formed a new organization called Havaar which they call an “Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions and State Repression".
95 Year-Old Activist Faces Travel Ban
The oldest Iranian political activist, Ahmad Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi, 95 has been banned from leaving the country.
“Our Colleagues and Colleagues of the Intelligence Ministry Take Care of It”
The Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Reza Taghipour, has testified before Parliament that due to the large extent of phones they monitor, it is not possible to obtain legal warrants for all the telephone calls (contrary to Constitutional stipulations). As a result, he stated, “Our colleagues and colleagues of the intelligence ministry” take care of “monitoring jobs".
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