Detained women are brutally tortured

NCRI - Nearly one month after suppressive forces arrested Ms. Taraneh Mousavi, 28, there is still no information about her fate and whereabouts. She was arrested by suppressive forces on June 17 in Shari’ati Street in Tehran during the Iranian people’s nationwide uprising.

Her mother was informed recently that Taraneh was undergoing treatment in Khomeini Hospital in Karaj, but when her mother went to the hospital, officials told her that they had no record of her there.

According to eye-witness reports, Taraneh and a group of other people were arrested and taken by plainclothes agents to a secret torture site known as a “safe-house”. All those arrested with her were later transferred to Evin Prison, but no one has been able to confirm if she had been transferred from that center or removed from the custody of the plainclothes agents.

Detainees of the uprising, in particular women and girls, are facing physical and psychological torture and even rape by plainclothes agents who are under the direct command of the office of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In addition to Taraneh, there is no word on the fate of many other detained women and girls. At least 14 women and girls were among those arrested during protests on July 9, and their relatives have no information about them. (There is a list available with their names)

Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chair of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, urged Ms. Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Dr. Yakin Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, to look into the cases of the detained women and girls, in particular Taraneh Mousavi. She calls on the UN Security Council to take urgent action against the brutal suppression of the detainees, especially the women.

Ms. Chitsaz said that when the mullahs’ misogynist regime violently attacks women and girls in public, it is clear how it treats women and girls in torture chambers and “safe-houses”.

She urged the people of Iran, especially the courageous youths, to rally to the support of the relatives of detained women and girls, adding that the regime’s inhumane crimes would only increase the resolve of the Iranian people to continue with the uprising until the establishment of democracy.

Ms. Chitsaz urged all human rights organizations and personalities to take every possible action against the crimes of the regime on women and call on their governments to suspend diplomatic ties with the mullahs’ misogynist regime.

Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 15, 2009