By Staff Writer
Human rights violations in Iran are commonplace and October was no exception. This article will cover the gruesome nature of human rights abuses in Iran throughout October, including executions, corporal punishment, and persecution of religious minorities, but this is only an overview. (For a more detailed report, click here.)
Please note that due to the Iranian Regime’s habit of hiding human rights abuses, the numbers cited here are likely only a fraction of the true number.
Executions
Iran executed 22 people in the prisons of Urmia, Birjand, Qazvin, Rajaei Shahr, Shahre Kord, Isfahan, Maragheh, Ilam, Shirvan, Sirjan, Zahedan and Ardebil.
One of those executed was Zeinab Sekaanvand, a victim of domestic and sexual violence who was convicted of killing her abusive husband when she was a minor.
Amnesty International’s Middle East Research and Advocacy Director Philip Luther said: “Her execution is profoundly unjust. The fact that her death sentence followed a grossly unfair trial makes her execution even more outrageous… Sekaanvand said that, soon after she was married at 15, she sought help many times from the authorities about her violent husband and alleged that her brother-in-law had raped her repeatedly. Instead of investigating these allegations, however, the authorities consistently ignored her and failed to provide her with any support as a victim of domestic and sexual violence.”
While Iran also committed 11 arbitrary murders of Kurdish porters, under the pretence of preventing smuggling, and Balichi men.
Inhumane punishments
Over the course of the month, Iran sentenced 60 people to floggings and one person to amputation of the hand.
Fifteen workers at the HEPCO manufacturing plant convicted of “disturbing the peace” were sentenced to a flogging. Their names are Majid Latifi, Behrouz Hasanvand, Hamidreza Ahmadi, Amir Houshang Pour Farzanegan, Morteza Azizi, Hadi Fazeli, Abolfazl Karimi, Farid Kodani, Majid Yahyaie, Amir Fatahpour, Yaser Gholi, Amir Farid Afshar, Mehdi Abedi, Ali Maleki, and Berouz Valashajardi.
While graduate student Pedram Pazireh was sentenced to seven years in prison and 74 lashes for organizing a ceremony to commemorate the national Student Day.
Another 11 protesters from the December/January uprising in Arak were given prison sentences and lashes for “disrupting public order and peace by taking part in illegal rallies”.
Arrests
In October, 2442 people were arrested in Iran. Of these, 543 arrests were politically motivated, 11 were on religious and ethnic grounds, and 1888 were arbitrary arrests.
In fact, human rights groups have accused Iran of carrying out a campaign of “repression” against Ahwazi Arab ethnic minority in Khuzestan province, which included the arrests of children.
Over 261 truck drivers were arrested for striking and threatened with the death penalty. At least four teachers were arrested in connection with their two-day sit-in for teachers’ and education rights, while an unknown number of teachers were summoned to Intelligence Ministry’s offices in Tehran, Qazvin, Bojnourd, Saqqez, Marivan, Kermanshah and Aligoudarz.
Meanwhile, teachers’ rights activist Hashem Khastar has been detained by the Regime in a psychiatric hospital, to keep him quiet, rather than for any mental health problem.
Prisoners
Over 70 political prisoners went on hunger strike for over a week in Urmia Central Prison, despite pressure from the prison authorities, to protest the authorities’ attack on political prisoners, which lead to severe injuries.
While Dr. Meysami, who was arrested in July for protesting the compulsory hijab, is being force-fed intravenously after going on hunger strike on August 1. He is refusing to end his hunger strike until he and two other prominent activists arrested for protesting the mandatory hijab are released.
Meanwhile, three political prisoners (Golrokh Iraee, Atena Daemi and Maryam Akbari Monfared) are being denied family visits are arguing with prison guards.
