Source: Ouest-France*, 1 February 2016
The visit by the Iranian regime’s president to France ended with many industrial contracts but also by a deafening silence on the issue of human rights. But in Iran, the death penalty is widely practiced to keep the Iranians in terror of a theocratic dictatorship.
In Iran, even minors are executed. They are counted among the thousands of people who have suffered this atrocity in 2015; according to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a record high since 1989. The judiciary continues to sentence people to inhuman treatment … including amputations, torture, and trials without access to lawyers which are common. Journalists, bloggers, and opponents are imprisoned.
In Iran, under Islamic sharia law, women are deprived of their liberty even in their manner of dress! There is no freedom of conscience or religion. Leaving Islam for another religion is punishable by death. Ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, are persecuted.
The Federation of Human Rights has asked the French president “not to sacrifice human rights in favor of closer economic ties between the two countries.” Political power says it is more effective to talk one-on-one. But France, decorating Iranian President with military honors, blurred this message. And Italy boxed up Roman statues not to offend the “sensitivity” of their guest!
France and Italy which have sadly distinguished, are both poor economic posture, unlike Germany and the UK. Are these dangerous economic and diplomatic games carried out in order to avoid necessary reforms?
Yet it was “an opportunity for French Democrats to remember that barbaric punishments belong to a bygone era. Their abolition is a prerequisite to any discussion with countries that practice them. Iranian civil society and the democratic opposition in these countries looks to France.” (1)
It’s a little hasty to believe that the Iranian tyranny will be there forever. The people are thirsty for freedom. Those in power are afraid: “If we allowed every citizen to declare his personal beliefs, you would be quickly plunged into anarchy and our system would collapse,” an Iranian official told a jailed Christian (2).
Investing in a theocratic dictatorship is to ignore the will of the educated people with a great culture and from a great civilization that will be free one day of this oppression.
Putting human rights under wraps to obtain contracts is tantamount to betraying our democratic duty. Now, from Churchill, we know that dishonor buys neither peace nor prosperity.
(1) “Is Iran really progressing?” Jean-Pierre Michel in Libération, 26 January 2016.
(2) “Captives in Iran” – Maryam Rostampour and Marzyeh Amirizadeh
*Translated into English by NCR-Iran.org
