Islamic Regime of Iran’s

Gender and Religious Apartheid

Human Rights Abuses of Islamic
Regime in Iran

The
right to a fair trial in Iran
has been compromised by the 1994 Act establishing Public and Revolutionary Courts,
in which among other things, the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor was
transferred to the judge, to expedite hearing of the cases. This clearly
compromises the independence of the judiciary, in violation of Article 10 of
the United Nations Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, which states that: “ The office of prosecutors shall be strictly
separated from judicial functions”, and Article 14 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which provides for the right
to be tried before an independent and impartial tribunal.

We
remain concerned by reports that hundreds of people arrested in connection
with student demonstrations in July 1999 continue to be detained without
charge or trial and that some have been sentenced to long prison terms, or
death, after manifestly unfair trials by Islamic Revolutionary Courts.

Unprecedented
rise in the prosecution and conviction of writers, editors and publishers by
special courts, whose procedures do not conform to internationally recognized
standards for fair trial, is a clear violation of their fundamental rights.

United
Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch
Dog and other Internationally recognized organizations for number of years
have been denied access to visit Iran,
due to the widespread and systematic sever Human Rights violations in Iran we urge the world community to pressure Iran
to grant such visits and full observation of trials and jail visits.

MEHR
Iran appeals to the world community and the democracies of the world to
pressure the Islamic Regime to practice the individual rights enshrined in
such instruments as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a state party.

World
community should pressure Iran
to observe without reservation, the Convention against Torture and other
Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatments or Punishments.

United
Dog, and other internationally recognized organizations have been denied
access to visit Iran.
We urge the world community to pressure Iran to grant such visits and
allow full observation of trail and jail visits.

Mass Executions of 1989

At
the end of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) Ayatollah Khomeini issued a secret
religious decree setting up special commissions with instructions to execute
all political prisoners who were not clearly repentant. These victims were
largely Mojaheds, categorized as moharebs (those who war against God), and
leftist, labeled as mortads (apostates from Islam).

The
commissions questioned prisoners throughout the country to decide which ones
should receive the death penalty. The proceedings began with assurances to
the prisoners that the purpose of the undertaking was to initiate a general
amnesty. Then the commission members asked the prisoners about “their
organizational affiliation. If they replied ‘
Mojahedin’, the questioning ended there. If they replied
'monafeqin' (hypocrites), the commission continued with such questions
as’ Are you willing to denounce former colleagues? ‘
‘ Are you willing to help us hunt them down?’ ‘Will
you identify phony repentant?’ ‘ Will
you go to the war front and walk through enemy minefields?’ In most
cases, the prisoners were blindfolded throughout the proceedings. The
socialists and communists were asked,” are you a Muslim? Do you believe
in God? Is the Holly Koran word of God? Will you publicly recant historical
materialism? Do you pray and read the Holly Koran?”

Vast
majority was "Prisoners of Conscience" as they had not been charged
with actual deeds or plans of deeds against the state.

So
far, more than 5,000 of these defenseless victims have been identified.

Legalized Torture

Ta’zir,
or discretionary punishment, is a feature in Islamic law. In 1980 the first
parliament of the Islamic Republic codified this provision of Islamic law by
passing a bill giving judges permission to mete out seventy-four lashes to
those who, among other things, kiss illicitly, fail to dress properly or lie
to the authorities.

Clerical
interrogators can give indefinite series of seventy-four lashings until they
obtain “honest answers”. “Therefore if answers” are
not satisfactory, they can lawfully whipped for ‘lying’ in
theory, this punishment should come after a proper law court has found them
guilty of perjury. But the line between interrogation and trial is hazy as
the same clerics wear three different turbans-Prosecutor, judge, and
interrogator. According to the new law, interrogators with proper theological
credentials are entitled to lash until the guilty ‘confess the
truth.’ The constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids torture and
coerced confession, but Ta’zir law allows both physical punishment and
voluntary confession.

Under
the bizarre justice system of the Islamic Republic, convictions of the
accused are primarily based not on evidence but on confessions. Thus the use
of torture as a tool to obtain confession is built into the very structure of
the theocratic order. Therefore, it is quite logical that the presiding judge
in the trial also functions as the prosecutor. MEHR Iran appeals to world
community to pressure Islamic Republic to repeal Ta'zir law.

Islamic
constitution has divided Iranians into supreme, ordinary and inferior
citizens. Iran
has been declared as an Islamic society that the laws and the way of life
should conform to Islamic ways and means. Clerics are the ones with the right
of guidance and governance and they will choose among themselves the Supreme
leader, who has the ultimate saying in all aspects of legislation, government
affairs, judiciary, armed forces and any other personal or public affairs of
the society, who is not accountable to the people but is to the GOD.

There
are two main branches of Islam and each of them has numerous factions within
them. Islamic regime of Iran
believes in an orthodox branch of shie’tt. About one fifth of the
Iranian population are Sunni Moslems, that by constitution can not be chosen
as supreme leader, President, judges, cabinet level ministers, ambassadors,
commanders of the armed forces members of the Guardian Counsel, heads of the
various governmental foundations and simply put it any organization or entity
which is influential in steering the country. The same applies to other
recognized religions such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians.

Other religions beside
these such as Bahai’s, Hindu’s and others are not recognized and systematically
are being persecuted and being deprived from state sponsored programs such as
health, welfare, education and such other programs.

Religious and Gender
Apartheid by Islamic Regime

The
marriage age for the girls in Iran is 9 lunar years which conform to eight
years and 9 month of solar calendar, in western style democracies this is not
an acceptable age and having sex with a child of this age is being considered
statuary rape, that is punishable by the law. The physical torture and mental
torment that an eight year old child is having at her wedding night when she
has to sexually please a man at least two to three times her own age if not
older, is incomprehensible.

If
having sex with an eight-year-old child is wrong in this society, then it is
wrong anywhere and any place, and our morality does not permit us to reward
such a government that harbors such laws to be our trading partners, in place
of legal action

Islamic
constitution has divided Iranians into supreme, ordinary and inferior
citizens. Iran
has been declared as an Islamic society that the laws and the way of life
should conform to Islamic ways and means. Clerics are the ones with the right
of guidance and governance and they will choose among themselves the Supreme
leader, who has the ultimate saying in all aspects of legislation, government
affairs, judiciary, armed forces and any other personal or public affairs of
the society, who is not accountable to the people but is to the God.

There
are two main branches of Islam and each of them has numerous factions within
them. Islamic regime of Iran
believes in an orthodox branch of shie’tt. About one fifth of the
Iranian population are Sunni Moslems, that by constitution can not be chosen
as supreme leader, President, judges, cabinet level ministers, ambassadors,
commanders of the armed forces members of the Guardian Counsel, heads of the
various governmental foundations and simply put it any organization or
entity, which is influential in steering the country. The same applies to other
recognized religions such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. Other
religions beside these such as Bahai’s, Hindu’s and others are
not recognized and systematically are being persecuted

and
being deprived from state sponsored programs such as health, welfare,
education and such other programs. Some of the discriminatory laws of Islamic
Republic faced by minorities are:

Article 207 Islamic Criminal Codes:

This
section provides for punishment in the form of retribution (Ghesas) when a
Muslim is killed.

When
the victim is a non-Muslim, the law is silent and by construction, no
punishment needs to be enforced. If a non -married Muslim man commits
fornication, his punishment is 100 lashes and if a non -Muslim man fornicates
with non-Muslim woman, the punishment is the same. However, if the woman is a
Muslim, the punishment for the non-Muslim man is death.

Article 121 of the Islamic Civil Code:

The
punishment for “homosexual touching” and similar acts, if there
is no entry, is 100 lashes. However, if the subject is a non-Muslim and the
object a Muslim, the punishment for the subject is death.

Article 881 of the Civil Code:

A
non-Muslim shall not inherit from a Muslim if among the heirs of the deceased
there is a Muslim.

Article 163 of the Constitution and
the conditions for selection of Judges Code:

Only
a male Muslim may become a Judge.

Articles 297 and 300 of the Civil
Code:

These
rules provide for blood money (Deyeh) for the killing of a Muslim man or
woman. Blood money for the Muslim woman is one half of the same for the
Muslim man. When the victim is a non- Muslim the law is silent. By
construction, non-Muslims are not entitled to blood money.

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