iran, voices struggling to be heard

7/30/2019 IRAN, Voices Struggling To Be Heard

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Photo by IRI

IRANV OI C E S STRUGGLINGTO BE HEARD

THE IRANIANPEOPLEhave a long and sophisticatedtradition of expressing theirviews and their feelings, whetherthrough art, literature, lm,news media or the politicalprocess. Today the courageousvoices of the Iranian peopleare being stied as they call fortheir rights, beliefs and needsto be respected. In response,the non-elected elements of theIranian Government hierarchyare rebufng these calls andattempting to extinguish thevoices. Recent experience showsan upswing in repression by theregime, but also a determinedresilience by the Iranian peopleas they struggle to dene theirown future and exercise all theirhuman rights. For every voicethat is silenced, more call out forfreedom.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLICATION NUMBER 11140

Bureau of Democracy, Human Ritghts, and Labor

with the Bureau of Public Affairs

April 2004

Cover: Picture of political prisoners hand with the word Freedom written on it. AP Photo


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Zahras death was rst deemed natural by Iranian ofcials, butinternational outrage, spurred in Canada by Zahras son, Stephen,helped to bring about an ofcial Iranian investigation into the inci-dent. The investigation clearly implicated the involvement of govern-ment ofcials in the death of Kazemi. A junior ofcial in the Ministryof Information has been arrested, but as of publication the trial hadnot begun. There remain widespread suspicions, voiced inside andoutside Iran, that the arrest of this junior ofcial could be part ofa cover-up aimed at protecting higher-level government ofcials.Reporters Without Borders also has expressed concern about the slowpace of the impending trial and the prosecutors lack of access to ma-terials concerning the case.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Zahra Kazemis death was caused by theheedless disregard for Iranian law. When there are individualsor groups who consider themselves above the law, incidents suchas this will occur. In the case that we will present, in addition toasking for the punishment of the murderer, in view of the publicsknowledge of what happened, I will try to ensure that there willnot be another Zahra Kazemi.

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Attorneyrepresenting the Kazemi family

Irans Novel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi,

holds a pair of scales during her rst press confer-

ence in Tehran after having won the Nobel Peace

Prize, October 15, 2003.

AP Photo

A VOICE EXTINGUISHED Zahra Kazemi

They have broken my nose and my thumband they havebroken my toes, too. Zahra Kazemi, as reported in the Washington Post

On June 23, 2003, outside the noto-rious Evin Prison in Tehran, police tookthe Canadian-Iranian photojournalistZahra Kazemi into custody under sus-

picion of espionage. Some three weekslater she died in a Tehran hospital fromhead injuries suffered from a violentbeating, most likely at the hands of herjailers. The circumstances of her deathare unclear, but the story that unfoldsis one that illustrates the grave humanrights situation that exists in Iran today.

Although Zahra Kazemi was nevercharged with a crime, she would spend77 hours in a police interrogation thatincluded serious physical abuse. Accord-ing to a subsequent Iranian investigation,Zahra began complaining of headachesand bleeding from the nose three daysafter her detention; she then fell into a coma and was transferred to ahospital where she eventually died.

Almost two weeks after Zahra had rst been detained, her moth-er, Ezzet Kazemi, was summoned to Evin Prison and notied that herdaughter had suffered a brain stroke and was now in a coma. AfterZahra died from her injuries, it was agreed by Ezzet and Iranian of-cials in the presence of the Canadian ambassador that Zahras bodybe repatriated to Canada. But the body did not make it to Canada.Iranian ofcials pressured Ezzet to change her decision, and Zahrawas eventually buried in Shiraz, Iran, thereby preventing an indepen-dent autopsy.

On Monday, August 25, 2003,

Irans criminal court nally admit-

ted that Kasemis death was inten-

tional murder by two interroga-

tors from the intelligence service

during her custody in the Evin

prison in Tehran. AP Photo


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VOICES PERSECUTED The Bahai FaithThe Constitution of Iran establishes Islam as the ofcial religion,

specically that of the Jafari (Twelver) Shiism doctrine. While theConstitution also recognizes other Islamic denominations, as wellas Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, followers of minority religionscan be subject to harassment, intimidation and discrimination. Thefreedom to practice a religion not recognized by the Constitutionis actively restricted by the Iranian Government, both in law andin practice. Members of unrecognized minority faiths are subject tovarying degrees of ofcially sanctioned discrimination, particularlyin the areas of employment, education and housing. The Bahais arenot recognized as a legitimate religious minority in Iran and, in fact,

Irans Association for Press Freedom spokesman Mashallah Shamsolvaezin,

IAPF head Mohsen Kadivar and Human Rights attorney Sayf Zadeh attend a

protest gathering of Iranian journalists on August 8, 2003 at the ofce of IAPF

in Tehran. AP Photo

VOICES SUPPRESSED Attacks on the Free Press

The independent media in Iran is under constant attack. Accordingto Reporters Without Borders, at least ten journalists were in Iranianprisons at the end of 2003. There is a clear pattern of interferenceand harassment of the press by government ofcials with dozens ofreporters, editors and publishers arrested and sentenced to lengthyprison terms, harsh physical punishments, excessive nes and sus-pensions of journalistic privileges. A number of cases illustrate thetypes of abuses prevalent in Iran today:

vAs many as 85 newspapers, including 41 dailies, have beenclosed since the passage of the 1995 Press Law that establisheda supervisory board and court that has authority to imposevarious penalties, including closure and suspension of operatingprivileges.

vIn December 2002, Ali-Reza Jabari, a translator and freelancecontributor to several independent newspapers, was arrestedin his Tehran ofce by plainclothes policemen and taken to hishome for an immediate search of the residence. Jabari was sen-tenced to three years in prison and 253 lashes. Before his arrest,Jabari was quoted in a Persian-language newspaper in Canadaexpressing critical opinions of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

vTaghi Rahmani, a journalist for Omid-e-Zangan, has beenimprisoned since June 14, 2003, and has been subjected toextensive periods of time in solitary connement. According toa Human Rights Watch report released in January 2004,Rahmani has yet to be charged with a crime.

vReza Alijani, editor in chief ofIran-e-Farda, was jailed in June2003 but has not been charged with a crime. Much of hisimprisonment has been spent incommunicado.

vHoda Saber, managing editor ofIran-e-Farda, was arrested inJune 2003 but has also been held without charge since hisarrest, much of it incommunicado.


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the Bahai community is periodic arrest and release with chargesstill pending, so that the Bahais are subject to re-arrest at anytime.

v Reports suggest explicit government policies exist to harass anddisenfranchise members of the Bahai faith. One policy issuedby the Iranian Ministry of Justice in 2001 directed governmentofcials to restrict the educational opportunities of Bahais byexpelling them from public and private universities and pur-posely enrolling members of the Bahai faith in ideologically

stringent schools.v In response to being denied admittance to both public and

private universities, members of the Bahai faith have organizedtheir own educational system. However, the Iranian Govern-ment has used harassment and intimidation to discourage itsoperation, including raids in 1998 of more than 500 Bahaihomes and ofces afliated with the Bahai educational system.These raids included the arrest of numerous faculty and staff.

v Through discrimination in the employment market and out-right seizure of private property, the economic well-being of theBahais is in serious peril.

VOICES OF DEMOCRACY The Political Struggle

Our dream country is one where human rights are respected,where people arent sent to prison and tortured for their ideas,

for their writing, for their work. Thats our dream country.

Supporter of imprisoned student leader Amir Fakhravar,anonymously interviewed for aPBS Frontlinereport.

The political situation in Iran is a story of two drastically differ-ent worlds occupying the same reality. Throughout Iran there isnow widespread alienation from the corrupt, oppressive policies ofthe government that have consistently failed to address the Iranianpeoples yearning for liberty and an accountable, democratic systemof government that will pursue policies that improve their daily lives.

were dened by the government as a political sect with suspicion ofcounterrevolutionary intentions. But according to a report publishedjointly by the UN Commission on Human Rights and the BahaiInternational Community, the tenets of the Bahai faith require itsmembers to be obedient to their government and to avoid partisanpolitics, subversive activities and all forms of violence. Still this com-munity has been the target of systematic mistreatment by the Iranian

Government since 1979 and is denied a majority of the basic humanrights afforded others within the society, including other religiousminorities.

v According to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais ofthe U.S., more than 200 members of the Bahai faith have beenkilled in Iran since 1979, with 15 additional missing and pre-sumed dead. As of this time, there are reportedly four Bahaisin prison for practicing their faith, with sentences ranging fromfour years to life in prison.

v The government has continued to keep a small number ofBahais arbitrarily imprisoned, some at risk of execution, at anygiven time. Another policy employed to harass and intimidate

Farzad Khosein,

expatriate violinist and

composer and member

of the Bahai faith, left Iran

with his family to avoid religious

persecution. AP Photo


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8,200 submissions forcandidacy, includingthose of more than 80reformists currentlyholding Majlis seats,effectively limit-ing the democraticalternatives availableto Iranian voters.Despite threats ofan election boycott,resignations by somereformist ofcials andthe urgent passage ofa law barring undocu-mented disqualica-tions, the GuardianCouncil only reinstat-

ed a fraction of the disqualied candidates. Conservative candidatesdid not face a reformist opponent for 132 of 290 seats. The decisionof the Guardian Council to silence reformist voices in Parliament wasaccompanied by the culmination of a four-year campaign against thereformist press. On the eve of the elections, Chief Prosecutor Mor-

tazavi added the last two reformist newspapers to a list of dozens thathis Press Court had ordered closed since 2000. In addition, thehard-line judiciary sealed an ofce belonging to a leading reformistparty on the night before the election. In todays Iran, the politicalaspirations of the public for a greater role in charting the direction oftheir society are only tolerated when they coincide with the wishes ofentrenched conservative interests.

Through these massive disqualications, they (hard-liners) wantonly their own thinking to control the next parliament. This willbe no more an election, but an appointment of the next parlia-ment by hard-liners.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, Member of Parliament

Ebrahim Yazdi, head of Irans Liberal Freedom Movement,

addresses a reformist meeting January 12, 2004. He was one of more

than 2,000 candidates nationwide eliminated by Iranian hardliners

from running in parliamentary elections February 20. AP Photo

In June 1997 and again in 2001, a decisive election victory usheredPresident Mohammed Khatami into ofce under the auspices of areformist agenda. The realization of this reform movement has beenactively stied by hard-line elements within the government, mostspecically by the non-elected Guardian Council, a board of clericalleaders and legal scholars. Reformist and dissident voices within thegovernment and society have been repressed and harassed by gov-ernment and quasi-government factions under the inuence of thehard-line clerics. The Guardian Council has the ability to review andblock legislation passed by the Majlis, or parliament. In August 2002,the Guardian Council vetoed two bills passed by the Majlis seekingto enhance the powers of President Khatami. Various paramilitaryforces, such as the so-called Basijis, gangs of men known as the An-sar-e Hezbollah (Helpers of the Party of God), and most recently amorality force formed in July 2002, have been employed as tools ofrepression within Iranian society. These vigilante groups use intimida-tion, threats and physical abuse to quell dissent and harass journalists,demonstrators and members of the public who voice opinions thatare seen as threatening to the power of the religious elite. Eventually,the reformist movements inability to realize its agenda contributedto the erosion of the Iranian peoples condence in the governmentinstitutions.

On February 20, 2004, elections were held for the 290-seat Parlia-

ment in Iran. In a move to diminish pro-reformist re-election chanc-es, the Guardian Council disqualied approximately one-third of the

Wives of dissident reformists

protesting against the closed trial

of 15 prominent political dissidents

outside the court building in Tehran,

January 2002.

AP Photo/ Hasan Sarbakhshian


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Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin

Ebadi praised Irans new child custody

law and termed it a great victory for

women after more than two decades of

resistance. AP Photo

of dissident opinions and democracy promotion. She has coura-geously fought for equitable and just treatment for women in Iraniansociety, and she has also helped to organize efforts to publicize andalleviate the harsh conditions of street children in Iran.

Any person who pursues human rights in Iran must live with fearfrom birth to death, but I have learned to overcome my fear.

Shirin Ebadi

Ebadi has shown a noble and inspiring disregard for her ownwell-being by representing individuals or the families of people whohave suffered from violence and repression in Iran. In 2000, shewas arrested and accused of distributing a videotape that implicatedprominent hard-line leaders of instigating attacks against advocatesof reform. She received a suspended sentence and a professional ban.She was then detained after attending a conference in Berlin on theIranian reform movement.

Ebadi provided legal representation for highly politicized and sensi-tive cases, like the case of Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad, one of the students

killed during the 1999 Tehran Uni-versity protests by vigilante groupsoperating under the inuence ofhard-line clerics. She also served asthe attorney for the family of Dariush

and Parvaneh Forouhar, prominentpolitical activists who were stabbed to

death in 1998 by rogue elements within the Intelligence Ministry.Shirin Ebadis designation as the recipient of the 2003 Nobel PeacePrize recognizes the struggle of Iranian citizens to have a voice indetermining their own future.

In Iran, the demand for democracy is strong and broad as wesaw when thousands gathered to welcome home Shirin Ebadi,the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The regime in Tehran mustheed the democratic demands of the Iranian people, or lose its lastclaim to legitimacy.

U.S. President George W. BushNovember 6, 2003

A VOICE OF HOPE Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi has been a courageous human rights advocate inIran for many years, and we couldnt be more excited that she hasreceived this extraordinary honor. The Nobel Committee has senta powerful message to the Iranian Government that serious hu-man rights violations must end. We hope they hear that message.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director ofHuman Rights Watch

As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spokenout clearly and strongly in her country, Iran and far beyond.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee

Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 forher life-long campaign to protect vulnerable and persecuted groupswithin Iranian society. Since being forced from her position as thepresident of the city court of Tehran, she has used her legal expertiseto promote and protect some of the most basic and necessary hu-man rights. Most specically, she has provided legal representation tomany activists who are the targets of government harassment because


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The intersections of Tehran were jammed with cars honking theirhorns in support of the demonstrations. Iranian Government ofcialsreported approximately 4,000 protestors arrested and demonstrationsplanned for the following month were banned. No reliable sourceswere available on the number of injured, but there were numerousreports of violent clashes between students and paramilitary groups inthe streets of Tehran.

Youth represents the future of Iran. Yet the regimes vision of thefuture clashes with the dreams of young Iranians, who have the mostto gain or lose. Their continued support for reform through whateverpeaceful means available sends a clear message. They will make theirvoices heard.

A family on a moped hold up the Iranian ag as tens of thousands of people

gather during a rally outside Tehran University, July 1999. AP Photo

The United States supports the Iranian peoplesaspirations to live in freedom, enjoy their God-

given rights, and determine their own destiny.

U.S. President George W. BushFebruary 24, 2004

VOICES OF THE FUTURE The Aspirations of Youth

We want more freedom For 25 years we have lived withoutany freedom. We want social freedom, economic freedom and

political freedom.

Mahmoud, protestor quoted in New York Times

Throughout modern history, young people have played a promi-nent role in the call for democracy. Iran is no different. Students havemobilized to demand greater freedoms and to support reform ef-

forts by the Khatami Government, the Majlis and individuals willingto speak the truth. A free media, a fair electoral system and publicdebate typically serve as the outlets to express the desires and disap-pointments of the civic minded. These outlets have been systemati-cally shut, leaving large student demonstrations in the streets as theonly way to voice frustration and anger in Iran.

In June 2003, a large protest began in Tehran involving universitystudents in response to a rumor alleging the possible privatizationof the university system and the introduction of a tuition system.The protests grew as nightly gatherings spread off campus and thetone of the protests became more political as the students and sym-pathetic neighbors began to use the public gathering as a forum todecry the current political situation and demand democratic reforms.

An Iranian student chants

slogans at a gathering mark-

ing the annual Student

Day at Tehran University,

December 7, 2003. About

1,500 pro-reform students

rallied, saying freedom was

the biggest demand of Irani-

ans 25 years after the Islamic

revolution that had promised

it. AP Photo


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