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- 3 months ago
How Iran Blatantly Violates Human Rights and Oppresses its Own People
While the Iranian standoff continues with European oil sanctions and American vessels crossing the Straits of Hormuz, time is left in Iran to deal with more significant threats.
Just last week, Iranian officials sentenced Aria Aramnejad, a singer, to 10 months in prison. His crime was a song, "Ali Barkhiz" ("Rise up Ali"), written following the Ashura uprising of 2009 -- a series of civic protests that turned into one of the bloodiest crackdowns following the rigged elections that year. The song protests the exploitation of God and the Koran and asks the Imams to act so that the name of Ali, the Shi'a prophet, will not be carried in vain. "Imam Hussein was martyred for good to triumph against evil," he said is his court hearing "so should we not expect the same from his followers? Is it not strange that in these days to ask the Imams for help in battling against evil is considered a crime in our country?" This interpretation, however, was apparently not accepted, at the least by the Islamic justice system. For them, asking the Imams to fight evil means "endangering the national security of the country."
Luckily, his trip to prison was not a far one, considering he was arrested and had been kept in solitary confinement since November of last year. In his court hearing, Aramnejad testified to being tortured in prison, severely beaten, threatened with murder, and photographed naked. But like the Islamic regime, it seems, he continues to stand proud.
In the same week, Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence for Saeed Malekpour, 35, on charges of "insulting and desecrating Islam." Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada, was arrested in October 2008 while making an emergency visit to see his dying father. He was detained on charges of designing a website used to post pornographic images. The charges were later 'confirmed' via a video-taped confession in where he 'admitted' to posting pornographic images. In a letter from prison, Malekpour later described how he was beaten with batons and cables and forced into making a televised confession. Due to his solitary confinement, Malekpour is unaware that he has lost the last appeal of his death sentence.
It seems that music and culture continue to be major threats to the Iranian regime and an arena in which, just like the Straits of Hormouz, their presence must be felt. Last month, Parastoo Dokouhaki, a women's rights activist, journalist, and researcher and Marzieh Rasouli, a journalist reporting on music and literature, were arrested, and it has now surfaced that they were transferred and held in solitary confinement in the 2-aleph section of the prison controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Parastoo Dokouhaki is a longtime women's rights activist. She gained notoriety for writing for the now banned Zanan (Women) monthly and for starting one of the first blogs by women in Iran. Her blog "Zan Nevesht" (Women's Writings) dealt with women in Iranian Society. Established in 2001, it filled a serious void on reporting on women's issues at the time. Marzieh Rassouli was a music and literary critic for several years although never politically active. She previously wrote for reformist newspapers such as Sharq, Kargozaran, and Etemaad.
According to a report by BBC Persia, security officials presented a warrant at the time of her arrest, showing her charge as "actions against national security." On January 7, authorities arrested two other journalists, Fatemeh Kheradmand and Ehsan Houshmandzadeh, as well as civil activist Said Madani a day later.
Commenting on this last wave of arrests, Heydar Moslehi, Iranian Minister of Intelligence claimed that some people have been detained for "attempting to implement the American objectives." According to Student News Agency ISNA, Moslehi said that they arrested "spies who had relations with people outside of the country both on-line and through social networks."
Apparently, to some in Iran, an American warship or a pro-American blog entry both representperilous threats that necessitate action. And, like their allies in Syria, they are determined to act. If one seeks to understand why some in the West are concerned about what the Islamic regime might do to others with a nuclear weapon, one only need to look at what they do to their own people without it.
Nir Boms is co-founder of CyberDissidents.org
Photo Credit: brenda_h_lee
The Discussion
"Is the U.N. and the U.S. opposed to their race, or their religion, and how should this affect the policies leveled at them? Racism, or religious intolerance. Choose."?!
Are you joking? “The number of mosque attendants increasing rapidly in America”(see http://www.ghazali.net/amp/html/mosques_in_us.html ). In a country that Mr. Obama is the President, and over 1 million Iranians have found refuge from ruling occupiers in Iran, one must either be biased or uninformed (choose) to call U.S. reaction to the Islamist regime in Iran drived from racism or religious intolerance! I only wish there were more truly democratic minded people standing on the side of Iranian people, rather than hiding behind Democratic Party, attempting to engage with the murderers in Iran and backstabbing 70 Iran.
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"When Iran oppresses its people, it's a violation of human rights.
When Saudi Arabia oppresses its people, it's called culture"?
Both are violations of human rights, with the exception that millions of Saudis have not fled their country whereas over 7 million Iranians (10% of Iran's population) have fled the Islamist regime's bloody claws and are residing in U.S. and Israel, etc. Women are not stonned to death in Saudi like they are in Iran while youth are hanged in groups at major crossroads of cities as they are raped in prisons and while our leftists in America are in bed with lobbyists of the oil companies. Furthermore, it is not the so-called NEOCONs these days that interview Ahmadinejad rather it is the CNN as Sean Penn, Rick Steves, etc. continue to appease that bloody regime.
Currently, US has sanctions on 21 countries and/or criminal activity (terrorism, narcotic trafficking, proliferation, etc.). Sanctions related to NPT include countries, companies, merchant ships, and individuals who are involved in nuclear proliferation. The US sanctions don't target any religion. They target behavior against our interests, e.g., the groups attempting to overthrow the government of Lebanon and Burma's Junta. Religion isn't the factor in our sanctions. Religion, as some have pointed out, may be the reason countries or groups don't abandon their destructive behavior, but it's not why we invoke and enforce sanctions. None of our sanctions against Iran have anything to do with their theocracy.
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Interesting piece. Look at it conversely; If an American white male Muslim, has a pro-Iran/Hezbollah/anti-Israel blog, couldn't the US government perceive that individual as potentially "representing a perilous threat to national security?" "Attempting to further a radical Muslim agenda" is sadly probable cause enough to be pimp-slapped with the Patriot Act. "Acting in the interests of National Security" are THE watchwords of American Exceptionalism.
Hiding behind the tenents of Islam, however radical the ideas, enable Iran to do nearly whatever it pleases to its' citizens, unfortunately. Still, anti-American sentiment doesn't seem to permeate the entire Iranian culture and therefore, cannot be used as an endictment for Iranians as a whole.
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Regimes like this never last. Sad to hear what the Iranian people endure.
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When Iran oppresses its people, it's a violation of human rights.
When Saudi Arabia oppresses its people, it's called culture.
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There are many countries that commit similar travesties as their means to stifle dissent that threatens power. Any place where authoritarian or theocratic regimes exist, you will see deprivation of human rights. I don't believe the acts described in this article are any surprise, just highlight some recent ones. If there is an underlying premise that because of those abuses the U.S. and other countries should take action, then how is the decision made as to the other countries we should also include in that action? Shouldn't our influence be directed more towards efforts that will allow the citizens of those countries to replace those regimes?
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Iran is a totalitarian regime. But, also has the distinction of being a theocracy. This is the most dangerous of all combinations. For, it is harsh in control and does so in the name of "god" without regard for individual rights for the rights of "god" as interpreted by the regime outweigh all.
That last distinction of "outweigh all" is an important one when discussing nuclear war. Fortunately, the current Supreme Ruler has a Fatwa against the production or use of nuclear weapons. But, also unfortunately, other Ayatollahs have gave speeches with rounding applause that the seeds of death and destruction for all those (they consider) opposed to Allah will soon come to fruition. A Fatwa is only guidance and can be changed by a new head and probably will be. Its only a matter of time.
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So maybe we should bomb Iran, topple Iran's government, invade it, plunder it and turn it into another "showcase" for American Exceptionalism like Iraq and Afghanistan. Yeah, that's working out real well for us. /sarcasm
Correlation =/= causation.
The fact that Iran has, overall, a terrible policy on human rights is a sordid one, but you need to ask yourself:
Will sanctioning their nukes help that? Or, alternatively, will it make it worse?
As many of the other commentators, here, have mentioned, Iran is not the only one guilty of human rights violations, but they are a major player in the global economy -- without nukes. Now, you need to ask why that is.
Is the U.N. and the U.S. opposed to their race, or their religion, and how should this affect the policies leveled at them?
I ask this because those are the only mitigating factors that are readily apparent. Someone in the business of making policies doesn't like their Islam or the fact that they're Iranian. Racism, or religious intolerance. Choose.
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China, Russia are 2 nuclear countries. They treat their people as bad or worse than Iran.
The premise that because Iran treats their people like garbage therefore they are more dangerous with nukes is flawed to the bone.
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I'm failing to get your argument. I understand that a nuclear Iran could be destabilizing/dangerous/etc., but what does that have to do with human rights? China and Korea are both examples of countries that have abysmal human rights records and nuclear weapons.
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Well, it is yet to be seen if Iran will "endanger the current global system" but there is little doubt that it endangers the region not to mention their own people.
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I find their actions despicable, am no fan of the regime at all, and am adamantly against Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. That being said, actions against foreign nations and actions against their own citizens do not necessarily correlate. Just as an example, the PRC has a fairly abysmal human rights, has nuclear weapons, and has not really done anything to endanger the current global system.
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I guess I can put Iran on my list of places not to visit. It is tragic the way they treat people who are dissidents, but things haven't really changed over the last 33 years. The "constructive" talks with the IAEA inspectors is a good sign and might be the framework after further meetings of a demarche between Iran and the world on their nuclear program. This could possibly lead to movement on talks in Turkey.
We must maintain a vigil with all countries and means to ensure the Iranians aren't building a nuclear weapon. A nuclear Iran isn't acceptable and won't be tolerated.
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