National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The
constitution grants equal rights to all ethnic minorities and allows for
minority languages to be used in the media and in schools. In practice
minorities did not enjoy equal rights, and the government consistently
denied their right to use their language in school. The government
disproportionately targeted minority groups, including Kurds, Arabs,
Azeris, and Baluchis, for arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, and
physical abuse (see also section 1.e., Political Prisoners and
Detainees). These groups reported political and economic discrimination,
particularly in their access to economic aid, business licenses,
university admissions, permission to publish books, and housing and land
rights. The government blamed foreign entities, including a number of
governments, for instigating some of the ethnic unrest.e
There are
between five and 11 million ethnic Kurds in the country, who have
frequently campaigned for greater regional autonomy. There were two
terrorist organizations inside the Kurdish province; however, they did
not represent the majority of the Kurdish population. Nevertheless, the
government persecuted the entire minority for criminal acts sponsored by
the two organizations. According to a 2009 HRW report, the government
used security laws, media laws, and other legislation to arrest and
persecute Kurds solely for exercising their right to freedom of
expression and association. The government reportedly banned
Kurdish-language newspapers, journals, and books and punished
publishers, journalists, and writers for opposing and criticizing
government policies. Although the Kurdish language is not banned,
schools did not teach it. Authorities suppressed legitimate activities
of Kurdish NGOs by denying them registration permits or bringing
spurious charges of security offenses against individuals working with
such organizations. Kurds were not allowed to register certain names for
their children in official registries.e
There were
several instances of Kurdish activists sentenced for political crimes
during the year. For example, on January 31, the Revolutionary Court in
Kermanshah sentenced Kaveh Ghassemi Kermanshahi, a journalist and human
rights activist, to five years in prison. Kermanshahi was an executive
member of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization and the OMSC. He was
also a member of the student organization Daftar Tahkim Vahdat. The
court charged Kermanshahi with “acting against national security” and
“propaganda against the regime.” His lawyer described his long sentence
as “unprecedented.”e
In mid-June
the Saqqez Revolutionary Court, in Kurdistan Province, found Mohammad
Moniri, a Kurdish teacher, guilty on charges of cooperating with
opposition groups and propaganda against the regime. The court
originally sentenced Moniri to five years in prison, but his sentence
was reduced to six months. Moniri entered prison on June 19.e
Foreign
representatives of the Ahvazi Arabs of Khuzestan claimed their community
of two to four million in the country’s southwest encountered
oppression and discrimination, including torture and mistreatment of Ahvazi Arab activists and the lack of freedom to study and speak Arabic.e
On April 15,
authorities violently oppressed a protest organized by ethnic Arabs in
the Khuzestan region. Security forces reportedly fired live rounds into
the crowd. It was estimated that a dozen demonstrators were killed and
scores more injured. The RSF reported that authorities arrested up to 97
protesters. The demonstrators were commemorating the sixth anniversary
of a 2005 demonstration that security forces violently suppressed. The
government insisted that the report was fabricated. On the same day, a
representative from the Ahvazi Organization for the Defense of Human
Rights, based in London, told HRW that, since April 15, security forces
had “killed 48 innocent protesters, injured tens, and arrested hundreds
of Ahvazis.” On April 18, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Shirin Ebadi wrote a letter about the incident to the UN high
commissioner for human rights. According to Ebadi, hundreds of people in
the city of Ahvaz had gathered for a peaceful
demonstration against the government’s discrimination towards its Sunni
minority. The country’s semiofficial news agency Fars reported that only
one person had been killed during the protests.e
On May 11,
according to an official report from the Khuzestan district attorney,
seven young Arabs had been executed in the preceeding days in the town
of Ahvaz. However, posts on Facebook reported that nine young Arab activists from Ahvaz
had been executed. Official sources claimed that those executed were
criminals dealing in drugs, although such claims often were leveled as
justification to execute political activists from the Arab minority. The
Arab minority in Ahvaz asked for the intervention of global human rights organizations.e
Ethnic Azeris
comprised approximately one-quarter of the country’s population, were
well integrated into government and society, and included the supreme
leader among their numbers. Nonetheless, Azeris complained that the
government discriminated against them, banning the Azeri language in
schools, harassing Azeri activists or organizers, and changing Azeri
geographic names. Azeri groups also claimed a number of Azeri political
prisoners had been jailed for advocating cultural and language rights
for Azeris. The government charged several of them with “revolting
against the Islamic state.”e
According to
the ICHRI, during the six-month period from March 21 to September 21,
more than 320 cultural, political, women’s rights, and human rights
activists were arrested in the Azeri provinces. Most of these arrests
concerned the protests about the drying out of Lake Urmiya, one of the
largest saltwater lakes in the world. According to international media
reports, protesters, who claimed that the government did not act to save
the lake partly due to its location in the minority Azeri province,
chanted, “Long live Azerbaijan,” and “Urmiya is thirsty / Azerbaijan
must rise up, otherwise it will lose.” As a result of these arrests,
Azeri activists were beaten, flogged, tortured, fined, and expelled from
university.e
Iran Green
Voice announced that in late May that a Revolutionary Court sentenced
seven Azeri activists--Yunes Soleymani, Mahmmud Fazli, Naim Ahmmadi,
Aydin Khajehei, Sharam Radmehr, Yashar Karimi, and Hamideh Frajazade--to
six months in prison for membership in the Azeri Party’s Central
Committee. A six-month suspended sentence was given to activists Alireza
Abdollahi, Behbud Gholizade, and Akbar Azad, for a five-year probation
period. Another activist, Hassan Rahimi, was cleared on all counts after
being held in solitary confinement for four months.e
Local and
international human rights groups alleged serious economic, legal, and
cultural discrimination against the Baluch minority during the year.
Baluch journalists and human rights activists faced arbitrary arrest,
physical abuse, and unfair trials, often ending in execution.
On June 6, a
revolutionary court in Baluchistan Province sentenced Sakhi Rigi to 20
years in prison on charges of “acting against national security” and
“propaganda against the regime,” based on his blogging and other
Internet activities relating to the government’s discriminatory
treatment of the Baluch community.e
Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
The law
criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity. A man can be put to
death for same-sex sexual acts if he is of legal age, of sound mind, and
engaged of his own free will. The Special Protection Division, a
volunteer unit of the judiciary, monitored and reported on “moral
crimes,” including same-sex sexual acts. According to a December 2010
HRW report, security forces used discriminatory laws to harass, arrest,
and detain individuals they suspected of being gay. In some cases
security forces raided houses and monitored Internet sites for
information on LGBT individuals. Those accused of sodomy often faced
summary trials, and evidentiary standards were not always met. The
punishment of a non-Muslim gay man or lesbian was harsher if the gay man
or lesbian’s partner was Muslim. Punishment for same-sex sexual
activity between men was more severe than for such conduct between
women.e
During the
year there was an increase in the frequency of charges of homosexuality
against individuals on death row or those executed. However, because
such persons were generally convicted on a number of different charges
and because of the lack of due process, it was unclear in most cases
whether such charges of homosexuality were the basis for the
executions.e
On September 4, authorities at Karoun prison in Ahvaz Province
executed by hanging three individuals convicted of sodomy. While the
circumstances of the case remained unclear at year’s end, the fact that
they were executed on sodomy charges alone, and not sodomy by coercion
or rape, which was normally how sodomy was charged, was significant. It
was also the first case in many years in which the only declared charge
was sodomy and not combined with other criminal acts, such as rape and
armed robbery or national security crimes.e
ICAS reported
that two young men, Ayub and Mosleh, ages 20 and 21, were in danger of
execution by stoning in the city of Piranshahr in the province of
Kurdistan. The group said the men filmed themselves engaging in same-sex
sexual activity in a video that included pictures of President
Ahmadinejad and that government officials discovered that video. Their
whereabouts at the end of the year remained unknown.e
According to a
June 10 IHRDC report, in 2007 authorities in Isfahan arrested Matin Yar
(a pseudonym) at age 19, along with several of his friends, for
homosexual activity. Yar described officials repeatedly beating and
torturing him during his detention, including hanging him upside down on
a metal rod and using batons, whips, and electric shock. Yar stated his
nose and ribs were broken as a result of the beatings. During a second
period of detention, Yar said he was subjected to mock executions at
Isfahan on three or four different occasions. After sentencing, Yar was
sent to Dastgerd Prison, where he claimed prison authorities raped him
several times.e
The
government censored all materials related to LGBT issues. In September
President Ahmadinejad called same-sex sexual activity a “despicable
act…that is dirty and harmful to humanity.” In January he was quoted as
stating, “Homosexuality means the divorce of humanity from its
integrity.” During his official response to the UNHRC, President
Ahmadinejad categorically refused to answer all six questions regarding
the LGBT situation in his country, stating only that the LGBT issue is
“beyond the mandate of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.” The supreme leader referred to same-sex sexual conduct as a
“shameful act.”e
The law
defines transgender persons as mentally ill, encouraging them to seek
medical help in the form of gender-reassignment surgery. The government
provided grants of as much as 4.5 million toman ($4,500) and loans of as
much as 5.5 million toman ($5,500) for transgender persons willing to
undergo gender reassignment surgery. Human rights activists and NGOs
reported that some members of the gay and bisexual community were
pressured to undergo gender reassignment surgery to avoid legal and
social consequences in the country.e
The size of
the LGBT community was unknown, as many individuals feared identifying
themselves. There were active LGBT NGOs in the country, but most
activities to support the LGBT community took place outside the country.
According to a HRW report, family members threatened and abused many
young gay men, who also faced harassment from religious scholars,
schools, and community elders. Some persons were expelled from
university for allegations of same-sex sexual activity. The HRW report
also alleged that Basij forces attempted to entrap or arrest persons
engaged in same-sex sexual conduct.e
Link of the report:
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