The Iranian Diaspora Brief

The Iranian Diaspora Brief: March 11, 2021

Top Stories

UN Investigator Accuses Iran Of Egregious Rights Violations | Voice Of America

A U.N. report on the human rights situation in Iran presents a bleak picture of a society living under a system of brutal political repression and rampant violations of fundamental freedoms.  The report has been submitted to the U.N. human rights council. In his presentation to the council, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Javaid Rehman did not mince his words.  He urged the International community to make Iran accountable for perpetrating what he called the most egregious violations with impunity.  

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UK PM Johnson Tells Iran’s Rouhani To Let British-Iranian Aid Worker Return Home | Reuters

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe must be allowed to return home to be with her family. “The prime minister raised the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other British-Iranian dual nationals detained in Iran and demanded their immediate release,” a statement from Johnson’s office said after a call with Rouhani on Wednesday. “He (Johnson) said that while the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle monitor was welcome, her continued confinement remains completely unacceptable and she must be allowed to return to her family in the UK.”

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Freed Academic Describes ‘Psychological Torture’ In Iran | Associated Press

A British-Australian academic imprisoned by Iran on a spying conviction said in a television interview broadcast Tuesday that she endured “psychological torture” during her more than two years behind bars. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, returned to Australia in November after serving 804 days of a 10-year sentence. She was freed in exchange for the release of three Iranians who were held in Thailand. “It’s extreme solitary confinement room designed to break you. Its’ psychological torture. You go completely insane. It is so damaging. I would say I felt physical pain from the psychological trauma I had in that room. It’s 2-meter by 2-meter box,” Moore-Gilbert told Sky News.

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Regime Abuses

Barred From Traveling By Their Husbands, Iranian Women Suffer Under Unjust Laws | Al Monitor

The travel ban and arrest of one woman made headlines around the world last month after a new video surfaced of Princess Latifa in captivity. She was banned from traveling and placed under house arrest by her own father, Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in 2018. During the same month, the Iranian national women’s ski team left Tehran for Italy to participate in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships without its head coach, Samira Zargari, because Zargari’s husband barred her from leaving the country.

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Iran’s Women Enduring Violence, High Unemployment, Say Activists On Women’s Day | Voice Of America

Iranian rights activists based in Iran and in exile have marked International Women’s Day by drawing attention to some of the main hardships facing women in the Islamic republic, including violence directed at them by men and deepening unemployment in a coronavirus-hit economy.   “As a woman who grew up in the Islamic republic, I’m very much accustomed to the regime’s assaults, humiliations and insults,” said Iran-based dissident Narges Mohammadi in a video message to VOA Persian for a special Monday program about International Women’s Day.

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UK Politicians Highlight Iran’s ‘Appalling’ Treatment Of Women | Arab News

British parliamentarians have denounced Iran’s “appalling” treatment of women on International Women’s Day, and urged their government and European counterparts to take a tougher stance against Tehran. At an online event on Monday hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and attended by Arab News, politicians from the UK’s House of Commons and House of Lords — most of them members of the British Committee for Iran Freedom — said women in Iran live as second-class citizens under a system of gender apartheid.

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No Country For Minorities: The Agony Of Iran’s Ethnic Arabs, Kurds, Balochis And Azeris | Arab News

Iran’s persecution of political dissidents has been well documented. But the popular conception of the “Iranian people” tends to privilege the grievances of Shiite Muslims and Persian speakers over those of ethnic minorities. Prominence is invariably given to events in Tehran and other urban areas at the expense of happenings in remote provinces. Overall, non-Persian ethnic groups in Iran make up around 50 percent of the population, yet they are overwhelmingly marginalized.

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Iranian Athletes Urge Olympics To Probe Tehran’s Abuse Of Athletes | The Jerusalem Post

The campaign organization United for Navid – named after the executed champion Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari – sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee on Friday, urging it to investigate the Iranian regime’s abuse of athletes. “We are calling on you and the IOC leadership to immediately investigate the countless cases of athlete abuse occurring in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” wrote United for Navid in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

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Baha’i In Iran — Repressed And Persecuted By The State | Deutsche Welle

The two-page document is potentially explosive. Experts believe it shows the minutes taken during a meeting on September 21 of last year in the northern Iranian city of Sari. During the gathering, senior officials from a number of provincial authorities agreed to pursue a systematic policy of persecution against Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority: the Baha’is. The Baha’i faith emerged from Islam in the middle of the 19th century. Today it has some five million members worldwide.

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In the News

Arms Deal And Sanctions Trap British-Iranian Mother In Tehran’s ‘Hostage Diplomacy’ | France 24

The fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran, is linked to an arms deal dating from the reign of deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and is another example of Iran’s policy of “hostage diplomacy”. The UK has agreed to pay Iran its dues, but US sanctions present another challenge. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s life changed on April 3, 2016. A British-Iranian dual national, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested with her daughter, Gabriella, then not yet 2 years old, at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport.

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Flower Protest In Paris For Iranian No-Headscarf Activist | Associated Press

Activists laid flowers near the Iranian Embassy in Paris on Monday to show support for a women’s rights campaigner sentenced to prison after handing out flowers to women on the Tehran metro while not wearing a headscarf. Monday’s protest on a square near the embassy, organized by Amnesty International, was timed to mark International Women’s Day. It was also meant to show support for other activists fighting for human rights in Iran.

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With Internet Shutdown, Iran Seeks To Limit Protest Outcry | AFP

After Iran last month imposed an internet shutdown lasting several days in a southeastern region during a rare upsurge of unrest, activists say the government is now using the tactic repeatedly when protests erupt. Rights groups say at least 10 people were killed when security forces opened fire on fuel porters around Saravan in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan on February 22, prompting protests where live ammunition was used on unarmed demonstrators.

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‘Big Grin’ From British-Iranian Aid Worker In Iran, But Doubt About Fate, Husband Says | Reuters

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was full of joy after she was freed from house arrest in Tehran, but her fate is still in doubt with a new court case in a week, her husband said on Monday. “She’s completely unambiguous on it and it’s been lovely to have that, you know, joy on the other side of the phone,” her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, told Reuters. Zaghari-Ratcliffe served a five year sentence which ended on Sunday.

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Iran: Resistance Units And MEK Supporters Celebrate International Women’s Day | NCRI

On Sunday, March 7, on the eve of International Women’s Day (IWD), Resistance Units and Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) supporters in Tehran and other cities celebrated International Women’s Day by posting placards containing messages from Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) marking this occasion. Despite the extreme security environment, these activities took place in Tehran, Karaj, Shiraz, Zanjan, Ardabil, Rasht, Kerman, Mahshahr, Zahedan, Hamedan, and Urmia, and were welcomed by the people in these cities.

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Non-English Language Media

 گزارشگر ویژه حقوق بشر: با دختران و زنان در ایران مانند شهروند درجه دو رفتار می‌شود | BBC News

جاوید رحمان، گزارشگر ویژه شورای حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد در امور حقوق بشری ایران، در تازه ترین گزارش خود از وضعیت جاری درمورد زنان و دختران ایرانی ابراز نگرانی کرده و گفته با این بخش از جامعه در ایران “مانند شهروندان درجه دو رفتار می شود. آقای رحمان در گزارش خود گفته است که “ازدواج کودکان” در ایران “یکی از نگران کننده ترین مسائل” در ارتباط با حقوق زنان و دختران ایرانی است و از جمهوری اسلامی ایران خواسته در قوانین خود درباره سن ازدواج بازنگری کند. مطابق قوانین ایران دختران سیزده سال تمام می توانند به صورت قانونی ازدواج کنند اما درصورت موافقت ولی قانونی یا حکم دادگاه، ازدواج در کمتر از این سن هم می‌تواند انجام شود.

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 حسن نایب هاشم: جمهوری اسلامی ایران برعکس دیگر کشورها، ‌آمار بالایی از انواع اعدام دارد | Voice Of America

یک فعال شناخته شده مدافع حقوق بشر می‌گوید دلیل برجسته شدن موارد نقض حقوق بشر در گزارش‌های سازمان ملل، رفتار خود جمهوری اسلامی ایران است. حسن نایب هاشم، پزشک و فعال مدافع حقوق بشر ایرانی که مقیم وین اتریش است، به صدای آمریکا گفت که ایران به این دلیل گزارش جاوید رحمان را رد می‌کند که اگر این گزارش را بپذیرد، باید گزارشگر ویژه سازمان ملل را به داخل ایران راه دهد و این فرصتی برای آقای رحمان خواهد بود که با تک تک قربانیان نقض حقوق بشر گفتگو کند. آقای نایب هاشم همچنین می‌گوید دلیل توجه ویژه به اعدام در گزارش جاوید رحمان، به خاطر آمار بالای اعدام در ایران است. در برخی دیگر کشورها هم اعدام وجود دارد اما ایران آمار بالایی در انواع اعدام از جمله اعدام کودک مجرم، اعدام مخفی و اعدام در ملا عام دارد.

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