Boycott the Islamic regime in Iran for crimes against women

02/08/2022

Iran

Boycott the Islamic regime in Iran for crimes against women

A 28-year-old Iranian artist & writer was arrested for opposing Hijab. She was tortured and forced into making televised ‘confessions’

Statement

Sepideh Rashno, a 28-year-old Iranian artist & writer, was arrested for not wearing Hijab on the bus and speaking out against Hijab. She was initially taken to one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detention centres and was forced to do a televised ‘confession’. Torturing prisoners to do forced confession is a common method used by the regime in Iran to force prisoners to make false confessions so they can sentence them to jail or even execution. Sepideh is currently in an unknown detention centre and deprived of family visits or legal representatives.

Although women have been defying the compulsory Hijab for the last 43 years in Iran, the recent protests against Hijab started when the Islamic regime recently announced the “National Day of Hijab and Chastity” in July 2022. The ‘Moral Police’ of the Islamic regime started harassing and arresting women who were protesting against Hijab and removing their veils on the street. Numerous videos of women, who were removing their veils while walking on the streets of different cities across Iran, were published on social media. The regime has started a crackdown on these protesters, arrested tens of women, and accused them of “immoral behaviour”. Some of these women resisted being arrested and were brutally dragged across the street and forced into the police car by the “morality police”. Tens of women have been arrested, and among them are Sepideh Rashno, Melika Qaragozlu, a university student, Soori Babaie Chegini, a civil rights activist, and Nazi Zandieh a university student.

The regime’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, threatened women that the government’s Special Unit will deal with those who are “breaking rules”. This means they will be arrested, tortured, and even executed. Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic regime, has publicly praised the “morality police” and the brutality and violence against women in Iran and even warned that the regime’s violence against women would get worse. During the last 43 years, hundreds of thousands of women have been arrested for opposing the Hijab law. 

Women in Iran have been subjected to suppression and discrimination by the Islamic regime in Iran for 43 years. Over the last four decades, misogyny, gender apartheid, and violence against women have been systematic and legalised by the Islamic regime. Women’s basic rights have been violently attacked daily by the regime in Iran. Those who dare to oppose discrimination are harassed, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and even executed. Despite all the brutal and consistent crackdowns on women’s rights by the authorities in Iran, women have not given up and rather have tirelessly and continuously been fighting for their rights. Many women’s rights defenders are currently in prison and are being physically and psychologically tortured, sexually harassed, and even raped. They are deprived of medical treatment, having a legal representative, and a visit from their families. 

The EU, UN, and governments around the world must not turn a blind eye to the situation of imprisoned women’s rights activists in Iran. Any negotiation with the Islamic regime in Iran, either over the nuclear program, or any other negotiations, must include the pressure on the Islamic regime in Iran to meet the following demands prior to any agreement:

1. Stop the crackdown on the protests in Iran

2. All jailed women’s rights activists, including the recent detainees who opposed Hijab, must be released and the charges must be dropped immediately and unconditionally. 

3. The representatives of the Islamic regime must be expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). This is ironic that the UN has allowed and approved the Islamic regime in Iran to be included in this commission. This official acceptance by the UN is despite well-known and well-documented evidence of gender apartheid, crime against women, misogynist laws, and suppression of women imposed for 43 years by the Islamic regime in Iran.

Shiva Mahbobi

Spokeswoman for Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)

www.cfppi.org         shiva.mahbobi@gmail.com               Tel: +447572356661

Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), would like to appeal for your support and urge you and your organisation to help us to draw attention to the situation of jailed women’s rights defenders and activists in Iran.

The above statement has been sent to the UN, CSW, The Eu countries as well as the governments in New Zealand , Australia, USA and Canada.

• You can write to your government and urge them to pressure the regime in Iran to release the women’s rights activists.

• You can write to the UN General Secretary, António Guterres, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)  and urge them to expel the Islamic regime from CSW for crimes against women in Iran. Please email /Tweet:

UN General Secretary, António Guterres           

Email: dujarric@un.org                                       Tweet: @antonioguterres

          UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)    

       Email; https://data.unwomen.org/form/contact    Tweet: @UN Women

• You can also send an email/tweet to the Islamic regime in Iran and condemned torture of prisoners including forced televised ‘confession’ and demand the immediate release of women rights defenders including those who were arrested in July 2022 for defying hijab law.

Ebrahim Raisi                     Twitter: @raisi_com

Ali Khamenei                     Email: info_leader@leader.ir       Twitter: @khamenei_ir

Permanent Mission of the Islamic regime to the UN Email:     iran@un.int

Hassan Rouhani Email: media@rouhani.ir            Twitter: @HassanRouhani

For more information, contact:

Shiva Mahbobi, spokesperson

 shiva.mahbobi@gmail.com      +44(0) 7572356661