Corporate report

Iran - Country of Concern: latest update, 30 September 2014

Updated 21 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

0.1 Latest Update: 30 September 2014

There has been little change in the human rights situation in Iran between July and September 2014. There continues to be great international concern over the widespread use of the death penalty in Iran; restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and the rights of journalists; and human rights defenders, women, and prisoners. However, over the past three months, there has been increased public debate about human rights issues, particularly the filtering of websites and gender segregation, in part driven by a number of high-profile cases. Although this has not so far resulted in a change to the substantive human rights situation in Iran, a number of Iranian political figures, such as Communications and Information Technology Minister, Mahmoud Vaezi, have shown support for greater freedom of expression, particularly through electronic media.

Debate over filtering of social media has continued in recent months. Prosecutor-General, Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, reportedly gave the Communications Ministry until October to filter and “effectively monitor the information” on Viber, WhatsApp and Tango. A letter from the Prosecutor-General to the Minister of Information and Communications requested that, due to the “large content” of anti-establishment propaganda, especially “insults of Imam Khomeini”, the websites and apps should be filtered. Reports suggest these comments followed the arrest of 11 people on charges of insulting Imam Khomeini on 22 September on Viber and other social networks. In Fars province, a commander of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – a branch of Iran’s military) said the individuals “have confessed to their crime and have said they were tricked to do so by foreign intelligence services”.

However, Iran’s Chief of Police, General Ahmadi Moghadam, has said that he is not supportive of the filtering of social networks, and believes that, in the “age of communications”, use of social media like “Facebook, WhatsApp, and Viber is inevitable.” He did though stress that security and safety issues must be considered in using these communications tools. It was reported on 30 September that Iran’s first domestically-produced “smart filtering software” was launched for use with social media communications tools. The software is claimed to censor material that is deemed to be improper, while keeping the domain open.

The number of executions in Iran remains cause for serious concern. Not all executions are officially announced, so it remains difficult to estimate how many have taken place between July and September. However, there have been a number of notable executions which have caused criticism in Iran and internationally. On 24 September, a 37-year-old man was executed after being charged with “corruption on earth, innovation in religion, and insulting the prophet Jonah”. Before his arrest in 2006, he had been offering private consultations based on religious teachings, in which he offered different interpretations of the Quran. In one recorded session, he suggested that the story of Jonah being eaten by a whale, and living inside it for several years, was a myth. He was originally sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but this was increased to a death sentence. The issue of gender segregation has seen much discussion in Iran during the last three months. In a 29 July letter to the Mayor of Tehran, the Deputy Minister for Cooperatives, Labour and Welfare called for the cancellation of a decree which had just been passed instituting gender segregation for Tehran municipal employees. The Deputy Minister wrote that the decision to segregate employees based on gender was contrary to international conventions which have been signed by Iran, including the Anti-Discrimination Convention on Employment and Occupation. As of 30 September, gender segregation has not yet been implemented in the Tehran municipality.

In a case that has received significant media attention, a British-Iranian woman was arrested on 20 June for attempting to enter a sports stadium in Tehran to watch a men-only Iranian national volleyball team play against Italy. In Iran, women are forbidden from watching male sports teams. She was released the same day as she was arrested, but when she returned to the police station on 30 June to collect her belongings, she was re-arrested and transferred to Evin Prison, where she was initially held in solitary confinement for two months without charge. She has since been charged with “propaganda against the Islamic system”.

Another high-profile detention case is that of Jason Rezaian, a dual American-Iranian journalist for the Washington Post, who was detained in Tehran on 22 July, along with his wife and another couple. It is not clear what charges have been brought against Rezaian, and his family claim he has not been given access to a lawyer.

In his traditional Eid al-Fitr amnesty, the Supreme Leader agreed to sentence reductions and early parole for a number of prisoners at the end of July. However, none of the sentence reductions apply to prisoners convicted of national security or propaganda crimes – the two charges on which the majority of political prisoners in Iran are convicted.

There have been some suggestions that freedom of religion or belief might be improving in Iran. For example, former President and Expediency Council Chair, Akbar Hashemi Rasfanjani, told a meeting of Iranian Sunni Muslim leaders that their rights were secure in Iran. However, there has been little, if any, actual change. While the destruction of a Bahá’í cemetery in Shiraz in May was halted after international pressure, works began again in August, and are still continuing as of 30 September.

On 21 September, approximately 430 Gonabadi (Sufi Muslim) sect members were arrested during a protest outside the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office in September. Reports state that police surrounded the protestors, fired tear gas, and beat the protestors with batons. There are reports that over 150 Gonabadis were injured, including a nine-month-old baby. A week after the incident, 2,000 Gonabadi members gathered in front of the Ministry of Justice building. However, despite a heavy presence of riot police, there were no reports of clashes. After an hour, a representative of the Ministry of Justice invited a number of Gonabadi representatives into the building for discussions. The Ministry reportedly undertook to raise the Gonabadis’ concerns with the Chief of the Judiciary and the Speaker of the Majlis (Parliament).

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