5/31/2011
Iran executes peaceful human rights adv...
Iran executes peaceful human rights advocate Ya'qub Mehrnahad
August 21, 2008
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“God will bring no change in the conditions of any people
unless they themselves set about to change their
circumstances. These enlightened and sacred words are
providing the motivation for all my activities. I believe that by
turning these divine words into action, people can change
their own and their society's conditions and move from
darkness to light, from injustice, inequality, poverty, and
tyranny to the ideals and the legitimate demands of
humankind.”
These words can be read on the first page of the blog kept by
Ya'qub Mehrnahad, who was executed on August 4, 2008 .
Although it attracted no international news coverage or
official reaction, his death shocked human rights advocates
who see in his case an escalation of violence by the Islamic
Republic against its peaceful opponents. A 28-year-old father
of three from Baluchestan*, Mehrnahad was the president of
the Youth Voice of Justice Association (YVJA), a legally-
registered organization, founded in 2002, that focuses on
accountability, education and training, discrimination, and
civic responsibility. He also worked for a local publication
called Mardcimsa/ary (Democracy).
Mehrnahad was arrested in May 2007 on charges of being a
member of Jondollah, an armed group which engages in
violent opposition to the Iranian government, just after he led
the YVJA's fifth annual “Question and Answer” session with
local authorities, at which participants discussed local
problems.
Mehrnahad was held incommunicado for five months and was
reportedly tortured during interrogations that continued even
after his closed door trial. At no time during his interrogation
or trial was he allowed access to legal counsel.
Throughout his trial, Mehrnahad rejected the charge of
having associated with an armed group. In fact, rejecting
violence had been one of the central themes of his campaign
as a civil society activist. When, in 2006, the authorities
rejected his candidacy for a city council position, he noted:
“Some expected that by rejecting [ my] candidacy, they
would attract young people into the arena of violent struggle,
but they ignore the fact that young people are too aware
and know how to fight for their ideals without violence. We
will pursue a wide-scale struggle against monopoly and
Iran: In Su ort of the International
Campaign Against the Death Penalty
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Iran Uses the Holidays to Announce the
Imminent Execution of a Student
December 24, 2010
Iran Cannot Hide the Truth Behind
Sakineh
December 10, 2010
Iran: A Reflection on the Death Penalty
and a Failed Anti-Narcotic Campaign
October 31, 2010
Iran's Interrupted Lives
October 1, 2010
Iran's leadership guilty of crimes against
humanity
June 8, 2010
Three Iranian human rights activists
receive the Lech Walesa Prize
September 29, 2009
Terror in Buenos Aires : The Islamic
Republic's Forgotten Crime Against
Humanity
July 18, 2009
Authorization Denied: The high cost of
the public expression of dissent in Iran
July 9, 2009
Neither Free Nor Fair, Elections in the
Islamic Republic of Iran
June 12, 2009
>> And more.. .
Visit the Human Rights and
Democracy Library
International Human Rights
Organizations' Reports on Human Rights
Abuses in Iran
Testimonies of Victims and Perpetrators
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-7.php
1/4
5/31/2011 Iran executes peaceful human rights adv...
tyranny by rejecting violence. We are convinced that the of Human Rights Abuses in Iran
future is ours, and we will succeed by acting wisely and by
rejecting violence, because if the oppressed use violence as Iran's Pro-democracy Voices
do the oppressors, there is no difference between them.” >> And more.. .
The execution of a civil society actor, whose peaceful
activities were aimed at addressing the root causes of
violence, does not bode well for the future of the human
rights community in Iran. Nor does it encourage other
Iranians to use peaceful means to call for their legitimate
rights. The current escalation of violence in Iran is
reminiscent of the post-revolutionary years, when the newly
established Islamic Regime consolidated its hold on power by
eliminating all voices of dissent and terrorizina Iranian civil
society .
The execution of Mr. Mehrnahad was not inevitable. In
contrast to the early years following the Islamic Revolution,
today the Iranian government feels compelled to recognize,
at least on paper, the rights of its citizens. It has created
human rights bodies and issued guidelines on the treatment
of prisoners. Iran also takes an active stand on some human
rights issues at the United Nations, demanding understanding
for cultural differences and boasting about its efforts to
eliminate discrimination.**
Away from the international arena, however, the Islamic
Republic views with hostility those who peacefully question its
discriminatory laws and practices. The Iranian authorities
detain and charge students, lournalists , and peaceful rights
advocates with “ crimes against National security. ” Even
doctors dedicated to the treatment and prevention of AIDS
are not immune from absurd political accusations.
The government cannot punish Iranians' peaceful attempts to
associate and to promote their ideas and yet claim political
and moral legitimacy. The Islamic Republic's leaders' claim to
religious legitimacy is undermined when they systematically
silence Muslim clerics who oppose their interpretation of
Islam, intimidate or eliminate leaders and members of
religious minorities, and threaten Muslims converts to other
faiths with capital punishment.
The execution, imprisonment, or the intimidation of activists
who question peacefully the state's ideology and practices, is
symptomatic of the Islamic Republic's inability to defend,
morally and rationally, its laws and practices. Isolating the
Iranian human rights activists and punishing journalists who
relay their voices to the outside world is a sign of weakness
rather than might. The recent and serious threats, in the
semi-official Kayhan newspaper, against women's rights
activists campaigning to end legal discrimination is the latest
illustration of the government's inability to justify itself and
adapt to a modernizing society. The Iranian government
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5/31/2011 Iran executes peaceful human rights adv...
could and should have been confronted for arresting and
sentencing to death Ya'qub Mehrnahad, an activist who fought
peacefully against ethnic and religious discrimination in a
region plagued by violence.***
In the absence of any strong international reaction to the
execution of Mr. Mehrna had, the Iranian government may
consider itself free to execute other rights activists and civil
society actors, such as Farzad Kamangar, Adnan HassanDour ,
Hiva Boutimar, Habibollah Latifi (currently hospitalized after a
three-months detention by the Iranian Intelligence), and
many others, already sentenced to death on trumped-up
charges. Many prisoners of conscience remain at risk in
Iranian prisons. Ayatollah Seved Hossein Kazemeini
Boroujerdi's situation is of particular concern, as he has been
denied proper medical care and is in critical condition. The
continued detentions of Baha'is and Christians is also
especially worrisome in light of the suspicious stabbings of
Zoroastrian**** activists in Europe, such as Manouchehr
Farhangi (March 20, 2008, Madrid, Spain), and the death, in
Esfahan, of a Muslim convert to Christianity, Mr. Abbas Amiri,
who was reportedly beaten severely when reportedly
plainclothes security officers raided his home on July 17th,
2008.
The Iranian government has skillfully used its nuclear
ambitions to distract the international community from paying
due attention to the sharp increase in the number of
executions in Iran (81 in July alone) and its daily crackdown
on civil society. However, the two problems are related and
may be mutually reinforcing. The absence of consistent
attention by the international community to the internal
repression leaves the situation of Iranian rights activists
precarious. It also may encourage the Iranian government to
continue its current intransigent posture and to exploit the
nuclear negotiations as a means of obtaining a free hand in
quashing the still surviving voices of dissent inside Iran.
In recent years, Iran has witnessed the birth of a peaceful
democratic civil rights movement spearheaded by women,
students, and ethnic and religious minorities. Civil rights
activists, free from politics, refer only to universal human
rights principles; this is a new and unprecedented
phenomenon in this country and a necessary development
for future peace and stability in the region. The emerging
pattern of death sentences against peaceful
advocates indicates the government's resolve to
annihilate Iran's newly born civil rights movement.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation calls upon the
Iranian government to stop the execution of civil rights
activists and urges the international community to use all
available leverage to obtain the revocation of all death and
prison sentences prescribed against peaceful Iranian civil
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5/31/2011 Iran executes peaceful human rights adv...
rights advocates.
* Sistãn o Baluchesthn (Persian: ciL c L ciL l) is
one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southeast of the
country, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, and its capital is
Zahedan. The province is the largest in Iran, with an area of
181,785 km 2 and a population of 4.1 million. The region is
also home to Iran's Baluchi Sunni minority. In Wikipedia.
With an estimated 2 to 3% of the Iranian population, is one
the most under-resourced regions in Iran in terms of
education and access to food, clean water, and basic health.
Its inhabitants are mostly ethnic Baluchi and are Sunni
Muslims. (See: hftp://www.undp.orq.ir/reports/nød/CCA.ødf )
** “The judiciary power of the Islamic Republic has also
worked out a bill of citizens rights. One of the main principles
incorporated in this bill ensures the enjoyment of every
person of equal rights so that his individual rights and
freedoms are guaranteed, irrespective of his ethnic origin
and other factors such as race, color, sex, etc... ” Letter of the
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Anti-
Discrimination Unit of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, 14 March, 2008.
*** Based on ABF's findings, in 2007, an estimated 15% of
the officially reported executions took place in Baluchistan.
**** Followers of Zoroastrian religion. Zoroastrianism is one
of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by
the prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran
approximately 3500 years ago. For 1000 years
Zoroastrianism was the official religion of Persia (Iran) from
600 BCE to 650 CE. It is now one of the world's smallest
religions with around a quarter of a million followers
worldwide. The Iranian revolution of 1979 and the eventual
establishment of the Islamic Republic posed many initial
setbacks for religious minorities. Today, the Zoroastrian
community in Iran is estimated by some to number some
22,000 - half the size of that in existence before the 1979
Islamic revolution.
Copyright © 2011, Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation t Back to too
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