Aadel Collection
Thirty Years Ago in Iran
5/31/2011
Thirty Years Ago in Iran - Human Rights
Thirty Years Ago in Iran
February 11, 2009
“Don't listen to those who speak of democracy. They all are
against Islam. They want to take the nation away from its
mission. Break the poisonous pens of all those who speak of
nationalism, democracy, and such things.”
- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Other recent newsletters
Iran: In Su ort of the International
Campaign Against the Death Penalty
February 22, 2011
Qom, 13 March, 1979
Three decades ago, while he was founding the new political
regime of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini clearly stated that
criticism and dissent would not be tolerated. Under his
command, the revolutionary government and the
revolutionary tribunals (the government's judicial arm)
fomented arbitrary violence, in order to spread fear in
different social strata and to silence all voices of dissent.
More importantly, the new revolutionary authorities used
violence to monopolize the expression of religious legitimacy
and moved to end the traditional independence of Iran's Shi'a
clergy. In a matter of months, the voices of religious leaders
who strongly disapproved of the involvement of the clergy in
politics and who had denounced the Islamic Revolutionary
Tribunals were silenced. From the very moment of its
inception, when it was still enjoying the support of a vast
majority of the people and faced no other challenge than that
of reorganizing the country, the Islamic regime engaged in
systematic abuse of human rights as a matter of ideological
necessity.
On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the
establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the
Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation is disseminating a key
historic document of Amnesty International: Lawand
Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran , A report
covering events within the seven month period following the
Revolution of February 1979, published in February 1980.
Alarmed by the number of summary executions and the
systematic denial of the rights of accused persons, Amnesty
International sent a mission to Iran to protest the executions
and to investigate the revolutionary trials that were taking
place. The mission, Amnesty's last to visit Iran, worked in
Tehran from April 12 to May 1, 1979 and met members of
secular political organizations and the provisional government
(February 11 to November 6, 1979) but was not permitted to
attend trials or to meet with the clerics who retained the real
power in Iran. Back in London, the researchers continued
investigating the situation of human rights by monitoring
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-9.php
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
1/3
5/31/2011 Thirty Years Ago in Iran - Human Rights
press reports and receiving information from their contacts of Human Rights Abuses in Iran
inside the country. Notably, the report explored Islamic Shi'a
jurisprudence and critically assessed Iranian officials' claims Iran's Pro-democracy Voices
of implementing Islamic justice in Iran. >> And more.. .
The ground-breaking report covers a crucial moment in the
history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, when all its security
apparatus - - the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the
Islamic Revolutionary Committees, and the Islamic
Revolutionary Tribunals -- were being established. It also
explores and analyzes the Press Law and provides a list of
new religious and criminal offenses unknown to Iran's judicial
system before the revolution. Amnesty's report is an
indispensable reference document for journalists, policy
makers, human rights advocates, and students of Iranian
studies who deal with Iran's issues today.
The traumatic impact of state violence in early post-
revolutionary Iran is only partly reflected in the report's
numbers. For the first six months of the revolution, Amnesty
International reports 438 officially announced executions.
However, it stresses the fact that its reporters' access to
information from provincial towns was limited and concludes:
“On 9 July, [ the newspaper] Ayendegan quoted Tehran
prosecutor Abolfaz l Shahshahani as saying that the
revolutionary courts had processed approximately 10,000
cases since the revolution. If this figure is accurate, it means
that Amnesty International's report, based on approximately
900 cases, covers only a small percentage of the Tribunal's
case load. “
The report provides information on the trials of high-ranking
officials of Iran's former regime, including the Major General
of the Imperial Iranian Army Aviation, General Khosrowdad ,
as well as General Pakravan , the former head of Iran's
security agency SAVAK. It also highlights the cases of
ordinary people executed for “ prostitution,” “ homosexuality, ”
“capitalism” “feudalism”, and “religious dissidence”.
What happened during the first few months of the revolution
was only a prelude to the great terror that was to unfold a
year later. Between June and September 1981, Amnesty
deplored 1600 executions in Iran. As of June 30, 1982, the
number of officially announced executions since the
beginning of the revolution reached 4,400 . The death penalty
was the ultimate means of spreading terror and intimidating
the population, but a range of other punishments, such as
flogging, amputation, stoning , long jail sentences, lost jobs,
purges from the administration, and property confiscation
were meted out in violation of Iran's international obligations
as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.
By now, most political parties and groups active in 1979 have
been banned, and many have seen their leadership and
many of their memhers executed. Particination in the
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-9.php 2/3
5/31/2011 Thirty Years Ago in Iran - Human Rights
country's political life is a privilege granted to a limited
number of the revolutionary faithful. The Islamic Republic's
leaders, powerful and unaccountable, remain intolerant of
any group - - or anyone - - who stands up to them, resorting
to violence to punish or deter them. The net of repression is
wide; authorities not only punish attempts to create
independent political parties but target any citizen who calls
for more democratic institutions or who organizes to promote
human rights , independent unions, freedom of conscience,
gender equality , or cultural rights. Activists, journalists, and
bloggers are detained, charged, and sentenced for
“ endangering national security, ” or creating “illegal groups,”
or for “publicity against the state.”
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation re-circulates
Amnesty International's 1980 report in accordance with its
mandate to keep the memory of the victims alive and to
defend the right of citizens and future generations to know
the truth about what happened thirty years ago. As the world
watches the Iranian authorities celebrating the thirtieth
anniversary of their rule, it should also remember that the
machinery of terror, meticulously described by Amnesty
International in 1980, is still functioning .
Copyright © 2011, Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation t Back to too
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-9.php 3/3
