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