Iran: End Arrests on Immorality Charges

international | gender and sexuality | other press

Wednesday May 16, 2007 18:05

by Dorothy Gale

Mass Detentions, Home Raids Are Assaults on Privacy

Human Rights Watch provides an update on the Iranian Juntas war on women. This puts things in the context of human, civil and gender rights.

Iran’s arbitrary arrests of thousands of men and women in recent weeks under the banner of “countering immoral behavior” threaten basic rights to privacy, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called for the immediate release of all those detained as part of this campaign, including more than 80 people seized in a raid on a private gathering in the city of Esfahan on May 10, 2007.

Since early April 2007, Iranian police and militia known as basiji have launched a nationwide crackdown against people they accuse of deviating from official standards of dress or behavior. On April 14, Iran’s Supreme Court overturned murder sentences against six basiji who had killed five people in 2002 whom they considered “morally corrupt,” contributing to a climate of impunity for the militia forces.

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Partygoers arrested and tortured in Iran

by Georgi Vasilyevich Chicherin

Fri May 18, 2007 13:49

Its not just women; men also suffer under the "immorality" laws.

Eighty young men have been arrested at a birthday party in Iran under suspicion of being gay. Last Thursday, police in Isfahan arrested every person at the party. The partygoers were beaten with batons. As yet there is no evidence to support the idea of the men being gay. The men are being held for participating in a party with alcoholic drinks, music and dancing.

A witness who would only give the name Peyman told the Iran Queer Organisation: I went to buy a gift for Farhad and arrived late for the party. When I turned in to their street, I saw police cars; all my friends were arrested while seven or eight policeman beat them with batons. Fearing the usual punishments for attending a party, two had jumped from the second-floor window and were in a bad condition.

On Sunday May 13, the Iran Queer Organisation also received news that the suspects were being tortured and held in unacceptable conditions in the jail in Isfahan. They believe that the lives of the detainees are in danger.

Arsham Parsi, the executive director of the Iranian Queer Organisation said: Obviously this crackdown is yet another systematic violation of human rights, along with brutal suppression of womens' movements in Iran and must be strongly protested by all human rights organisations as yet another violation of people's private rights and liberties.

Under the Islamic Shar'ia law followed in Iran, gaysex is illegal. The maximum punishment gaysex is death, and teenage boys as young as 15 are eligible for the death penalty.

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Iran: End Arrests on Immorality Charges

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