Iran

Petition condemning fundamentalism, specially of the type introduced by Khomeini
June 2002 - AIWUSA along with many other Iranian NGOes are petitioning all democratic individuals and organizations to condemn the fundamentalist regime and endorse the attached petition to facilitate the opposition Œs strenuous efforts towards peace and freedom for Iranian people and women emancipation.

IRANIAN WOMEN'S BRIEF # 53
May 2002 - Iran Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of State Department-USA, March 4, 2002

AIWUSA Association of Iranian Wo
Email: AIWUSA@AIWUSA.ORG
Website: www.aiwusa.org
TEL: 703-941-8584
Contact person: Behjat Dehghan

Please read the following two petitions and email them to us at aiwusa@aiwusa.org or info@peacewomen.org

Petition: International Condemnation of Iranian Regime

The United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution in its current session in Geneva, condemning flagrant human rights abuses in Iran including "the continued executions... in particular in public and especially cruel executions," "the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in particular the practice of amputation," and pervasive discrimination against women and minorities in Iran.

In its 22 years in power, the religious regime in Iran has a disastrous human rights record that includes 120,000 political executions, hundreds of political assassinations and bombings abroad, hostage-taking, hijacking, export of crisis and sponsorship of terrorism. In an unprecedented act, the mullahs' regime fired 77 Scud missiles at Mojahedin camps, Iranian Resistance bases, and Iraqi population centers on Wednesday, April 18, which claimed dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children.

According to news agency reports, Tehran announced that the decision to launch the missiles was taken by the Supreme State Security Council led by President Mohammad Khatami. Senior officials of the Iranian regime vowed to continue the missile attacks. The massive missile strike showed that contrary to Khatami's rhetoric about de-escalating tensions in the region, the ruling theocracy in Iran remains the biggest threat to peace and tranquillity in the region and would not hesitate to use weapons of mass destruction against its neighbors.

We, the undersigned, condemn the Iranian regime's use of surface-to-surface Scud missiles and weapons of mass destruction against the Mojahedin and the Iranian Resistance and innocent civilians as another crime against humanity by the mullahs. We reiterate the need to adopt binding international penalties against the Iranian regime.

NAME:

TITLE:

ORGANIZATION:

ADDRESS:

TELEPHONE:

Petition:

With Iranian Women, Against Islamic Fundamentalism

The Islamic fundamentalists who rule Iran have suppressed women in the cruelest manner over the past two decades. Inhuman punishments such as stoning, execution, and flogging of women in public under bogus pretexts were stepped up in 2001.

Iran's ruling mullahs have executed tens of thousands of women on political grounds and imprisoned and viciously tortured many more for the past 22 years. A fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Khomeini formally declared "female members and supporters" of the Mojahedin, the main opposition group to the mullahs, open game: they could be killed, tortured or raped and their properties could be confiscated. This fatwa continues to be enforced by Khomeini's successors and Mojahedin girls have been systematically raped by the Revolutionary Guards before being executed.

In December, the General Assembly of the United Nations condemned the violations of human rights and the increase in executions in Iran. The UN Human Rights Commission's Special Representative in his report to the General Assembly pointed out that the Islamic Republic is "a prison for women" and reiterated that " there is no change in the foundational, legalized discrimination faced by women almost across the board."

Contrary to all the political claims and propaganda by the clerical regime and some Western circles, the situation of women has deteriorated in every sense under Mohammad Khatami.

On May 11, 1997, in meeting with a group of women affiliated with the government, Khatami pulled aside the veil and said: "One of the West's biggest mistakes was the emancipation of women, which destroyed the family... Staying at home does not mean being pushed to the sidelines... We must not think that social activity means working outside the home. Housekeeping is among the most important of tasks."

On September 10, 2001, Khatami told a similar meeting: "If we deploy women by force or by following the day's fashion, in some arenas, it is as if we have stripped them of their choice and imposed restrictions on them..."

Based on the mullahs' rule, women are deprived of the right to presidency, judgeship and education in many fields. Official statistics reveal that women commit suicide four times more than men in Iran. The average age of prostitution has dropped from 27 to 20 and the number of run-away girls has increased 30 per cent during Khatami's tenure. The clerical regime's laws set the minimum legal age for girls' marriage at 8 lunar years and 9 months.

In the beginning of the 21st century, the clerical regime's officials are trying to forcibly return women to the Middle Ages in fear of their widespread participation in social uprisings, and anti-government strikes and protests. Women played a prominent role in five major uprisings in summer of 2001. Chanting, "Down with Khatami, down with Khamenei," they voiced their hatred of the mullahs' misogynous regime and conveyed it to the world.

Women's leading role in resistance against the medieval regime ruling Iran, is a solid obstacle curbing the spread of the misogyny of Iran's ruling mullahs to other Islamic and Middle Eastern countries.

Under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, a Muslim, anti-fundamentalist woman, the Iranian Resistance has drawn a decisive demarcation between Islam -- as a religion of peace, friendship and fraternity -and fundamentalism and misogyny.

Please copy and paste the following into an email and send it to info@peacewomen.org

We the signatories to this declaration, condemn the suppressive and misogynous policies of the mullahs ruling Iran, and Iranian declare our support for the Iranian women's struggle for freedom and equality, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Resistance's President-elect. We urge the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Commission to condemn unequivocally and firmly the violation of human rights, particularly women's rights, in Iran.

First name:
Last name:
City:
Country:
Organization:
Title:
E-mail address:
Comments: