Documento - Iran: Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority

Amnesty International Publications

First published in 2008 by

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© Amnesty International Publications 2008

Index: MDE 13/088/2008

Original language: English

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Cover image: The village of Nodeshe, Kordestan, Iran © Private

Iran: Human rights abuses against

the Kurdish minority

Contents

1. Introduction

Even if dying of hunger or from poverty

Still I will not serve strangers all my life long,

I have no fear of chains, ropes, rods, or the prison

Should they hack me into pieces, should they kill me

Still I will say: I am a Kurd!¹

Kurds in Iran have long suffered deep-rooted discrimination. Their social, political and cultural rights have been repressed, as have their economic aspirations. Kurdish regions have been economically neglected, resulting in entrenched poverty. Forced evictions and destruction of homes have left Kurds with restricted access to adequate housing.² Parents are banned from registering their babies with certain Kurdish names. The use of the Kurdish language in education is frequently thwarted. Religious minorities that are mainly or partially Kurdish are targeted by measures designed to stigmatize and isolate them. The discriminatory gozinesh system – a selection procedure that requires prospective state officials and employees to demonstrate allegiance to Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran – denies Kurds equality in employment and political participation.³

The Iranian authorities do allow the Kurdish language to be used in certain broadcasts and some publications. Expressions of Kurdish culture, such as dress and music, are respected. However, when Kurdish rights activists link their human rights work – drawing attention to the government’s failure to observe international human rights standards - to their Kurdish identity they risk further violations of their rights. All too often, these brave individuals have found themselves in jail or targeted for other abuses.

Kurdish human rights defenders, community activists and journalists face arbitrary arrest and prosecution. Some become prisoners of conscience – people imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their conscientiously held beliefs. Others suffer torture, grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts and the death penalty.

These forms of repression serve to reinforce the marginalization and relative economic deprivation of the Kurdish community.

This report follows other Amnesty International reports on human rights abuses against ethnic, religious and cultural minorities in Iran.⁴ It details the impact of discriminatory practices on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Kurds. It highlights the double oppression suffered by Kurdish women and girls – partly the consequence of attitudes and practices deeply rooted in Kurdish culture, partly the result of the government’s failure to promote and protect the rights of women and Kurds.

Amnesty International has previously raised many of the concerns and individual cases detailed in this report, which addresses developments up to May 2008, with the Iranian authorities in correspondence as well as through public statements and appeals. However, the Iranian authorities rarely respond to the organisation and Amnesty International has not been permitted to visit Iran to assess the human rights situation at first hand for more than 28 years, since shortly after the Islamic Revolution in February 1979.⁵

Amnesty International is publishing this report to draw attention to the ongoing repression of Kurds in Iran. It is calling on the Iranian authorities to take concrete measures to end the discrimination and associated human rights violations, in accordance with their obligations under international law. In broad terms, it is calling on the Iranian authorities to:

• take effective measures to ensure that Kurds and all other members of minority communities in Iran – men, women and children alike – enjoy their full range of human rights;

• amend or abolish all legislation and practices that discriminate against minority communities, including the discriminatory gozinesh criteria governing employment and public office;

• promote and protect the rights of human rights defenders;

• publicly condemn torture and other ill-treatment and take immediate steps to eradicate such abuses;

• release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience;

• ensure that all trials respect international fair trial standards;

• commute all death sentences and order an immediate moratorium on executions.

2. Background

Iran’s Kurdish community

An estimated 12 million Kurds live in Iran, between 15-17 per cent of the population. They live mainly in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kordestan,⁶ Kermanshah and Ilam in the west and south-west of the country, although many have moved to the big cities such as Tehran. Sanandaj is the administrative centre of Kordestan. There is also a community of Kurds in North Khorasan province in north-eastern Iran.

The Kurdish language is divided into two main dialects: Sorani and Kurmanji. Smaller communities of Gorani and other Kurdish-dialect speakers are present in Iran. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, although a minority are Shi’a. Some are Yazidi, a religion with pre-Islamic roots, while others are Baha’i, Ahl-e Haq⁷ and followers of the Qaderi and Naqshbandi schools of Sufism. Iran’s official religion is Shi’a Islam, which is clearly favoured by the state.⁸

Kordestan, the centre of Kurdish settlement in Iran, is one of the most deprived provinces in the country. Its economy is based on agriculture, livestock farming and handicrafts, which mainly employ women and girls.⁹ As in most other areas of Iran, Kordestan’s population is young – more than 42 per cent were then under the age of 15, according to 1998 UNICEF figures.¹⁰

The effective autonomy of the Kurdish region of Iraq, dating from 1991, through to the establishment in 2005 of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, may have fired the aspirations of Kurdish rights activists in Iran to seek an analogous situation in Iran. It may also have reinforced longstanding fears among Iran’s leaders that minority communities bordering the same ethnic group in a neighbouring country may want to secede from Iran.

Such fears go some way towards explaining the government’s treatment of these minorities, although numerous other factors are relevant. Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Baluchis and Turkmen, all concentrated in border areas, face discrimination similar to that suffered by Kurds.

About half of Iran’s population are believed to belong to ethnic or religious minorities.¹¹ Despite constitutional guarantees of equality and Iran’s international legal commitments, discrimination and repression of minority communities, who have been demanding greater respect for their cultural and political rights, has intensified in recent years, notably since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

Kurdish opposition groups

The oldest Kurdish opposition group is the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI).¹²In 1946 it established the Republic of Kurdistan, generally called the Mahabad Republic, after the site of its capital. It collapsed after 11 months and its leadership was arrested, tried and many executed, including around 20 leaders who were hanged in public in Mahabad and two smaller cities, Saqez and Boukan. The party was swiftly banned.

It was legalized in 1979 after it played a key role in the revolution. In Kurdish towns, power passed to town councils (shoura) led by the KDPI, which also led to the takeover of police and army barracks in other Kurdish areas.¹³

By mid-1979, however, armed conflict broke out between the new government’s Revolutionary Guards and armed Kurdish groups, particularly the KDPI and the Marxist group Komala. The then new Islamic Republic of Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who considered the concept of ethnic minorities contrary to Islamic doctrine, ordered that Kurdish opposition be crushed. Scores of Kurdish villages and towns were destroyed and around 10,000 Kurds were killed.¹⁴ Thousands of Kurds were sentenced to death after summary trials.

Soon after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, the Iranian government sent a large military force to border areas and regained control of the main Kurdish cities. A major offensive in 1984 drove KDPI forces across the border into Iraq.¹⁵ Throughout the war, governments on both sides encouraged separatist activities by Kurdish nationalists in the other country, leading to costly political splits and conflicts between Kurds.

In 1991, citing the plight of Iraqi Kurds, the KDPI suspended armed opposition to the Iranian authorities. The party now seeks “the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a democratic federal republic of Iran” and has long rejected the use of violence to further its aims while “supporting the national struggle of Kurds in other parts of Kordestan”.¹⁶ In 2005, the KDPI was accorded consultative status with the UN, but towards the end of 2006 the party split. The majority, led by Mustafa Hijri, retained the KDPI name.

In September 2007, the KDPI reported that more than 300 people were in detention in Iran either accused or convicted of charges rooted in their support of Kurdish political groups. According to the KDPI, at least 200 were serving prison terms of between six months and 20 years, including scores of cases about which Amnesty International had little or no confirmed information. According to the KDPI for example, Jahandar Mohammadi, an NGO activist from Sanandaj was sentenced in January 2007 to 15 years’ imprisonment for a ‘link to Kurdish political oppositions groups’; Simko Ghaderpour, a ‘political detainee’ from Bokan was sentenced in December 2006 to 11 years’ imprisonment on similar grounds; and Mikha’il Gholami, an NGO activist from Sanandaj, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in February 2007.

Amnesty International believes that scores if not hundreds of political prisoners affiliated to the KDPI and other proscribed political parties are serving prison sentences, convicted after unfair trials. Others face prosecution for membership of or sympathy with the KDPI.

Several Kurdish political parties are based outside Iran because of such persecution. Membership of these banned parties is punishable by imprisonment under security-related laws. Some of the groups, including Komala, have reportedly carried out armed attacks against the Iranian state. As far as Amnesty International is aware, they have not attacked non-military targets nor have they committed human rights abuses.

The Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK)¹⁷ emerged in 2004 and is affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has, for many years, engaged in armed opposition to the government of Turkey. It appears to be the only active armed Kurdish opposition group today. It claims to have 3,000 armed members in the mountains, nearly half of them women, and thousands of followers, although it apparently has little support in the main Kurdish provinces of Kordestan and Kermanshah. The Iranian authorities contend that the PJAK is a terrorist organization that is sponsored and armed by the US government.

The US authorities have not designated the PJAK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under US law but they have strongly condemned the group’s activities and US officials are reported to have declined to meet the PJAK’s leader when he made a private visit to Washington DC in 2007.

Since 2006, Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been engaged inside Iran in sporadic conflict with Kurdish fighters, most of them apparently linked to the PJAK, generally in the northern parts of the four provinces bordering Iraq. In February 2007 Kurdish fighters reportedly destroyed a Revolutionary Guards’ helicopter in Jahannam-Darreh, near Khoy in West Azerbaijan, killing nine officers. Revolutionary Guards then reportedly launched a series of attacks against Kurds in the mountains near the border town of Salmas, killing at least 17 Kurds, thought to be combatants.

Amnesty International condemns in all circumstances attacks that deliberately target civilians, including attacks both by government forces and armed political groups, as well as hostage-taking, torture and other-ill-treatment of captives, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and the killing of captives.

In 2006 the Kurdish United Front (KUF) was formed to demand peacefully the rights they believe are systematically denied to Kurds. KUF founder Bahaeddin Adab said:

“Kurdish areas suffer from discrimination and [official] contempt in all political, economic, social and cultural areas of life. Kurds have no share in the distribution of power or regarding economic development; the four Kurdish provinces of our country are not developed and are deprived. They face limitations in their cultural activities, which is preventing cultural development.”¹⁸

3. Discrimination against Kurds

Iran’s Constitution provides for equality of all Iranians before the law.¹⁹ However, this is not the reality in practice.

Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Iranian authorities are required to uphold and promote the rights of people belonging to minorities and take steps towards eliminating discrimination.²⁰

Among other things, the Iranian authorities are required to take steps towards eliminating discrimination against minorities in the realization of economic, social and cultural rights – including the right to work that is freely chosen, adequate housing, food and water, education, the highest attainable standard of health, and equal participation in cultural life.

Religion and culture

Iran’s Kurds, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, face discrimination because of their religion, even though Sunni Islam is recognized and accorded formal legal standing in Iran. The religious institutions of Sunni Kurds are generally blocked, while those of Shi’as are encouraged and supported by the state. There is not a single Sunni mosque in Tehran and, according to reports; the government has restricted the expansion of Sunni mosques that exist elsewhere in the country.

The discriminatory attitude towards Sunnis extends to children’s education – UNICEF found as long ago as 1998 that the only two rural secondary schools in Kordestan were located in the Shi’a towns of Ghorveh and Bijar.

Sunni Kurdish clerics have, on occasion, suffered human rights violations. In January 2008, for example, a cleric, Ayoub Ganji, went missing for 13 days after delivering a Friday prayer sermon at the Qoba Mosque in Sanandaj. Protesters reportedly gathered near state buildings following his enforced disappearance and said there would be more demonstrations unless news of the cleric was made known. On 8 February Ayoub Ganji was released from detention, reportedly suffering what appeared to be the effects of extreme trauma, including failure to recognize his wife and son, and crying out as if he was being harmed.

Other religious groups include the mainly Kurdish Ahl-e Haq, most of whose members live in Kermanshah and in or around the big cities. Their faith, which shares aspects of Islam’s tenets, embodies Kurdish religious identity. The Ahl-e Haq are not recognized under Iranian law and their rituals are prohibited. They are also banned from discussing their faith with the media.

In recent years senior state officials have required school heads to report whether there are any members of “subversive sects” (feragh-e zalleh) among staff or students and reminded the heads that “any activity and propaganda is forbidden” by members of these groups (see Appendices I and II).

In October 2007, for instance, the authorities in Kermanshah wrote to district governors:

“Following instructions issued by the Ministry of Interior… regarding the activities of the Ahl-e Haq in respect to the construction of their Assembly Houses [you are reminded that] these establishments have no legal or canonical basis, therefore please refrain from any correspondence and communication with any public authority concerning them and from issuing any permission that they should be built…” (see Appendix III for full document).

Irrespective of their religion, Kurds are not allowed to give their children certain names, including for boys Soran (the name of the language), Khabat (struggle), Rizgar (Free) and Âla (flag); and for girls Ajin (equal) and Fermisk (tear). Every registry office has a list of permitted names; a birth certificate is not issued unless the family consents to using an authorized name.

Iran’s international obligations require that the country’s “… religious or linguistic minorities… enjoy their own culture [and have the right] to profess and practice their own religion…”²¹

Employment

The practice of gozinesh has been used to marginalize Kurds and others and to expressly deny them employment in the state sector, though in practice, in parts of the private sector as well. In law and practice, the process impairs equality of opportunity and treatment in employment for all those who seek jobs in the public and parastatal sectors (such as the bonyads or foundations) and, reportedly, in parts of the private sector.²² Gozinesh is used to select successful candidates for any state sector job, whether as a teacher, factory employee, shop worker or parliamentary candidate. The state is by far the main employer in Iran.

Kurdish activists say the government has neglected Kurdish areas, impeding employment opportunities. For instance, activists say de-mining programmes in Kurdish areas affected by the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war have been slow, hampering the development of agriculture and industry.

Housing

Kurds have faced decades of challenges related to housing – ranging from the destruction of Kurdish villages during the Iran-Iraq war, to the more recent problems of state neglect and forced eviction.²³

Reporting on his July-August 2005 visit to Iran, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing²⁴ stated that the living conditions for Kurds in Kermanshah were extremely unsatisfactory. He added:

“Testimonies received about the housing situation in Ilam province, with a large Kurdish population, were equally disturbing and indicated that post-war reconstruction efforts had been disproportionally slow and insufficient in this area.”²⁵

The Special Rapporteur drew attention to the disproportionately poor housing and living conditions of minority communities, noting the discriminatory nature and impact of forced evictions and expropriation of rural land for large-scale agricultural plantations or petrochemical plants. The Special Rapporteur stated:

“[I]n some regions, these expropriations seem to have targeted disproportionately property and land of religious and ethnic minorities… [including] …houses… The expropriations are considered a form of land confiscation by the affected population, particularly since prices paid in return for land are considerably lower than market values.”²⁶

He was “disturbed by the fact that… exceptions [in the provision of basic services] seemed to disproportionately affect predominantly minority neighbourhoods and provinces, clearly constituting discrimination”²⁷ and noted that “the marginalization of these communities has fed civil unrest, leading to clashes with security forces, escalating violence and an atmosphere of anger and mistrust.”

The Special Rapporteur called on the Iranian authorities to end forced evictions, and to allocate adequate resources to historically marginalized provinces in order to assist the realization of the right to adequate housing as well as improve access to water, sanitation and other essential services.²⁸

Under international standards, everyone has the right to “an adequate standard of living… including adequate food, clothing and housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions” and the state is required to use “all appropriate means” to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing.”²⁹

The Iranian government did not reply to the Special Rapporteur’s report or recommendations.

Education

Iran’s Constitution states that the official language and script of Iran is Persian,³⁰ and that official documents and text books must be in this language. Despite this, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching regional and tribal literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.

However, no permanent measures have been introduced in Iran’s education system to facilitate teaching in minority languages, nor to teach such languages as a second language – even though such provisions are included in Iran’s Constitution and international standards.³¹

According to the Ministry of Education, state schooling is free and compulsory at the primary and middle (“guidance”) stages³² and teaching is carried out in Persian at all levels. In bilingual regions, a one-month course is held to teach key concepts, including Persian, to beginners, before the school year starts.”³³

Primary Education: weekly lesson timetable
Subject	Number of weekly periods in each grade
	I	II	III	IV	V
The Holy Qoran	1	2	2	2	2
Religious teaching	-	2	2	2	2
Persian composition	-	2	2	2	2
Persian dictation	-	3	2	2	2
Persian reading	11	3	4	3	3
Social studies	-	-	2	3-2	3-2
Art	2	2	1-2	1-2	1-2
Science and health	3	3	3-2	3	3
Mathematics	5	5	4	4	4
Physical education	2	2	2	2	2
Total weekly period	24	24	24	24	24
Source: Ministry of Education, 2003. Each teaching period lasts 45 minutes in Grades I-II and 50 minutes in Grades III-IV.

Lower secondary education: weekly lesson timetable
Subject	Number of weekly periods in each grade
	I		II	III
Persian literature	5	5		5
Mathematics	5	4		4
Science	4	4		4
Religious teaching	3	2		2
Arabic language	3	2		2
Social studies	3	3		3
Art	2	1		1
Introduction to techniques and vocations	3	3		3
Foreign Language	2	4		4
Defence preparation	-	-		1-0
The Holy Qoran	2	2		2
Physical education	2	2		2
‘Fostering affairs’	2	1		1
Compensatory courses	2	3		2-3
Total weekly period	36	36		36
Source: Ministry of Education, 2003. Each teaching period lasts 50 minutes.

None of the non-profit-making private schools, which have been allowed since 1988 and are under the supervision of the Education Ministry, is known to have taught in Kurdish for any lasting period.³⁴

In February 2008 human rights activists told Amnesty International that in the preceding month at least three directors of pre-school childcare facilities in Kordestan province had been summoned to the security adviser’s office of the regional governorate on grounds that they had permitted the teaching of “a non-national language”. A non-governmental organisation, Soma, which had used Kurdish for three years in pre-schools it operated in Sanandaj and Mahabad, was reportedly closed by the authorities in late 2007 or early 2008, along with its facilities. Others were threatened that their licences would be revoked.

Kurds have staged many campaigns related to their education. On 20 February 2007, for example, Kurdish students held an event at Tehran University’s Department of Literature, during which they called for the teaching of Kurdish in Iran’s education system, including at the University of Sanandaj.³⁵ The event closed with a statement which declared, in part, "As everyone knows, language is one of the most fundamental aspects of a nation's being. Language conveys thoughts, culture and […]. In today's multicultural climate in the world, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other humanitarian principles, every nation should have a right to develop and advance its language. Everyone agrees that every language could play a part in the process of human civilization." This event, too, resulted in some of the organisers and participants being arrested and subjected to long term detention.

Amnesty International believes that state authorities should take positive measures so that, wherever possible, members of minority communities have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue, as well as to learn the official language; and to encourage knowledge of the language and culture of the minorities in their territory.³⁶

4. Double oppression: Kurdish women and girls

Diba Alikhani, a human rights defender, left her office for the courthouse at Azadi Square in Sanandaj in mid-2006. As she neared the courthouse she saw a woman being escorted by a female jailer. A man suddenly appeared, pulled out a knife and slit the woman’s throat. Diba Alikhani ran to the scene beseeching the two armed guards outside the courthouse to help. The armed guards simply threw coins on the dead woman’s body – pennies intended to atone for the sin.³⁷

The woman had been accused of having had sexual relations outside marriage. In the face of this tragic “honour” crime, Diba Alikhani felt powerless and unable to take action. The authorities failed to arrest and prosecute the perpetrator of the murder.

K

Diba Alikhani

© Private

urdish women face a double challenge to establish their rights: as Kurds living in a marginalised community and as women in a community governed largely by patriarchal customs. In both cases, they are subject to discriminatory laws. An often quoted phrase among Iran’s women human rights defenders in Kurdish areas is: “We are both women and Kurds; so, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are doubly accused”.³⁸ The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women³⁹, who visited Iran in January-February 2005, concluded that women from Iran’s minorities experience multiple forms of discrimination.⁴⁰

Even though women and girls form the backbone of economic activity in Kurdish areas, they do not enjoy a status commensurate with their contribution:

“The man decides whether or not his daughter, sister, or spouse attends school, goes to work or any other place for that matter. For this reason, the literacy rate of Kurdish women and girls, particularly in rural areas, is either the lowest or one of the lowest in the country. For these same reasons, healthcare indices such as neonatal mortality and morbidity and maternal peripartum mortality rates are very high, and poverty, although epidemic (sic) among lower class immigrants and rural inhabitants in Kurdestan, is even more so a female affliction.”⁴¹

Strict social codes, invoked in the name of tradition and religion, are used to justify the denial of the human rights of women. The codes have created social no-go areas in parts of Kurdish society that hinder outsiders, including Iranian state officials, from dealing effectively with girls’ education, early and forced marriages, domestic violence against Kurdish girls and women, suicide by self-immolation, and “honour” killings.

In Iran, as throughout the world, women are victims of violence on a daily basis and face discrimination in society at large as well as by state officials. Perpetrators may be state officials, members of groups or private individuals – including family members.

The extent and prevalence of violence against women in the Kurdish regions of Iran is impossible to quantify – not least because international and national organizations do not have effective access to all Kurdish areas. It is clear, however, that discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Kurdish regions is both pervasive and widely tolerated.

To escape the violence and abuse, some Kurdish girls and women resort to a most extreme form of self-harm, setting themselves on fire.

Iran’s justice system provides little or no remedy to the obstacles and violence facing women and girls. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women noted:

“Discriminatory laws in both the Civil and Penal Codes in Iran play a major role in empowering men and aggravating women’s vulnerability to violence. In particular, discriminatory provisions in the Civil Code relating to the areas of marriage, child custody, freedom of movement and inheritance may lead to, perpetuate or legitimize violence against women perpetrated by private actors. The provisions of the Penal Code relating to crimes specified in the sharia, namely, hudud, qisas and diyah, are of particular relevance in terms of gender justice.”⁴²

As a result, police and judicial officials are often unwilling to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of violence against women in Kurdish areas. Even if an arrest is made, police frequently fail to investigate or press charges against suspected perpetrators. Women are not encouraged to bring complaints against their attackers and fear bringing “dishonour” on the family as well as reprisals from the attacker and relatives.

For example, Shamameh Ghorbani (also known as Malek), an Iranian Kurd, was sentenced to execution by stoning for adultery by a court in Oromieh in June 2006. Her brothers and husband reportedly murdered a man they found in her house, and she too was nearly killed when they stabbed her. In November 2006, it was reported that the Supreme Court had rejected the sentence of stoning and ordered a retrial, citing incomplete investigations in the case. It is believed that Shamameh Ghorbani confessed to adultery in court, believing that this would protect her brothers and husband from prosecution for murder. Under Iranian law, a murder may not be punished if committed defending one’s honour or that of relatives. In a letter to Branch 12 of the Criminal Court, Shamameh Ghorbani is reported to have said, “Since I am a rural, illiterate woman and I didn’t know the law, I thought that if I confessed to a relationship with the dead man, I could clear my brothers and husband of intentional murder. I said these untrue words in court and then understood I had done myself an injury.”⁴³

The authorities seldom even investigate complaints of rape, murder or suicide of women. Women who report rape face being locked up and accused of having committed crimes of zena.⁴⁴ In the rare cases in which alleged perpetrators of rape are prosecuted, they are often acquitted or given disproportionately lenient sentences that fail to reflect the gravity of the crime. In short, impunity prevails for perpetrators of violence against women.

Under the ICCPR, the Iranian authorities are required to “undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights set forth in the present Covenant”. The principle of equality between the sexes, and particularly the requirement to eradicate all forms of violence against women, is a basic premise of international human rights law. The existence of traditional, customary, religious or social norms should not be invoked by states to avoid complying with this obligation.⁴⁵

The Iranian authorities are also obliged to exercise due diligence in eradicating violence against women in the home and in the community. The authorities must ensure that Iran has laws, policies and plans which recognise these rights and which can be used in practice to enable women to access their rights, to protect women from abuses and to ensure that those whose rights are violated receive appropriate redress and reparation.

The first UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, wrote:

“States must promote and protect the human rights of women and exercise due diligence:

(a) To prevent, investigate and punish acts of all forms of VAW [violence against women] whether in the home, the workplace, the community or society, in custody or in situations of armed conflict;

(b) To take all measures to empower women and strengthen their economic independence and to protect and promote the full enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms;

(c) To condemn VAW and not invoke customs, traditions or practice in the name of religion or culture to avoid their obligations to eliminate such violence;

(d) To intensify efforts to develop and/or utilize legislative, educational, social and other measures aimed at the prevention of violence, including the dissemination of information, legal literacy, campaigns and the training of legal, judicial and health personnel.”⁴⁶

Amnesty International recognizes that the Iranian authorities, like other governments, face difficulties when confronted by practices rooted in culture and belief that legitimize violations of women’s human rights. However, Amnesty International considers that the Iranian government has not taken sufficient steps to eliminate discrimination, end the cycle of violence against women and punish perpetrators, whether they be family members or state officials.

The police and judiciary are openly biased against women and the violations they suffer. The government must take action to stop such bias, including by instructing officials in their duty to ensure protection of the human rights of women and by providing training in non-discrimination. Further, they must ensure that all state authorities act with due diligence to prosecute those who commit violence against women, and implement specific measures to protect women and girls.

Many countries have adopted measures to combat inequality and discrimination, and to protect women against violence, understanding the links between the two. While complete eradication of violence against women may seem unachievable, states are obliged to take concrete and effective steps that advance the protection of women and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice and that victims receive reparation. Legislative steps must be backed by effective measures that address the underlying causes of violence, including cultural, social and customary practices.

The need to combat violence against women is gaining recognition in Iran, and networks of women human rights defenders are advancing a women’s rights agenda. This agenda should be supported by the authorities.

Schooling and literacy

Cultural norms in the Kurdish community which facilitate the practice of forced and early marriage perpetuate the fear of violence amongst Kurdish girls in school, impacting adversely on Kurdish girls’ education. These norms do not, however, excuse the failure by the Iranian state to provide proper facilities for the education of Kurdish girls.⁴⁷

Taken from: Iran: UN Common Country Assessment Report -2003; page 33 (See: http://www.undg.org/archive_docs/3370-Iran_CCA.pdf)

Article 30 of Iran’s Constitution provides for free education for all citizens up to secondary school. According to Iranian government figures, over 90 per cent of children aged 6-10 have access to primary education⁴⁸ and the literacy rate is reported to be as high as 97 per cent.⁴⁹ However, 1998 UNICEF figures indicate serious shortcomings in the provision of education for Kurdish girls and women – 57 per cent of women compared to 79 per cent of men were literate.⁵⁰ In urban areas of Kordestan, 68 per cent of women were literate compared to 85 per cent of men; in rural areas the figures were 46 per cent and 71 per cent.⁵¹ The differences appear early. In the 1996-97 school year, 56.5 per cent of all primary school pupils were boys while only 43.5 per cent were girls. The gender education gap then widens at every higher level of education. Moreover, according to the UN’s Common Country Assessment Report for 2003, the overall literacy rates for the 15-24 age group in Kordestan is significantly below the national average (see table), with rates in Sistan and Baluchistan province the worst in the country.⁵²

In 2005, when reviewing Iran’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern:

“… about the disparity that continues to exist between boys and girls; the high dropout rates of girls in rural schools upon reaching puberty; the lack of female teachers in rural areas; long distances between homes and schools, which keep girls at home, particularly after primary school and the lack of mobile schools for nomadic children, as well as the remarkable differences in the personal and material equipment between schools in urban and rural areas and between the most and least developed provinces, resulting in unequal educational opportunities.”⁵³

The government of Iran must take concrete steps to address disparities in the realization of the right to education between boys and girls. In particular, the minimum school leaving age should match the minimum age of employment or 15 by requiring the completion of the Middle (Guidance” or Rah-nama’i) cycle and however many years in secondary school are possible prior to the child reaching his or her sixteenth year. This would meet the standards required by ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Employment, which Iran has not yet ratified.

The government should address other factors that lead to high drop-out rates among Kurdish girls. Such factors include the expectation that primary school girls will work to earn money, particularly in carpet weaving or farming; that they should not attend schools that employ male teachers once they have reached puberty; and that they may be forced to marry.

Early and forced marriage

Forced marriage at a young age remains common for Kurdish girls in Iran. In fact, the practice appears to have become more common in recent years because of growing poverty – families believe that such marriages offer the most secure future for their daughters.

In contrast to an arranged marriage, which does not involve compulsion, a forced marriage is any marriage conducted without the free and knowing consent of both parties. It may involve coercion, mental abuse, emotional pressure, and intense family or social pressure. In the most extreme cases, it may also involve physical violence, sexual abuse, abduction, detention and even murder.

Iranian law sanctions marriage for girls as young as 13 (it was nine until recently) and boys as young as 15. Marriages may be contracted for children under these ages with the consent of the parents. All girls and women must have the consent of the father (or, in his absence, the paternal grandfather) to enter into a marriage contract.⁵⁴

Forced marriage is prohibited by international law, including Article 23(3) of the ICCPR which provides that, “No marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”

Forced marriage is a form of violence against women carried out by family members. It is linked to child marriage, which may constitute forced marriage. Child marriage violates the right of children to freedom from sexual exploitation, as provided in Articles 19 and 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. By marrying at an early age, children are further denied their rights to education and health and, crucially, the freedom to determine the course that they wish their lives to take. Forced marriage also appears to be a major reason for self-immolation (see below).

UNICEF’s 1998 report found extremely high rates of forced marriage, including at an early age, in Kordestan, although it noted that the practice appeared to be declining. Circumstances facilitating forced marriage cited by respondents to UNICEF’s researchers included lack of knowledge (on account of the young age at the time of marriage); threat of a beating by parents if the subject was raised by children; the attractiveness of the proposed husband’s wealth and better living conditions; and the prospect of a good dowry and/or payment of shirbaha (bride price), or the money accruing to the parents of the bride.

UNICEF also noted that divorce rates were particularly high in Kordestan, citing as possible explanations the failure of the woman to bear children, incompatibility, drug addiction by husband, neglect of wife and children, wife beating, poverty or homelessness, illness and the age gap.

The Iranian government should take legislative and other steps to ensure that all marriages are entered into on the basis of the full and informed consent of both intended spouses. This requires at a minimum that a minimum age of marriage be set and enforced. This age should protect the best interests of the child and should be higher than the minimum age for entry into the labour force and in respect to the completion of compulsory education, which is the end of the Middle, Guidance or rah-nama’i cycle of school completing education in addition to however many years of secondary school are possible prior to reaching a child’s sixteenth year.

Suicide and ‘honour’ killings

Inequality, discrimination and the various forms of violence and social deprivation suffered by Kurdish women contribute to complex social problems, including high rates of suicide, notably by self-immolation. Self-immolation is a practice that occurs in all the areas of Kurdish settlement, where it is more common than in other parts of Iran. Some alleged suicides may have been staged to cover up “honour” killings.⁵⁵

International human rights law views “honour” crimes as a form of violence against women in the family or community. These crimes violate, among other rights, the right to life and security of the person; to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and the rights to equality before the law and to equal protection from the law. They also deprive women of rights assured by the UN Women’s Convention, for example the rights to choose a marriage partner, to enter into marriage freely, to enjoy freedom from discrimination, and to be treated as a human being with dignity and equal rights to men.

The apparent increase in the incidence of women and girls attempting to and taking their own life by self-immolation is a result of many, complex factors. Amongst those cited by the authors referred to in this section are divorce and polygamy.⁵⁶

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of the women do not want to die but have no other way of showing their distress. Many had either suffered violence by family members or did not consent to a marriage. The majority of those who survived were forced to change their stories when in hospital, once surrounded by family members, saying that they had had accidents in the home or at work.

In February 2006 Mohsen Jan-Ghorbani, a professor of epidemiology at Esfahan University of Medical Sciences, said that “self-immolation is not just a way to end life, but also a way to send a message to their families and to the society”. He added that “women do not want to really commit suicide but they want, in fact, to make their cry for help to be heard and say that they are facing injustice.”⁵⁷

The accounts of self-immolation set out below cover the mainly-Kurdish areas of West Azerbaijan, Kordestan and Ilam provinces.⁵⁸

In early 2006 the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan (HROK), an NGO with membership in the Kurdish regions and Tehran published the names of more than 150 Kurdish women and girls who had died by self-immolation in West Azerbaijan province.⁵⁹ Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand said that the victims were young – between 14 and 30 years old – and poorly educated.

A six-year study between 1994-2000, covering 1,089 cases at the then two burn centres in Kordestan province, found that 65.6 per cent of victims of self-immolation were women and girls, and that 58 per cent of all patients were aged under 20. More women than men had over 60 per cent burned body surface, and most burns had been caused by kerosene.⁶⁰

Distribution of patients with self-inflicted burns by age and sex
Age (years)	Number of males and females	Number of patients
		Male	Female
16-20	30	4	26
21-25	30	3	27
Source: B Groohi et al, Burns 28 (2002), table 6.

Nasrin Mohammadi, a member of a women’s NGO, Marivan Women’s Cultural Society, in Kordestan province, described a case of a young woman who set fire to herself to protest against her husband’s decision to marry another woman. She said:

“I know this woman who is illiterate. Her husband became very rich in a very short time and he forced his wife to sign a letter of consent so he could marry another woman… She didn’t know what she was signing. Since then she has attempted to commit suicide by self-immolation; 80 per cent of her body is burned and considering her condition I think she will die [soon].” ⁶¹

Nasrin Mohammadi added:

“Women face more pressure in a traditional society and in our region because of deprivations and the rule of [old] traditions this pressure has become much stronger. Women in our region are seen as ‘second class’ citizens. The economic situation of women is a main factor; they are totally dependent on men and also the laws of our country are such that the courts never protect women.”

A study in Ilam province covering 1995-2002 recorded 433 cases of self-immolation by men and women, representing by far the most common method of suicide.⁶² Over 82 per cent of the cases involved women, most in their mid-twenties.

Similarly, the Deputy Governor for the Women’s Affairs Office of Ilam province, Heyran Pournajaf, reportedly stated in January 2004 that around 70 per cent of those who commit suicide are women, numbering 182 in the preceding year alone.⁶³

The high rate of female self-immolation in Ilam was of particular concern to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women during her visit to Iran in early 2005. She noted that:

“… some of the cases of self-immolation in the city are linked to the lack of legal protection for women victims of violence, lack of shelters, difficulty in obtaining a divorce, child custody laws that favour the father and pervasive gender discrimination throughout society.”⁶⁴

She also found that self-immolation incidents were related in some cases to “honour” crimes, which were particularly common in Ilam. She reported that in 2001, a total of 565 women lost their lives in “honour” crimes, of which 375 were reportedly staged as self-immolation.⁶⁵

Better protection of women’s rights and economic development in Kurdish areas would help prevent self-immolation, as would better access to education for girls and improved support services for women. The availability of family mental health centres and psychological rehabilitation programmes could also reduce the rate of self-immolation.

5. Targeted for speaking out

The deep-rooted discrimination against Kurds has given rise to generations of activists calling for greater respect for minorities and better protection of the human rights of all Iranians.

A key moment for Kurdish activists in recent times was in July 2005, when Iranian security officials shot dead Kurdish opposition leader Shawan Qaderi and two other men in Mahabad. The security forces tied Shawan Qaderi’s body to a jeep and dragged the corpse through the streets. This sparked violent protests that shattered years of relative peace in Kordestan. The protests also marked the start of a new wave of state repression against Kurds in which those who spoke up for Kurdish rights were targeted.

Human rights defenders

Roya Toloui, a 40-year-old pro-democracy and women’s rights activist, was arbitrarily detained for 66 days beginning in August 2005. She was held on trumped-up charges for helping to organize demonstrations protesting against the killing of Shawan Qaderi, demonstrations that she believed would remain peaceful.⁶⁶ A pathologist and founding member of the Association of Kurdish Women for the Defence of Peace and Human Rights, she was held in solitary confinement and tortured. She says that she only agreed to sign a “confession” because her captors threatened to burn her two children to death in front of her.

Iranian women human rights defenders have often aroused more hostility from the state authorities than their male colleagues because their activities are perceived as defying cultural, religious or social norms about the role of women. ⁶⁷ As a result, they face human rights violations not only for their work as human rights defenders but also because of their gender.

Nevertheless, Iran’s women are playing a leading role in the struggle for human rights in the country. Among other activities, women’s groups are providing education programmes for illiterate women, supporting victims of abuse, and generally raising awareness about women’s rights. Many of these women, particularly those in Kurdish areas, do so although they face considerable risks because of their activities.

After Roya Toloui was released on bail in October 2005, she fled the country. She eventually resettled in the USA. Even so, according to her lawyer, in May 2007 an Iranian court sentenced her in her absence to six years in prison for attending two banned rallies and for “propaganda against the system”.⁶⁸ In an interview with Radio Farda on 27 January 2006, Roya Toloui said:

“During the night of 6 August [2005], [an official] personally tortured me in the most brutal ways and subjected me to such behaviours that cannot be expressed… They were forcing me to confess. I wrote that I will speak only in the presence of my lawyer and they laughed at me. I wrote that this is against human rights and that I had the right to see my lawyer. They lost their patience and they ordered that my children should be brought in and they threatened me and said that they will burn my children alive in front of my eyes.”⁶⁹

Many other Kurdish women activists have been targeted and abused by the state authorities. For example, Sarveh Komkar, a member of Human Rights Organisation of Kordestan (HROK) was reportedly arrested in Mahabad on 8 January 2006 by a special intelligence and security unit of the Revolutionary Guards. She was released five hours later, having sustained injuries and bruises from a severe beating. Other HROK members have been imprisoned or are facing prosecution, apparently in connection with their peaceful activities on behalf of the Kurdish minority in Iran.

Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi, both prisoners of conscience, were being held in the women’s section of Sanandaj prison in Kordestan at the time of writing, in May 2008.⁷⁰ Both are members of the Campaign for Equality, an Iranian women’s rights initiative that is seeking an end to legalized discrimination against women in Iran.⁷¹

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Ronak Safarzadeh

© Campaign for Equality

onak Safarzadeh has been detained in Sanandaj since 9 October 2007. The day before her arrest, she attended a meeting in Sanandaj held to mark International Day of the Child, and collected signatures in support of the Campaign for Equality, a broad-based movement of mainly women’s rights activists which was initiated in August 2006 in order to campaign for the end to legal discrimination against women. According to the Campaign, when Ronak Safarzadeh’s mother went to the local office of the Judiciary on 30 October to inquire about her, she was beaten by officials. Following her arrest, Ronak Safarzadeh was held incommunicado for three months.

In April 2008, one report suggested that she had been tried. In May 2008, however, it was reported that during the course of a court hearing attended by her lawyer, she was charged with moharebe, or ‘enmity against God’. If so, this could be very serious, as such a charge can result in an accused being sentenced to death. However, by the end of May no further hearings were known to have been held.

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Hana Abdi

© Campaign for Equality

sychology student Hana Abdi was arrested on 4 November 2007 at her grandfather’s home in Sanandaj. She too was held incommunicado for three months. According to her lawyer she faces trial on a “gathering and conspiracy” charge brought under Article 610 of Iran’s Penal Code, which says that if two or more people gather to conspire to commit crimes against the security of the nation, they may be punished with two to five years’ imprisonment. At the end of April 2008, her case had been transferred to court for consideration, but no date had been set for her trial.

Fatemeh Goftari, a women’s rights activist, also affiliated with the Sanandaj-based women’s rights NGO Azar Mehr, was detained for around four months – during three of which she was held incommunicado – prior to being released on bail equivalent to | some US$16,000.⁷²She was reported to be possibly facing trial on politically-motivated charges relating to state security. Her son, Yaser Goli, a student activist and Kurdish rights advocate, has been detained since October 2007.

Sa’id Sa’edi © Private

In the Kurdish areas, as in other parts of Iran, men who are human rights defenders have also been targets of state repression. For example, Sa’id Sa’edi was arrested on 2 August 2005 for helping organize the protest demonstration against the killing of Shawan Qaderi in July 2005. He was held for eight days in the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj and beaten, then transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison. He was held incommunicado there for two weeks and then permitted visits from his family and lawyer. His case went before Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj and on 5 October 2005 he was released on payment of bail equivalent to some US$114,000. Further charges were added to the original charge sheet against him, including that he was mohareb, or at war with God, though this accusation was then not included in his bail release warrant.

Sa’id Sa’edi had helped to establish the East Kurdistan Cultural Research Institute (EKCRI or the Rorkhelat Institute), an NGO whose request for a license legally recognising their existence was turned down by the police. Following the killing of Shawan Qaderi, EKCRI called for a peaceful protest demonstration and for the release of political prisoners. At the end of the demonstration, Sa’id Sa’edi, Roya Toloui (see above), Azad Zamani (a member of the Association for the Defence of Children’s Rights),⁷³ and two others were allowed to meet Kordestan’s provincial governor in Sanandaj. Kurdish opposition groups then called for another demonstration to be held on 1 August 2005 in other towns and cities in Kordestan. EKCRI agreed to participate in the demonstration in Sanandaj on the condition that it was peaceful. However, on the day in question, the demonstration became violent, reportedly after the security forces attacked the protestors.

Sa’id Sa’edi did not participate in this last demonstration as he was appearing in court in Marivan, accused of illegally crossing the border into Iraq. Nevertheless, the authorities accused him of going to Marivan to organize the demonstration there.

Following his release, he received death threats from an organization calling itself the People of the Party of God, or Ommat-e Hezbollah-e Kurdistan (Sanandaj Branch).⁷⁴

In June 2007 Sa’id Sa’edi was sentenced by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj to two years’ imprisonment for attending rallies in mid-2005 and to six months’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the system”. He said that he went to the rallies to report on them as a journalist. This sentence was reduced on appeal to a fine. He was later tried in February 2008 before a branch of the General Court on charges of criminal damage (arson and damage to cars and public and private buildings) relating to the 2005 demonstration, but by May 2008 the verdict was yet to be announced.

Ajlal Qavami, who was arrested at the same time as Sa’id Sa’edi and faced the same charges, was also released on bail on 5 October 2005. While being detained, he was reported to have staged a 22-day hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment and conditions. He alleges that he was tortured during his detention and that prison officials threatened him with death at the hands of other prisoners and rape by prisoners who were HIV positive.

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Ajlal Qavami © Private

board member of HROK and the member of the editorial board of the bilingual weekly Didgah, Ajlal Qavami was formerly a journalist working for Payam-e Mardom-e Kordestan. He has been repeatedly charged with offences and imprisoned because of his advocacy on behalf of Iran’s Kurdish minority. In June 2007, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj for his role in organizing the July 2005 demonstration, the sentence later being reduced to one year’s imprisonment on appeal. Neither Ajlal Qavami nor his lawyer, however, was told about this reduction in his prison term. Ajlal Qavami was allowed out of prison on medical grounds for 10 days from 25 December 2007. This period was then further extended. As of May 2008 he was not believed to be in prison. He was also tried together with Sa’id Sa’edi in February 2008 on charges of criminal damage and in his case too the verdict was still not known in May 2008.

Ajlal Qavami suffers from eye and other health problems apparently caused or exacerbated by his imprisonment; he says his eyes became infected due to unsanitary conditions at Sanandaj Prison.

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Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand © DW

risoner of conscience Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand was sentenced on 18 August 2005 to 18 months in prison and a five-year ban on working as a journalist for “upsetting public opinion and spreading separatist ideas”. The conviction was related to his work as editor of Payam-e Mardom-e Kordestan, a weekly that was closed down by the authorities in 2004. The sentence was reduced on appeal to a year in prison, which he has not yet served. He founded HROK in 2005 along with other journalists. HROK is thought to currently have more than 200 members. The authorities have persistently refused HROK’s request for official recognition as an NGO.

Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand was rearrested on 1 July 2007 and held in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. Although he is believed not to have been formally charged, in mid-July 2007 he reportedly said that he was being accused of “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the system” and “co-operating with groups opposed to the system”. He complained of poor conditions of detention and said that whenever he was interrogated he was blindfolded and bound, hand and foot. His lawyer, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, has not been allowed to see him, and contact with his family has been limited.

Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand is said, at the time of writing in April 2008, to suffer from high blood pressure, a skin disorder and a kidney complaint. He reportedly needs to be able to urinate frequently and failure to do so adversely affects his kidneys, and this has been used by his jailers to put additional pressure on him - they have told him that he must seek formal permission in writing before being allowed to use toilet facilities. He is also reported to have been told that he will be permitted access to toilet facilities whenever he needs if the three HROK board members who are still at liberty give themselves up voluntarily to the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj.

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Sherko Jihani

© www.Rijhilat.info

herko Jihani, a HROK member and Mahabad correspondent for the Turkey-based Kurdish news agency Euphrat, was detained on 27 November 2006 in Mahabad.⁷⁵ During his interrogation, he was reportedly accused of involvement in organizing protests against the secret detention on 8 January 2006 by Iranian security officials of a woman human rights activist, Sarveh Komkar (Kamkar), and for giving interviews to foreign media broadcasters about the killing of Shawan Qaderi in July 2005.⁷⁶

Sherko Jihani reportedly refused to pay bail of 50 million rials (about US$5,500) and on 30 November 2006 began a hunger strike in protest at his arrest and detention. On 4 December 2006 he began refusing to speak. Two days later he was taken from Mahabad Central Prison to an unknown location and held incommunicado. He is believed to have been tortured. On 12 December 2006 a man claiming to be from the Mahabad branch of the Intelligence Services rang Sherko Jihani’s family and told them falsely that he had died of a heart attack. On 13 December, Sherko Jihani was allowed to telephone his family briefly.

In January 2007 Sherko Jihani was moved back to Mahabad Central Prison and on 3 February 2007 he was released on payment of bail. He is said to be facing two trials on charges of “disturbing public order” and “acting against state security” respectively, but by May 2008 no date was known to have been set for either of these trials.

The repeated harassment and imprisonment of human rights defenders by the Iranian authorities calls into question their willingness to observe basic principles of respect for human dignity. The government should ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their important work in a climate of respect and in accordance with human rights standards.

Media workers

Following the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, the number of Kurdish-language publications grew. The first of this generation of publications was closed in 2003 and since August 2005, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assumed office, over 40 Kurdish publications have been closed or banned outright.

Kurds seeking to express their views or beliefs in connection with their opposition politics face the same restrictions as all Iranians. However, journalists and news media publishing in Kurdish or covering Kurdish-related issues have been among those particularly targeted, especially since the 2005 unrest.

Bahram Valadbeigi, an editor and journalist, is a leading activist for Kurdish cultural rights.⁷⁷ In 2005 he established Ashti (Reconciliation), one of the first bilingual Persian-Kurdish newspapers to be published in Kordestan, which he also edited.

Following the killing of Shawan Qaderi, Ashti went to newsstands with only a white cover in protest at the killing. In later editions articles reportedly alleged that the security forces controlled and sold narcotics to Kurds. The paper was banned, apparently by the Press Court, and then closed by order of the authorities. However, the decision to close the journal was overturned by the Supreme Court in April 2008, and it was expected to resume publication shortly thereafter. Bahram Valadbeigi was charged with “disturbing public opinion”;⁷⁸ “efforts against national unity” and “propaganda for separation of the Kurds”. In May 2008 it still remained to be seen whether the verdict to annul Ashti’s closure would cause the charges against him to be amended.

In another case, three members of the editorial board of the Kurdish-language fortnightly Rojhelat – Farhad Aminpour, Reza Alipour and Saman Solaymani – were arrested at the newspaper’s office in Sanadaj in October 2006.⁷⁹ They were charged with “acting against national security” but released a month later on bail equivalent to around US$54,000.⁸⁰ They presented their final defence to the court in Sanandaj on 31 December 2007. In April 2008 the journal was banned on grounds of receiving money from an outside source, possibly in connection with selling the journal in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The men were fined.

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Aso Saleh © Private

n December 2006, two Kurdistan University students, Aso Saleh, a 25-year-old engineering student, and Tchia (or Chia) Hejazi, were each sentenced to six-month prison terms, suspended for three years, after they were convicted on charges of publishing lies. This followed complaints relating to the publication of a report in the student weekly journal Deng about an argument between two members of the Sanandaj City Council.⁸¹ Aso Saleh had previously been suspended from his studies and began working for the dual-language newspaper Didgah. In January 2007 he received death threats from an unknown group called the Revolutionary Youth of Kurdistan, which accused him and Ajlal Qavami (see above) of working against the Islamic Republic.

After he participated in a Women’s Day demonstration in Sanandaj on 8 March 2007, called by three local human rights groups,⁸² Aso Saleh was arrested and detained for nine days at Ministry of Intelligence facilities in Sanandaj. He was then reportedly transferred to Sanandaj Prison where he spent a further three days. He was charged with undertaking “acts against national security” and espionage. After being sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, he fled the country. On 9 September 2007, he wrote to Amnesty International, and said:

I am Aso Saleh, the student of Electronic Engineering in Kurdistan University. I was the Chief Editor of "Deng" which is a student weekly in university. And I was the correspondent and the member of Editorial Board of "Didgah", an independent weekly which published in Sanandaj.

I have been prevented to continue my studies in university by the authorities, because of my civil activities for one educational term.

Again I have been sentenced to six months jail by revolutionary court in Sanandaj, because of my activities as a journalist in weekly Didgah.

I was arrested by the security forces when I was preparing a report about women activities on 8th March meeting in Sanandaj. And I was in prison (Etela’at Prison) for 11 days. Recently I have been sentenced to one year jail in revolutionary court of Sanandaj for my activities as a journalist in Kurdish-Persian weekly "Didgah".

It is necessary to mention that, the High Education Ministry told me that you can not be graduated forever from any universities in Iran.

So you know in this condition I have no chance to continue my studies in Iran, and even can not have a job.

Tchia Hejazi was able to resume his studies, but if he takes part in any further protest activities before the end of 2009 he risks having to serve the six months’ suspended prison sentence.

Kaveh Javanmard of the weekly Kerefto was arrested on 18 December 2006 and remains held in Sanandaj. In May 2007, he was reportedly sentenced to two years’ imprisonment following a secret tr