UN report reveals horrors of daily life for many in Iran

Pedestrians cross a street in Tehran, Iran. (AP/File)
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Updated 09 March 2021
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UN report reveals horrors of daily life for many in Iran

  • Women, girls, minorities, human-rights campaigners and protesters are among those who face abuse, jail, torture and execution
  • Study shows ways in which members of certain groups, including activists campaigning for basic freedoms, are targeted

NEW YORK: Women and girls in Iran continue to be treated “as second-class citizens,” according to a new UN report. Published on March 8, International Women’s Day, it details the scale of human rights abuses perpetrated by the regime in Tehran against members of many groups in the country.
The research, by independent expert Javaid Rehman, reveals that women, girls, human rights advocates, ethnic minorities, writers, journalists and people with dual nationality are among those targeted by the regime. They face abuse, torture, arbitrary detention, harassment, forced confessions, and even the death penalty.
Rehman, who will present his report on March 9 to the UN’s Human Rights Council, said females suffer as a result of deep-rooted discrimination in law and day-to-day life. He raised serious concerns about domestic violence, and while he welcomed the introduction of a new law to tackle acid attacks against women, he urged the Iranian government to do more to protect them.
“Violence against women, patriarchal values and misogynist behaviors permeate many segments of Iranian life, with discriminatory legal provisions exacerbating the vulnerabilities of women to domestic abuse,” said Rehman, who is the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
His report also highlights the problem of child marriage, noting that more than 16,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 got married in Iran in just six months last year.
“One of the most concerning issues in Iran today, when it comes to the rights of women and girls, is the issue of child marriage,” Rehman said. “The current legal marriage age is simply unacceptable.”
According to Human Rights Watch, girls as young as 13 can marry in Iran with their father’s permission, and at an even younger age if authorized by a judge.
“It is clear that child marriage is harmful for the development and well-being of girls, including in terms of education, employment and to live free of violence,” Rehman added.
His requests to visit Iran were denied and so he compiled his report using data collected from government, non-governmental and media sources. He also interviewed victims of abuses, along with their families and lawyers.
His report also sounds an alarm about the continuing harassment, arrest and imprisonment of women’s rights advocates, both women and men, including those who campaign against compulsory veiling laws.
Some officials have encouraged attacks against women who do not observe these laws and threatened their safety in other ways, the report stated. The enforcement of veiling laws by the police, Basij militia and vigilante “morality police” often results in violence against women, including acid attacks and murder.
Rehman’s report also details how blatant gender discrimination permeates almost all aspects of the law and daily life in Iran, including marriage, divorce, employment and culture, with the result that women are treated as second-class citizens.
He calls on the Iranian government to repeal discriminatory laws and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women. Iran is one of the few states not to have signed it.
Regarding the Iranian regime’s failure to investigate a brutal crackdown by security forces on protesters during the nationwide demonstrations on Nov. 19, or to hold the perpetrators accountable, Rehman presents evidence that suggests firearms were used “in a manner that amounted to a serious violation of international human rights law,” resulting in the deaths of more than 300 people, including women and children.
In the days following the protests, the report states that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided homes, hospitals, schools and workplaces to arrest demonstrators, including children, and crush what Iranian officials described as “a very dangerous conspiracy.”
More than 7,000 detainees were held in secret facilities without access to lawyers, many of them in solitary confinement where they were tortured, starved and forced to make false confessions.
Relatives seeking information on the whereabouts of loved ones were also harassed and detained. Targeting of relatives in an effort to force human rights activists to halt their campaigning has been widely documented.
In July 2020, for example, Alireza Alinejad, the brother of human rights campaigner Masih Alinejad, was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison “on spurious national security charges, in reprisal against his sister’s advocacy,” the report noted.
Rehman also called for an end to the culture of impunity in Iran. This has been reinforced by government reprisals against those who raised allegations of human rights abuses during the protests.
The special rapporteur also voiced concern about the high rate of death sentences in Iran, especially the execution of child offenders, and the recent cases in which protesters received the death penalty.
There have also been reports of secret executions in connection with the protests “following unfair trials and after the systematic use of torture to extract forced confessions.” On Sep. 12 last year, for example, wrestler Navid Afkari, who had participated in Aug. 2018 protests in Shiraz, was put to death “without prior notice in contravention of Iranian law.”
The report also raises concern about the fate of detained human rights activists, journalists, labor rights campaigners, dual and foreign nationals, and lawyers. It points out that the Iranian regime continues to target individuals who advocate for basic freedoms, including Yasaman Aryani, Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz, who were imprisoned for taking part in protests on International Women’s Day 2019 against compulsory veiling laws.
Payam Derafshan, who opposed a government ban on the Telegram messaging application, remains detained while he awaits a Supreme Court review of a two-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Rehman also notes with concern “the authorities’ repeated disruption of telecommunications.” Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are “permanently blocked and inaccessible without circumvention tools,” in an attempt to prevent protesters from revealing regime abuses to the world.
“Internet shutdowns and the blanket blocking of websites and applications represent a violation of the right to freedom of expression,” said Rehman.
He also said that ongoing discrimination against ethnic, religious and sexual minorities continues to be cause for alarm, and the report includes details of executions and enforced disappearances of political prisoners from ethnic minorities.
For example, Hedayat Abdollahpour, a Kurd, was executed for allegedly taking up arms against the state, despite a lack of evidence supporting his conviction and a confession extracted under torture.
Iran also targets ethnic and religious minorities simply for “practicing their culture, language or faith.”
On Aug. 15 last year, Liza Tebyanian was arrested and jailed for “teaching the Baha’i faith.” Many Gonabadi Dervishes also remain in prison.
Rehman’s report also includes examples of forced evictions from ethnic-minority areas. These include a raid on a village in Ahwaz, in Khuzestan province, in which demolition orders were issued for 300 houses, security forces fired tear gas at residents who resisted the confiscation of their land and demolition of their homes, and 130 people were arrested despite proof of ownership.
Since Rehman completed his report, further “disturbing incidents” involving the targeting of minorities have come to light, including: more than 20 executions of Baloch prisoners; the “suspicious” death of a Dervish follower; excessive use of force against protesters in Sistan and Balochistan province; the detention of 100 Kurdish activists, and house raids and land confiscations targeting members of the Baha’i faith.
Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender also experience human rights violations and widespread discrimination. Consensual sexual activity between members of the same sex can be punishable by death, while people convicted of “touching and kissing” can be flogged. The report said that “senior officials describe members of the LGBT community in hateful terms, including “subhuman” and “diseased.”
Rehman said he was also disturbed by the Iranian government’s continued targeting of journalists and writers who report on subjects such as corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. Health experts who question the regime’s management of the health crisis also reportedly face prosecution or losing their jobs.
Although the report raises concerns that international sanctions have hampered Iranian efforts to respond to the pandemic, it criticized the government’s “opaque and inadequate coronavirus response (which has) resulted in excess deaths, including the deaths of medical workers who were left to fend for themselves without sufficient protective equipment.”
Detainees were also abandoned in “overcrowded and unhygienic” prisons, Rehman adds. According to the World Health Organization, in June 2020 there were 211,000 prisoners in Iran’s state prisons, 2.5 times the official capacity.


Yemen’s Houthi militants linked to ship attacks in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

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Yemen’s Houthi militants linked to ship attacks in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

DUBAI: Suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants targeted a Panama-flagged bulk carrier traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, though no damage or injuries were reported, authorities said Monday.
The attacks come as the the militant group continue their months long assault targeting shipping through a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.
The bulk carrier Anadolu S first had been contacted over VHF radio by someone claiming to be authorities in Yemen, demanding the ship turn around, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational task force overseen by the US
“The vessel did not comply with the order and continued its transit,” the center said.
The ship’s captain later saw that “a missile splashed in close proximity to the vessel” as it traveled in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting to the Gulf of Aden in the first attack late Sunday night, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in an alert. The attack happened some 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Yemen port city of Mocha.
On Monday, another attack some 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Aden in the Gulf of Aden similarly saw a missile splash down close to the vessel, the UKMTO said.
“The vessel and crew are safe and proceeding to its next port of call,” the UKMTO added.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attacks. However, it can take the group hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.
The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign, which also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The Joint Maritime Information Center said the Anadolu S had an “indirect association to Israel.” However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis have shot down multiple American MQ-9 Reaper drones as well.
In their last attack on Nov. 11, two US Navy warships targeted with multiple drones and missiles as they were traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but the attacks were not successful.

Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

Updated 11 min 27 sec ago
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Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

  • This is one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the besieged enclave
  • 98 of 109 trucks in convoy were raided and some transporters were injured

GENEVA/CAIRO: Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on Nov. 16 after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two UN agencies told Reuters on Monday.
The convoy transporting food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer.
Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.
“This ... highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters.
“⁠The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”
The Hamas TV channel Al-Aqsa quoted Hamas interior ministry sources in Gaza as saying that over 20 gang members involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by Hamas security forces in coordination with tribal committees.
It said anyone caught aiding such looting would be treated with “an iron fist.”
A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently impassable due to security issues.
An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of its war against Hamas, adding that the main problem with aid deliveries was UN distribution challenges.
A UN aid official said on Friday that access for aid to Gaza had reached a low point, with deliveries to parts of the Israeli-besieged north of the enclave all but impossible. Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. 

 


UNESCO ‘enhanced protection’ for 34 Lebanon heritage sites

Updated 21 min 41 sec ago
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UNESCO ‘enhanced protection’ for 34 Lebanon heritage sites

  • Baalbek and Tyre ‘will receive technical and financial assistance from UNESCO’

PARIS: Dozens of heritage sites in Lebanon were granted “provisional enhanced protection” by UNESCO on Monday, offering a higher level of legal shielding as fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
The 34 cultural properties affected “now benefit from the highest level of immunity against attack and use for military purposes,” the United Nations cultural body said in a statement.
Several Israeli strikes in recent weeks on Baalbek in the east and Tyre in the south — both strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah — hit close to ancient Roman ruins designated as World Heritage sites.
UNESCO said the decision “helps send a signal to the entire international community of the urgent need to protect these sites.”
“Non-compliance with these clauses would constitute ‘serious violations’ of the 1954 Hague Convention and... potential grounds for prosecution,” it added.
Hezbollah and Israel have been at war since late September, when Israel broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border, even as the Gaza war plows on.
UNESCO’s move followed an appeal Sunday by hundreds of cultural professionals, including archaeologists and academics, to activate the enhanced protection.
Baalbek and Tyre “will receive technical and financial assistance from UNESCO to reinforce their legal protections, improve risk anticipation and management measures, and provide further training for site managers,” the body said.


Refugees who escaped from war-torn Tuti Island speak of hunger, disease

A Sudanese army soldier mans a machine gun on top of a military pickup truck outside a hospital in Omdurman on November 2, 2024.
Updated 30 min 32 sec ago
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Refugees who escaped from war-torn Tuti Island speak of hunger, disease

  • Charity kitchens have been forced to close in Tuti and elsewhere in the capital Khartoum due to lack of funding and supplies, and high prices

JUBA: Mohammed Awad and his family are among dozens who escaped Sudan’s Tuti Island earlier this year amid a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, finding refuge at a shelter after surviving for months on scant food and the risk of disease.
The island in the middle of the Nile serves as a microcosm for the devastation unleashed by a war that began in April 2023.
More than 61,000 people are estimated to have died in Khartoum state during the first 14 months of Sudan’s war, significantly more than previously recorded, according to a new report.
Activists report that the Rapid Support Forces charged people large sums to evacuate them.

HIGHLIGHT

More than 61,000 people are estimated to have died in Khartoum state during the first 14 months of Sudan’s war.

“There is no good food, and there’s a lot of diseases, there is no sleep, no safety,” Awad said, holding one of his children at the shelter for displaced residents in Omdurman, an army-controlled refuge. The island is one of 14 places across Sudan at risk of famine, according to experts. Dengue fever has ravaged Tuti, a close-knit farming community.
Sarah Siraj, a mother who left with her two children, said six or seven people were dying daily, and that she was only able to have her children treated for dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, once she reached Omdurman.
Charity kitchens have been forced to close in Tuti and elsewhere in the capital Khartoum due to lack of funding and supplies, and high prices.
Rabeea Abdel Gader, a nutrition guide, has been treating newly arrived families at a city shelter.
“We ask the mother about what they eat ... Sometimes the mother responds with her tears,” she said.
Meanwhile, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan.

 


Lebanon says Israeli strike on central Beirut kills four

Emergency teams work at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted Zuqaq Al-Blat neighbourhood in Beirut, on November 18, 2024.
Updated 49 min 22 sec ago
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Lebanon says Israeli strike on central Beirut kills four

  • “A hostile drone targeted a residential apartment behind the Husseiniya of Zuqaq Al-Blat in the capital Beirut, causing great damage,” the NNA said
  • The densely populated working class district of Zuqaq Al-Blat has welcomed many displaced people who fled Israeli strikes on south and east Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israel struck a densely packed Beirut neighborhood on Monday, killing at least four people, in the third attack in two days on the city’s central districts.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Zuqaq Al-Blat in Beirut killed four people and injured 18,” a ministry statement said in preliminary toll.
The official National News Agency (NNA) said an apartment near a Shiite Muslim place of worship had been targeted.
“A hostile drone targeted a residential apartment behind the Husseiniya of Zuqaq Al-Blat in the capital Beirut, causing great damage,” the NNA said.
An AFP correspondent in the area heard two blasts, and said the raid badly damaged the ground floor of a building.
Reporters elsewhere in the city heard ambulance sirens.
The densely populated working class district of Zuqaq Al-Blat has welcomed many displaced people who fled Israeli strikes on south and east Lebanon, as well as south Beirut — areas where the Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway.
The strike hit near a building housing many displaced Lebanese, the AFP correspondent said.
It was cordoned off by security forces as residents rushed to help in the rescue efforts, he added.
Several hundreds of meters (yards) away was the site of a similar strike on Sunday, in the Mar Elias neighborhood, which the Lebanese health ministry said killed three people including a woman.
Israel has not commented on Monday’s and Sunday’s strikes in central Beirut, but confirmed one air raid in the area the killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.
The strike, also on Sunday, hit the Lebanese office of the Syrian Baath party, killing Afif and four other members of his media team, Hezbollah said, with the health ministry saying seven people had been killed in total.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,510 people have been killed since Hezbollah-Israel clashes began in October last year, with most casualties recorded since war erupted in September.