On Wed. May 8 during “Iran
Accountability Week” in the Canadian Parliament and the conference that was
held, I(Narges Ghaffari) met with MP David Anderson from the Conservative party and told him
about the recent threat I’ve received form the Intelligence of the IRGC or Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran through my family member. On the same day in
the House of Commons, Mr. Anderson mentioned my situation and asked the
government to black list the IRGC. Here’s what he said:
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The state-run ROKNA news agency
reported on May 9 of the execution of
the 88th woman during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as the Iranian
regime’s president in October 2018, in Maraqeh, East Azerbaijan Province in
Iran. She was Soudabeh and had been imprisoned in the Prison of Maraqeh since
2006. She was hanged on October 26, 2018, upon the order of the Penal Court of
East Azerbaijan Province.
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In the dire economic conditions in
Iran, women heads of household (WHH) suffer from discrimination, inequality,
unemployment and lack of job security. Eassa Mansouri, Labor Ministry’s deputy
for creation of jobs and employment, acknowledged that women’s share is serious
in the Iranian economy.
According to Massoumeh Ebtekar,
head of the directorate for women and family affairs, Iranian women make 75
percent of the handicraft industries’ products, 40 percent of agricultural
products, and 80 percent of the carpet industry productions. (The official IRNA
news agency – May 4, 2019) Most of these women are women heads of
household. (The official IRNA news agency – May 16, 2018)
This is while Eassa
Mansouri said, “The economic participation rate in our country is
low. While in other countries the economic participation rate is sometimes up
to 80 percent, the economic participation in our country is around 40 percent.
Maximum participation is between 30 to 40 years of age but women have a very
low share.” (The state-run ILNA news agency – May 4, 2019)
According to the Iranian regime’s
officials, there are more than 3.6 million women heads of household in Iran.
(The state-run IRNA news agency – October 7, 2018) The Welfare Organization
gives a small support to only 180,000 of these women. (The state-run Tabnak
website – February 13, 2018) Some 82 per cent of them are unemployed. (The
state-run ISNA news agency – July 7, 2018)
The number of women heads of
household in Iran is steadily increasing but they face numerous problems due to
the economic crisis in Iran and discrimination against women.
Women who head and
provide for their families are among the most vulnerable strata who do not
enjoy any government support and have to deal with economic, social and
cultural problems due to death, addiction, retirement or disability of
their husbands, divorce and separation, among other reasons.
Susan Bastani, strategic
studies deputy at the directorate for women and family affairs, said according
to a research, the three main problems women heads of household face in Iran
are discrimination and inequality, unemployment, and lack of social security.
The next problems they face are lack of freedom and choice, lack of social
respect, poverty and economic deprivation. (The official IRNA news agency – May
4, 2019)
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Video clips recently published on
the internet show scenes of happiness of Iranian school children singing
playfully in schools. The video clips were strongly criticized by Ali
Motahhari, deputy speaker of the Iranian regime’s parliament. In a harsh reaction
to the happiness of children at schools, he said the Minister of Education must
account for them. He also called for dismissal of the principals of those
schools.
In some schools, the happiness and
celebrations were to honor the Teachers’ Day in Iran on May 2.
In reaction to the happiness of
girl children at schools, Bat’haii, the Minister of Education, said, “I have
appointed three persons since yesterday to probe the issue and find out the
root cause why such clips were produced.”
He continued, “I hope that cyber
Police (FATA) would help us in this regard, because the video clips do not bear
any names or addresses. The disseminated clips show the school teachers are
leading the children. Therefore, the department of security and inspection will
follow up on this case.” (The state-run Javan Online – May 7, 2019)
The threats to prosecute
teachers and principals who bring joy to school children are made while the
flood-hit people in Khuzestan have no accommodations in the hot weather and are
losing their young children.
A mother says, “Can you
believe it how many calamities have struck us in a short period of time? We
have lost our home, livestock, etc. These are not important, the lives of our
children are also at risk.”
A physician said, “With
the warming of the weather, the elderly and children living in this camp are in
danger of dehydration. And insect bites and reptiles could put the lives of
camp residents at risk.” (The state-run ISNA news agency – May 6, 2019)
Instead of spending money
on the resettlement of the affected people in
the flood-hit areas,
particularly in Khuzestan, the clerical regime spends the public’s wealth on
suppression of the people of Iran including on depriving them of happiness in
schools.
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The Iranian regime continues to
make arbitrary arrests and issue heavy sentences for women of Baha’i faith.
They are also deprived of having a job or studying for higher education at
universities. Shahrzad Nazifi, a Baha’i citizen and champion of women’s
motocross in Iran, has been deprived along with her family of participating in
any competition, after being arrested in November 2018. She is also banned from
training with others in this field. Nazifi’s daughter, Nora Naraghi, who is
also a top moto-crosser, has been deprived of any athletic activities along
with her mother because of her faith. Ms. Nazifi has been deprived of her
activities without any official judicial verdict.
On Monday, May 6, a court in
Bushehr sentenced Baha’i women Minoo Riazati, Ehteram Sheikhi, Farideh Jaberi
and Pooneh Nasheri, to three years in jail, each. The Iranian regime’s security
forces have arbitrarily arrested these women for their faith in February 2018. A
Baha’i woman from Semnan, Yalda Firouzian, was arrested on May 1, by security
forces and transferred to an unknown location. Before her arbitrary arrest, her
house was thoroughly ransacked and her personal belongings and electronic
device were confiscated. A large group of girl students who had passed the
college entrance exam 2018 were not admitted to university and were deprived of
continuing their education just because of their faith.
Baha’i citizens in Iran are systematically
deprived of their human rights while according to article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and article 18 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, “everyone shall have the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion.” On May 1, civil and women’s rights activist,
Mojgan Keshavarz, was transferred to the notorious Qarchak prison in Varamin.
She is now confined in Ward 7. Ms. Keshavarz was beaten at home in front of her
9-year-old daughter and arrested by security forces.
