Two Kurdish women activists were arrested in Sanandaj,
capital of the Kurdistan Province in western Iran. Sorayya Khedri, civil rights activist and
member of Krudistan’s Rojia charity organization was arrested by security
forces on Thursday morning, September 13, 2018.
On Wednesday, September 12, 2018, residents of the
provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan went on a national
strike in protest to the arbitrary executions of three Kurdish activists,
Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi and Ramin Hossein Panahi, as well as the regime’s
missile attacks on the headquarters of two Kurdish parties in the Iraqi
Kurdistan on September 8. The Iranian regime’s intelligence forces also arrested women
activist Hajar Saeedi women’s rights and environmental activist in Sanandaj, on
Wednesday, September 5, and transferred her to an unknown location.
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No news is available on Najmeh Vahedi, sociologist and
women’s rights activist, more than 10 days after her arrest at her home in
Tehran-Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence
Organization on September 1. Najmeh Vahedi’s family has been denied visitations
or phone calls and have no news of her situation and the accusations leveled
against her. Najmeh Vahedi was arrested on September 1, on the same day as Hoda
Amid, lawyer and women’s rights activist was arrested.
A few days following the arrest of the two activists,
Rezvaneh Mohammadi, a gender studies student and woman’s rights activist, was
arrested on September 3. All three women were involved in training workshops
for women’s rights in marriage contracts and other peaceful activities related
to women’s rights.
Amnesty International issued a statement on September 3,
warning that the arrests of lawyers and women’s rights activists in Iran signal
intensifying crackdown on civil society.
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Nine female students were deprived of pursuing higher
education due to their Bah’I faith. Taranom Motamedi Borujeni, a resident of
Shahin Shahr in Isfahan, Shamim Idelkhani, from Moghan in Ardebil, Farnia
Iliazadeh, Sarvin Azarshab, Shahrzad Tirgar, and Melina Ghavami Nik, from
Tehran, Parmida Hossein Pooli Mameghani, Parand Misaghi and Shaghayegh Ghasemi,
are the nine female students who have been deprived from pursuing higher
education due to their Baha’i conviction.
They had passed the national university entrance
examination, some with outstanding results, but when checking in for their
computer records, they received a message stating “deficient records” in the
Evaluation Organization (Sanjesh).
“Deficient records” is an option used to block Baha'I
students’ access to their computer records and inform them of being barred from
continuing their higher education. This has become a common practice since 2006
and numerous students with Baha'i faith have faced this option in the results
of the current year's examinations.
Baha'is are deprived of education in Iranian
universities based on paragraph 3 of the bill ratified by the Supreme Council
of Cultural Revolution on February 25, 1991, which has also been endorsed by
the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, "Once it is confirmed that a student
adheres to Baha’ism, whether at the time of admission or during their studies,
she or he must be deprived of education."
UN human rights reporters have repeatedly objected
against the regime's anti-Baha'i behavior and, in particular, the depriving of
Baha'is from their right to education, recognizing it as a clear indication of
Iranian regime's neglect of human rights treaties.
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Mahin Taj Ahmadpour, a political prisoner detained in
Nashtarud Tonekabon Prison, has gone on a hunger strike since Monday, September
10, in protest to the lack of medical care, authorities preventing her from
using the telephone, and threatening to open a new case against her. Mahin Taj
Ahmadpour, 46 was one of the women arrested during the uprisings last year and
was transferred to the Nashtarud Tonekabon Prison for imprisonment. Political
prisoner Mahin Taj Ahmadpour has blood platelet deficiency and is required to
receive seven blood units every month, and due to her illness, she is suspected
of developing leukemia and is required to have regular injections to prevent
the disease from spreading. Despite her condition and the doctor's orders, the
prison authorities prevent her from going to a hospital for medical
examinations and treatment. She’s being charged with "disrupting public
order by participating in illegal gatherings" and "propaganda against
the regime." She is sentenced to a total of 10 months’ imprisonment.
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More than 2,000 marriages under 14 have been reported in
oil rich Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran, from March 2017 to March 2018.
General Director of Khuzestan’s Provincial Registry announced that 23 underage
marriages in the age group of 11 years old, 105 marriages in the age group of
12 years old, 749 marriages in the age group of 13, and 1,373 marriages in the
age group of 14 had been recorded in the Persian year 1396 (March 2017-March
2018).
Behnam Moridi, General Director of Khuzestan’s
Provincial Registry, said, "Last year, two underage marriages under 10
years of age were registered in the cities of Shadegan and Khorramshahr." According to published statistics, over 95,000 divorces
among women under the age of 19 were recorded between 2011 and 2015, of which
about 5,760 were related to underage marriages of teenagers less than 15 years
old. (The state-run ILNA news agency – September 11, 2018) A social expert
revealed that 41,000 early marriages under the age of 15 take place in Iran
every year.
