At least two women were hanged to death on the eve of International Women’s Day in a prison in Iran. One of the prisoners, identified as Mehrnoosh Qavasi, was in her fifties. She was executed after serving many years in prison.
Before being transferred to Qezel Hesar Prison in the city of Karaj for execution, the two victims were held in the infamous Qarchak (Gharchak) women’s prison in the city of Varamin where conditions are harsh.
10 other prisoners in Qezel Hesar prison were also hanged. This is part of new wave of executions in cities across the country. These executions carried out in secret, without any reports in the news media, which is under strict control and censorship by the Iranian Government.
On Saturday, a grand gathering on the occasion of International Women’s Day was held in Berlin with participation of over a hundred women personalities from five continents condemning the regime in Iran for suppressing women and violating fundamental human rights.
this conference was titles “For Tolerance and Equality against Fundamentalism and Misogyny”. It was discusses that the ideal of equality in the world today has come face-to-face with a formidable barrier of the Islamic Fundamentalism. The Iranian regime and its fundamentalist position with regards to Islam is a danger to not only Iranian citizens but to the entire Middle East. The most vulnerable to this violence are women, who are most often denied a political voice and recourse to justice.
The executions in Iran also come only days after a report from the office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the UN Human Rights Council listed UN concerns about rights violations in Iran. The report describes the high rate of executions in Iran a “deeply troubling”. They have repeatedly called for a death penalty moratorium and a ban on executing youths as well as voiced concerns about rights violations in Iran against women, religious minorities, journalists and activists.
According to the regime’s interpretation of Islamic law, a 9-year-old girl can be married with the consent of only her father or grandfather. Men are allowed three “permanent” and as many “temporary” wives as they desires. This is but the tip of the iceberg with how the right of women are trampled on in Iran.
More than 800 innocent Iranian men and women have been executed under fictitious charges of being the “enemy of God” in the second half of 2014 while the so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani has been in office. The regime’s clergies argue that the death penalty is the key to maintaining religious law and order.
