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Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the 66th UN General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2011. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told Iranians that Israel’s existence is counter to the “dignity” of all nations. What, however, is the condition of dignity across Iran?
In mid-March, the UN Human Rights Council voted for the first time to appoint a special investigator to monitor Iran’s record. The resolution, cosponsored by governments from every region of the world, passed 22 to 7.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report expressed “serious concern” about Tehran’s record: “… increased executions, amputations, arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials, and possible torture and ill-treatment of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and opposition activists.” Ban deplored the persecution of Iranian minorities, including Arabs, Armenians, Azeris, Balochs, Christians, Jews, Kurds, and Baha’is.
Under Iran’s constitution, key members of the government, parliament, judiciary and military must be Shiites, leaving everyone else as inferior, facing harsh treatment whenever they practice their faiths openly. Kurds are barred from teaching the Kurdish language in regional schools. Sunnis must not build mosques in Tehran.
Middle East/North Africa Uprisings
Paul Salem, director of the Middle East Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, observed about events in the Middle East and North Africa: ‘There are new revolutions and heroes to look up to … and Iran is passé … Iranian officials, as well as leaders of Iran-backed Hezbollah … have taken a selective approach to the uprisings, cheering the movements in Egypt and elsewhere as an ‘Islamic awakening,’ while rebuking unrest in Syria as a plot by Israel and the West."
An opinion piece in the Anatolia Daily (Turkey) by Nir Boms and Shayan Arya noted that Ahmadinejad demands UN intervention for the UK riots, but not for the tragedy continuing across Syria, with a now estimated 2600 civilian protesters killed.
They added, “Turkey informed a UN Security Council panel that it seized a second cache of weapons that Iran was attempting to deliver to Syria, in breach of the UN arms embargo… Today there are over 2000 political prisoners in jail (in Iran) and the crackdown continues. Since most (are) … activists tracking human rights violations, it is very difficult (tracking) all the prisoners… Nevertheless one human rights coalition, ‘Iran: All Rights Reserved?’, produced a list of nearly 650 prisoners … sitting in jail while Ahmadinejad goes to give lessons to the UN.”
Institutionalized Misogyny
In 2010, Amnesty International observed: “(Iran) … discriminates against women from top to bottom. Women are absent in any of the senior, decision-making posts…”
Neda Agha Soltan became a symbol of Iran’s long history, culture and principled people. Her murder by a militia sniper on June 20, 2009 still haunts the world.
Iran’s penal laws are contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (not ratified by Iran), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Significantly, they also elicit protests from Islamic legal experts—both Shi’ite and Sunni. While most countries are banning the death penalty, Iran still punishes by cutting off tongues, hands and feet, gouging out eyes, and stoning to death.
Next … Ahmadinejad Record
