Nearly 60 Journalists Arrested During Iran Protests
An international NGO says at least 57 journalists have been arrested in Iran since September during popular protests against the Islamic Republic.
An international NGO says at least 57 journalists have been arrested in Iran since September during popular protests against the Islamic Republic.
The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said on Tuesday only 30 of the 57 detained journalists have been reportedly released so far.
According to the Federation, five journalists were serving their sentences in Iranian prisons before protests erupt following the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.
In the past months, the International Federation of Journalists issued several statements calling on the Iranian authorities to end arrests of journalists and to release those imprisoned immediately.
Anthony Bellanger, Secretary General of the Federation of Journalists said, “We ask the Iranian authorities not to use the coverage of national protests as an excuse to suppress the media. Every citizen in Iran has the right to know what is going on.”
He went on to say that “Our colleagues should be released immediately and be allowed to report the events freely.”
“We remind the Iranian authorities that freedom of expression is a fundamental right of all Iranian citizens, including journalists,” underlined Bellanger.
Niloufar Hamedi, Elahe Mohammadi, and Ehsan Pirbornabash are among the journalists who are still in custody.
There are no exact figures on the number of people arrested during the protests, but some sources say nearly 20,000 people have been detained.
Lawmaker Shahryar Haydari said in an interview that "the country cannot be controlled with military confrontations with protesters."
He added that the committee is reviewing the government's approach to offer its suggestions for a way out of the current crisis. However, he added that it is up to the Iranian Judiciary to decide who should be pardoned and who should be punished.
Haydari said the Judiciary should pardon all those who simply protested in the streets and did not engage in violence. Referring to the execution of two protesters in less than one week, the lawmaker suggested that the government should not follow policies that increase tensions in society.
He further claimed that there have been fewer protests in recent days, but the government should not think protesters have given up their demands. The government should listen to them and President Ebrahim Raisi should be personally accountable for all the problems in the country.
However, a hardliner lawmaker Mostafa Mirsalim said Wednesday that the Judiciary should execute protesters quickly - within ten days after their arrest.
Haydari, stressing that military confrontation with the protests cannot solve the country's problems, called for economic solutions for the people's financial problems.
But that is one goal Raisi cannot accomplish by himself without a major change in foreign and domestic policies, a herculean task hinging on support by the authoritarian ruler Ali Khamenei.
Meanwhile, reformist sociologist and political activist Hamid Reza Jalaeipour said in an interview with Etemad Online that "Protests have still not entered a revolutionary phase, but they will, if the situation becomes increasingly critical. He added that the execution of a young protester, Mohsen Shekari on December 8 has deeply moved and agitated even those Iranians who were not actively taking part in the protests.
Jalaeipour said that most of those protesting in the streets are women and young Iranians including students. Nonetheless, he added, around 70 percent of Iranians are still silent and have not aligned with the opposition although they are not happy with the government's performance.
He pointed out that what is happening in Iran is not a riot. "Riots end soon but this movement is continuing. It has so many artistic and cultural manifestations and it has attracted worldwide support," Jalaipour said, and added that the government should allow these demands to be voiced. But unfortunately, the more politically active the society becomes, the less openness the government shows.
"During the past 90 days while this movement has been going on, the government has not tried to convince the people that it cares for their views. If this approach continues…a revolutionary phase might start," he said, adding that "The government has managed to control the situation during the past three months, but it cost hundreds of lives."
Jalaeipour added that some of the five million elders in the country are looking for conservative solutions. But this country has about 20 million youths and some 38 million others in between the two groups. The ideologically minded elders control the government regardless of what the other 58 million want. If they feel really fed up, they might end their silence.
Meanwhile, reformist politician Mehdi Ayati told Rouydad24 that if the government uses more violence against protesters, street unrest might go underground. He stressed: "Violence is not the right answer to [protests.]"
Although it might be too late, people will be happy when the government takes their demands and views seriously. But it has ignored the public’s demands and views for a long time. It should have attended to the needs of young people and women earlier.
Ayati, a former lawmaker, said that if the government wants to make up for its shortcomings, the first step is to avoid violence. He warned that violence will boost dissent to an uncontrollable level.
According to some documents obtained by Iran International, the Iranian regime is exerting pressure on academic figures to send letters to numerous global bodies to urge them to vote against the move. Among the documents are an official letter from an advisor of the head of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad to her colleagues with the list of emails of UN missions and a list of points to be mentioned in the correspondence by the professors.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The 54-member UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will vote on whether to oust the Islamic Republic from the commission on December 14.
In the documents, a list of email addresses of UN missions of many countries as well as rights groups were provided, and university professors were asked to write to them in an attempt to prevent Iran’s expulsion initiated by the United States and supported by others. Samples letters were also given to the academics to use them as templates, but they were asked to change the wordings of the letters a bit so that it would not be obvious that they were part of a state-orchestrated campaign.
The sample letters are a collection of the regime’s propaganda lines blaming foreign powers for the current wave of protests that began in mid-September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police. Such hackneyed lines include blaming other countries for instigating the rallies, blaming the US for using UN mechanisms as political tools, and blaming sanctions by Western countries as the main reason behind the country’s economic woes.
The academics were also asked to mention the claims that women and men enjoy equal rights in the Islamic Republic and that Iranian women have been present in all economic fields and have made great achievements. Such bogus claims were also read out during a UN Human Rights Council meeting late in November held to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iran, especially with respect to women and children.
The equality of men and women in Iran is evidently untrue. The Islamic Republic’s constitution clearly states that women are considered as inferior to men in terms of inheritance, testifying in courts and in many other areas according to the Islamic law or sharia. Women in Iran are not allowed to travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian, their share in inheritance is half of what male family members receive -- the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in cases of death, is also half of that of a man.
Among the other points that the academics were asked to mention in their letters to members of the commission is warning them that the expulsion of the Islamic Republic sets a precedent that may be used against other members in the future.
The first step by the United Nations to hold the Islamic Republic accountable for its crackdown on protesters was creating a fact-finding mission by the Human Rights Council and the second move can be the vote to kick the regime off the Commission on the Status of Women. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council voted on November 24 to launch an independent investigation into the regime’s deadly repression of protests that has killed around 500 civilians, including about 60 children.
Late in November, the United States circulated a draft resolution on the move, that denounces Iran's policies as "flagrantly contrary to the human rights of women and girls and to the mandate of the Commission on the Status of Women." The US-drafted resolution would "remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic, which has just started a four-year term on the 45-member commission.
In an interview with MSNBC Sunday US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said, “it makes no sense for Iran to be sitting on a commission whose role is to promote the rights of women when they are doing exactly the opposite.”
