by Heshmat Alavi
Two
months have passed since the May presidential “elections” in Iran that saw the
incumbent Hassan Rouhani reach a second term. The pro-Iran appeasement camp in
the West went the distance to raise hopes over the hoax of Rouhani rendering
major reforms.
These
voices somehow described Rouhani as a “reformist” and completely neglected the
over 3,000 executions during his first term as president. Reports from across
the country are turning out to be very disturbing, signaling more troubling
times to come in reference to human rights violations.
As fellow Forbes contributor Ellen R. Wald reported, “On July 16, news came out that an American graduate student at Princeton University named Xiyue Wang had been sentenced to 10 years in an Iranian prison for
‘espionage.’”
This
is Iran again resorting to old tactics of taking Westerners as hostage, mainly
dual citizens, to be used as bargaining chips in advancing objectives and
politics in negotiations with interlocutors.
Another
practice the regime in Tehran will continue is sending scores to the gallows.
The Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a report recently indicating 57 individuals have
been executed across Iran in the beginning of July alone.
Reports
from inside Iran also indicate nearly 120 inmates held in a prison west
of Tehran are on the verge of execution. These hangings are planned for the
next few weeks, their families say citing authorities, and the sentences of at
least 13 individuals are to be implemented soon.
These
alarming reports have all arrived only after a recent tour launched by the
mullahs for dozens of foreign ambassadors to visit the notorious Evin Prison
located in the hilltops of northern Tehran.
But
of course, no human rights organization or international prison expert were
invited, only selected areas of the prison were shown, and merely hand-picked
images were provided to the media to depict a highly peaceful environment and
go against any claims of rights violations.
This PR show
in Evin, with its history of atrocities, was coupled with Iranian state media
outlets pumping reports claiming the jail being upgraded to state-of-the-art
conditions.
Iranian
authorities went the distance to showcase specific facilities provided only to
rich inmates behind bars for financial crimes. These areas included a gym, an
in-house beauty salon, a library and also a restaurant.
What
needs clarification to the outside world is the fact that Evin, along with many
other prisons, has a dark history of widespread executions, tortures, and
inhumane and unbearable conditions, to say the least. The regime in Iran, with
a track record of 63 UN condemnations of human rights violations, is hardly in
any position to claim of providing inmates with adequate conditions.
If
Iran truly intends to be transparent, why not begin permitting all
international human rights organizations unlimited access to any and all areas
of each and every single prison across the country?
Following
this orchestrated tour, Human Rights Watch made a call to Tehran seeking access for rights groups to
these prisons. HRW is among many similar entities seeking access to Evin as the
facility has been closed to human rights investigators representing independent
international and national organizations.
While
there is no expectation for Iran to begin allowing any honest visits, two
female political prisoners wrote an open letter explaining the atrocities they
endured in Evin.
Political prisoners Golrokh Iraee and Atena Daemi described ”solitary cells with no windows, ventilation and
lavatory,” “dungeons and dark interrogation rooms,” and “cells known as graves”
in Evin.
Why did this international delegation not visit
the women’s ward of Evin where female political prisoners like themselves are
held, they asked. Their letter goes on to explain how ward 4 of this prison was
renovated by the inmates transferred to solitary confinement on the very day of
the ambassadors’ visit.
Mrs. Maryam Akbari Monfared, another political prisoner whose
three brothers and sister were executed during the 1988 massacre of over 30,000
political prisoners across Iran, also wrote an extensive open letter as she spends her eighth
year behind bars in Evin. Having experienced a variety of Iran’s jails for
decades, Monfared wrote, “I’ve witnessed with my own eyes the devaluation of
human and humanity” and experienced atrocities also in Shahre-Ray and
Gohardasht prisons.
“Prison
food was so little that hungry inmates were forced to collect the residue of
other food trays as well as the food which was left on the ground,” she
explains.
“I saw an
eleven-year-old girl who was sent into exile from a children correction center
to Gohardasht prison so as to be punished… Women and girls who had repeatedly
felt the hanging rope around their necks, being on death row for years… Dear
ambassadors, who were surprised by what you saw! What you saw was a made-up
face of this religious regime’s prisons… I saw inmates on death row in
Share-Ray prison, desperately begging their families to talk their judges into
implementing their death sentence sooner, as they didn’t wish to stay alive in
prison…”
What
needs reminding here is the fact this is a regime founded by the ultraconservative
Ruhollah Khomeini who, as the first supreme leader of Iran, authorized the
amputation of hands and feet as punishment for thieves.
All this is
more reason for the international community, and especially the Trump
administration, to turn up the heat on Iran. The regime in Tehran is resorting
to all measures possible to deceive Washington and other parties to delay theblacklisting of the Revolutionary Guards as a major party involved in the
mullahs’ crimes against humanity, terrorism and international belligerence.
In
2009 former US president Barack Obama betrayed universal humane values and
chose to side with the mullahs’ regime. And Tehran responded by continuously
taking Americans hostage and now putting a show for the Europeans and others.
Taking
strong action against Tehran, similar to the recent sanctions slapped against 18 entities involved
with Iran’s support for terrorism and ballistic missile program, will finally
signal to the Iranian people that the world has now decided to stand by their
side.
Comments
Post a Comment