Now Regime Tortures Its Own, Agence France Presse, March 2
TEHRAN - Accusations by Tehran city officials that they were tortured in police detention have for
the first time publicly sullied the reputations of two pillars of the Islamic republic, the police and the
courts. The accusations have taken on an unprecedented political dimension since they were made
last week by municipal officials during a meeting with parliamentary deputies close to Iranian Pres-
ident Mohammad Khatami. The storm over the torture charges is the latest chapter in the ongoing
battle between religious conservatives and the controversial mayor of Tehran, whom the conserva-
tives consider their bete noire.  The public scandal over the police and court system again shows the
intensity of the political struggle being waged here between the two principal political-religious
factions in Iran's Islamic government. The police are under the control of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
the supreme leader of the Islamic republic. Khamenei delegated that power to the interior minister
of the previous conservative government, but has not done so with the new interior minister, Abdol-
lah Nuri.
 

Stoning in Iran, The Washington Times, February 27
The condemned are wrapped head to foot in white shrouds and buried up to their waists.  Then the
stoning begins. The stones are specifically chosen so they are large enough to cause pain, but not

so large as to kill the condemned immediately. They are guaranteed a slow, torturous death. Some-
times their children are forced to watch. Their offense is usually adultery.  This is capital punish-
ment Iranian style, even under the so-called moderate new president, Mohammed Khatami.

Two members of Congress this week helped expose the continued savage practice under the new

government when they  showed a video of a recent public stoning. The video was smuggled out of
the country by supporters of the Iranian resistance...  Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican,
called stoning "inhumane, cruel and degrading."  "It is important to note that at least seven persons
have been stoned to death in public during the tenure of the Iranian regime's new president. Four of
these victims have been women," she said.  Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, New York Democrat, called
Iran the "world's worst violator of human rights."  "This savagery sanctioned by the Khatami gov-
ernment proves that the moderation of the Iranian regime is but a mirage," he said....
 

Meeting Beteen Khatami And UN Human Rights Chief Cancelled, Agence
France Presse, March 1
TEHRAN - A meeting between Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and UN human rights
commissioner Mary Robinson was cancelled at the last minute on Sunday, a presidential spokesman
said. The conservative newspaper Farda said the meeting was cancelled by the Iranian foreign min-
istry in protest at comments about human rights in Iran by Robinson's spokesman John Mills.  Mills
was quoted by the press here as saying Robinson would discuss alleged violations of human rights
in the Islamic republic during her stay.
 
 

Torture Reported by Khatami's Faction, Reuter, February 27
Iran's top judge on Friday denounced city officials close to President Mohammad Khatami for
alleging that they were tortured during detention on corruption charges.  Head of judiciary Ayatol-
lah Mohammad Yazdi said the Tehran district mayors, who backed Khatami's
election campaign last year, could face prosecution for saying after their trials that they had been
tortured and kept in long solitary confinement.
 

U.S. Legislators Decry Stoning Executions In Iran, Reuter, February 25
WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers Wednesday called for international pressure on Iran to halt its
practice of execution by stoning, a practice they said continues under the government of President
Mohammad Khatami.  Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Gary Ackerman, a
New York Democrat, hosted the showing for lawmakers, journalists and the international diplo-
matic corps of a graphic videotaped execution by stoning of four prisoners in Iran in 1992.

Ros-Lehtinen said seven people, four women and three men, had been stoned to death in public dur-
ing the tenure of the new Iranian president.  "This clearly shows that nothing has changed under
Khatami's rule," she said.  Ackerman condemned as "savagery" the Iranian practice of execution by
stoning and urged the Clinton administration to bear this in mind as it deals with Khatami.

"U.S. policy should be focused on such domestic deeds and their promotion of international terror-
ism, as well as their opposition to the Middle East peace process, rather than adhering to the vague
words of reform coming from Khatami," he said.  The tape shows prisoners bound in sheets, buried
to their waists and then stoned by a chanting crowd that the National Council of Resistance of Iran
described as the Islamic government's Republican Guard. It said the person who read the

verdicts and threw the first stone was Ali Razini, a senior clergyman at the time who now heads the
Justice Department.  The exiled opposition group said the smuggled tape appeared to have been
filmed by a government official since there was no attempt to stop the filming. In it, the prisoners
are shown bloody and mutilated as they make futile attempts to free themselves from the semi-
grave. The group has been showing the tape around the world to highlight its concerns about the
continued lack of human rights in Iran despite the stated commitment to reform of Khatami.

The State Department's annual human rights report issued in late January noted that Iran's human
rights record remains poor despite Khatami's election. It charged that the Iranian government had
engaged in summary executions, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and widespread use of tor-
ture.  At the same time, the European Union recently ended its freeze on high-level contacts with
the Islamic republic and announced that Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini will visit Iran next
week.

More Executions in Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 19
Nine persons were hanged in public last week at three different locations in the city of Zahedan,
southeastern Iran. A 22-year-old man was also hanged in public by crane in the city of Ilam (west-
ern Iran).
 

Stoning!, The Voice (Vancouver), February 98
Hearing about torture is one thing and watching it is another. The abstract notions of pain, blood
and gore are one thing, yet, witnessing the warm blood gushing out of a crushed skull is another.
The difference is just like watching a kill in an action movie and then seeing the guy next to you
pierced with a bullet in real life.  The video I saw was taped in the courtyard of a prison in Tehran.
A man in what looks like pajamas or prison attire is brought handcuffed to the courtyard. His crime
and punishment are read by a clergyman who is backed by bearded men in army overcoat. The
crime is adultery. The punishment? To be lashed 100 times, then stoned to death.
The man is tied up to a board, facing it. One of the bearded soldiers stands beside him with a whip
in his hand. The beating begins. The arm goes up and comes down savagely breaking through the
fibre, cutting the skin. After the lashing is complete, they cover him in a white sheet, a shroud, a sort
of winding-sheet that is used to wrap the corpse before depositing it into the ground. But this man is
still alive.There are two holes dug in the middle of the courtyard. This man and another victim, also
wrapped in a white sheet, are placed in the holes and held straight. Men in overcoats shovel the earth back
into the holes until they are filled. Now two human figures are buried in the ground up to their
waists. Bearded men in overcoats shouting "God is great" circle around them. At their feet there are
fist-sized, jagged rocks.
The stoning begins.
As the sharp missiles find their entrapped victims, the white sheets becomes spotted with red. Soon
they are soaked with blood.  Shortly after, the shrouds are ripped away and two body halves covered
in blood are exposed. Their faces are not recognizable. There is nothing left but ripped skin, crushed
bones andbloodeverywhere.  If you see a man shouting at let alone beating his dog here on the
street, chances are that you will raise your voice in protest. I can only hope that you will extend the
same courtesy on behalf of your fellow man.

Rushdie Fatwa Stands, Not Negotiable, Reuter, February 14
TEHRAN - Iran has said a death order against British author Salman Rushdie is irrevocable and
expressed "surprise" over a call by European Union president Britain to negotiate over the matter.
 

German Businessman in Iran Faces Death by Stoning, The Times, February 12
The top security adviser of Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor, has opened contacts with Iran in
a last-minute attempt to rescue a Hamburg businessman from being stoned to death for adultery.
Last Sunday [German businessman Helmut] Hofer lodged an appeal and some of Germany's senior
politicians including Bernd Schmidbauer, the security adviser, and Klaus Kinkel, the Foreign Min-
ister are trying to salvage relations between Germany and Iran.

"Severe and Sustained Discriminatory Practices" Against Religious Minorities,
The Washington Post, January 24
Followers of all the world's major religions -- Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists,
Baha'is -- all suffer detention, torture and death, an official commission said yesterday.
 The findings were included in a report prepared for President Clinton and Secretary of State
Madeleine K. Albright by the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad....
 In one section, the report cited Iran as a country where "severe and sustained discriminatory prac-
tices" have had a devastating effect on the Baha'i faith. Iran has taken steps to eliminate the Baha'i
adherents by denying them the right to assemble and confiscating their property, the report said. It
said more than 200 Baha'is have been killed since the 1979 revolution in Iran.
 "The climate of intimidation in Iran has also . . . affected certain Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian
communities, whose members have been victims of harassment, persecution and extrajudicial kill-
ing," the study said.

Women Remain Unequal to Men by Mullahs' Law, BBC World Service, Janury 5

The Iranian parliament has rejected by a big majority a bill which would have allowed women the
same inheritance rights as men.  A conservative deputy Mohammad Reza Faaker said the proposal
was contrary to Islamic law, which stipulated that a woman's share could be only half that of a man.
The BBC Iranian Affairs correspondent says the vote comes as a big disappointment to women's
groups which have been conducting a long campaign to have the inheritance law changed.
 

200 Executions in Public in 1997, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 6
According to the reports received so far the dictatorship ruling Iran executed or stoned to death at
least 200 persons in public in 1997. This is at least twice the number of executions in 1996 and four
times the figure for 1995.  138 persons (or 70% of victims) were executed after Khatami was
elected president. The actual figure of executions is much higher as Iran's criminal rulers continue
to systematically and secretly execute or kill under torture large groups of political prisoners. A
number of political prisoners have also been executed under the pretext of drug trafficking or moral
corruption.  Unable to confront the growth of popular resistance, the mullahs' regime has stepped up
repression, including public executions, in order to create an atmosphere of fear and terror to curb
social protests.  The rise in the number of executions reaffirms that the clerical regime's different
factions have common views and interests in repression and that the regime is in no way capable of
taking a single step back from absolute repression.  In a related statement, the National Council of
Resistance of Iran called on the international human rights organizations "to pressure the Iranian
regime to open up its prisons to international fact-finding missions."
 

Clerics' Court Sentenced a Man to have his Eyes Gouged, Associated Press, January 4
TEHRAN - A man sentenced by an Islamic court to have his eyes gouged out for blinding a co-
worker could escape the punishment because no doctor will agree to carry it out, a newspaper
reported Sunday.

73 Executions Since Khatami's Inauguration, Iran Zamin News Agency,
December 21
In recent weeks, the mullahs' regime has hanged 13 persons in public. They included Eassa Rah-
mati, Safar Shahouzahi, Ahmad Shahlibar, Shahmorad Faqirshahi and Khodabakhsh Sabooki,
hanged on December 10 in Bandar Abbas (southern Iran). Two men were hanged in Tehran's Qasr
Prison on December 17.  The hangings bring to 73 the number of those stoned or hanged in public
since Khatami took office 4 months ago.
 
 

Women Resist Raw Deal in Islamic Iran, Reuter, December 15
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Women were in the vanguard of the Iranian revolution that ousted the Shah
18 years ago, but they have had a raw deal in the Islamic republic and are increasingly demanding
greater rights.  Few of the countless thousands of women who poured into the streets, defying the
Shah's soldiers to demonstrate for change, can have imagined that the revolution would turn the
clock back more than half a century for their sex.  Yet that, according to feminist lawyer Mehrangiz
Kar, is exactly what happened.  "The family protection law enacted in the last four years of the
Shah's regime, which improved many things for women, was abolished and they returned to the
previous law approved 66 years earlier," she told Reuters in an interview.  In the name of Islam, the
ruling Shi'ite Muslim clergy reinstated laws that give men an absolute right to divorce their wives
without having to produce any justification and, in the vast majority of cases, custody over the chil-
dren.  Women are entitled to keep boys only up to the age of two and girls until seven. After that the
father has the right to custody.  "Although the mother has a very lofty place in Iranian literature and
religious tradition, legally she is next to nothing," Kar said.
Women are barred from serving as judges, although there were many on the bench before the revo-
lution. They face explicit discrimination in the criminal law and an unwritten "glass ceiling" in
employment.  A woman's evidence in court is worth only half a man's, Kar said, and for some
offenses, women's evidence is not admissible at all.  Blood money for a murdered woman is only
half that for a man. Moreover, in anIslamic version of Catch 22, if a murdered woman's family insists
on her male killer's execution, her relatives have to pay his family the full blood money in compensation,
Kar said.

26 Flogged, Fined for Partying in Iran, Agence France Presse, December 3
TehranThe host of a party and his 25 guests were whipped and fined in northeastern Iran after being
accused of violating the Islamic codes of dress and conduct, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The 26 were rounded up this week in a police raid on a house in the holy city of Mashhad in Kho-
rasan province, the newspaper Qods said.  The anti-vice squad of the police force searched the
house and found satellite equipment, video movies and "illegal" audio tapes.
The party-goers each received 74 lashes of the whip for "debauchery, failing to respect Islamic
dress code and listening to illegal music."  The female guests were fined for failing to observe the
dress code, and the host was sentenced to hefty fines for keeping in his house satellite equipment,
video movies and cassettes.Under Islamic laws enforced in Iran since the 1979 revolution, men and
women are not allowed to be in each other's company if the women are not fully covered.  Although the
authorities may toler- ate more formal gatherings between men and women, they have a legal right to
break in a house if they suspect the occupants of keeping alcoholic beverages or holding coed dance parties.
Playing popular Western music or keeping satellite equipment or Western video movies is also ille-
gal.
 

Police Arrest Loosely Veiled Women In Tehran, Agence France Presse, November 30
   TEHRAN - Police rounded up a number of women in the Iranian capital on Sunday after accusing
them of failing to conform to the Islamic dress code in force since the 1979 revolution, witnesses
said.  In the northern district of Vanak, several young women wearing colorful scarves and light
makeup were forced to board a police bus waiting outside a shopping mall to take them to a special
center which deals with "social vices."
 

UN Report: Executions Doubled in Iran, The Associated Press, November 5
The number of people executed in Iran doubled between 1995 and 1996 and may double again this
year, a U.N. special investigator says. In a report to the General Assembly this week, special inves-
tigator Maurice Danby Copithorne also said improvements in Iran's human rights situation have
been "imperceptible, or at least so modest as to represent little substantive improvement."
Copithorne noted that the U.N. Human Rights Commission said earlier this year that the number of
executions in Iran last year "had reportedly at least doubled" since 1995. "In addition, there con-
tinue to be troubling reports of disappearances and deaths under suspicious circumstances," he
added. "Public hanging also appears to be on the increase." Although the U.N. report mostly covers
the months before Khatami took office, it noted little improvement so far in the human rights situa-
tion in Iran. Copithorne expressed particular concern over "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment," including stoning of women for adultery. He also said Iran does not recognize "the
equality at law of men and women" and tolerates "discriminatory conduct" against women.

Danish center issues three reports on human rights in Iran  AFP, Oct. 16
- The Human Rights Center of Denmark issued three critical reports in Farsi on the situation in Iran. The
reports were distributed in thousands of copies around the world among Iranian groups supportin-
gor opposing the Tehran regime. Klaus Slavinsky, the spokesman for this center said: We decided to
publish these reports in Farsi to inform the Iranians of various inclinations of the situation of human
rights in their country which is still very much a cause of concern. These reports were prepared in
March and October 1996 and February 1997.

Iran daily, Oct. 7 - 200 students from Kashan University protested what they called
the shortage of basic facilities in that university. High fares and shortage of transpor-
tation facilities, the undesirable quality of food, and dormitory problems were among
the issues protested to by the students.

Rights of religious minorities , Salam daily, Oct. 7 - The communal services of the Gonabadi
dynasty in Karaj was prevented on Thursday.

Routin Rituals, Sept. 18. It is said that the State Security Forces prevented the routine rituals of the Gonabadi
dynasty upon the order of the first branch of the Revolutionary Court of Karaj.

Plight of women, Jomhouri Islami, Oct. 5 - The first congress to study women's role in
defense and security was held in Kermanshah. General Asghar Jamali, military advisor to Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, addressed the gathering. He said in his speech: "Since all the creatures
have an instinct for defense, women must positively respond to this instinct just as men do.
Women's role in wars are not limited to nursing, giving services and attending to the needs of the
wounded. One of the major influences women can exert is to have high spirit and encourage their
husbands and sons."

Iran daily, Oct. 6 - Fifty Majlis deputies submitted a plan to make the girl schools a completely
"no-male zone". According to this plan, the Education Ministry must employ the teachers and fac-
ulty of girl schools, especially high schools, solely from among women.
 

Jomhouri Islami, Oct. 4 - Addressing those who claim that Islam views  men and women as
equal, Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani emphasized, "Who told you that there is no difference
between woman and man? I do not wish to say that women are deficient in thinking, under-
standing, knowledge and philosophy. God, however, has bestowed some privileges upon men,
which he did not bestow upon women. Do we want to abide by Islam or by the views of some
sister? Dear sister! What kind of a knowledge do you have? We have studied Islam for 50-60 years, and
still do not understand the whole story! How could you express any views about the laws of Islam,
when you have not studied anything?"

Deployment of minors for war Hamshahri daily, Oct. 5
- On the occasion of the beginning of the new academic year in Iran, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, deputy
Commander of the Guards Corps, said: "Students who study in the Guards Corps high schools must be
sensitive to the destiny of the revolution and be prepared for armed defense at all times."

Suppressive maneuvers IRTV, Oct. 8
- The second combat encampment for the Guards Corps will be held in the western district of
Tehran province in the latter half of October. 50,000 members of the Guards Corps will participate
in this camp from the provinces of Tehran, Qazvin, and Semnan.

Ilam's state radio, Oct. 7 - Ashura, Az-Zahra, and New War battalions will hold simultaneous
maneuvers all across the province of Ilam on October 8 and 9.

IRNA, Oct. 4 - The first stage of the military maneuvers called Enzar will be staged for one week
Repression continues.

Salaam daily, Sept. 2 - A thief who had destroyed the wall of a camera shop and stolen 28 cameras, was
convicted by Tehran's general court branch no. 12 and his four fingers will be chopped off... Upon completion
of investigations, Branch 12 of Tehran's General Court, Gholam Hossein was condemned to amputation of
his fingers. His accomplices were sentenced to jail and flogging. Hamshahri, Sept. 3 - Four armed robbers
were condemned to death in Kerman. The verdicts for Reza Yazdanpanah, Abbas Razmdideh, Hamid Reza
Mowlawi, and Ali Reza Esfandiari by the Supreme Court of Justice and they will be hanged in one of the
squares in Ker man.

Women be ware! Kermanshah radio, Sept. 6
- Friday Prayer leader, Haidari: On the issue of mal-veiling, I must say that women who wear heavy or
light make up and appear in public, in front of strange men and show off themselves, they have some
form of illness, some ki nd of moral and social problem. These type of women are devoid of human
health and nature. They must beware of themselves. Our Islamic society, the Hezbollah, the families
of the martyrs, and the great throngs of believers in God, how much more should these people suffer?

Ressalat, Aug. 30 - General Ayat Goudarzi, the former Security Forces commander for combating
social corruption was appointed as Commander of the State Security Forces in Greater Tehran. We
need to remind him of several important points in this regard: You can see that mal-veiling and non-
veiling, vulgar video and cassette tapes, and the common use of imported and satellite movies and
other manifestations of the obscene culture of West are abundant in Tehran. Your decisive and per-
sistent reaction to thi s matter is therefore necessary to change Tehran as it befits our revolution and
our Islamic capital.

30 executed in Iran, Aug. 19 - At least 30 persons were hanged in the past weeks in different Iranian
cities charged with such offenses as drug trafficking and banditry.  Two men in the southern Iranian
city of Boushehr (Aug. 19), five men in Gonabad (Aug. 6) , three men in Birjand (July 29), two men
in Khorramabad and a man and a woman in Isfahan (July 30), twelve men in Mashhad (July 14),
two men in Kashmar (July 10), and two men in Shahroud (July 10) were hanged in public.

Preparing for further clampdownTehran radio, Aug. 24 -
The Council for the Exigencies of the State continued its deliberation of the law to combat drug trafficking
and toughen the punishment of drug traffickers. It adopted one article of this law. According to this law the
punishmen ts for trafficking, producing, hiding, and selling drugs as well as purchasing, selling or keeping
the equipment for using drugs are intensified. Convicts will be condemned to  the designated punishments. According to the law ratified by this Council, the charges for drug traffickers have been increased ten fold and
Judicial authorities will enjoy freer rein in tougher approach to the "merchants of death."

Shortage of space in prisons Ressalat, Aug. 18 -
Mr. Arab Baghi, one of the representatives of Orumieh in Majlis, presented a report on the condition of
prisoners in the meeting of the administrative council of Western Azerbaijan province. He
said: 1,825 prisoners have not yet been charged. The prison is made for 1,700 to 1,800 persons, and
therefore, the authorities must quickly attend to this problem.
 
 

Women's committee members are half men Hamshahri daily, Aug. 24
- Elections for the board of directors of the Committee on Women, Family and Youth was carried out today
in Majlis. Marzieh Dastjerdi was elected chairwoman, Ibrahim Azizi first vice chairman, Ali Mo'alemi, second
vice chairman, Monireh Nobakht rapporteur, Hamid Taraqqi first secretary and Elaheh Rastgoo second
secretary... On the reason why some of the woman deputies did not become members of this committee,
one Majlis deputy said: "Based on the plan ratified in the Maj lis, not all women can become members of committees."

Girl children quit school Jomhouri Islami, Aug. 14 -
Statistics show that every year many girl children quit school in urban and rural areas. In the last academic
year alone, 54,829 girls quit school in cities and villages. Some 65% resided in the villages and 34% in the cities.

Ex-prisoners rearrested, murdered  August 14
- The mullahs' regime has re-arrested many former political prisoners in Tehran and other cities over the past
several months, reports from Iran say. Some of these prisoners most of whom had served 10 to 15 years in jail,
have either disappeared or been murdered by agents of the regime's Intelligence Ministry in staged accidents.

Attorney executed AFP, August 12 -
The Iranian armed opposition announced on Tuesday that "the execution of Mohammad Assadi, only one
week after Khatami's presidency, is yet another indication that change and reform are but a mirage in this
medieval dictatorship." The statement was issued by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The
International Federation of Human Rights League and the League to Defend Human Rights in Iran,
announced on Monday August 9 that Assadi, former attorney of Tehran's courts who had been arrested in
1993 for the sixth time since 1979, had been executed.

Kurdish refugee kidnapped, killed, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, August 14 -
An Iranian Kurdish refugee residing in the city of Solaymania, Iraqi Kurdistan, was kidnapped by terrorists
of the Islamic regime. The lifeless body of Ibrahim Gagoli, from the Iranian city of Marivan, was found a
few days later in the town of Panjvin.

Young woman escapes stoning death AFP, August 12 -
Kayhan daily reported that a 20-year-old Iranian woman came back to life in the hospital's mortuary after being
stoned. The young woman who was not identified, had been condemned to death by stoning. The Coroner
confirmed the girl's death, but she began breathing in the mortuary.

Where are the women? Frankfurter Rundschaw, August 13 -
And where are the women who were supposed to occupy government seats? So, women are like animals
who are only good for vote and for theatrics (as deputy to the president). In the previous elections, they
were not approved to run for presidency. As ministers, they will not be tolerated by the parliament and
will only endanger Khatami's all-man platoon. Is this worth it? This is a good question for women, whose
systematic suppression is the main nucleus of the mullahs' regime.
 

Five men hanged in Gonabad Hamshahri daily, Aug. 7
- Five Afghans, tried and condemned to death on drug trafficking charges, were hanged yesterday in Gonabad, Khorassan province.

Iranian's face to be burnt Reuter, Tehran, Aug. 5
- An Iranian court ordered a man's face burnt with acid for staging an acid attack on a young girl whose
father would not let them marry, a newspaper said on Tuesday...
Under Iran's Islamic laws of Qesas (Retribution) someone causing bodily harm can be punished by having a
similar injury inflicted by judicial authorities.

Executions, Lahijan, northern Iran, July 4
- Hossein Khorssand, a conscript soldier who had served in the army for 15 months, was executed in Malek
Ashtar prison in Lahijan. The reason for his execution was officially announced to be "moral issues," but Hossein
is said to have opposed the regime.

Arrests, Marand, E. Azerbaijan, July 6
- The State Security Forces raided "Bazi-shahr" park and harassed the youth. Twenty were arrested for
"having not observed the principles of Islam."

Poverty, Salam, Letter to the Editor, July 15
- I swear to God that I am sick and tired and cannot continue living like this. How can I remain silent,
when I do not have a job and live in a rented house. To earn the living for my wife and five children, I had
to sell the furniture, so much that we have become deprived of the most basic necessities of life.
How can I remain silent when I have to evacuate our residence by August, and I do not afford to pay the
deposit and rent for another place.
How can I remain silent when my children are very talented, but for reason stated above, they are deprived
of the opportunity for education. When the Education Department does not give any support to these type of
individuals, is it right to expect the present generation to welcome every hardship in the hope that the future
generations would reap the fruits of today's efforts? We are negligent of the fact that the future generations
might be even more deprived.

Economy Pejvak, Farsi language radio, Sweden, July 23 -
Iran will face serious economic problems should it not join the World Trade Organization. Fereydoun
Entezari, director for international relations in the Ministry of Industries and Mines, announced this and said,
"Communications and technology are becoming universal. The countries remaining out of this trend will
lose a lot... " Iran requested membership in the World Trade Organization, but was rejected due to the
United States' opposition. The U.S. considers the Islamic Republic as a state sponsor of international terrorism
and seeks to isolate Iran on the international level.

Number of female prisoners increased News from Iran, July 14
- According to the reports received from Iran, the number of female prisoners in Tehran's notorious
Evin prison has substantially increased. A prisoner recently released from Evin reports that female prisoners
are under the most barbaric forms of torture.

Islamic human rights! Tehran radio, July 15 -
When asked about last year's report of the U.N. Special Representative Copithorne on Iran, the secretary
of the Islamic Human Rights Committee said, "The mistake made by Copithorne and other rapporteurs
of the United Nations is that they compare the Islamic values in our society with the values of western countries.
They have not yet recognized that in a religious society, human rights are applied according to Islamic principles
and not western values."
 

106,000 imprisoned in a year Tehran radio, July 10 -
More than 200 tons of drugs were discovered last year and 106,000 persons arrested and imprisoned in this
connection. 40% rise in number of prisoners, 170% rise in number of arrests.
NCR secretariat, June 17 - In a press conference in Tehran, yesterday, Assadollah Lajevardi, the head of
the regime's Prisons Organization, acknowledged the existence of 138,000 prisoners in Iran. He added that
due to the high number of prisoners, he had even turned libraries, mosques and cultural centers into prisons.
The figure given by Lajevardi shows a 40% rise relative to the figure of 100,000 prisoners he had made
public January 1996. The actual number of prisoners is of course much higher.
In his press conference, Lajevardi revealed that in one month alone (March 21 to April 21) more than 58,000
people had been arrested or imprisoned, i.e., 1,930 every day. The figure shows a 170% rise compared to the
figure announced by the Interior Minister earlier in the year.
Last March, Interior Minister Ali Mohammad Besharati announced that in three months (December,
January and February) some 65,000 were arrested on drug trafficking charges.
The contradictions in figures given by Lajevardi and other officials display the fact that the actual number of
prisoners is far greater than 138,000 claimed by Lajevardi. He said in his conference: For testing each
prisoner, the Ministry of Health demands 200,000 rials. If we are to have tests for 468,000 prisoners, we need
something like 500 billion rials.
Such an admission reveals that the actual number of prisoners in Iran is at least 468,000. And if we take into
consideration the figure of 500 billion rials needed for medical tests, the number of prisoners would rise
several-fold.

Public hangings continue in Iran NCR Secretariat, Mar. 17
- The regime's media reported the executions of 10 people last week. On March 12, two people were hanged
publicly in the city of Sedeh and two others in the city of Shahin-Shahr in Isfahan province (central Iran). In
Shahin-Shahr, the mullahs used two cranes. Before the hangings, the executioners flogged the victims, Jamshid
Mehrban, 22, Ali Mir-Enayat, 23, Nasser Sa'adat and Mohammad Mehdi Baladi, respectively. The same day, four
were hanged in Tehran's Qasr prison on so-called moral offenses. Two others, Jahangir Eshaqi and Beheshti-pour
were hanged on March 11 in Mashad prison, northeast Iran. Previously, in the first week of March, 12 people
were hanged in northeastern Khorassan and northwestern Azerbaijan provinces, bringing to 22 the number of
publicly announced executions in the first two weeks of this month.

Executions Kayhan, Feb. 25
- Upon the verdict of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mashhad and confirmation of the Supreme Court of
Justice, five bandits and drug smugglers were hanged in front of a large group of people in Fariman. [Voice of
Mojahed commented on February 27 that the discovery of over 150 tons of drugs in less than one year, which
is 20 times the amount discovered in the last year of the shah's rule, indicates the extensive use of drugs
throughout Iran. According to various reports, the mullahs' regime advocates use of drugs specially among the
youths, as a criminal means of preventing them from joining the Resistance.]

Stricter Dress Code for Women AFP, Feb. 20
Tehran - Iran issued a new stricter Islamic dress code for women as part of its campaign to
turn back encroaching Western influences. The conservative newspaper Ressalat published the guidelines
laid out by the Martyr Ghodusi judicial center, which specializes in fighting signs of "decadent" Western
culture. Islamic law, as interpreted here, calls for prison terms of three months to one year, or fines and
up to 74 lashes of the whip for the following offenses: Women dressed in "modish outfits such as suits and skirt
without wearing a long overcoat on top." Iranian women have been required to wear a raincoat-like outfit
over their regular dress and a scarf under the Islamic dress code enforced after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But the regulations ban any mini or short-sleeved overcoat or those "flashy ones with fashionable cuts,
decorated with any exotic insignia."... The ban includes wearing any "depraved, showy and glittery objects on
hats, necklaces, earrings, belts, bracelets, glasses, headbands, rings, neckscarfs and ties."...

No improvement in human rights in Iran Voice of America, January 30
- The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights practices world-wide gives a mixed --
and generally bleak -- picture of human rights conditions in the Middle East... The State Department
says there is no evidence of improvement in rights conditions in Iran, where it accuses the Islamic
government of "systematic abuses," including extrajudicial killings and the widespread use of torture....

Self-immolation of a young woman Salam, Jan. 19
- A 19-year-old woman set herself aflame in Bari village of Ahwaz. It is said that she was victim of tribal
prejudices and discriminations.

Another onslaught on women,... Agence France Presse, Jan. 15
- The AFP correspondent observed that the Security Forces arrested improperly veiled women, or those
accompanied by men, whom they suspected of not being relatives. The women were forced onto a mini
bus parked near Vanak Square, whose windows were covered with red curtains. Vanak is a well-to-do
district in northern Tehran. A police officer oversaw the activities of these armed agents. Several women
suspected of breaching the religious-code were arrested accidentally. A young woman was arrested because
she was wearing a bright color garb and a floral scarf. Another young woman was arrested for wearing a black
leader coat which did not reach her knees. A young couple, both around 30 years old, were arrested and the
woman was taken into the bus to prove that they were married or from the same family. A teenage girl and
a boy were also arrested on the sidewalk but were set free when several passers by defended them. Those
arrested are fined or taken to the police station.

Temporary marriages victimize women France Soir, Jan. 14
- Temporary marriages which had been discredited in recent years are being debated again because of the
mullahs' preference. On the basis of this old initiative in the Shiite tradition, the marriage can extend over
a limited period, of even less than 24 hours, allowing men and women to have relationship within a religious
framework. An important Shiite leader, Ayatollah Ha'eri Shirazi, the Friday prayer leader of Shiraz in
southern Iran, today called for the revival of temporary marriages, called Seeqeh....
Many Islamic intellectuals oppose this tradition which threatens women. For Iranian opponents,
temporary marriages have nothing to do with social progress. It is an excuse for the clerical officials,
actually legitimizing their perverted behavior.
Afshin Alavi from the National Council of Resistance says, "Through an assistance network for the poor
widows of the victims of war, the regime has organized an official network of prostitution. Worst of all is that
"temporary marriage" helps the revolutionary Guards in carrying out a decree according to which virgin girls
who get executed go to heaven. Therefore on the night of the execution of Mojahedin girls who are
imprisoned without trial, temporary marriages are permitted to cover up rape. Most dreadful of all is that the
families of some of the victims receive a marriage gift from the prison officials after their daughter's
execution.

Holy month begins with public flogging Jomhouri Islami, Jan. 16
Mohammadi, head of the Justice Department of Islamshahr, announced: A man convicted of showing that
he is not fasting was flogged in public on the first day of the holy month of Ramadhan.

Amnesty says executions doubled in Iran Associated Press, Jan. 7
The number of executions in Iran more than doubled last year and many of the death sentences were carried
out after unfair trials, Amnesty International said today. The London-headquartered human rights group said
it recorded at least 110 executions in Iran in 1996, compared with 50 in 1995. "The true figure may be much
higher," it said, because "many executions are never reported."

Iran daily, Jan. 7, Tehran
- Three men convicted of murder in separate cases were hanged in Tehran's Qasr prison.

More Suppression Against Young Reuters, Jan. 8, Tehran
- Iranian courts set up to fight Western cultural influences have ordered 130 youths held for attending
parties that were "gatherings of debauchery," a court official was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Wednesday....
Agents also seized 1,243 satellite receivers imported from Dubai from two persons who were fined 80 million
rials ($27,000), Kazemi said. Iran banned satellite television in 1995....

The Washington Post, Jan. 10
- An Iranian visitor to Washington said that in Iran women and young people also are faring worse than
they have ever. Raids into private homes have been stepped up under the pretext of a crackdown on satellite
dishes, and Iranian authorities have begun a purge of university professors. "In Iran, just to be yourself is to be
political," said the visitor...

Death sentences and arrests AFP, Jan. 4
- Kayhan reported that two Iranians, accused of attempting to overthrow the Islamic regime and spying
for Israel and the U.S. were executed Sunday in Tehran. The victims were Hedayatollah Zendedel, a Jewish
merchant who had converted to Islam, and Abdol-Qassem Majd Abkahi.

Reuter, Dec. 24 - Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against an Iranian woman, Sheyda
Khorramzadeh Esfahani, for acting as a procuress for a gang convicted of economic sabotage and spying, a
newspaper said on Tuesday. The daily Iran said the Supreme Court also upheld death sentences against
three men, two businessmen and a former air force officer, convicted of setting up several companies as
fronts for their operations which included defrauding state banks o f large sums, bribing officials and helping
people leave Iran illegally.

Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, Dec. 22 - The regime has made dozens of arrests in the city of Piranshahr
(western Iran) in pursuit of its suppressive policies.

Oppressive human and women's rights!
Tehran radio, Dec. 26 - Khamenei's sermon in meeting with thousands of people in Tehran: Never in the
history of mankind, have oppression, corruption and rebellion been so extensive. Never in the history of
mankind, has man used so much deception and f orce under the pretext of human rights and women's rights
to inflict so extensive oppression on nations...