International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch
Campaign for the rights of Iranian asylum seekers in the UK
We have fled the barbaric regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under this regime,
laughter, happiness and love are a crime and sexual discrimination, flogging and
executions are the norm. The regime imprisons, tortures and executes people for their
beliefs. It executes children and teenagers. It stones women and men to death and
hangs gays for consensual sex. Under this regime, workers are denied the right to
organise and strike; labour activists are routinely beaten up and imprisoned. There is
no freedom of expression and opposition political activity is banned. Women are
treated as second-class citizens and sexual apartheid rules. Young people are denied
the prospect of any meaningful life; their protests for rights and freedoms are violently
suppressed. The list is endless.
To flee such conditions is the basic right of people, and many have already done so
and continue to do so – often at the cost of endangering their lives and that of their
families. They take such risks to find shelter in other countries in order to escape from
the nightmare of prison, torture and persecution. They risk starvation and death at sea
or in freezing mountains to get themselves to a safe place. Hundreds and thousands
have had their dreams buried on the way to safe zones.
Arriving at a safe shore, such as the UK, is not the end of the agonies of asylum
seekers. For many, another nightmare is just beginning! In clear breach of its
obligations under international conventions on the rights of persons fleeing
persecution, the British government has arbitrarily refused the applications of
thousands of refugees who have fled the Islamic dictatorship in Iran. The reasons for
these refusals do not correlate with the truth. When a refugee says she is a woman
who escaped the Islamic reaction, they do not accept her application. If a worker says
that they had not been paid any salary for months, and the response to their protest
had been arrest and torture, they are told that those are not reasonable grounds for
refugee status. If a student says they were persecuted for their activities against the
regime, they are not believed. If someone says that as a youth they did not have any
political, social or cultural freedoms, their applications are denied any consideration.
The current policy of the British government towards asylum seekers is totally
arbitrary, irresponsible and inhumane. Refusing their applications and deporting them
back to Iran is tantamount to denying the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
returning victims back to their persecuters.
Address: IFIR, BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX
Tel: 07931866985 ifiruk@yahoo.com
www.hambastegi.org
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) in the UK protests against
this policy of the British government. Since 16 January 2006 we have started a
campaign for a period of two months with the following aims:
1-Iran under the Islamic Republic is not a safe country. No Iranian asylum
seeker should be deported to Iran;
2-There should be an immediate stop to all detentions of Iranian asylum seekers.
All those currently in detention in British prisons for the ‘crime’ of seeking
asylum should be freed;
3-Given the present suppressive nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the
British government must change its policy towards the asylum seekers and
grant them refuge.
We urge all humanitarian organisations and individuals to support our campaign.
For more information, please contact Siamak Amjadi, the Secretary of the
International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch.
Tel: 07946 75 25 34 or 07931 866 985
ifiruk@yahoo.com
BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX
Address: IFIR, BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX

By Golnaz Esfandiari

The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization is expressing concern over the self-immolation of Kurdish women in Iran's Western Azerbaijan Province. The organization has published the name of more than 150 Kurdish women who have committed suicide in the past nine months, the majority of them by setting themselves on fire. Observers and activists say self-immolation of women is also happening in some other Western provinces of Iran that have large Kurdish populations, such as Ilam, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan. Domestic violence, social injustice, and discrimination are cited as the main reasons for self-immolation among women.
PRAGUE, 8 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Nasrin Mohammadi is a member of a women's NGO in Marivan in Iran's western province of Kurdistan. She says the number of women who attempt to kill themselves through self-immolation is growing in her city.
One of the recent cases involves a woman who set herself on fire to protest her husband's decision to marry another woman.
"I know this woman who is illiterate; her husband became very rich in a very short time and he forced his wife to sign a letter of consent so he could marry another woman," she said. "She didn't know what she was signing. Since then she has attempted to commit suicide by self-immolation; 80 percent of her body is burned and considering her condition I think she will die [soon]."

Little Hope And A Grim Future

Mohammadi tells RFE/RL that due to conservative traditions and social restrictions, women in her region have little hope in life and often a grim future.

"Desperation is the main reason for the self-immolation [of women]," she continued. "Women face more pressure in a traditional society and in our region because of deprivations and the rule of [old] traditions this pressure has become much stronger. Women in our region are seen as 'second class' citizens. The economic situation of women is a main factor; they are totally dependent on men and also the laws of our country are such that the courts never protect women."

The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization has said that for many women in the region, burning oneself is an outcry against the "patriarchal system" that rules the society and also against the abuse of their basic rights.

Mohammad Sadegh Kabudvand says violence against women is one of the main reasons for suicide among Kurdish women.

Subjected To Violence

"It is certain that pressure and domestic violence and religious prejudice is causing this problem," he said. "In the Kurdish regions men have more [rights] at home and in the society and women are considered inferior."

Kabudvand told RFE/RL that all the documented cases of self-immolation of women in Iran's Western Azerbaijan Province involve young women -- between the ages of 14 to 30 years old -- with little education. He says his organization is planning to document cases of self-immolation in other provinces such as Ilam and Kermanshah where self-immolation is reportedly common.

Mohsen Janghorbani is a professor of epidemiology at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences who has done some research on attempted suicides in Ilam. He believes easy access to flammable materials such as petrol makes self-immolation the most common method of suicide in Ilam. Professor Janghorbani told RFE/RL that self-immolation is not just a way to end life, but also a way to send a message to their families and to the society.

"I think that women do not want to really commit suicide but they want, in fact, to make their cry for help to be heard and say that they are facing injustice," he said. "They use this means, [even though] it is the worst form of suicide. Most of them are young women who are suffering in forced marriages or have some other family-related problems."

Education Needed

He believes better protection of women's rights and economic development in the region could help tackle the problem. He adds that a woman's access to a better education would make them more aware of their rights and help them express their despair in other ways.

Nasrin Mohammadi from the Cultural Society of Marivan's Women agrees. "Laws should be changed in a way that they will protect women," she said. "[The mentality] of the families should change and also the culture of the society [should change]. It needs a long time. Currently we can't do much but we should at least boost the women's morale; we should give them some hope for the future so that they don't feel that they are totally alone and defenseless."

Experts believe the availability of family mental-health centers and psychological programs may reduce the rate of self- immolation in the region.

The Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan has called on media and NGOs to help raise people's awareness about women's issues in an effort to help change social and cultural patterns relating to men's behavior. The organization has also called on the Iranian government to join international agreements and conventions that guarantee equal rights for women such as the UN Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Violence Against Women.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/iran.html

Iran Focus-Hard-line radical Islamists attacked the British embassy in Tehran on Wednesday, smashing several of its windows, a day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran not to make the “mistake” of thinking that the international community would allow it to develop nuclear weapons.

The demonstrators who were affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards threw stones and sticks at the embassy while chanting, “Death to Britain”.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted on Saturday a resolution sponsored by London, along with Paris and Berlin, reporting Iran to the United Nations Security Council for breaches of its international obligations regarding its suspected nuclear weapons program.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria on Wednesday of inciting Muslim anger against the West over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked deadly protests.
President George W. Bush said governments should stop the violence that has erupted over the cartoons, including attacks on Western embassies in parts of the Muslim world. At least 10 people have been killed in protests in Afghanistan alone.

"Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it," Rice said at a joint news conference with Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

She said nothing justified the violence that had resulted from the cartoons and appealed to governments to urge calm.

"There are governments that have used this opportunity to incite violence," she added, referring to Syria and Iran.

Rice took a more pointed jab at Iran and said it had "not even hidden its hand in this."

The United States is on a collision course with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program and was instrumental in getting the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency last Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

Rice said Iran had "no alternative course" than to accept the demands of the international community over its nuclear programs. Iran denies it is building a nuclear weapon and says its program is for civilian energy use only.

Violence flared around the Muslim world after caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were first published in a Danish daily, and then reprinted across Europe. Many Muslims consider any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous.

Speaking to reporters later, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said protests over the cartoons in Iran and Syria were apparently sanctioned by their governments.

HOLOCAUST CONTEST

But the United States did not believe protests in other parts of the Muslim world were due to Iran and Syria inciting violence, McCormack added.

An Iranian newspaper, in retaliation for the European cartoons, has launched a competition calling for cartoons about the Holocaust, a move the State Department called "outrageous" and that McCormack said was influenced by Iranian authorities.

Last year Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and described the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War Two, as a myth.

Syria is under intense world scrutiny for its alleged role in last year's killing of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri and European officials have said stoking Muslim fury could be a way to warn the West of the risks of destabilizing the Syrian government.

The White House has blamed Syria for not protecting the Danish and Norwegian embassies that were torched by protesters angered by the cartoons.

Bush discussed the Muslim reaction to cartoons with Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday and said it was "a topic that requires a lot of discussion and a lot of sensitive thought."

"We believe in a free press, and also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others," Bush said.

But, he added: "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press."

Abdullah condemned the cartoons, but said protests should be peaceful.

"With all respect to press freedoms, obviously anything that vilifies the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities I believe needs to be condemned," Abdullah said.