Subject: [fem-women2000 479] Iranian Women's Brief #27, Please Read and Pass on
From: AIWUSA <aiwusa@aiwusa.org>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:51:45 -0400
Seq: 479
AIWUSA-ASSOCIATION OF IRANIAN WOMEN-USA WEBSITE: http://www.aiwusa.org/ Phone: 703-941-8584 Contact person: Behjat Dehghan IRANIAN WOMEN BRIEF # 27 STONING TO DEATH OF A 30 =96YEAR-OLD WOMAN IRAN ZAMIN NEWS AGENCY, JULY 17,2000 Two young men aged 21 and 23 were hanged on Monday in Tehran's Qasr Prison, according to state-run newspapers. This brings the number of officially announced executions in the past week alone to eleven. The death sentences include the stoning to death of a 30-year-old woman. This is the thirteenth stoning to death being carried out during Khatami's presidency. Six of the victims have been women. Monday's executions raise the number of officially announced executions in the year 2000 to 127. ************************************************************ IRAN ACKNOWLEDGES PROSTITUTION TEHRAN, IRAN =96 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 6,2000 In a report Wednesday that exposes Iran's hidden social vices for the first time, an official acknowledged that prostitution and drug abuse were widespread among Iran's predominantly young population. ``Five tons of narcotics are consumed in Tehran every day. Official reports suggest that there are at least 2 million addicts. Some 100,000 addicts are in prison. Addiction to narcotics has even reached school classes,'' Mohammad Ali Zam, a Tehran official in charge of cultural affairs, said in a report published in Wednesday's newspapers. Shattering a taboo by admitting the existence of prostitution, the report said that the average age of prostitutes in Iran had dropped to 20 from 27 a few years ago. The report did not give an estimate for the number prostitutes. Zam, who read his report to city council officials Monday, said that 90 percent of girls who run away from home fall into prostitution, and warned that violence and theft among teen-agers was on the rise. For years, the hard-line clergy that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution has painted a rosy picture of Iranian society, never admitting to vices such as prostitution, which officially is punishable by death. Prostitutes are becoming more and more visible on the streets due to economic hardships and new social freedoms granted since the 1997 election of the moderate President Mohammad Khatami. The Tehran municipality is dominated by Khatami's pro-reform allies. Economic hardship is the main problem confronting most Iranians. More than half of the 62 million Iranians are below 19, meaning that every year hundreds of thousands want jobs that don't exist. The daily Hamshahri quoted Zam as saying that at least 12 million Iranians were living below the poverty line, and 20 percent of the population controlled 80 percent of the nation's wealth _ damning statistics for a ruling clergy that overthrew the monarchy and came to power in a revolution that promised greater equality and a more equitable distribution of wealth. Islam and religious education has been forced on all Iranian students, but Zam said there was increasing indifference to spirituality and moral issues among the youth. ************************************************************ MULLAHS BAN SURGICAL OPERATIONS ON CHILDREN IN CUSTODY OF MOTHER IRAN ZAMIN NEWS AGENCY JULY 4,2000 The senior advisor to the Health Minister in Khatami's cabinet declared in the state-run press "a letter of consent from women in custody of children or managing single-parent families is legally worthless, even in cases where a child may need an urgent surgical operation." The mullahs' laws dictate that if a mother in custody of her child takes him or her to a hospital for an urgent operation, she would be turned back, as the mother is not legally recognized to be able to give the parental consent needed for such an operation. This criminal legislation exists in a country where, according to official figures, women are breadwinners and responsible for 15 percent of all Iranian households, numbering more than 10 million people. Such anti-human laws and regulations, which deprive millions of children >from urgently needed medical treatment or operation, are clear signs of the intensely misogynous nature of the mullahs' religious dictatorship. Even before this, the mullahs' regime had imposed double oppression on the women in Iran by turning sex segregation in medical facilities into a law. Such laws have turned life into an inferno for millions of women and children living under the mullahs' rule. They are also against the letter and spirit of Islam and all universally recognized norms and standards. Through such legislation, the mullahs open the way for women to be subjected to the most savage forms of domestic violence and abuse. Makarem Shirazi, a senior and influential mullah in the regime, has recently declared that it would be blasphemous for Iran to sign the UN document on women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran urges all personalities and organizations defending human rights and the rights of women and children in particular to condemn the gender apartheid ruling Iran and the savage suppression of women in Iran. _________________________________________________________________________ fem-Women2000@jca.apc.org for Women 2000, UN Special Session on Beijing+5 Searcheable Archive http://www.jca.apc.org/fem/news/women2000/index.shtml visit fem-net HomePage for other mailing lists http://www.jca.apc.org/fem