The Iranian news agency Mehr reported on Tuesday that the Attorney General’s Office issued an instruction to the police and courts to take more rigorous action against violations. The additional penalties apply not only to women, but to all violations – including restaurant owners who serve a woman without a hat. Due to such incidents, several cafes and restaurants have recently been ordered to close.
There have been protests against the Islamic leadership in Iran for months. They were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini. She died on September 16 after the vice squad arrested her in Tehran for violating the strict Islamic dress code. Activists assume that Amini was mistreated by the police.
Several executions in Iran
The Iranian leadership is taking decisive action against the protests. Hundreds of participants have already been killed and thousands more arrested. Since the protests began, the Iranian judiciary has issued 18 death sentences, four of which have already been carried out.
Most recently, the judiciary announced that a man in the city of Novjar in the northern province of Masandaran had been sentenced to death for “corruption on earth”. He was found guilty, among other things, of “leading a group of rioters,” according to the Iranian judicial authorities’ news website Misan Online.
Meanwhile, the reform-oriented daily Etemad reported that journalist Mehdi Beikoghli, who was arrested on Thursday evening, had been released on bail, according to his wife. The head of the political department of “Etemad” had conducted several interviews with the relatives of demonstrators who had been sentenced to death for their role in the nationwide protests.
Türk: Capital punishment is used as a weapon
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk criticized the executions as an illegal strategy of deterrence by the Islamic leadership. “Criminal justice and the death penalty are used as weapons by the Iranian government to punish individuals who take part in protests and instill fear in the population in order to quell dissent,” Türk said on Tuesday.
Analysis by Iran expert Shoura Hashemi
Lawyer Shoura Hashemi has been observing and commenting on the protests in Iran on social networks since September. She speaks about Austria’s reaction to the dramatic situation in Iran.
This is a “violation of international humanitarian law,” emphasized the Commissioner for Human Rights. Organizing and participating in protests is a fundamental right, but the actions of the Iranian authorities are tantamount to “state-sanctioned killing”. The government in Tehran would “better serve its interests and those of its people” by initiating popular-demand reforms.
In addition, she must ensure diversity of opinion and freedom of expression as well as “complete respect and protection of women’s rights in all areas of life”. Türk called on the Iranian leadership for an “immediate moratorium on the death penalty and a cessation of all executions”. Two more executions are imminent in Iran, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
