NO FREEDOM OF RELIGION

London, Nov. 09 – The United States Department of State in its 2005 annual International Religious Freedom Report designated Iran as a “Country of Particular Concern” for “severely violating” religious freedoms. The report released by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour highlighted the treatment of religious minorities as a particular concern. “Members of the country's religious minorities--including Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Baha'is, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians--reported imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on their religious beliefs. Government actions created a threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities, especially Baha'is, Jews, and evangelical Christians”, it said. “The Government restricts freedom of religion. … The Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance (Ershad) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) monitor religious activity closely”. The Iranian government has been propagating an interpretation of Islam that effectively deprives women of some rights granted to men, the report added.

NO FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 21 – The international media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a report ranked Iran as the worst violator of press freedoms rights in the Middle East. RSF ranked Iran at 164 out of 167 in its 2005 annual Press Freedom Index. “Iran (164th) once again has the region’s worst record of press freedom, with seven journalists in prison and four others provisionally free and in danger of being returned to jail at any moment”, the top media watchdog said. It highlighted the cases of dissident journalist Akbar Ganji and cyber-dissident Mojtaba Saminejad, who are both currently serving prison terms. The international press freedoms group frequently criticised media censorship and violation of journalists’ rights in Iran.

U.S.-IRANIAN RELATIONS

There are serious obstacles to improved relations between the two countries. As a state sponsor of terrorism Iran remains an impediment to international efforts to locate and prosecute terrorists. Operation Iraqi Freedom removed the Iranian Government’s greatest security threat, but officially Iran remained neutral and critical of U.S. policy. Iran has cultural ties to elements of both the Iraqi and Afghan populations and it remains to be seen whether they will be a constructive force in the reconstruction of those countries or not. The U.S. Government defines its areas of objectionable Iranian behavior as the following:

• Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction;
  
• Its support for and involvement in international terrorism;
  
• Its support for violent opposition to the Middle East peace process; and
  
• Its dismal human rights record.

The United States has had discussions with Iranian representatives on issues of concern. The United States believes, however, that normal relations are impossible until Iran's policies change.

Execution of a 16 year girl in public - August 31, 2004 - Neka – The orphaned 16-year-old girl hanged in front of residents in this town close to the Caspian Sea on August 15 suffered years of brutal violence, exploitation and torture in the hands of relatives, local officials and plain strangers, and in a country where girls are the most vulnerable members of society, she had no one to go to for help. The tragic picture emerges from dozens of interviews conducted by an Iran Focus correspondent with Atefeh Rajabi’s classmates, friends, relatives and neighbors in this humid, overcrowded industrial town that sits on a busy highway linking Tehran with the north of the country. The hanging of Atefeh Rajabi has shocked the residents of Neka, who still differ widely in their assessment of the girl, but none voices support for the punishment that she has received. An air of tension and eerie silence hangs over the town’s smoke-filled tea-houses, or chaikhanehs, where men spend hours chatting quietly in clusters of three or four over tea. In a summer month like August, business should be booming in this town as thousands of Tehran residents flock to the sandy beaches of the Caspian. But right now, the visitors are for the most part not holidaymakers. “There are lots of strangers who come and we are used to them,” says Askar, a young shopkeeper who sells a variety of citrus fruit jams. “But right now, all of them are asking about the girl. They want to know who she was and how she died.” The shock of Atefeh’s execution has gone far beyond this town. Even in a country that has the highest number of executions in the world and routinely executes minors, Iranians across the nation have been bewildered by accounts of the hanging of a 16-year-old girl. The fact that the religious judge himself put the rope around her neck and the letters of “congratulations” from the town’s governor to the judge, commending him for his “firm approach” have only added to the torment and pain many say they have felt.