THE IRANIAN regime’s severe repression of pro-democracy campaigners following the disputed elections on June 12th has weakened its grip on power, a leading human rights activist has claimed.
Maryam Hosseinkhah, a journalist and women’s rights campaigner who has found temporary refuge in Ireland, said yesterday that the credibility of the regime was now questioned at home and abroad. “Before the elections, there were people who wouldn’t even sign up to our gender rights campaign but who are now taking to the streets to protest.
“A regime is never strong if it has to resort to violence,” she said at a lecture organised by NGO Front Line at Trinity College Dublin to mark UN human rights day.
The June election plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution when moderates accused hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of rigging the vote. Scores of protesters were killed in the street protests that followed and thousands more put in prison.
Ms Hosseinkhah described how she was arrested in 2007 for campaigning on behalf of the One Million Signatures Campaign in Iran, which aims to repeal a host of discriminatory laws against women.
“I was placed in a cell for 45 days, which I shared with another 20 women – some of whom had been convicted for murder. I was really afraid at first but when they told me their life stories I realised they were victims. They were the most vulnerable people, who often didn’t have money, education or families for protection,” she said.
Two fellow prisoners were executed when she was in prison and there were about 40 women on death row, said Ms Hosseinkhah, who describes her time in jail as a “human rights training course”.
Women in Iran face discriminatory laws in the fields of divorce, marriage, inheritance and many other areas, which make their position in society precarious, said Ms Hosseinkhah.
She said the gender rights campaign was going well in Iran, with more women and men signing up to its petition despite ongoing harassment by the authorities.
Ms Hosseinkhah recently moved to Ireland to study at NUI Galway with the support of Front Line. “I haven’t done anything against the law but, at the moment, being a human rights defender in Iran is considered a crime,” said Ms Hosseinkhah, who will return to Iran when the situation improves.
The continuing abuse of human rights in Iran was underlined by Amnesty International yesterday, which called on its government to halt the execution of juvenile offender Mohammad Reza Haddadi. Now 23, Mr Haddadi was sentenced to death for a crime that took place when he was 15.
Meanwhile, Burma Action Ireland marked UN human rights day with a demonstration outside Leinster House to protest against the house arrest of prominent rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
“As again we approach International Human Rights Day,December 10th, we are sadly reminded absolutely no progress has been made during the past year in the improvement of civil and human rights in Burma,” said the group in a statement.