Subject: [fem-women2000 748] Iranian Women's Brief #46, Please Read and Pass on
From: AIWUSA <aiwusa@aiwusa.org>
Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 18:58:44 -0500
Seq: 748
AIWUSA-ASSOCIATION OF IRANIAN WOMEN-USA WEBSITE: http://www.aiwusa.org E-MAIL: aiwusa@aiwusa.org TEL: 703-941-8584 CONTACT PERSON: BEHJAT DEHGHAN IRANIAN WOMEN'S BRIEF NO.46 DECEMBER 2001 THE U.N RESOLUTION EXPRESSES CONCERN AT THE SYSTEMATIC DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS IN IRAN. U.N. Committee OKs Iran Resolution By EDITH M. LEDERER .c The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A key U.N. committee approved a resolution Friday, November 30, expressing concern at continuing human rights violations in Iran, including a growing number of executions and crackdowns on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. The General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee voted 71 to 53, with 41 abstentions, in favor of the resolution calling on the Iran to abide by its international human rights obligations. The resolution received about 20 more ``yes'' votes than a similar resolution last year, which Iranian opposition groups attributed to the crackdown on human rights by hard-liners in the government who believe in strict adherence to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Approval by the committee means that the resolution is certain to be adopted when it comes to a vote in the 189-member General Assembly in December. The resolution ``expresses concern'' at the imprisonment of journalists and members of Parliament, the harsh reaction to student demonstrations, and the use of torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman punishment, ``in particular the practice of amputation and the growing number of cases of public flogging.'' It deplored ``public and especially cruel executions, such as stoning.'' The resolution also expresses concern at the systematic discrimination against women and girls, and against minorities, especially Bahais, Christians, Jews and Sunni Muslims. The resolution urged Iran to take further measures ``to promote full and equal enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights,'' to eliminate religious discrimination, to end the use of torture, and to abolish the death penalty for crimes by those under the age of 18. Hard-liners, who control unelected key institutions, including the judiciary and police, have closed reformist newspapers and jailed dozens of reformist journalists and political activists, most of them without trial. The reformist press supports President Mohammad Khatami's program of increased social and political freedom. But hard-liners accuse it of undermining the principles of the 1979 revolution. Massoud Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group, said that 4 1/2 years after Khatami took office there has been a serious backsliding on human rights. He said the Iranian people in recent uprisings have showing their opposition to the hard-liners and their support for ``the establishment of democracy'' in Iran. ********************************************************* ENEMY OF MY ENEMY, THE NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 29 [Excerpts from an opinion column by William Safire] WASHINGTON -- Here is the modern corollary to a Middle Eastern proverb: The enemy of my enemy can be my enemy, too. Iran's Shiites despise the Taliban Sunnis; fundamentalists of both branches of Islam have long been killing one another. Iran's ayatollahs also hate another U.S. enemy, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who killed a half million Persians in the Iran-Iraq war. Does that enmity of our enemies make Iran our friend? You might deduce that from the warm handshake extended to Iran's foreign minister by Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N. last week, the first such contact since the mass kidnapping at our Tehran embassy in 1979. Or from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when asked by Bob Schieffer of CBS about Iranian liaison with U.S. forces in Afghanistan: "You're going to see new relationships coming out all across the globe." That's because we've been falling for the tough-cop-nice-cop routine from Tehran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who rules as Iran's religious commander, punishes dissenters as he spews hatred of Israel and "Great Satan" America. Meanwhile, nice-cop President Mohammad Khatami condemns the Sept. 11 attacks and supports the Afghan rebels, feeding dreams of "moderation" in bloom. But reformers in Iran's Parliament are repeatedly squelched by Khamenei's ruthless Guardian Council. Suppressed Iranians now know that front man Khatami's election led to a false spring. Fifty newspapers have since been closed; the vigilantes of Hezbollah, the "Party of God," are urged by clerics to beat up students with democratic yearnings; savage public executions are on the rise. When rumors spread last month that the government had bribed soccer players to lose a World Cup qualifying match, tens of thousands marched in the streets to denounce the ayatollahs and to hail America. In our State Department's most recent report on global terrorism, Iran beat out Iraq and Syria to win the title of "most active state sponsor of terrorism." This conclusion, unwelcome to dovish policy makers at Foggy Bottom, was not lightly arrived at. Evidence is mounting that Tehran sponsored the killing of Americans at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia... ...Local tyranny and global terror go hand in hand. That's why we should resist strange antiterrorist bedfellowship with Iran's tough-cop-nice-cop rulers. Iran is becoming ripe for democratic revolution. We should not ally ourselves with the cruel clerics whom secular Persian patriots will one day throw out. _________________________________________________________________________ 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