War on Christianity - Iran To Execute 8 Christians
For Leaving Islam
Media is silent to avoid damaging Islam's image
The Politics Online
The shari'a regime in Iran cracks down on the Christian minority.
Security officials from Iran’s Intelligence Ministry raided the homes of eight Iranians converts to Christianity on July 1, in the southern city of Bushehr, carting them off to solitary confinement.
Under Iranian sharia law Leaving Islam or converting from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death.
Christians in Iran are not allowed to practice their religion publicly. The persecuted Christian minority in Iran are forbidden from sharing their faith with non-Christians. Consequently, church services in Persian (Iran’s national language) are not allowed.
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Assyrian community in Iran totaled approximately 200,000 people. However, since then many have fled and in 2015 only 32,000 Assyrians were left in the country, mostly in Tehran.
Iran is cracking down on its Christian minority, but the media and the UN are silent in order to avoid damaging the image of Islam.
Since 1979 Khomeini’s regime has executed tens of thousands of Iranians. The regime has killed thousands of Americans. This regime hasn’t changed in 40 years, Germany, Britain and France should join the US and impose sanctions against the sharia regime in Iran.
Three Women Sentenced To 55 Years For
Defying Compulsory Hijab In Iran
Radio Farda
Iranian women’s rights defenders Monireh Arabshahi (Center), Yasaman Aryani (Left) and Mojgan Keshavarz (Right) have been detained in Shahr-e Ray prison, outside Tehran, since April 2019.
Three women held in custody for "disrespecting compulsory hijab," or the so-called Islamic dress code, have been sentenced to a total of 55 years and six months.
A "Revolutionary Court" in the capital city of Tehran delivered the verdict to Monireh Arabshahi, Yasamin Ariany, and Mojgan Keshavarz who are behind bars in the notorious Qarchak prison.
Arabshahi and Ariany's legal counsel, Amir Raeesian, told Ensaf News website August 1 that if the verdict is upheld, his clients would be sentenced to ten years to serve, each.
In Iran if a prison term is unusually long, a shorter sentence is set to be served. Usually, the shorter sentence to be served is a little more than half of the original long prison term.
In an interview with Radio Farda, Mojgan Keshavarz's attorney, Mohammad Moqimi, also verified the news but said that her client would appeal.
The verdict was delivered to the prisoners in the absence of their lawyers, Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, reported.
The three had been charged with "assembly and collusion to act against national security," "propaganda against the regime," as well as "encouraging and preparing the grounds for corruption and prostitution."
However, Moqimi told Radio Farda that his client, Mojgan Keshavarz, had merely protested compulsory hijab and had nothing to do with other charges claimed by the prosecutor.
Ironically, none of the attorneys were allowed to represent their clients during different stages of issuing the indictment, interrogation, and trial.
Amnesty International (AI) had earlier also protested depriving the accused of the right of having access to legal counsels.
Why Iran's Hardliners Are Tightening Enforcement Of Hijab?
According to AI, "In April 2019, Yasaman Aryani, her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, and Mojgan Keshavarz were all arrested after posting a video that went viral on International Women's Day. In it, they are seen walking without headscarves through a Tehran metro train, handing flowers to female passengers. "The day will come when women are not forced to struggle," Monireh Arabshahi is heard saying while Yasaman Aryani hands a flower to a woman wearing a hijab, saying she hopes to walk side by side in the street one day, "me without the hijab and you with the hijab".
Sources say that because of this video, Yasaman Aryani and Monireh Arabshahi are facing charges that include "spreading propaganda against the system" and "inciting corruption and prostitution."
Furthermore, AI reported that the detained women were under heavy pressure to make self-incriminating testimony in front of TV cameras.
Branch 28 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court that condemned the three is presided by a notorious judge, Mohammad Moqisseh, who is well known for issuing harsh verdicts totally based on the reports compiled by intelligence agents.
Reportedly, while delivering the verdict, Moqisseh told the three, "I will make you suffer!"
Moqisseh is the same judge who on March 11 sentenced the prominent Iranian lawyer and defender of women's rights Nasrin Sotoudeh to nearly forty years.
A day later, Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, announced that only the longest sentence of the verdicts would be served, which is ten years imprisonment (for "encouraging corruption and debauchery and providing the means").
Iranian women defy threat of decade-long jail sentence by taking photos of themselves without headscarves
‘Women in these videos are braver and angrier than before,’
says Masih Alinejad
Maya Oppenheim Women's Correspondent
The Independent
Wearing the Islamic headscarf is compulsory in public for all women in Iran ( AFP/Getty Images )
Iranian women are sharing videos of themselves removing their headscarves in public, despite a recent ruling they could face 10 years in jail for doing so.
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and prominent activist based in the US, started a social media campaign in 2014 encouraging women in Iran to share self-portraits without the Islamic veil, which she then goes on to share on her Facebook page called “My Stealthy Freedom”.
Ms Alinejad said campaigners had carried on sending her pictures and videos even after Tehran’s Revolutionary Court ruled they could face up to 10 years in prison on Monday.
“Today I have received lots of videos from inside Iran. And women in these videos are braver and angrier than before,” she said.
Ms Alinejad said Iran’s government was “scared of women practising civil disobedience and engaging in peaceful protest”.
Wearing the Islamic headscarf is compulsory in public for all women in Iran – with those who do not wear a hijab, or are seen to be wearing a “bad hijab” by allowing some of their hair to show, facing punishments spanning from fines to imprisonment.
Female athletes have to wear the hijab during competitions.
Amnesty International says women and girls are regularly stopped in the street by morality police and vigilantes.
The head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court said those sharing protest videos with Ms Alinejad – who Tehran considers to be acting on behalf of the US – could be jailed for up to a decade under laws relating to cooperation with an enemy state.
“All those women who send the video footage of removing their hijab to her will be sentenced to between one to 10 years of jail,” Musa Ghazanfarabadi told the semi-official Fars news agency.
According to Amnesty International, at least 39 women were arrested last year in connection with anti-hijab protests.
Raha Bahreini, a researcher at the human rights organisation who specialises in Iran, said the country’s laws are written in a “very broad and vague manner” and this can be used by courts to increase penalties for women’s rights protesters.
She said: “This is a distressing pattern which shows that they want to increase their crackdown on this peaceful movement and they want to punish those who dare to defy compulsory veiling laws with very severe penalties”.
Last year, an Iranian woman was sentenced to two years in prison and 18 years of probation for removing her headscarf in a protest.
Shaparak Shajarizadeh said she had been sentenced for “opposing the compulsory hijab” and “waving a white flag of peace in the street”.
There has been mounting resistance to the enforced hijab over recent years in Iran – with some women shaving their hair and dressing as men. Many women are opposed to being forced to cover their heads and protesters have removed their hijabs and twirled them on sticks in defiance.
Women attacked for trying to watch football match in Iran
Women’s rights are severely restricted in Iran. Iranian women have been barred from watching stadium football matches for most of the 40 years since the Islamic Revolution. The clerical regime has been reported to have hired security forces since August last year to deal with women who attempt to sneak into the stadium with men’s make-up.
Some 60 per cent of Iranian women have experienced domestic violence at least once in their life, according to official data.
Last year, Iranian state TV was forced to apologise for a segment which featured a relationship expert tell domestic violence victims to kiss their husband’s feet.
“Even if your husband is a drug addict, if he beats you, just do it and you will see a miracle in your life,” the expert was said to have told viewers.
The woman, whose advice was roundly mocked on social media, told spouses to “slowly give him a foot massage” and then “kiss his feet”.
She said this would relieve a husband’s stress and help prevent strokes and heart attacks.
Hmmm. Wonder if I should ask my wife to do that for me?
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