Tehran: Iranians are expected to turn out in record numbers
tomorrow (June 12) to elect a president. The world is watching. For many
Iranians, this election will be a litmus test of the current government’s claim
that Iran is "the freest country in the world". While it is not officially on
the ballot, the future of human rights in Iran is at stake.
In the past four years – and particularly since the Obama
administration came into office – the government in Tehran, which has said it
seeks to bring "kindness and justice to the world", has stepped up its
harassment of human rights defenders. Its actions have put the Iranian
government in violation of some of its own laws as well as some of its
international commitments, including the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders.
Women are frequently targets for such harassment. More often
than not their only "crime" seems to be that they are tirelessly working to
bring about a more democratic system in Iran.
In my legal work in the past two years alone, I have defended
more than 50 women unjustly jailed or detained by the Iranian government for
their efforts to enact legislation that is less discriminatory to women than
existing laws, exercise their basic political rights and enjoy freedom of the
press. The situation for many women is difficult. Consider the recent case of
Roxana Saberi, a young Iranian American journalist who was sentenced in April to
eight years in prison for spying for the United States while working for the BBC
and National Public Radio; not only was there nearly no evidence against her but
Saberi was denied even the basic right to defend herself. (On appeal, Saberi’s
sentence was reduced to two years, suspended; she was released and has returned
to the United States.)
A great deal of government pressure is also imposed on the young
women who launched the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grass roots movement
to reform the legal system and educate the public about discrimination against
women. So far they have collected signatures – many of them from Iranian men –
and have talked face to face with thousands of Iranians about the importance of
legal reform. This work is a powerful example of how a vibrant civil society is
acting as a catalyst for change in Iran.
From the Iranian government’s perspective however, this work is
too powerful. The government has launched a counter-campaign against these women
and dozens have been imprisoned, harassed and denied travel documents to leave
the country.
Although I am more well known internationally than most human
rights defenders in Iran, I am not immune to the government’s wrath. Last
December Iranian police raided and shut down the offices of the Defenders of
Human Rights Centre, an organisation that I chair, on the illegitimate grounds
that it was operating without a permit. The following week government officials
raided my law office and seized my computers and files. Shortly after, police
stood by as a group of "demonstrators" attacked my home and office.
It is sad that peaceful protests organised by women seeking more
legal rights end with arrests and violence at the hands of the Iranian police –
while police officers look the other way during violent demonstrations outside
my home.
Worryingly, in the lead-up to the elections, groups working to
ensure free elections have also been targeted. Mehdi Mo’tamdi-Mehr, a member of
the Committee to Defend Free, Healthy and Fair Elections, has been arrested.
Many Iranians fear these elections will not be free or fair.
I am often asked about the elections but what I think about who
should win doesn’t really matter. As a lawyer and as someone who has spent my
career fighting for and within the Iranian legal system, I am more concerned
with the legality of the protection of human rights within Iran. The true mark
of success in Iran will be an election that follows due process. Politicians
come and go – but a healthy, functioning and fair legal system is the people’s
long-term guarantee for greater human rights.
In 2010 Iran will be up for a UN Universal Periodic Review on
human rights. One of the important issues addressed in that review will be the
manner in which government officials have treated human rights defenders. This
week I wrote to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling upon him to reopen the
Defenders of Human Rights Centre and to end the harassment of civil, political
and human rights activists.
In 2005 I wrote that Iran is undergoing a process of "awakening"
– it is a society undergoing profound social change. The latest government
crackdowns on journalists and human rights defenders are unacceptable but they
will not deter Iranians from their chosen path. Iranians deserve a system that
protects their rights. I am confident that this bold young generation of
activists will not let the irrational acts of those who seek to hold our country
back prevent them from systematically working to move Iran forward.
It is not an easy path but most worthwhile ones rarely are.