Religion is a Mental Illness

Iran votes to execute protesters, says rebels need "hard lesson"

Nearly 15,000 Iranians have been arrested in connection with the protests, which were spurred by the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

www.newsweek.com

After numerous calls for harsh punishments in recent days, the Iranian parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty for protesters.

Iran has been experiencing unprecedented levels of protests and civil unrest since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was arrested by the country's "morality police" for supposedly wearing an "improper" form of hijab during a visit to Tehran and allegedly beaten severely while in custody. The beatings are believed to have led to her death from a fatal head injury, but Iranian authorities have denied the accusation.

In the wake of Amini's death, there have been large-scale nationwide protests the likes of which Iran has not seen in decades. Female protesters have notably taken to burning their hijabs and cutting their hair in public in defiance of the rules imposed by Iran's Islamic government, under the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian lawmakers have, in recent days, called for strict punishments for the protesters who have been arrested. On Monday, CNN reported that a letter signed by 227 members of the Iranian parliament urged that the protesters be given harsh punishment that "would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time."

"Now, the public, even protesters who are not supportive of riots, demand from the judiciary and security institutions to deal with the few people who have caused disturbances in a firm, deterrent, and legal manner," Iranian government spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said, according to Reuters.

On Tuesday, parliament did just that, voting to impose the death penalty on all protesters in custody as a "hard lesson" for all rebels. The majority in favor of the penalty was considerable, 227 out of the 290 total members, matching the number of lawmakers who signed the letter.

It is unclear when the executions will be carried out, but the task will potentially be significant. As of Thursday, CNN reported, about 14,000 people had been arrested in connection with the recent protests. On Tuesday, Carnegie Endowment fellow Karim Sadjadpour said the number was nearing 15,000.

"In the last 8 weeks Iran's regime has killed over 300 protestors, imprisoned nearly 15,000, and threatened to execute hundreds more, yet Iran's women persist," Sadjadpour wrote in a tweet. "Today female university students removed their forced hejab and chant, 'I am a free woman.'"

Several prominent figures in Iran are calling for a response from foreign governments.

"Outrageous! After killing 100s of protesters on the streets & a violent crackdown, 227 MPs in Iran called the protesters "Mohareb" & asked the judiciary to issue "retribution" sentences [execution]," journalist Omid Memarian tweeted on Sunday. "The world should respond. Dangerous!"

In response to the parliament vote, activist and journalist Masih Alinejad tweeted: "227 members of the 290-seat Parliament in Iran have called on the Judiciary to issue death sentences for people arrested during the ongoing uprising. They want to execute innocent protesters who chanted Woman Life Freedom. The world must stop this act of terror."

Newsweek reached out to the Iranian government for comment.

Iran sentences 2 LGBTQ rights activists to death for "spreading corruption on earth," rights groups say

According to two human rights groups, the women were condemned on the charge of "spreading corruption on earth."

www.cbsnews.com

Paris — A court in Iran has sentenced to death two gay rights activists on charges of promoting homosexuality, campaigners said Monday, urging pressure from the international community to stop the implementation of the verdicts.

The two women, Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were sentenced to death by the court in the northwestern town of Urmia, the Hengaw Kurdish rights organization said.

They were convicted of "spreading corruption on earth" — a charge frequently imposed on defendants deemed to have broken the country's sharia laws, it added. They were informed of the sentence while in detention in the women's wing of the Urmia jail.

In a short statement, the Iranian judiciary confirmed that the sentences had been issued.

There has for months been concern about the fate of Sedighi Hamedani, also known as Sareh, a prominent Iranian LGBTI activist.

She was arrested in October by Iranian security forces while trying to flee into neighboring Turkey after returning to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she had been based.

Sedighi Hamedani was subsequently held in solitary confinement for almost two months.

Shadi Amin, a coordinator for the Germany-based Iranian LGBTI rights group 6Rang, also confirmed the execution verdicts, which she said the group had been aware of since Thursday but could now disclose after receiving permission from the families.  

"We now demand pressure from Germany and other foreign governments" on Iran for the release of the two women, she told AFP.

"This is the first time that a woman has been sentenced to death in Iran for her sexual orientation," she added.

Amnesty International said in January that the charges stemmed from her public defense of gay rights on her social media platforms, as well as an appearance in a BBC documentary aired in May 2021 about the abuses that LGBTQ people suffer in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq (KRG).

She had decided to leave Iraqi Kurdistan after being detained by the regional authorities. It appears she crossed into Iran again before trying to head for Turkey.

Activists frequently denounce Iran's treatment of LGBTQ individuals. Homosexuality is banned in Iran with its penal code explicitly criminalizing same-sex sexual behavior for both men and women.

Before leaving Iraqi Kurdistan, Sedighi Hamedani had sent 6Rang videos to be made public in case she failed to make it to safety.

"We, the LGBTI community, are suffering. Whether through death or freedom, we will remain true to ourselves," she said in one of the videos.

"I hope to achieve freedom," she added, also alleging that she had been tortured with methods including electrocution while in Iraqi Kurdish custody.

Activists accuse Iran of being in the throes of a major crackdown that is affecting all areas of society, including a new push against the Bahai religious minority, a surge in executions and arrests of foreign nationals.

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment