RIGHTS-IRAN: UN Envoy Sees Some Improvements, but Not for Women

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 1998 (IPS) - The human rights picture in Iran has been improving under President Mohammed Khatami, but there has been no significant change in the status of women and religious minorities, according to a new U.N. report.

The report, compiled by U.N. special representative Maurice Copithorne, was released here Wednesday. It is just the latest recognition of increased freedoms – including a relatively more open press and legal reforms – in Iran since Khatami’s landslide election in May 1997.

Much of the credit, the report contends, goes to Khatami himself, who is cited in the document as arguing: “I am trying to defend people’s rights on the basis of religion and freedom. We must defend the rights of an individual who does not even recognise my religion.”

“It is difficult to doubt that these aspirations are sincerely felt,” says the report, but “… a tolerant society is still very much a work in progress.”

Copithorne, who was not allowed access to Iran and thus had to use second-hand sources to investigate the human rights situation, says Khatami faces opposition from more conservative Islamic elements and that progress “seems to be too often a matter of two steps forward and one step back”.

In particular, “the status of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran did not appear to improve in any significant way,” says the report, which covers events from January to August of this year.

Strict dress codes (or ‘hijab’), unequal inheritance laws and segregated health care remain in effect for women, the report says, adding that “there continued to be occasional harassment of young women by Teheran police and extrajudicial groups for failing to conform to the appropriate dress code”.

The report also notes reports of persecution against religious minorities, in particular Baha’is, Christians, Zoroastrians and even Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in a country dominated by Shi’a Muslims. “The condition of religious and ethnic minorities must have a place in the agenda of the government,” Copithorne argues.

Despite such problems, the report notes examples of increased tolerance and liberties, particularly as a result of actions by Khatami’s executive branch of government.

The report paints a picture, in particular, of a struggle over freedom of expression between “two groups of leaders” – the executive branch and more convervative elements among the religious leadership and legislative Majlis. On the one hand, more press outlets have opened and most disputes are subjected to a “freewheeling public debate”; on the other, many reformist papers and journalists have been harassed.

At the same time, judicial reforms – including the requirement of an undergraduate degree for all prospective judges and a review process to be overseen by senior judges – have pushed ahead, the report says.

Copithorne also lauds Iran’s new director-general for prisons, Morteza Bakhtiari, whom the report argues “brings a new face and, it appears, a new approach to the task of reforming Iranian prisons”. Bakhtiari has pledged to reform Iran’s prisons and “to root out illegal detention centres”, a positive sign given that Iran’s estimated 150,000 prisoners have often alleged torture and mistreatment.

Despite the judicial reforms, however, the report contends that executions are proceeding at “a fairly high rate”, while other extreme punishments – including stoning and amputation – remain on the books. The Khatami government has responded that no amputations are now being carried out.

The Iranian president won praise, and offers of improved relations with the United States, Britain and other Western states, during his visit to the United Nations last month, when he called for dialogue between Islamic and Western nations. But Khatami’s visit also underscored the challenges he faces in making real improvements in Teheran’s rights record.

For example, Iran restored diplomatic links with Britain on Sep. 24 following clarifications by Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi that the 1989 edict issued by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini which called for the death of British author Salman Rushdie would not be enforced.

“We should consider the Salman Rushdie affair as completely finished,” Khatami said during his visit. Kharrazi added that Teheran would take no action to enforce Khomeini’s ruling and would not honour previous pledges by Iranian groups to pay a bounty for killing the writer, whose 1988 novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ was deemed blasphemous by Iran’s clergy.

Yet despite such assurances, one private Iranian group, the 15th of Khordad Foundation, last week insisted that Khomeini’s edict remains in effect and actually increased the bounty on Rushdie from 2.5 million to 2.8 million dollars.

Many conservative groups – including the paramilitary Ansar-e- Hezbollah, have conspicuously refused to abide by Khatami’s commitments on Rushdie or on matters of religious tolerance in general. However, Copithorne says, Ansar-e-Hezbollah’s presence “appears to have been less in evidence” in recent months.