Human Rights Voices

While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.

Iran, August 23, 2006

Women’s rights activists beaten by police

Original source

The National Post

"In May, a group of 54 Baha'i youths who were tutoring underprivileged youths in Shiraz were arrested. None was officially charged with a crime, but a number of them were released only after their families paid high amounts of bail. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion or Belief announced in March that she had received a copy of a confidential memo stating that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, had instructed the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces to identify members of the Baha'i community and monitor their activities. The Baha'i community has a long history of official religious persecution in Iran.

In June, police beat hundreds of women's rights activists with batons during a peaceful demonstration in Tehran and took at least 70 people into custody. The demonstration followed a call by hundreds of women's rights activists for reforms to Iran's legal code and the removal of discriminatory clauses against women."