Condition Of Women In Iran 'Dire', Rights Group Says

Mahmoudzadeh – along with at least 12 others -- was killed during the Revolutionary Guard’s bombing campaign in late September, when the regime stepped up attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan region, presumably to pressure Iranian Kurdish opposition groups whom it accused of fomenting the unrest ignited by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the US District Court in Washington DC by Mahmoudzadeh’s wife and daughter, seeks $300 million in punitive and $50 million in compensatory damages “for severe personal injuries and other irreparable harm” suffered as a result of his extrajudicial killing and alleged acts of terrorism by the Islamic Republic and its military arm, the Revolutionary Guards. 

The lawsuit is filed under the terrorism exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) by plaintiffs’ attorney Ali Herischi of Herischi Human Rights Law Center. The provision in the law allows US victims to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism. The IRGC was labeled a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.

The Mahmoudzadeh's lawyer says his death was downplayed by the Biden administration, which condemned the attack at the time, calling it "an unjustified violation of Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity." "Regrettably, US officials remained silent in publicly holding Iran accountable," Herischi told Al-Monitor, adding that "It appears that the US has chosen to bury that issue." 

According to the 14-page complaint, the IRGC’s strikes were an “organized, tactical operation intended to target Kurdish, Iranian civilians and refugees." Local media said that the IRGC fired more than 70 short-range ballistic missiles and drones at bases that the regime claimed were “operated by separatist terrorists.” The attack in Koysinjaq (Koye) -- an Iraqi Kurdish town some 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of Kurdistan’s capital Erbil -- injured more than 50 people and left behind “mountains of concrete rubble that were once classrooms, hysterical children, [and] shambles of displaced furniture,” the document added. 

Mahmoudzadeh was a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), an exiled Iranian opposition group seeking greater autonomy for Iran’s Kurds. At the time of the September 28 attack, Mahmoudzadeh was near KDPI’s headquarters in Koye. Born in the western Iranian city of Mahabad, Mahmoudzadeh spent several decades in Iran and Iraq before moving to the United States in 1995. After raising his family in northern Virginia, he returned to Iraq in 2018 to work as a volunteer with refugees in Koya. 

The Islamic Republic, however, is not expected to respond in court to the lawsuit. A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations told Al-Monitor that Tehran had no information on whether any US citizens were killed in the “precise attack” on a "terrorist headquarters" in Iraq, adding that “If a US citizen was among them, then it's the US government's responsibility to explain why a US citizen was at the terrorists' headquarters."

On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during her visit to the Iraqi capital that Iranian missile attacks across the Iraqi border are unacceptable and put regional stability at risk. "With its missile attacks, the Iranian regime shows not only that it recklessly and brutally suppresses its own people, it also puts human life and the stability of the whole region at risk to hold on to power," she said on the same day that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was also visiting Iraq.

Germany, and some other European countries, have adopted a tougher line toward Iran’s suppression of protesters and the IRGC, which is the regime’s arm in cracking down on dissent. So far, the regime’s agents have killed more than 500 civilians.

Majid Mirahmadi, deputy interior minister for security affairs, said Tuesday that “a number of individuals” were arrested in five provinces in connection with poisoning attacks on girls’ school without disclosing any details regarding these individuals, their motive and their political or religious affiliations.

“A number of cases [in which the activities of individuals in question] were of non-hostile nature were discovered and they were given corrective guidance,” Mirahmadi said in a news program aired by the state-run television.

In other words, individuals who were not hostile to the regime, most probably loyalists, were free to go after receiving a warning, despite conducting what amounted to chemical attacks on children and minors.

The announcement which immediately became controversial was easily interpreted as an admission of the involvement of extremists from within the regime or protected by it.

Actor Reza Kianian has been indicted for sharing this poster on social media which implies involvement of security forces in school poisonings.

Many ordinary Iranians have been suspicious of involvement of the regime itself, or religious extremists protected by the regime, in the school attacks and call the acts “state terrorism”.

Interestingly, so far most officials and state media were claiming that schoolgirls were attacked by foreign intelligence services.

“I’m sorry, but you must be extremely inefficient in ensuring children’s safety if you are right in claiming that students’ poisoning is the work of foreign countries and not your own doing,” a student told ultra-hardliner politician and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili at a panel discussion at Chamran University in Ahvaz Monday while other students cheered him loudly.

Suspicions were fueled by the fact that the first attack on November 30, and several of the subsequent ones, occurred in the religious city of Qom, a bastion of hardliners and fundamentalists and home to most of Iran's Shia seminaries.

The suspicions, which many expressed on social media, grew even stronger when a spate of attacks was reported in Boroujerd in western Iran in late February and then in other cities such as the capital Tehran without any action by the government to stop the perpetrators.

People protesting in Sanandaj in western Iran chanting “Scoundrels, scoundrels” against security forces.

Critics pointed out that authorities had remained silent about the incidents for over two months, were dismissive of the seriousness of the school attacks until they spread to too many schools and too many cities to be ignored. The government also tried to attribute the symptoms to “underlying health conditions” and fear and stress-induced illness and blamed the opposition and foreign countries when they finally acknowledged the attacks. Many also said the attacks could also be revenge against women and the Woman, Life, Freedom protesters.

Critics also argued that the reticence of the many intelligence and security agencies of the country was uncharacteristic as these agencies, such as the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization (SAS) and the interior ministry are always quick in arresting peaceful protesters and dissidents even for posting on social media.

Security forces tried to disperse protesters and arrested several at teachers and parents rally Tuesday in Shiraz.

On Monday, for the first time since the first attack more than three months ago, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressed the issue. “If there are really hands at work, or individuals or groups that are involved in this, this will be a huge crime that cannot be overlooked,” he said, adding that culprits should be given maximum punishment for their crime.

Very uncharacteristically, Khamenei did not attribute the attacks to ‘enemies’ and foreign governments as other officials had been doing in the past couple of weeks. Officials who usually only reiterate what Khamenei says continued accusing ‘the enemies’ of poisoning the schoolgirls even after Khamenei’s brief reference to the issue at a tree-planting ceremony. “These are naturally enemy plots to force schools to shut down and to prevent students’ education,” Education Minister Yousef Nouri said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi on Tuesday announced that an actor, Reza Kianian, reformist politician Azar Mansouri, reformist pundit Sadegh Zibakalam, and managing directors of two reformist newspapers, Shargh Daily and Ham-Mihan, as well as the managing director of Rouydad 24 news website have been indicted for “spreading rumors and lies” about the incidents through the media and social media.

Mirahmadi quickly excused those arrested claiming they were "misguided", many of whom were released soon after having been given "advice" on their behavior.

Hundreds of girls have been targeted since November in a series of unexplained chemical gas poisonings around the country, believed to be aimed at quashing support for unrest triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in morality police custody after being arrested for not wearing her hijab properly.

"Some who did not have hostile intentions were also guided," Mirahmadi said, though gave no explanation how such attacks which have seen possibly hundreds of girls hospitalized, could be considered "non-hostile".

It suggests Mirahmadi believes the perpetrators to be supporters of the regime, long suspected on the global stage as being behind the spate of attacks which began in the religious city of Qom.

He played down the severity of the attacks which the regime also tried to brand 'mass hysteria', government mouthpieces such as Mohammad Marandi, claiming the attacks were a falsity created by psychosis. On Twitter, Marandi wrote, "Western regimes are responsible. They fund anti-Iran mercenaries to create hysteria & unrest. Western/Saudi Persian media terrorize schoolchildren & their families, while western controlled terror groups are deployed by command centers in Albania & northern Iraq to create unrest."

The deputy minister's statement on Tuesday affirmed the rhetoric, saying "there is no reason for serious concern as the number of cases that have occurred in schools has decreased significantly". Meanwhile, Baluch activists announced that over 300 female students were hospitalized due to gas inhalation in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Monday and chemical attacks continued in schools through Tuesday across several provinces.

The Islamic Republic had earlier blamed "enemies" and even the Farsi-speaking media based abroad as the "perpetrators" of the attacks, and President Ebrahim Raisi also condemned the poisoning of students as "enemy's conspiracy".

"With its missile attacks, the Iranian regime shows not only that it recklessly and brutally suppresses its own people, it also puts human life and the stability of the whole region at risk to hold on to power," she said on Tuesday.

"It is unacceptable and dangerous for the whole region," she told a news conference with her Iraqi counterpart.

Last year, Tehran fired missiles at bases of Kurdish groups in northern Iraq it accuses of involvement in popular protests against its restrictions on women, displacing hundreds of Iranian Kurds and killing some.

Iran has for years refuted Western claims it is a destabilizing influence in the region. Tehran, faced with its biggest anti-regime protests in 44 years, has accused Western countries of orchestrating unrest and has accused protesters in ethnic minority regions of working on behalf of separatist groups.

Baerbock, visiting Iraq on the same day as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said she was sending a signal that Europe's biggest economy wanted deeper cooperation with Iraq.

She said she would discuss Iraq's security and stability, the question of Yazidis, and cooperation on climate change.

Germany, and some other European countries, have adopted a tougher line toward Iran’s suppression of protesters since antigovernment unrest began last September. So far, government forces have killed more than 500 civilians.

With reporting by Reuters

US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said the poisonings across the country, now affecting dozens of schools and university dormitories since November, must be "stopped immediately".

Referring to speculations about the regime’s intention to take revenge on schoolgirls for their participation in the protests ignited after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of morality police, Price told a news conference, “If these poisonings were found to be related to women and girls’ participation in protest, then it would be within the mandate of the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran to investigate.”

Price said that bodies such as the UN must demand answers as little information has so far been forthcoming from authorities in Iran.

"There is a fact-finding mechanism within the UN itself... If it is determined that there was a motive at play and an effort to suppress the ambitions, the abilities of women and girls in Iran, we do think it would be appropriate for that particular body to – within their mandate to investigate.”

He said the US is alarmed by how Iranian authorities are handling the issue, mentioning the arrest of a prominent journalist, Ali Pour-Tabatabaei, for investigating the poisonings. On Tuesday, the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary also announced lawsuits against three media outlets and three individuals for speaking out about the attacks, accusing them of "spreading rumors and lying" about the poisonings.

“We’re also alarmed by reports that Iranian authorities have intimidated parents, that they have intimidated medical professionals into silence. The entire world is greatly concerned about these poisonings. Iranian authorities should cease suppressing the media and allow them to do their jobs,” Price stated.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed Price's sentiments on Monday. She said, "The possibility that girls in Iran are being possibly poisoned simply for trying to get an education is shameful, it's unacceptable. If these poisonings are related to participation in protest then it is well within the mandate of the UN independent international fact finding mission on Iran to investigate."

On Tuesday, 20 prominent Iranian lawyers and human rights advocates issued a joint letter, calling on the WHO, the UNESCO, the UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately visit Iran and probe into the serial poisoning of schoolgirls. They urged the bodies to use all tools within their mandate to ensure that these incidents are promptly and transparently investigated in accordance with international standards and that the perpetrators are identified and prosecuted.

The lawyers also called for solutions for special support for the affected female students. There are conflicting reports about the number of schools, girls, and cities affected by the attacks, not least, due to the suppression of both free media and internet access across the country.

On Monday, Iranian member of the parliament Mohammad-Hassan Asafari claimed that more than 5,000 students in 25 provinces and about 230 schools have been targeted by the poisonous gas attacks which began in Qom on November 30. The Islamic Republic authorities have only vowed to pursue the matter but only prosecuted those who reported or protested against the attacks.