Iran Ranks Second Worst Country Globally For Detention Of Writers
Worsened by revolutionary unrest, Iran jailed three times the number of writers in 2022 than 2021 as it cracked down on voices of dissent.
Worsened by revolutionary unrest, Iran jailed three times the number of writers in 2022 than 2021 as it cracked down on voices of dissent.
The findings, from PEN America’s latest Freedom To Write Index, puts Iran in second place globally, only beaten to the top spot by the dictatorship of China.
The crackdown on anti-government protests after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September led to the particular targeting of writers and artists alongside other cultural figures, celebrities and athletes.
The numbers of those jailed rose from 22 in 2021 to 57, with one third of those behind bars now women, whose numbers rose from five to 16. The global study found that Iran jailed more than one-third of the total number of women writers jailed worldwide, 16 of 42 as the regime cracks down on the women led protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Some of the country’s leading voices have been severely punished, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was threatened with being returned to jail after speaking to or writing for international media outlets; author and activist Narges Mohammadi, who bravely continued to speak out from Evin prison; and writer Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, arrested in September.
“Iran’s creative community—long at the forefront of fighting for free expression and human rights—was singled out as part of a broader crackdown on dissent in 2022,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Free Expression at Risk Programs.
“Alongside the dozens of writers and artists detained, the harsh sentences handed down and custodial abuse faced by some prisoners were an attempt to warn others to keep silent.”
In 2022, 311 writers were jailed globally according to PEN America, whose database contains 813 active cases from over 80 countries of writers, poets, online commentators and journalists at risk for their writing.
Karlekar called on the United Nations Human Rights Council, Special Mandates, and newly-established Independent International Fact-finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran to include a consistent focus on writers and artists in their investigations, reports, and public statements.
In its systematic targeting of writers, artists, and dissenting voices with arrest and detention, the Iranian government often deploys spurious charges based on national security or “propaganda against the state” to charge and sentence individuals. Some alleged “offenses,” such as mohrabeh, or “war against God,” potentially carry the death penalty.
The government has also singled out artists and singers whose work was critical of ruling authorities and explicitly addressed either political or social themes, including rappers Saman Yasin and Toomaj Salehi, both arrested in October and charged with mohrabeh, or “enmity against God,”. Both men have undergone torture in custody.
Poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin died a tragic and preventable death in custody on January 8, 2022, after authorities repeatedly refused to provide him needed medical care. Severe abuse was also recorded in the case of blogger Hossein Ronaghi, detained in late September, subjected to ill-treatment in custody and denied medical care.
Shorter periods of detention have also been handed down to several dozen writers and poets supporting the protests, many of whom have also suffered torture and mistreatment in Iran’s brutal jails.
These have included the poet and theater director Amirhossein Barimani, literary writer and commentator Farshid Ghorbanpour, and poets Mona Borzouei, Behnaz Amani, Atefeh Chaharmahalian, Behrouz Yasemi and Saeed Heleichi.
Writers advocating for ethnic or religious minority rights continue to be particularly targeted, including Kurdish language teacher and rights advocate Zahra Mohammadi, Kurdish researcher Mozghan Kavousi, and Bahai writer and poet Mahvash Sabet.
Since protests began in September, over 500 civilians have been killed by regime security forces with around 20,000 arrested. At least four executions have taken place for protesters and an unconfirmed number of many others sentenced to death for their role in the uprising.
Rights groups say executions last year rose by 75% on the previous year with at least 582 people put to death in 2022.
Mohammad Mohajeri, a conservative himself and former editor of hard-line daily Kayhan, has said in an interview that conservatives believe the current government has left such a bad record that its opponents are highly likely to win the next parliamentary and presidential elections.
"However, their fear may be baseless as the supporter of reformists and a large part of Iranian voters are not willing to take part in the elections," Mohajeri said, adding that nonetheless, conservatives will continue their smear campaign against relative moderates such as former President Hassan Rouhani, former Majles Speakers Ali Larijani and Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri.
Meanwhile, Mohajeri said in another interview that Iran's reformists and conservatives have influence only among 15 to 20 percent of the society. He also charged that 90 percent of Iran's Friday Prayer Imams belong to the conservative camp and the Friday Prayers are a podium for only one political faction.
However, a national reconciliation is possible in Iran only if the government facilitates the political participation of all political groups in the elections. He added that there is not much time for that as fierce campaigning for the parliamentary elections will start in around two months from now.
He suggested that to facilitate political participation, the government needs to bring about essential changes in economic, political and cultural arenas. He argued that the government's inability to improve the economy will keep deeply disillusioned voters away from the ballot box.
Many people are also currently annoyed by the government's unilateralism. Enforcing compulsory hijab and filtering the Internet have deeply annoyed the people so that they are reluctant to take part in political activities such as voting in the elections.
However, Mohajeri said in the interview that some ultraconservatives including those around the housing minister Mehrdad Bazrpash have already started their campaign.
Mohajeri warned that if the government does anything beyond what has been stipulated in the Constitutional Law, the people will feel their essential rights have been undermined.
Many protesters during the past months chanted slogans against Iran's rigid Constitution which gives every right to hardliner clerics to restrict the freedom of the populace.
Meanwhile, he lashed out at the government's heavy-handed approach against unveiled women and said that it was quite clear from the start that policies such as launching a morality police would face resistance by women.
Agreeing with Mohajeri on the situation of the current government, Sharyar Heidari, a member of parliament told Rouydad24 website in Tehran that in the next election Raisi is not likely to win a quarter of the votes he received in 2021.
In another development, Iranian sociologist Nematollah Fazeli said in an interview with Khabar Online that the government does not have a true understanding of the people's demands. Fazeli said the government would have been at ease to accept some of the demands of the people if they were simply about the economy. But the people's understanding of politics and the gender issue has changed over the years and the government cannot understand that.
"Women had a focal position in the recent movement in Iran although there were other activists too. This is caused by a major development in social knowledge in Iran," he said, which “emanates from within the society and its everyday life and the people's collective experience."
Fazeli added that the understanding what happened in Iran during the past months requires a thorough understanding of women's role, but little attention has been paid to this matter by any government entity. This requires a new look at women and femininity, an issue that has been marginalized after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the sociologist said.
Reformist Shargh daily in a report Thursday said statements by the police and other officials about the implementation of a campaign against hijab-lessness indicate that around 2,000 businesses – including restaurants, cafes, tourist accommodations, retail shops and even a counseling clinic and a gym -- have suffered closure in the past month only.
On Tuesday hardline media reported that some businesses, mainly restaurants and cafes, owned by celebrity artists and popular footballers have been shut down or received warnings over defiance of hijab rules by their staff and customers.
Authorities also announced on the same day that they had shut down Opal Mall, a massive modern shopping center with over 450 businesses in Tehran. Shargh said the closure of the mall alone has resulted in the loss of around 2,500 jobs.
Woman has a seizure at a shopping arcade in northern Iran after hijab enforcers fire their guns during a scuffle with business owners.
At the start of the month, Iran’s 83-year-old ruler Ali Khamenei reiterated the regime's stance on hijab, which became mandatory after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He said: “Discarding hijab is haram (sinful) based on Sharia and also politically."
His declaration was a clear signal to all state and religious authorities to do anything it takes to re-establish control over women who are increasingly joining the civil disobedience movement against forced hijab rules.
However, legal experts say closure of businesses is unjustified even based on the Islamic Republic’s own laws and the Sharia.
“Has anyone ever heard of a street being banned because of a murder that happened there? Or is it possible to shut down a government office because of corruption? … Businesses cannot be sealed because someone removes their hijab there,” Mohammad Mansouri-Boroujeni, a professor of law at Esfahan University wrote in a commentary on April 20.
Mohsen Borhani, an Islamic law expert and lawyer, argued in a tweet that nowhere in Sharia one can find reasons to justify the ban on selling commodities to hijab-less women or to shut down a shop if a hijab-less woman is spotted there. “You neither abide by the law, nor the Sharia. It’s flustering!” he tweeted April 18.
The police have also said they are prosecuting those who promote defiance of the compulsory hijab on social media and have warned hundreds of imminent prosecutions, placed hundreds of “hijab promoters” on the streets to warn women, and banned entrance of unveiled women to museums and other public venues.
Hijab banner in Tehran says it is mothers’ legacy for their daughters.
Tehran municipality has recently put up hundreds of banners on the streets to promote the hijab. “Hijab is the legacy of mothers,” one such banner which shows a mother donning a black veil on a very young girl says while another equates opposition to the compulsory hijab to destroying “the foundations of families.”
“My mother did not wear the hijab. Neither did my grandmother. I’d like to adhere to my own heritage,” a woman said in a video of one of the hijab banners she sent to Iran International.
In a tweet with a photo of the woman who protested the compulsory hijab, another woman said fighting against the compulsory hijab was “mothers’ legacy”
The recent campaign to enforce hijab rules has caused some violent incidents involving pro-hijab vigilantes and women who defy it. A 60-year-old woman had a cardiac arrest this week when a fight broke out between vigilantes and members of her family over hijab.
A member of the family of Kolsum Oftadehpour told Iran International TV that there was no autopsy and authorities did not allow them to see the body before and during the burial which they carried out without the family’s involvement. The family have been threatened not to talk, he said.