Iran's human rights violations continue under Ahmadinejad

The American Enterprise Association held a discussion on Iranian society under the current Ahmadinejad presidency, focusing on its impact on civil liberties and political efficacy.

Tom Parker, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, said that the human rights situation in Iran “is not good,” and is “typical of many authoritarian regimes” where minorities are routinely discriminated against and denied basic rights. Targeted groups for whose safety the organization is “greatly worried” include Sunnis, Suffis, women, homosexual men, bloggers, and ethnic minorities like Kurds and Arabs. Parker said there are no Sunni mosques in Tehran because of the discrimination, and that many gay men have been executed on charges of male rape. Discriminations can occur through trumped-up charges or implementation of new laws designed to target certain groups, he said. Parker mentioned a public information film released by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence that displays American politicians--one of whom is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) working in secret below the White House to undermine the Iranian government, whose vilified plans involved cooperation of “subversive” Iranian human rights groups. Parker highlighted the importance of the Iranian blogosphere in spreading accurate information and “getting a debate going” in Iran’s largely silent or nonobjective media.

Mohebat Ahdiyyih, senior Iran analyst at the Open Source Center, said that it really is “that bad” in Iran, and that President Ahmadinejad has upset the balance of various factions in the new country. He said conditions could change if another president were elected. However, Iran Nameh editor Hermoz Hekmat said that while there are elections in Iran, there are no political parties—thus rendering the elections “non-elections.” Because Iranian society has no political parties, no free press, and no influential non-governmental organizations, he continued, the elected president “has absolutely nothing to do” with the people’s vision for their government.