Maura has been held by ICE at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California since 2019, where she has experienced abuse and inadequate medical care, making her particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Every day she remains in ICE detention is an injustice — and an added danger for her.
The Iranian holiday Nowruz نوروز (“new day”) is an ancient holiday celebrated on the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere to welcome in the new year. On this Nowruz we want to remember several courageous prisoners of conscience and prisoners held for politically motivated reasons in Iran with Nowruz greetings. We ask you to send cards with simple Nowruz greetings such as “Nowruz mobarak” نوروز مبارک You can say “thinking of you at Nowruz time” or “hoping you are well.” You may send a greeting in either English or Farsi (Persian) but please do not mention Amnesty International or specifics of the recipient’s case. Please also refrain from mentioning the political situation, human rights or U.S.-Iran relations. We suggest sending cards with pictures of landscapes, spring flowers or the like, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday and the message of hope and renewal. Please do not choose cards that have pictures of people, and please do not use cards that depict bottles of wine or other alcoholic beverages or gambling.
In an appeal released on March 8, 2021 (International Women’s Day), the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, who has made women’s rights the focus of his latest report, expressed concerns about the state of women’s rights in Iran. He pointed to entrenched discrimination against women and girls in law and practice, who “continue to be treated as second class citizens in Iran”:
In several areas of their lives, including in marriage, divorce, employment, and culture, Iranian women are either restricted or need permission from their husbands or paternal guardians, depriving them of their autonomy and human dignity. These constructs are completely unacceptable and must be reformed now.
"Gender equality, or progress in the human rights situation generally, will never be achieved if it is treated as a footnote in foreign policy and in engagement with the Islamic Republic," said Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC).
The days surrounding International Women’s Day were marked by massive protests by women from all backgrounds, who took to the streets to oppose the new rulers’ attempt to impose mandatory veiling and to ask for equal rights.[1]
Assistant judge Hatsyar Wshyar faces up to seven years in prison as new charges have been brought against him, over the same social media posts for which he was sentenced and effectively served a full year prison. Instead of releasing him after his sentence, he remains detained and at risk of being tried again over the same Tweets. The authorities must release Hatsyar Wshyar immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges against him.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unlawfully used lethal force against unarmed fuel porters near the city of Saravan, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, on 22 February, flagrantly violating the absolute prohibition on the arbitrary deprivation of the right to life under international law, said Amnesty International today.
Testimony from eyewitnesses and victims’ families, coupled with video footage geolocated and verified by the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab, confirms that on that day, Revolutionary Guards, stationed at Shamsar military base, used live ammunition against a group of unarmed fuel porters from Iran’s impoverished Baluchi minority causing several deaths and injuries.