Loujain al-Hathloul

Atena Daemi dreamed of an end to the death penalty in her country, Iran, and called for greater respect for human rights. For this reason she was imprisoned, beaten and held in solitary confinement. Today we will tell the story of this brave woman and see together the human rights situation in Iran. Human Rights in Iran Atena Daemi was imprisoned for her fight for human rights, which are often not respected in Iran, her native country. According to the most recent United Nations report on the situation of human rights, the country suffers from severe gender discrimination, a high percentage of arbitrary detentions and problems related to the application of the death penalty. Let’s see specifically what the problems are. With regard to the death penalty and arbitrary detentions, high numbers of executions have been recorded in the country even for crimes that do not fall into the most serious categories. By serious categories the UN Human Rights Council means only those involving intentional killings. Executions have often been the result of trials held in an unfair manner and with the use of torture in order to extract a fictitious confession: in particular for circumstances with connections to the anti-government protests that have taken place in the country in recent years. The most emblematic case is that of Navid Afkari who was secretly executed after having participated in August 2008 in protests in the city of Shiraz. The UN Special Rapporteur sent to Iran, said he was concerned that these executions seem to conceal a desire, on the part of the government, to repress dissent. The UN report highlights the high number of executions of minors: between January 1 and December 1, 2020, 3 minors were executed and more than 85 are on the death row. In Iran, the Penal Code provides for the death penalty for girls over 9 years of age and boys over 15 years of age for crimes such as murder and adultery. Women’s rights are severely hindered not only by the law but also by social customs and conventions. Although women’s rights are codified in Articles 20 and 21 of the constitution, there is discrimination on marriage, divorce, and parental custody rights. An Iranian woman cannot marry without the permission of her father or paternal grandfather if the marriage in question is her first. Marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man is illegal, and marriage to a man of non-Iranian nationality must receive government consent. Girls can legally marry as young as 13 but there have been cases of girls being married even at a younger age with paternal and court consent. Married women remain under the authority of their husbands, who may prohibit them from working, having a passport or traveling abroad. Regarding divorce, the husband has the absolute right to file for divorce while the wife can file only in specific cases. Finally, freedom of thought and demonstration is limited in the country. Human rights defenders and their lawyers are harassed on a daily basis. Among the most famous cases are those of Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi and Athena Daemi herself. Arrested both for condemning arbitrary executions of political prisoners and for singing a memorial song. Iraee was released in April 2019 while Daemi remains in prison. In addition to the arrests there is also rampant intimidation of family members of those arrested. Excessive use of force and telecommunication disruptions during demonstrations is common practice. The UN Special Rapporteur reports an unprecedented internet shutdown requested by the government during the November 2019 demonstrations. In general, the government continues to censor websites and social media platforms. Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been permanently blocked and are currently inaccessible. The history of Atena Daemi Athena Daemi bravely fought against the aforementioned human rights violations, and especially against the death penalty, arbitrary detentions and for the rights of women and children. She was arrested on October 21, 2014 and after 86 days of interrogation was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for the crimes of: “propaganda against the system,” “seditious gathering and collusion against national security,” “blasphemy and insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “concealment of evidence.” During the trial, her Facebook posts in which she argued against the death penalty were used as evidence. On September 28, 2016, after being released on bail, she sees her sentence reduced to 7 years. She is arrested again on November 28, 2016, and after filing a complaint against the “Islamic Revolution Guards Corps” (IRGC) for excessive use of force, she is tried on December 19, 2016 on charges of: “insult against the supreme leader and state officials,” “propaganda against the system,” and “resisting arrest”. She is convicted and three months and one day are added to her seven-year sentence. Her sisters, Ensieh and Hanieh, are also sentenced to the same sentence, but are acquitted 54 days later. On December 21, 2019, Daemi and other prisoners organize a sit-in as a protest against the crackdown and the state’s response to the November 2019 demonstrations. Following this event she was transferred to solitary confinement on December 28, 2019 and remained there until January 8, 2020. In addition, she was sentenced to 2 additional years in prison and 74 lashes. In addition to the usual charge of “propaganda against the system” she was charged with “disruption of prison order” for dancing and celebrating during the Ashoora festival. Daemi has refused to go to trial stating that such charges are baseless and based on lies. Atena Daemi’s health condition during her stay in prison has deteriorated significantly. After the 55-day hunger strike she went on in 2017 to protest the sentences she and her sisters received, she began coughing up blood and having problems with weight loss, nausea, vomiting and kidney pain.  Amnesty International at that time demanded that she be transferred to hospital and the doctors themselves stated that immediate hospitalization was necessary. Despite this, the transfer to hospital was denied by the prison authorities. Daemi’s health deteriorated further

Little Zainab was born in Iraq, and from the moment she was born her sight was affected by the experience of war. Zainab’s family was one of the most protected in the country. Her father was one of the best pilots in the country, employed by the Boeing company, while her mother was a teacher. However, despite the comfort in which his family was living, with Saddam Hussein’s rise to power, they began to suffer heavy psychological abuse from him. While the majority of the Iraqi population suffered both physical and psychological abuse, his family was ‘spared’ only physical abuse. To consolidate his power, the dictator had to surround himself with the Baghdad elite. The deal was that her father became Hussein’s personal pilot in exchange for the non-deportation of his wife – of distant Iranian origin. Zainab’s family, therefore, decided to ‘save their daughter’ through an arranged marriage to an Iraqi American much older than her, who was only 19 at the time, which took her to live in the United States. The marriage soon turned violent, although Zainab was only able to escape from her husband’s home after three months. Meanwhile, even though Zainab always wanted to return to Iraq, due to the Gulf War that broke out a few months after she arrived in America in 1990, she was never able to do so. Zainab’s experience with the war made her aware of the plight of women in war. When she heard about the war in Bosnia, a few years after arriving in the United States, she decided – at only 23 years old – to take action by founding Women for Women International with her second husband Amjad Atallah, thus dedicating her life to the service of women survivors of war. The group began by assisting 33 Croatian and Bosnian women in 1993. The very mission of the organisation is to offer support to women survivors of war and its aftermath. The ultimate goal is to include the survivors in the reconstruction of the community and society as a whole. In fact, according to Zainab, at the end of a conflict, it is from the women that we must start again, as they are the ones who provide for the sustenance of the family and the community, thus reconstructing the torn social fabric. Under her leadership, from 1993 to 2004, the humanitarian organisation Women for Women International was able to help more than 478,000 women in eight conflicts around the world, distributing over $120 million in direct aid and micro-credits, impacting more than 1.7 million families. Zainab has always been adamant that access to education and resources leads to lasting change in women’s lives. Zainab also wrote and spoke extensively on the use of rape and other forms of violence against women during warfare. Her work has been featured in major media outlets. In addition, US President Bill Clinton honoured Zainab at the White House for her humanitarian work in Bosnia. Zainab has also been identified as one of the 100 most influential women in the world in various newspapers such as The Times and The Guardian. After 20 years of working with women survivors of war – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Afghanistan – Zainab came to realise that the secret recipe for change in women’s lives is inspiration. In fact, in 2011 she announced her resignation from her role at Women for Women International to explore the ‘world of inspiration’ in the media. Zainab also sits on the Board of Directors of Synergos and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). In 2015, Zainab also launched a groundbreaking talk show with TLC Arabia called “The Nidaa Show”, which aired in over 22 countries across the Arab world. The novelty of that show was that it was dedicated to the acknowledgement of Arab and Muslim women, their stories, challenges and achievements and began for the first time with a historic interview with Oprah Winfrey. The talk show reached such high peaks that Zainab has been the recipient of many awards related to it, including being named the first Most Influential Arab Woman by Arabian Business. Zainab also graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor’s degree in Individualized Studies in Sociology and Gender Studies, and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics with a major in Development Studies. Zainab is the author of several books, including the bestseller ‘A Woman Between Two Worlds: My Life in the Shadow of Saddam Hussein’. We at Large Movements share Zainab’s thoughts and feel it is important to share her story with you because we strive every day for the role of women in the migration debate to be valued, especially during conflicts. It is indeed fundamental not to idealise women survivors of conflicts, victimising them, thus depriving them of the possibility to actively participate in the debate. On the contrary, it is necessary to start from women themselves, giving them a voice and a place at the decision-making tables to guarantee their emancipation and make them the authors of the reconstruction of the social fabric they belong to. “We have to wake up and we have to roar and we have to stand up. That’s not an activist’ job. That’s every woman’s job.” – Zainab Salbi If you liked the article Share us! [elfsight_social_share_buttonsid=”1″]