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Reporter: A press conference was held following Monday’s (U.N.) gathering on human rights in Geneva. Shadi Sadr, a lawyer and women’s rights activist, was one of the attendants at the press conference. Noting the report that the Islamic Republic has published with regards to the human rights gathering and based on the large number of civil rights and political activist arrests and killings, how will the Islamic Republic be able to defend itself?
Shadi Shadr: A major part of the report published by the Islamic Republic describes our constitution and internal laws, in order to show the international community that we do have the [same] laws in Iran. It is true that these laws exist and these laws can improve the human rights situation in Iran to a point, but only if the [government] abides by the laws. The main question is about the execution of the laws and the rule of law in Iran. In this regard, either the Iranian government’s report is keeping quiet or it is presenting false information.
The issue is not solely restricted to the situation of political prisoners or the human rights violations after the election. For example, the issue of ‘family law’ in Iran. It is interesting to me that after fighting this legislation for three years and exposing it for its misogynistic nature and for the fact that it legitimizes polygamy and encourages ‘temporary marriages’, now the Iranian government has indicated in their report that ’family law’ is one of the laws in the process of being ratified in congress in order to improve the situation of women in Iran. For representatives of other countries who are not familiar with this law, it is sufficient just to think that there is a law being passed that supports women and families. This is because (representatives of other countries) do not really know the contents of our legislation. Our effort here is to expose many articles like the one I just mentioned and to show that the contents of the report are not true.
Another point that has been stressed a lot in this report by the Iranian government is that they refer to international human rights organizations putting pressure on Iran as trying to exert western values and standards, and therefore international human rights organizations are against our culture. Finally, they claim that international human rights organizations are against Islam and that is why we (the Iranian government) cannot accept many of the (human rights) laws. I think the question that needs to be asked here is whether polygamy is acceptable in the Iranian culture. Also, where in the Iranian culture is it permissible to beat up peaceful protesters who are simply looking for their votes and are objecting to the decisions made by politicians? There is no violence in our culture. The extensive violence committed on the streets (by the government) is definitely against our culture.
Justifying human rights violations by using the Iranian culture as an excuse does not help the cause and it also defaces the image of Iranians in the eyes of the international community. The international community is facing a government that admits to execution and stoning, encourages polygamy, beats up protesters, and tortures and kills people in prisons. They commit all these (crimes) and attribute (their actions) to the Iranian culture. Can you imagine what this means?
Reporter: Do you have any criticism about the way the reports are being written at this very important U.N. gathering? The decisions and statements that result from the U.N. human rights convention are very important. Are there points you want to raise about the way things are going?
Shadi Sadr: You see, the process of reviewing human rights violations in countries around the world is a new one that has been implemented. Because of all the limitations that the Iranian government has put on civil rights and political activists in Iran, we know very little about the mechanisms and processes of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. This has caused our expectations to be completely unreal at times. We have to be realistic here and realize that it is the governments who are playing a major role in this mechanism. Us, the civil rights and human rights activists, are not the decision makers here; we can only affect the outcome. The processes are very complex and bureaucratic. There are thousands of political matters that are involved. Even those who claim to be very concerned about human rights violations in Iran might even avoid the microphone because of some behind-the-scenes political or economic agreements.
I think in this complex process, some points are important. For one, we should not have high expectations. This is a process. What happens on Monday will only be a start. Monday is only the time for opening the file. We will have plenty of time in the coming months, especially in March to affect this process, because that is when the final decisions will be made. It is also important for us to demand international standards and to make it clear as to what it is we are trying to gain from this process. The U.N. and the Human Rights Commission are not going to respond to everything on our wish list. We just have to affect the process.
It is also very important that all civil rights activists participate in the process. This is because the Iranian government has announced in its report that Iran’s national report has been written in cooperation with civil rights groups. But no civil rights groups are named in their report. There are 30 organizations who are representing Iran that claim to be civil rights NGO’s. At a time when almost all of our civil rights activists are either in jail, killed, or have escaped the country, we need to find out who makes up the 30 civil rights groups. Who are these people representing civil rights in Iran?
I also think that in order to affect the process, the demonstrations happening outside the (U.N.) meeting need to be big.
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