Mr. Kofi Annan
The Secretary General
The United Nations
Dear Secretary General,
Following your report dated 27/September/2006 on “women, peace and security”, reference to Documentation No. S/2006/770, it is most reassuring for women sufferers and indeed worldwide campaigners for civil and social equality to acknowledge that international Women’s Rights and discrimination issues have received such thorough attention and intensified focuses of the UN Security Council. However, in spite of this, it is extremely disappointing to discover that concerns about women in Iran and the anti-women laws that are implied by the fundamentalist Islamic regime have been totally disregarded in such an important investigation.
Iran is a signatory both to the International Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of children, both of which explicitly forbid the execution of minors, however, the clerical law allows and legitimises the death penalty for girls from the age of 9. Although as a result of external pressure, juvenile criminals are kept in prison until they are 18, the fact remains that they were not of a mature mind at the time of the crime. Not only the sentencing laws in Iran are condemned by international human right organizations but also what should be addressed are the injustice in the process of courts and sentencing methods.
Kobra Rahmanpour, an Iranian young woman who is now facing execution for murdering her mother in law in self defence is now the latest victim of this unlawful judiciary system; a statement of which case was released by The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on 11 May 2006.
Like thousands of other young girls in Iran, Kobra was forced into
marriage against her will by her parents, due to poverty, and
was subjected to domestic violence during her marriage. As stated in the report, she was denied access to a lawyer until the beginning of her trial. This is a prime example of the unfairness, injustice and discrimination against women and children in Iran, which are well documented by UN and other Human Rights institutions, however the question remains that how could the head of the United Nations maintain personal friendships with Ayatollah khamenehei and Molla Khatami, as per your interview with a British TV channel, despite the inhumanity caused and implemented by them?
We remain in anticipation,
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