Iran: Remembering The Shah, 25 Years Later
Iran
Golnaz Esfandiari
Today is the 25th anniversary of the departure of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from Iran. Iranians throughout the country joyously celebrated his departure at the time. But RFE/RL reports that many Iranians of all classes tend 25 years later to remember the shah's reign with nostalgia.
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RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
An Iranian Kurdish prisoner convicted of killing a cleric has been executed despite complaints from rights groups over a lack of transparency in the judicial process.

Kamran Sheikheh had been in jail for almost 15 years before he was hanged in a prison in Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, in the early hours of July 25.

Sheikheh was the last of seven people convicted of and executed for the September 2008 killing of Abdolrahim Tina, a congregational prayer leader in Sheikheh’s hometown of Mahabad. All seven people were executed in the last eight months, according to the Kurdish rights group Hengaw.

Amnesty International had long insisted that all seven suspects were sentenced to death in “grossly unfair trials marred by claims of torture” to exact confessions. Hengaw said the trials were “illegal and not transparent.”

Aside from murder, they were also accused of being Salafists -- an ultraradical sect under Sunni Islam.

In an open letter years ago, Sheikheh and the other six suspects denied all charges and alleged that they were subjected to various forms of torture, including mock executions, sleep deprivation, and being hung from the ceiling.

As of July 25, at least 286 people have been executed in Iranian prisons this year, according to Iran Human Rights.

According to Amnesty, Iran carried out 853 executions in 2023, with at least 481 executions for narcotics convictions.

In April, Amnesty accused the Islamic republic of “weaponizing the death penalty” to target “protesters, dissidents, and members of oppressed ethnic minorities” and called for “a robust global response” to pressure Tehran to implement a moratorium on the death penalty.

A historian who fled Iran in the aftermath of the 2009 protests is at risk of being sent back.

Ali Asghar Haqdar, a published author who has been living in Turkey for 13 years, was detained on June 13 in Istanbul and sent to a refugee camp.

On July 24, he informed RFE/RL's Radio Farda that a court had denied his request for temporary release.

His lawyer, Salih Efe, told Radio Farda that he had appealed the verdict but warned that if the appeal is rejected, "it will seriously increase Haqdar's chances of being deported to Iran."

Haqdar, who is being held in a camp in Istanbul's Arnavutkoy municipality, is in a poor mental state, according to people familiar with his condition.

He has reportedly told those close to him that people in the camp are rarely allowed to get fresh air and are mostly kept inside repurposed shipping containers.

Last month, Haqdar told Radio Farda that he was detained in Istanbul during a mass arrest of foreign nationals.

He said police had told him that his passport was close to expiry and that they needed to check whether he was registered in the system. He has been in the camp since his detention on June 13.

Haqdar fled Iran after a leaked document allegedly prepared by the Intelligence Ministry listed his name among several authors and translators accused of fomenting sedition in the aftermath of the controversial 2009 presidential election.

During his time in Turkey, he has been collaborating with various universities and says he had permission to live in Istanbul to use the libraries for his research.

Haqdar is a recipient of the 2013 Hellman/Hemmet award, which is given by Human Rights Watch to authors facing political persecution.

A UN expert has accused Iran of committing genocide in the 1980s, when thousands of political prisoners as well as members of religious and ethnic minorities were executed.

Javaid Rehman, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in Iran, said in a July 22 report that the summary and extrajudicial executions during 1981-82 and in 1988 amounted to crimes against humanity as well as genocide.

It is not the first time the mass executions have been described as genocide. But observers say Rehman's findings were an important step toward holding the Islamic republic accountable for its crimes.

"I think this may be one of the most important reports by a special rapporteur in recent years," Mahmud Amiri-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

"It brings attention to the early 1980s, when the Islamic republic committed huge crimes, but nothing was ever done about them," he added.

Human rights lawyers say Rehman's findings could lead to the UN launching an international probe into crimes committed during the first decade of the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979.

'Systematic Patterns'

Iran's new clerical rulers executed and forcibly disappeared thousands of political opponents between June 1981 and March 1982, according to Rehman's report.

The victims were "arbitrarily detained and subjected to systematic patterns of enforced disappearance, torture and summary, arbitrary and extrajudicial executions on religiously motivated and vaguely defined charges," the report said.

Women, some reportedly raped before being killed, and hundreds of children were among those executed, the report said.

Most of the victims, the UN expert said, were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), an exiled opposition group, as well as leftist parties and groups.

Rehman also drew attention to the executions and killings of members of the Baha'i community in the 1980s, when at least 200 followers were killed, according to rights groups.

Rehman said Baha'is -- Iran's largest non-Muslim minority -- were "targeted with genocidal intent and persecution."

During the summer of 1988, an estimated 5,000 prisoners were secretly executed in prisons. Many of the victims were members of the MKO, which had aligned with Baghdad during the devastating 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.

Prisoners were sent to their deaths following interrogations that lasted just a few minutes, according to rights groups.

Former prison official Hamid Nouri in 2022 became the first, and only, Iranian official to be convicted for his role in the executions, though he was ultimately released as part of a prisoner swap between Stockholm and Tehran.

"The Iranian regime and its leaders should not be allowed to escape the consequences of their crimes against humanity and genocide," Rehman wrote in his report.

Rehman's findings were issued ahead of his mandate ending on July 31. He was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak on behalf of the UN.

Iran has rejected Rehman's report and accused him of "serving the interests" of the MKO.

Accountability Mechanism

Rehman is not the first to accuse Tehran of committing genocide in the 1980s.

A 2011 report commissioned by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a U.S.-based organization that promotes human rights in Iran, said the mass executions in 1988 amounted to genocide.*

But Rehman's allegations encompass the frenzy of executions that took place during the entire decade.

Gissou Nia, a human rights lawyer and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council in Washington, says the special rapporteur's findings can set the stage for the UN to "establish some further inquiry that has a documentation and accountability function."

This is in line with Rehman's own recommendation for the establishment of an independent international investigative and accountability mechanism.

"What is incredibly important is that some of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre continue to travel or have children in jurisdictions that do have the ability to prosecute atrocity crimes," Nia told RFE/RL.

"There really needs to be a push on national court systems that have obligations to prosecute extraterritorial crimes under universal jurisdiction," she added

Some of those implicated in the executions rose to powerful positions in the Islamic republic, including late President Ebrahim Raisi and former Justice Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi.

"These guys continue to enjoy the highest offices in the Islamic republic, and this is just unacceptable," Nia said. "The cycle of impunity really does need to end."

*CORRECTION: A previous version of this story identified the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center as a U.K.-based organization. It is based in the United States.

With reporting by Elaheh Ravanshad of RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Rights groups say Iranian authorities executed eight people over the weekend, bolstering concerns that the regime may accelerate the carrying out of death sentences after a lull ahead a snap presidential election held earlier this month.

The human rights-focused news agency HRANA reported that four people, including an Afghan national, were hanged on July 21 in Qezel Hesar prison in Karaj. The news agency said they were convicted of drug-related charges.

Rights groups have documented a sharp rise in the number of Afghans executed in Iran, with activists saying they do not get fair trials.

Separately, the Oslo-based organization Iran Human Rights said four people, including a woman, were hanged on July 20 in a prison in Shiraz. Three of them were convicted of murder and one was found guilty of rape.

Earlier this month, Iran Human Rights said executions had dropped by 30 percent in the first six months of 2024 but warned that it could pick up following the snap presidential election.

Reformist lawmaker Masud Pezeshkian beat ultraconservative rival Saeed Jalili in a runoff vote on July 5.

Human Rights Watch on July 15 urged Pezeshkian to fight the rising number of executions in Iran.

As of July 22, at least 268 people have been executed in Iranian prisons this year, more than half of whom were convicted on drug-related charges, according to Iran Human Rights.

Amnesty International says Iran carried out 853 executions in 2023, with at least 481 executions for narcotics convictions.

Because the Iranian government does not publish official statistics on the number of executions, international and Iranian rights groups document cases using open-source data such as state media and human rights organizations.

The homes of several Afghan migrants in the southern Iranian city of Khur have reportedly been set on fire in apparent retaliation for the killing of an Iranian man allegedly by an Afghan national.

Hosna, an Afghan who lives in Khur, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on July 19 that he moved his family from Khur to Shiraz in Fars Province out of fear for their safety.

"People in the region are very angry and set homes of several Afghans on fire," he claimed.

Hosna and others who spoke to Radio Azadi attributed the anger to the July 3 killing of a 62-year-old restaurant owner in the town of Khenj by his 17-year-old apprentice. Iranian media have not identified the nationality of the suspected killer, but Hosna said the suspect was an Afghan citizen.

"The people of the region have sworn not to sell 1 kilogram of meat, or even a piece of bread, to Afghan nationals," Hosna said. "So, many were forced to flee to Shiraz."

Anti-Afghan sentiment in Iran has been on the rise in recent years, especially after a mass influx of migrants following the Taliban's return to power in August 2021.

Occasionally, a hashtag that describes the expulsion of Afghan migrants as a "national demand" becomes a top trend on X, formerly Twitter, often boosted by anonymous accounts.

Last week, an unsubstantiated claim on social media blamed Afghan migrants for an alleged rise in leprosy cases in Iran.

The UN’s refugee agency says Iran hosts around 780,000 Afghan refugees, in addition to some 2.6 million undocumented Afghan migrants. But Iran claimed last year that the number of illegal Afghan immigrants was closer to 5 million.

The authorities have vowed to deport illegal refugees and hundreds of Afghan migrants are sent back to Afghanistan every day. They are also banned from living or working in half of Iran's 31 provinces.

Afghans living in Iran have complained to Radio Azadi about rising harassment, even during deportation.

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Tehran has for years maintained that it does not receive sufficient financial aid from international organizations to handle the number of refugees on its soil.

Tehran is upping the ante in its effort to go after Iranian Kurds abroad it deems "terrorists," demanding that Baghdad extradite leaders and members of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

"A list of nearly 120 terrorists who identify themselves as noble Kurds has been sent to Iraq for extradition and their trial will be held soon," Iranian judiciary official Kazem Gharibabadi said on July 13.

Gharibabadi did not reveal the names on the list. But he said that preparations had been made for the trial of "leaders and members" of a "terrorist group."

Kurdish and Iraqi media have reported that the list contains the names of some 120 leaders and members of Iranian-Kurdish groups opposed to Tehran.

Many of these groups were armed, with some demanding autonomy within Iran and others fighting for secession from the Islamic republic. Kurds make up around 10 percent of Iran's population of some 88 million and primarily live in the country's west along the border with Iraq.

Gharibabadi cast the move as part of a broader effort to fight terrorism, saying that similar extradition requests would be sent to "relevant foreign countries."

But the move follows backlash to Iran's strong-armed approach in Iraqi Kurdistan, including deadly air strikes that have targeted Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups as well as alleged Israeli targets.

Members of Kurdish opposition parties cast the pressure by Iran, which follows the signing last year of a security pact between Tehran and Baghdad, as misguided cover for undermining the Kurdish independence movement.

Many Iranian-Kurdish political parties and factions opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran are based in Iraq's Kurdistan region. That includes the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the most prominent exile opposition faction; Komala, a leftist group; and Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), the Iranian offshoot of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and designated by Washington as a terrorist group.

Tehran has long accused unspecified Kurdish opposition groups, without providing evidence, of coordinating with Israel, its archfoe, to stage attacks on Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdish opposition groups deny the allegation.

Cross-Border Strikes

In a security pact agreed between Tehran and Iraq's central government in March 2023, Baghdad agreed to secure Iraqi Kurdistan's lengthy eastern border with Iran, as well as to disarm and relocate Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the region.

Many offices of Kurdish parties that oppose Tehran have since been shut down.

Baghdad's dealings with Iran have been fraught with controversy. Multiple strikes have been carried out by Iran in the Kurdistan region, including a missile attack on the headquarters of the PDKI in the Kuisanjaq district in 2018 that killed 15 members of the party's leadership as well as Peshmerga forces.

In 2022, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps again targeted the PDKI, as well as Komala, with missile and drone strikes in the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of Sulaymaniyah in the east of the Kurdistan region.

Last year, protests broke out in Iraqi Kurdistan over the construction of a security fence along the region's border with Iran. And tensions rose significantly between Iraq's central government and Tehran after Iran carried out missile strikes in January against what it said were Israeli targets, killing four people in Irbil.

After Tehran reached out to resolve its differences with Baghdad, the head of the semiautonomous region, Nechirvan Barzani, visited Iran in May and met with top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Barzani gave a commitment in writing that Irbil would work to disarm "terrorist groups" and ensure their removal from the Kurdistan region.

While Iran claims the alleged anti-Iranian activities of such groups to be a key security challenge, representatives of Iranian-Kurdish factions who spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Farda denied that assertion and suggested that Tehran had ulterior motives.

Reza Kaabi, secretary-general of Komala, said that Iran had focused its pressure on Kurdish parties by targeting them with "missiles, drones, and long-range weapons."

But in reality, he said, "the Islamic republic has actually targeted the Kurdish people's liberation movement."

Fears Of Kurdish Independence

Iraq's Kurdistan region held an independence referendum in 2017 that was overwhelmingly approved by voters with more than 92 percent in favor.

Kurdish leaders suggested the vote, which was opposed by Baghdad, would not lead immediately to independence. But neighboring states like Iran, Syria, and Turkey -- which have large ethnic Kurdish populations -- saw the referendum as a troubling sign of possible secession.

After the referendum, the Iraqi military took control of Irbil and the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from Peshmerga forces, prompting the government in Iraqi Kurdistan to renounce the referendum and to negotiate with Baghdad.

The regional government later announced that it was "committed to responsible behavior in order to prevent further violence and conflicts."

Sami Rikani, an independent political activist who resides in the Kurdistan region, says that in the aftermath, pressure from Iran and Turkey increased.

"Especially after the referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2017, Iran and Turkey came to the conclusion that they should start the process of confronting the Kurdish groups," Rikani said.

The recent demand by Tehran for Baghdad to expel leaders and members of Iranian-Kurdish groups is in keeping with this strategy as well as a security agreement signed between Iraq and Turkey in 2016, Rikani adds.

Turkey has also recently increased its military measures and operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq with the aim of "combating the Kurdish groups opposed to the Ankara government," according to Ankara.

The question now, considering Iraq's subsequent security pact inked with Iran last year, is whether Baghdad will acquiesce to Tehran's demand.

Neither Iraq's central government nor the government of the Kurdistan region immediately responded to the extradition request.

Written by Michael Scollon based on reporting by Iliya Jazaeri of RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been in Tehran's crosshairs ever since he ordered the killing of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in neighboring Iraq in 2020.

Tehran has repeatedly vowed to avenge Soleimani, and many officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have alluded to killing Trump and other senior members of his administration on U.S. soil.

“We will prepare the ground to exact vengeance on the Americans from within their homes, using their companions,” Esmail Qaani, who succeeded Soleimani as the commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said in January 2022.

WATCH: An animated video posted on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's website that envisions a drone strike on Donald Trump:

Animation On Khamenei’s Website Showcasing Trump Drone Strike

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U.S. media reported on July 16 that the Secret Service had enhanced Trump’s security detail after receiving intelligence in recent weeks that Iran was plotting to assassinate him. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee in the November 5 presidential election.

The alleged plot appeared to be unrelated to the failed attempt on Trump’s life on July 13, the reports said.

“Plotting to kill a foreign leader, particularly an American presidential candidate, marks a significant leap in the crassness and risk-tolerance of the clerical regime,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

Iran has long been accused of carrying out assassinations, including of Iranian dissidents, on foreign soil, although it has always denied responsibility.

One of the most high-profile incidents was the 1991 killing of Shapur Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Bakhtiar was shot dead in his home in France, in a killing that was widely blamed on Tehran.

“Iran has not been successful in such endeavors in recent years, and its activities tend to aim at disruption rather than assassinating former or potential heads of state,” said Gregory Brew, an Iran analyst at the U.S.-based Eurasia Group.

He said while it was “unclear whether Iran's intelligence services are up to the task,” Trump’s close call on July 13 brings “into question any confidence that the Secret Service can keep him totally safe from harm.”

Taleblu said it would therefore be a mistake to dismiss Iran’s threats.

The Secret Service has been criticized since a 20-year-old gunman shot at Trump at a rally in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, grazing the former president’s ear and killing a member of the crowd.

'Legal Route' To Avenge Soleimani

Despite public declarations by senior Iranian figures about the desire to avenge Soleimani by killing Trump, Iranian diplomats have dismissed reports linking Tehran to plots to assassinate the former president.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on July 16 thatTehran was “determined to prosecute Trump” while the Iranian mission to the UN insisted that the Islamic republic had “chosen the legal route” to hold him accountable.

Separately, Acting Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani said Iran “will resort to legal and judicial procedures…at the domestic and international level.”

Taleblu said the comments by Iranian officials were in line with the “standard division of labor” in Tehran’s security policy.

“The Foreign Ministry tries to nullify threats through changes in style, while the IRGC and others are able to press ahead with the same sort of terror and destabilization in substance,” he added.

In December, a Tehran court ordered the U.S. government to pay nearly $50 billion in damages for assassinating Soleimani. The court convicted Trump and 41 other U.S. officials over the assassination.

Said Mahmoudi, professor of international law at Stockholm University, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Iranian court cases against Trump were only for show and lacked credibility.

“It is very, very unusual for a [foreign] country…to prosecute Trump. Only international courts are equipped to do this,” he said, adding that international law does not allow domestic courts to prosecute current and former heads of state based on local laws.

Potential Impact on Tehran-Washington Ties

Trump is currently leading President Joe Biden in most opinion polls ahead of the November election and some argue the assassination attempt could, at least temporarily, provide a boost to his chances.

Reports of an alleged Iranian plot against Trump’s life could torpedo attempts by reformist President-elect Masud Pezeshkian to tone down Iran’s anti-West rhetoric, Damon Golriz, a lecturer at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, told Radio Farda.

Brew said Trump might be “even more hostile towards Iran” if elected but noted that the hostility is mutual.

“It should temper any expectations of forward progress, on the nuclear issue or any other policy area, in the event Trump wins November's election,” he added.

With reporting by Reza Jamali and Hooman Askary of RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

The chief of police in Iran's Alborz Province said on July 17 that women who took part in an Ashura procession in the city of Karaj without hijabs have been "identified and summoned."

A video posted on Instagram shows a number of young women, most wearing dark clothing but no head scarves, walking in the street in observance of Ashura, a commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, which is marked mainly by Shi'ite Muslims.

To mourn his death, Shi’a wear black during Ashura processions in which many participants beat their backs with chains in a symbolic expression of regret for not being able to help Hussein before his death.

The video of the procession in Karaj on July 16 has been met with widespread reactions on social media.

Hamid Hadavand, the chief of police in Alborz Province, claimed that the publication of the video and others like it had led to "hurting the feelings of Hossein's mourners" throughout the country.

Hadavand accused the individuals seen in the videos of "desecration," adding that all of them "have been summoned to the Alborz Province police after being identified."

He did not say how many people were summoned or how they were identified.

In addition, the head of the Organization of Religious Boards and Organizations revoked the permission granted to the organization that held the Ashura procession in which the young women took part without hijabs.

Majid Babakhani also announced that the head of the organization had been "summoned" with the help of the police and said that he would be dealt with legally.

Ashura is marked on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar. Last year Muharram was also marked by reports of the identification and detention of women without compulsory hijabs across Iran.

Authorities have stepped up confrontations with people who oppose the mandatory hijab law since protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's morality police in September 2022 for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, and there have been frequent reports of violence against detainees.

In recent months, the police again started a security crackdown on women flaunting the compulsory hijab law by reimplementing the Plan Noor initiative under which the morality police strictly enforce dress codes. This has led to several incidents of violence against women challenging the mandatory head scarf.

Before the reimplementation of the Plan Noor initiative the city of Tehran and the Interior Ministry prior employed hijab guards in some subway stations. The interior minister and the mayor of Tehran denied playing any role in this.

Despite these measures, the presence of women and girls without compulsory hijabs in public in Iran has not stopped over the past two years.

Iran is set to swear in moderate reformist Masud Pezeshkian as president early next month. Pezeshkian has said that while the hijab law should be observed, "there should never be any intrusive or inhumane behavior toward women."

Kiana and Ali Rahmani were only 8 years old when they left Iran to reunite with their father, Taqi Rahmani, who had fled the country as the Iranian authorities sought to arrest him.

Their mother, activist Narges Mohammadi, could only imagine the scene from her jail cell as her children would be taken from her for an "unknown" period of time and endure a "separation that would make me a stranger to my children and them unfamiliar to me."

“I haven’t seen my mom in nine years. I have become used to growing up without a mother,” Kiana, now 17, told Roya Maleki of RFE/RL’s Radio Farda as she marked another anniversary of separation from her mother on July 16.

“My father is a good dad; he has been both a father and a mother,” she added.

In a statement posted on her website on July 16, Mohammadi recalled staying awake through the night in her prison cell on July 16, 2015, knowing her children would be on a plane to France soon.

The separation, she said, “felt like vanishing into a misty void of lost connections, tearing a mother and her children apart, leaving us in an indescribable abyss of heartache and longing.”

"A separation that would turn me into an unfamiliar woman to my children, bearing the name ‘mother’ in a ‘misplaced’ manner," she added.

Mohammadi, 52, has been campaigning for human rights in Iran for decades and has been in and out of prison in the last 20 years. She has been convicted five times since March 2021 and is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence.

She is currently in jail for “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic republic.

Kiana recalls that it was “difficult” going through adolescence as a young girl without her mother, forcing her to turn to her friends and other women for advice.

“I had to learn things that a mother should teach her daughter. I had to ask my friends or their mothers whenever I had a question because I did not have a mother,” she said.

Despite remaining behind bars for so long, Mohammadi has remained at the forefront of Iran's women's rights movement.

Her efforts were honored last October when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Her children accepted the award on her behalf in December.

Kiana said the award raised her mother’s spirits but worsened her conditions in prison because it led to further restrictions, such as limited visiting privileges and phone calls.

Despite not seeing their mother for half of their lives, Ali said they had learned from their mother to “defend our brothers and sisters” from the Middle East.

“We come from a place where there is little freedom and war is constant,” he added.

In her statement, Mohammadi bemoaned that not seeing her children for so long would make her a “stranger” to them.

“I hope my children understand that I, like all imprisoned mothers…was a loving mother whose heart still aches with overwhelming sorrow for her children,” she wrote.

Written by Kian Sharifi based on an interview by Roya Maleki of RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

An unsubstantiated claim on social media linking an alleged rise in leprosy cases in Iran to the country’s Afghan community has resulted in renewed calls for the expulsion of Afghan migrants.

Iranian media have cited the Health Ministry as reporting nine new cases of leprosy over the past year. The reports said three of those afflicted were Afghans.

The same day, a freelance Iranian journalist who advocates for the expulsion of Afghan refugees alleged without evidence that “Afghan migrants” were responsible for spreading leprosy in Iran.

He incorrectly charged that “no cases of leprosy had been seen in Iran in years” -- a claim that is easily debunked by data available on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) website.

On July 9, another journalist who often writes in support of expelling Afghan migrants went as far as calling the alleged rise in leprosy cases “bioterrorism” and demanded that the incoming government of President-elect Masud Pezeshkian “start deporting Afghans.”

“Afghans are bringing and spreading the leprosy virus,” he wrote without offering evidence, falsely claiming that leprosy, which is caused by bacteria, is a viral disease.

Both posts on the social media platform X have received nearly half a million views, been shared more than 1,000 times, and liked by over 7,000 accounts.

What Does The Data Say?

Leprosy in Iran has never been eliminated, but it has declined sharply since 2005, dropping from 79 to six in 2022, according to WHO data. No certified health authority has ever declared leprosy an epidemic in Iran or Afghanistan.

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infectious disease that mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves. It is curable but leaving it untreated may cause permanent disabilities.

The disease spreads via droplets from the nose and mouth through close and frequent contact with untreated individuals.

Rising Anti-Afghan Sentiment

Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion in the 1980s were welcomed in Iran, thanks in large part to the anti-Soviet views of the recently established Islamic republic. But animosity toward the growing Afghan community has only worsened since.

In recent years -- especially after an influx of migrants following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 -- there have been more frequent displays of anti-Afghan sentiment.

Over the past several months, a Persian hashtag that calls the “expulsion of Afghans” a “national demand” has been trending, often boosted by anonymous accounts.

The UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, says Iran hosts 780,000 Afghan refugees, in addition to 2.6 million undocumented Afghan nationals.

But the authorities in Tehran claimed last year that 5 million Afghans were living in Iran illegally, and vowed to deport them. Afghan migrants were later banned from living or working in half of the country’s 31 provinces.

In recent months, Afghan migrants in Iran have complained to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi about rising harassment, even during deportation.

Iran has long said that it does not receive enough financial assistance from international bodies to deal with the number of refugees on its soil.

The world has long been aware of the scourge of apartheid -- the systemic segregation or discrimination of people based on their race. But what about the institutionalized practice of singling people out for ill-treatment due to their gender?

The push to recognize "gender apartheid" under international law is gaining steam, with oppression against women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran fueling calls for immediate action, but tremendous obstacles remain.

What Do They Want?

Advocates want to clearly define gender apartheid as a crime under international law. Currently, only "persecution" on the basis of gender is recognized as a crime against humanity. But rights groups and activists say the concept of persecution does not fully capture the scope of the abuses committed under a system of institutionalized gender apartheid.

The goal is for the United Nations to make up for this gap by legally shielding women and girls from systemic abuse and violence.

Afghan women's rights defenders are credited with being the first to articulate the concept of gender apartheid in the 1990s, during the Taliban's first regime.

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the hard-line Islamist group has reimposed its oppressive policies against women and girls, including severe restrictions on their appearances, freedom of movement, and right to work and study.

Hoda Khamosh, an Afghan women's rights activist, says the recognition of gender apartheid would greatly benefit women's rights in the country.

"We would be able to hold accountable the authorities and perpetrators of gender-based violence and discrimination against women," Khamosh told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Meanwhile, Iranian women’s rights activists have said the institutionalized discrimination against women in the Islamic republic amounts to gender apartheid.

UN experts have said the violent enforcement of the hijab law and punishments on women and girls who fail to wear the head scarf could be described as a form of gender apartheid.

When Do They Want It?

Today. The United Nations has been considering the adoption of a major treaty that would unite signatories against crimes against humanity.

Dozens of rights groups and hundreds of individuals signed a statement in March calling for gender apartheid to be included on the draft list of such crimes.

The hope is that the UN General Assembly will adopt procedures to begin negotiations on the treaty when it next meets in September.

Tough Going

While the concept of gender apartheid has increasingly been used by the United Nations and international organizations, particularly in connection with abuses against women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran, there have also been missed opportunities.

During UN-hosted talks in Doha with the Taliban in early July, for example, women did not have a seat at the table.

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Rights activists calling for the recognition of gender apartheid and for sanctions to be imposed on those responsible accused the UN of giving legitimacy to the Taliban's rule and of betraying its commitment to women's rights.

"The international community has a moral obligation to ensure the protection of Afghan women’s rights and uphold the principles of justice and equality in any engagement with the Taliban," Sima Samar, former chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations.

Imprisonment And Death In Iran

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran's clerical regime has been labeled a "gender apartheid regime" by rights watchdogs.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist who lives in exile, is among the key signatories of a global effort to End Gender Apartheid Today.

The movement, highlighting the international community's successful effort to end apartheid in South Africa decades ago, noted that women in Iran are banned from many fields of study, sporting events, and from obtaining a passport or traveling outside the country without their husband's consent.

The Iranian authorities' goal is to maintain women's subjugation to men and the state through a system of laws, the movement said. Violations can lead to "violence, imprisonment, and death."

"The situations in the Islamic Republic of Iran and under the Taliban in Afghanistan are not simply cases of gender discrimination," the movement concluded in its call for support.

"Rather, these systems are perpetuating a more extreme, systematic, and structural war against women designed to dehumanize and repress them for purposes of entrenching power.”

Written by Michael Scollon with reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi

Iran has opened court cases against two Telegram accounts and summoned 100 people for allegedly calling for a boycott of the recent presidential election.

Some 500 Instagram accounts were also found to have committed “election violations,” Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangiri told reporters on July 10.

Without naming the Telegram and Instagram accounts, Jahangiri said they had all “tried to discourage people from voting.”

Ahead of the first round of voting on June 28, the Iranian government issued strict guidelines criminalizing efforts to boycott the election or discourage high turnout.

Jahangiri said that throughout the election period, 3,980 people suspected of violating the guidelines had been “offered guidance.”

Some 113 people were detained on July 5 when the runoff vote was held, but “most were released on the same day” after posting bail and giving a written statement vowing not to repeat their offense.

Reformist lawmaker Masud Pezeshkian won the presidential election after beating his hard-line rival, Saeed Jalili, in the runoff.

The election was called following the death of hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.

In the lead-up to first round of the election, Tehran’s prosecutor filed charges against media outlets Hashieh News and Bamdad-e No for allegedly publishing fake stories about the election.

Iranian dissidents have for years demanded a boycott of elections, arguing that voting has failed to result in reforms in the Islamic republic.

The first round of voting on June 28 saw a record-low turnout of 39.9 percent for a presidential election. Voter participation increased to 49.8 percent in the second round.

In its most recent report, Reporters Without Borders described Iran as “one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom” and said it was “one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.”