Background adapted from Gender Equality for Iran: Prison Terms Served in Exile Constitute Additional Cruelty against Prisoners &Families (Persian version)
The human rights situation in Iran has reached an alarming stage. A large number of civil rights activists, political, ideological, religious and ethnic minority prisoners as well as journalists and woman’s rights activists are either in prison or facing increased pressures at home. After the 2009 presidential elections, critics have been detained and issued heavy sentences ranging from execution to lashes to long prison terms. In an effort to increase pressure on prisoners and their families, the IRI often sends prisoners to other regions to serve prison terms in internal exile. This practice serves as a strategy to separate prisoners of conscience from one another. In some cases detainees are sent to regions where no one speaks their mother tongue. Sometimes prisoners are transferred without court rulings. The practice of internal exile has created overwhelming problems for the prisoners and their families. Parents are often unable to physically or financially travel far to visit their children regularly. At present, many prisoners are transferred to the notorious Rajaishahr prison from Evin and 8 of them have received sentences of prison in internal exile. A large number of Kurdish and Turkish ethnic minority prisoners and Baha’i prisoners have been transferred to other areas.
Because this practice is in contradiction to Iranian laws, and a violation of international rights standards set forth by the United Nations, we encourage everyone to submit e-letters to various IRI embassies around the world, IRI officials inside Iran, and UN officials urging them to halt rights abuses, stop the practice of internal exile, and commute all internal exile sentences that have already been dealt. Directions The letter can be found here. If you choose to add a personal message, please keep it polite, human-rights focused, and without rhetoric. To the right of the e-letter page are the recipients of the e-letter. You don’t have to send a letter multiple times (one click will send your message to all of the listed officials). Below the letter are personal fields to fill out. Enter as much information as you feel comfortable. A VALID e-mail address is required; however, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your e-mail, consider making an e-mail account just to use for actions like this. You do NOT have to sign your name in the letter. If you enter your name in the “Name” field, it will fill it in for you. PLEASE NOTE: The original statement was issued by Gender Equality for Iran, and will be published as a public petition soon. The e-letters you send from here go DIRECTLY to the officials. Please indicate using the appropriate field when sending an e-letter whether or not United4Iran and Gender Equality for Iran can include your name or e-mail address on the PUBLIC petition. This is completely optional, but will help draw additional attention to these issues.