Criticism Surrounds Awarding Of Honorary Doctorate To Raisi In Pakistan

Earlier this week, an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced the 33-year-old dissident artist to death for charges connected to the 2022 nationwide protests that his lawyer says he had been acquitted of previously. Toomaj's action that solicited the wrath of the authorities was a song in support of the protesters.

Salehi, dubbed "the world's bravest rapper" by Western media, has a 20-day appeal period. According to his lawyer, Amir Raeisian, he intends to appeal the decision.

Australia is raising concerns directly with Iranian officials over the death sentence, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson told Iran International on Friday.

“Australia condemns Iran’s increasing use of the death penalty, including against political opponents, juvenile offenders, and members of religious and ethnic minorities,” reads the letter addressed to Iran International. “Australia will continue to raise these concerns directly with Iran's representative in Canberra, through our Embassy in Tehran, and in multilateral forums.”

Australian senator David Shoebridge, who sponsors Salehi, also told Iran International that “governments around the world should respond” because the verdict is political in nature.

Since the 2022 protests and mass arrests in Iran, politicians in Europe, Canada and Australia have sponsored many Iranian prisoners are sponsored by politicians.

Security forces killed 550 people and arrested around 22,000 others from September 2022 to March 2023, among them many celebrities, writers and human rights activists, who had criticized the violence.

These lawmakers' sponsorship indicates their intent to leverage their political influence to raise awareness about the plight of Iranian prisoners among politicians and human rights organizations. Their aim is to prevent Iranian judges from delivering harsh sentences in secret trials.

On Thursday, Canada's Foreign Affairs minister Mélanie Joly wrote on X: “Like Toomaj, many others have been victim to IRGC’s human rights abuses & blatant disregard for human life in pursuit of democratic change.”

“Use of the death penalty to suppress human rights & freedoms is unjustifiable,” she added.

In a statement published on Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry also decried the harsh sentence as “unacceptable.”

“France strongly condemns this verdict, which joins the numerous other death sentences and unjustified executions linked to the fall 2022 protests in Iran”, the statement said.

Since Wednesday, protesters in several cities in Europe and the US, including Bonn, The Hague, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, and Washington, have taken to the streets to call on their governments to halt the execution.

According to opposition activist Hamed Esmaeeilion in Canada, there are also plans to demonstrate in support of Salehi this weekend.

Speaking at the Shanghai Defense Ministers' meeting held in Kazakhstan, he claimed that Iran does not seek war.

"I must emphasize that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war or an escalation of tensions in the region. Nevertheless, any aggression or miscalculation by enemies will be met with an appropriate and regrettable response."

The minister's remarks come in the wake of a significant military engagement on April 13, when Iran launched over 350 missiles and drones at Israel. The projectiles were mostly intercepted by Israeli air defenses and a US-led coalition. The military action was described by Iran as a retaliation to an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. The airstrike reportedly resulted in the deaths of a senior commander of the Quds Force and several officers.

Israel has not officially accepted responsibility for the attack on the consulate. However, US media outlets such as ABC News and CNN, citing US officials, have attributed the targeting a radar site in Iran, on Israel. The province of Esfahan where the strike occurred is notable for its strategic military significance, including the Natanz underground nuclear facility, which has been the subject of suspected sabotage operations attributed to Israel in the past.

Since 1984, the United States has classified Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. The designation has been largely due to Iran's external activities, which include backing militant groups.

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri added that adherence to the hijab is mandatory for all citizens, reflecting the Islamic regime's stance on enforcing hijab irrespective of individual beliefs.

"Hijab is not merely a religious and cultural symbol but a firmly established legal requirement. All residents, regardless of their religious convictions, must comply with the law as it applies generally within our borders."

His statement comes amidst escalating enforcement in the streets under Project Nour, the government's aggressive campaign to ensure compliance with hijab. The initiative has seen a notable increase in confrontations between government agents and the public, particularly targeting women perceived as non-compliant with the mandatory dress code.

The renewed enforcement push has sparked widespread criticism both domestically and internationally, highlighting concerns over human rights abuses. Reports from Tehran indicate a sharp rise in incidents where law enforcement has extorted money, committed theft, and engaged in harassment under the guise of hijab law enforcement.

International human rights groups, local activists, and numerous citizens have voiced alarm over the measures, denouncing the oppressive tactics employed by the authorities.

Recently, Tehran hosted a rally aimed at protesting against hijab defiance. Despite widespread advertising, these rallies failed to attract significant participation.

Since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, detained by morality police for improper hijab, an increasing number of women have publicly forsaken the hijab, sparking widespread protests across the nation against the Islamic Republic.

Authorities have consistently issued warnings to women to adhere to hijab, threatening penalties for non-compliance. Numerous women have been arrested or summoned, and several businesses have been closed for not enforcing hijab regulations.

“Sweden has done little to secure his release and also inexcusably failed to provide his family with the level of support and information they need and deserve,” the signatories write in a letter dated 25 April, the eve of Djalali’s eighth year in prison.

Djalali was arrested in April 2016, visiting Iran on an academic trip at the invitation of the University of Tehran and Shiraz University. He was charged with espionage and collaboration with Israel two weeks after his arrest –a charge leveled at many, often with little or no real evidence. In October 2017, he was sentenced to death.

“As former hostages who endured the harrowing ordeal of prolonged unlawful detention in Iran,” the letter reads, “we write to express our deep concern over the ongoing lack of meaningful action taken by your government to secure the release of Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish physician on death row in the notorious Evin Prison.”

The signatories include Barry Rosen, who was taken hostage in Iran in 1979, when young supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the US embassy in Tehran, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years in arbitrary detention in Iran, before reuniting with his family in the UK in 2022. Also on the signatories list is Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Sharghi, three of five US citizens released in 2023, as part of a deal brokered by the Biden administration, in which the US released 5 Iranian prisoners and paid $6 billion to the Iranian government.

That deal was heavily criticized at the time, and even more so after October 7th, when critics blamed the Biden administration for replenishing Iran’s coffers shortly before Hamas, sponsored by the regime in Tehran, attacked Israel.

“There is also an obligation incumbent on all of us to upend the vicious but prospering enterprise of hostage-taking by rogue states,” former Iran hostages write to the Swedish prime minister. “We ask that your government join forces with other countries whose citizens are being arbitrarily detained by the Islamic Republic and its ilk, and to attack the problem at its root. We must collectively devise and enforce draconian penalties that would deter this inhumane practice from happening in the first place.”

Taking hostages under false judicial pretexts has become normal practice in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Foreign and dual-national travelers are detained and used as bargaining chips by the government in dealing with western governments.

Many human rights activists are concerned that Dr Djalali could be used by authorities in Iran to secure the release –and return– of Hamid Nouri, a key figure in mass execution of Iranian political prisoners in 1988. He was a former Islamic official who was arrested in Stockholm airport in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison in 2023, after a long trial in which many former Iranian prisoners now in exile testified.

“It would be a tragedy of unacceptable proportions if Dr. Djalali—or any of your arbitrarily detained citizens—is excluded in any future prisoner deals,” former Iran hostages conclude their letter. “Sweden has a clear duty to secure the safe return of all its innocent citizens that Tehran is using as pawns in its wicked game of hostage diplomacy.”

The signatories and the years they spent as hostages in Iran are as follows:

Barry Rosen (1979- 1981), Jason Rezaian (2014 - 2016), Nizar Zakka (2015- 2019), Siamak Namazi (2015 - 2023), Mohammad Baquer Namazi (2016- 2022), Xiyue Wang (2016- 2019), Kamran Ghaderi (2016- 2023), Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (2016- 2022), Anoosheh Ashouri (2017- 2022), Kylie Moore-Gilbert (2018- 2020), Morad Tahbaz (2018- 2023), Emad Sharghi (2018- 2023), Benjamin Briere(2020- 2023), Fariba Adelkhah (2019- 2023), Roland Marchal (2019- 2020)

“In 600,000 girls' schools, we must fulfill the task of promulgating Iran's progress and the Iranian girl's progress,” he said, without explaining what he means by ‘progress.’

Highlighting students' role in recent protests, he claimed that their participation is a result of a lack of space at schools to “exhaust students' pent-up energy.”

In December, he said that the enforcement of hijab among students should go “beyond school uniform rules,” suggesting that schools should have stricter dress code regulations.

His recent remarks are made at a time when the pressure on women to enforce hijab restrictions has dramatically increased. The Iranian government announced on April 13 that the morality police have been reactivated as part of a new initiative called 'Nour,’ aimed at curbing "immodesty."

Since then, social media has been flooded with videos demonstrating the widespread presence of the morality police and their violent crackdown on hijab rebels, prompting a massive backlash from women's rights activists, political commentators, and journalists.

Following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of the morality police in 2022, a significant number of morality police disappeared from the streets.

The renewed enforcement effort follows a directive from the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has consistently emphasized the need to adhere to "religious decrees" regarding the hijab, describing non-compliance as "religious norm-breaking."