Fancy Shoes Get Afghans Deported From Iran

All it took for half of an Afghan family to be deported  from Iran, where they had lived legally for the past 15 or so years, was a pair of pink sneakers and platform shoes. 17-year-old Zohrah wore the platform sandals and her 15-year-old sister Hasina donned a pair of pink sneakers on a 35 kilometer pilgrimage to the Shia holy city of Qoms.  They were arrested after they argued with a policeman in Qoms who noticed the shoes and the makeup, found it offensive, and charged them with not abiding by Islamic dress code. Zohrah immediately called her fiance' who then called their father to come help, but they too were arrested when they arrived at the station, and three or four days later the four found themselves on the border of Iran and Afghanistan waiting deportation.

According to Human Rights Watch, Afghans are not allowed Iranian citizenship, and even though they might be there legally (like Zohrah and Hasina's family), and Hasina was born there, they can be easily deported.

Iran detains and deports hundreds of thousands of Afghans every year with without any legal proceedings or the opportunity to seek asylum, according to a new Human Rights Watch report, Unwelcome Guests. Members of the Iranian security forces have absolute power to deport Afghans. Afghans facing deportation are typically bused to Afghanistan within a couple of days of being detained without any opportunity to prove that they have a legal right to live in Iran or to lodge an asylum claim. These days, Afghans are systematically denied the opportunity to apply for refugee status when they first enter Iran, leaving them vulnerable to deportation at any moment. Some deportees are beaten during the deportation process, and all are charged exorbitant fees.

Zohrah and Hasina's mother and 3 other young siblings (12, 8, 3) have been left behind to fend for themselves. And the girls are facing an even worse hell-hole for women, in Afghanistan. And now the father has to figure out what to do about his family in Iran (including an aunt and grandparents), and his two girls in Afghanistan.

“We don’t have any money in Afghanistan,” he said. “We don’t have any money to go back to Iran. My wife does not work, she’s uneducated. What will she do?”
“What will we do?” he said.

All of this because of some shoes.  Gotta love the Islamic Republic of Iran.

More on Human Rights Watch.

Video- Sexual Violence Against Women In Egypt

From Human Rights Watch:

New York, July 3, 2013) -- Egyptian anti-sexual harassment groups confirmed that mobs sexually assaulted and in some cases raped at least 91 women in Tahrir Square over four days of protests beginning on June 30, 2013 amid a climate of impunity. Human Rights Watch has long documented the problem of sexual assault in Cairo's streets and particularly at protests. A new video highlights the stories of women who have been attacked, in some cases as recently as January.

Sexual harassment has been an ongoing problem for women for decades. Men blame it on women- how they dress and how they walk- even though modestly dressed, hijab-clad women are also targeted. Nothing is done about it, on any level, so it continues.

Death Penalty For Iran's 3 Strikes You're Out Alcohol laws

It doesn't take much to warrant the death penalty in Iran. You can be executed for anything from being a political dissident to being gay to drinking alcohol. Yes, in Iran, you can lose your life for drinking one too many beers, one too many times. In a 'three strikes and you're out' type of law offenders are sentenced to death, and two people are currently facing that punishment.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is trying to get Iran to end death for drinking and for "crimes that are not considered serious and exceptional under treaties that bind it," but the Iranian government isn't about to listen to some human rights organization, or anyone else for that matter. They'll continue to pop off anyone they have a problem with, including those who consume alcohol.

According to HRW the prosecutor said the two  “had consumed alcoholic drinks for the third time” and that authorities were prepping for the “ the implementation of the execution order."

HRW's Sarah Leath Whitson said,

“Sentencing Iranians to death for consuming alcohol is a scary signal of how little Iran’s judges value Iranian lives and how casually they can make a decision to end them. Iran’s courts apparently have nothing better to do than harass and even kill Iranians for engaging in dubious ‘crimes.'"

According to shariah law, alcohol consumption is a

hadd offense, or a crime against God, and receives specific punishment under Islamic law. Usually, a person caught drinking alcohol gets 80 lashes, according to Human Rights Watch. But an article in the Iranian penal code stipulates that persons will be sentenced to death on their third conviction.

If alcohol violators repent following conviction of the "crime" based on their own confessions, a court is allowed to seek clemency from the nation's supreme leader or his representatives. But if a conviction was based on witness testimony, clemency is not applicable.

Despite the prospect of severe punishment, alarmed Iranian officials warn that alcohol use is increasing.

Earlier this month, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Mesdaghinia reportedly bemoaned "abnormal behaviors such as alcohol consumption" apparently being on the rise. Also this month, Iranian newspapers said that the amount of confiscated booze had gone up by 69% just in the last year.

Is it any wonder there's a problem with alcohol in a country that is so repressive and oppressive?

Human Rights Watch Tells The West To Stop Hating On Islamists

Human Rights Watch has just told the West to stop hating on Islamists, because political Islam is so much more palatable than the autocracies it's replaced in the Middle East.

In its annual report, HRW's Kenneth Roth, executive director, said

“The international community must ... come to terms with political Islam when it represents a majority preference,” he said. “Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the Arab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see political Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule.”

“Wherever Islam-inspired governments emerge, the international community should focus on encouraging, and if need be pressuring, them to respect basic rights ─ just as the Christian-labeled parties and governments of Europe are expected to do,” he said in the introduction to the report.

He added that the international community “should adopt a more principled approach to the region than in the past. That would involve, foremost, clearly siding with democratic reformers even at the expense of abandoning autocratic friends.”

Yes, we have to come to terms with Islamism because the West has no other choice when stupid people choose one equally if not more repressive/oppressive system over another, but we don't have to like it. Nor should we.

He advises the international community to encourage or pressure Islamist-led governments to respect basic rights?  Well Mr. Roth, that's worked very well in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (to name a few), hasn't it.

The Arab Spring movement in the Middle East gave those people who fought so fiercely for major change the perfect opportunity to usher in democracy, but it's something they've obviously squandered.  The Tunisian and Egyptian majority Islamists have said they will remain moderate, but what guarantee is there that they will.

I'm not saying that autocratic/totalitarian leaders are preferable, but Islamic theocracies are far worse.