Over the years, the Iranian regime has accepted a number of important internationally binding treaties with contractual partners from almost every country in the world. The regime has publicly acknowledged its treaty obligations – yet continues to breach the terms of those treaties daily, through torture, arbitrary detention, and disenfranchisement of women and minorities.
Tehran has been routinely criticized by UN bodies and special rapporteurs, more often than almost any other state in the world. With the Iranian regime’s refusal to end human rights abuses in the country, UN resolutions on Iran often identify the same violations year after year.
Before we dig into the regime’s human rights violations throughout March 2022, here is a selection of atrocities they have committed over the past four decades.
- Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, including flogging and amputation.
- Numerous executions were carried out in violation of internationally recognized guarantees, namely public executions, and executions of minors.
- The risk of execution for those in captivity, with many routinely facing delayed execution trials, has become routine for the regime’s prison officials.
- The increasing discrimination, and other human rights violations, against members of religious minorities, whether recognized or not.
- The detention and violent repression of women exercising their rights to peacefully protest, the imposition of penalties against these women, a campaign of intimidation against defenders of women’s human rights, and the continuing discrimination against women and girls in law and practice; and
- The persistent, systematic, and severe restrictions on freedom of peaceful protests, the freedom of association, and the freedom of opinion and expression as well as periodic blocking of the Internet.
The ongoing trend of repression and human rights violations in Iran during March 2022 showed no signs of slowing down. The situation in the country continues to deteriorate as each month goes by, and the Iranian people are the ones left suffering under the rule of the medieval theocracy.
Executions
Across Iran, at least 46 prisoners were executed in March, one of whom was a woman. These executions took place in various prisons, including Arak; Shiraz; Qazvin; Miandoab; Isfahan; Gohardasht; Bushehr; Urmia; Zahedan; Khash; and Dezful, with the majority being carried out at Shiraz Central Prison.
The woman was executed along with her husband in Shiraz Central Prison on March 14, for the charges of murder.
Arrests
According to reports, during March 2022, around 231 people were arrested, under a wide range of charges, up and down the country.
Of those arrested, at least 60 people were charged with offenses such as participating in the Nowruz celebrations in Sanandaj Children’s Park, publishing videos criticizing the regime on the Internet, holding religious meetings, and disturbing public opinion.
A further 166 people were arrested on charges relating to the Chaharshanbe Souri (Festival of Fire) and posting immoral images on the Internet.
Five members of the Baha’i faith were also arrested due to their religious beliefs.
Torture
Cases of torture also continued to rise last month. 15-year-old Arya Yousefi, the son of Fatemeh Davand, a detainee of the November 2019 protests in Buchan, was severely beaten and arrested by the regime’s intelligence agents.
In Urmia Central Prison, political prisoners Shaker Behrozi and Naib Askari were transferred to solitary confinement following a hunger strike, with Askari being deprived of proper medical care despite his poor physical condition.
Arbitrary killings
One of the worst human rights violations that have seen a dramatic increase in Iran during March was the arbitrary killings of innocent civilians.
On Kazerun Road, a driver transporting fruit was attacked by the regime’s highway police. During the attack, his car crashed and caught fire with him trapped inside.
24-year-old Farshad Shahbakhsh was shot dead by IRGC officers in the Cheshmeh Ziarat area of Zahedan, and in Bampour, Milad Yadegari was murdered as he slept by security officers who entered his home and attacked him.
Security officers opened fire on a car in Sabzevar city, killing two people and injuring two others, while Surat Veisi, 70, and her son, Ali Ashraf Rezaei, 30, also traveling in a car, were shot by IRGC officers in Dalahou.
The regime’s police force was also responsible for several killings across the country last month. Moslem Faqirzehi, 19, was attacked in the Dehbakari area of Bam, and two Baluch citizens, 28-year-old Bilal Ejbari and 29-year-old Mohsen Ejbari were killed without warning in the vicinity of Qaderabad village in the Sib and Soran districts. Loghman Naroui, 33, was also murdered by the regime’s police officers in Zahedan.
Farshad Salarvand, who was returning from a recreational trip with his friends, was chased by police on the Boroujerd-Doroud road by police officers who shot him in the head, killing him instantly, while Younes Mallahi, a Baluch citizen, was killed in a chase at sea by the regime’s naval forces of Bandar Kolahy near Minab.
Fuel and cargo porters were also killed as they carried out their jobs. A 20-year-old man named Masoud was killed in Iranshahr, and Baluch citizen Alireza Rostami lost his life in the Sandrak area of Minab. Rostam Khezri, 25, was killed by the regime’s Central Regiment at the Siranband Baneh border.
