I. Summary

On July 9, 2005, students in the Iranian Kurdish city of Mahabad held demonstrations in Esteghlal Square to mark the anniversary of 1999 student protests in Tehran which the government had violently suppressed. Like the student protests they were commemorating, the demonstrators in Mahabad witnessed brutality when security forces arrived to arrest Shawaneh Ghaderi, a prominent Kurdish activist and one of the organizers of the demonstration. When Ghaderi tried to flee, security forces pursued and shot him, tied him to a car, and dragged him through the streets to his death. Rioting broke out and the incident, as well as photos of Ghaderi's body that circulated afterwards, sparked eight days of protests in Mahabad and other Kurdish cities.

Following this unrest, and the inauguration soon thereafter of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August 2005, the government moved to repress peaceful activities by critics and dissidents throughout the country, including those in the Kurdish regions of Iran. Routinely invoking "security" concerns, the government accused activists, journalists, and writers of "stirring trouble and ethnic and racial conflict," often accusing them of "working with opposition groups."

In bringing such charges, the government has at its disposal a set of articles within Iran's Islamic Penal Code entitled "Offenses against the National and International Security of the Country." These "security laws" give the government wide scope for suppressing a range of peaceful activities and for denying security detainees basic due process rights. Similarly, Iran's Press Law contains broadly worded articles that allow the authorities to ban or deny permits to publications they perceive as critical, bring charges against writers and journalists, and prevent writers from having their works published. The Judiciary also regularly violates the legal requirement that the prosecution of press and expression-related offenses be tried in public courts and in the presence of a jury.

In Iran there is little official tolerance of political dissent by any of the country's citizens. Most reports of widespread human rights violations reflect developments in or near Tehran, the capital. Iran is a country of many minorities, and the authorities are particularly hostile to political dissent in those areas, especially where there has been a history of separatist activities. This report documents the Iranian government's widespread banning of newspapers, journals, and books as well as its harassment and arrests of publishers, journalists, and writers in the Kurdish regions. Authorities also suppress the activities of non-governmental organizations, by denying registration permits or bringing "security" charges against individuals working with such organizations. In many cases the authorities denied arrested activists basic due process rights. In at least one case, a detainee has alleged torture and mistreatment.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to amend or abolish its security laws, press laws, and other legislation that allow the government to suppress the speech and activities of a range of individuals and to arrest them for exercising their rights to peaceful expression and association. Human Rights Watch also urges the Iranian government to respect its international obligations, as well as Iran's constitution, in granting and respecting the social, cultural, and religious rights of the country's Kurdish minority.