Methodology

The Iranian government does not allow NGOs such as Human Rights Watch to enter the country to conduct independent investigations into human rights abuses. Many individuals inside Iran are not comfortable carrying out extended conversations on human rights issues via telephone or e-mail, fearing they are subject to government surveillance. The government often accuses critics, including human rights activists, of being agents of foreign states or entities, and prosecutes them under the country’s national security laws.

For this report Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 50 Iranian refugees and asylum seekers. The overwhelming majority where interviewed in in Turkey (April 2010) and Iraqi Kurdistan (October and November 2011). Of those interviewed, approximately 35 were election protesters, journalists and bloggers, rights activists, and lawyers who had left Iran since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over Iran’s presidency in June 2005, and especially after the disputed 2009 presidential election. In the interest of brevity and efficiency, however, Human Rights Watch selected only a few of the stories it documented for presentation in this report. Some of the individuals interviewed have since been resettled in third countries.

A handful of individuals whose experiences are reflected in this report communicated with Human Rights Watch via e-mail correspondence. Human Rights Watch has confirmed the validity of their stories by conducting additional research, primarily via secondary sources, and identified the information that was acquired via firsthand interviews and those which were gathered via e-mail communications.

Their stories represent a cross-section of the experiences of civil society activists who have been forced to leave Iran in the past few years.

In preparing the report Human Rights Watch also relied on previous information gathered through firsthand interviews conducted by the organization and used in reports, press releases, and other material published since 2005.

All of the interviews were conducted in Persian (Farsi). Most were conducted one-on-one, although a handful of the interviews took place in small group settings. Human Rights Watch informed all of those interviewed that their stories and identities may be used in reports and other material published by the organization. All agreed to the conditions and informed Human Rights Watch that they had no problem with their identities being reviewed. In a few cases, however, Human Rights Watch chose to hide the identities of those interviewed due to the sensitive nature of the issues discussed.

Human Rights Watch also met with and interviewed representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and received information from UNHCR offices in both Ankara, Turkey and Erbil, Iraq. Human Rights Watch also communicated via e-mail correspondence with UNHCR Ankara and Erbil several times prior to the publication of the report, provided them with an opportunity to review sections relevant to UNHCR’s operations in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, and integrated their feedback and responses where appropriate.

Where noted, the age of interviewees corresponds to their age at the time the interview was conducted.