–Analysis–
The war in Gaza has exacerbated the human rights issue in Iran, particularly the executions, which have sharply increased. Experts calculate that Iran has executed 176 people since Hamas launched its sudden “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation against Israel on Oct. 7. With circa 700 executions so far this year, Iran ranks second after China in implementing the death penalty, including the execution of minors and teenagers, which is prohibited under international law.
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Among those executed was a Kurd, named Ayoub Karimi, on allegations of “spreading corruption on earth.” The man had been serving his sentence in prison for nearly 14 years on accusations of killing a Muslim cleric in 2008, along with six other Kurds who were also executed in Qizil Hesar prison, Iran’s largest state prison, in the city of Karaj.
Meanwhile, local and foreign human rights organizations have documented the lack of any fair investigation into the charges against those who were executed, and consider that the confessions were extracted “forcibly” and under torture, according to Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, director of the Iranian Human Rights Organization, a Norway-based rights group.
Amnesty International stressed that the charges against Karimi and others in the same case were based on “highly unfair trials marred by reports of torture to extract confessions”.
Executions in Iran increased by 83% over the past year compared to 2021 (576 compared to 314). Amnesty International said in a statement: “ This arbitrary deprivation of people’s lives must stop,” noting the targeting of the Baluchi ethnic minority, who “account for around 20% of recorded executions while making up only about 5% of Iran’s population.”
The increase in the pace of executions coincided with the beginning of the protests commemorating the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini at the hands of members of the “moral police”. However, the war in Gaza pushed this trend towards a more sinister direction. The international community is now paying closer attention to Iran’s political role in the conflict, turning a blind eye to its domestic violations.
Hushed internal crackdown
Tehran’s suppression of the protest movement at home is part of a policy in which the regional conflict can become a cover to achieve both its domestic and foreign agenda.
Based on its political and pragmatic calculations, Iran has managed the conflict through a careful and deliberate escalation on the Lebanese front and then a carefully studied and calculated escalation in Yemen — the latter through the Houthi militarization of Gulf waters, maritime piracy, and the disruption of international navigation. It has also targeted U.S. interests and military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.
There’s room to double the dose of repression domestically without international pressure.
Tehran’s strategy, which relied on expanding pressure on U.S. and Israeli interests in Iraq and Yemen, especially since they are geographically far from Israel, indicates that the Iranian regime wants to achieve two goals.
The first is not to lose its position as a patron of the “resistance”. The second is to show itself as a potential mediator in the Palestinian cause along with the rest of forces and factions, including Hamas and its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Considering these different roles, the Iranian regime finds there’s room to double the dose of repression and brutality against the opposition domestically without international pressure.
Iran vs European Parliament
Tehran carried out a death sentence against a young man in his twenties, Milad Zahra Vand, as well as Hamid Reza Azari (17 years old).
The executions coincided with a conference by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, in mid-November, in which he condemned a non-binding resolution of the European Parliament regarding Iran’s human rights violations.
Europe’s “false humanitarian slogans” will not cover its sponsoring anti-Iranian criminals.
Kanaani characterised the European Parliament’s position as “interventionist” which has been a result of what he called “the destructive approach” of European currents against the “Islamic Republic.”
“The European Parliament’s intrusive decision indicates the confusion of a number of European parties about the reality of the forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its positions against the forces of global arrogance,” he said.
The Iranian official said the European Parliament’s “theatrical measures and its false humanitarian slogans” will not cover its “dark records” of sponsoring anti-Iranian criminals.
The European Parliament has previously slammed aggressive practices against women in Iran, as well as “brutal killings” of women, simply for non-compliance with the rules of the “moral police.”
In a non-binding resolution, the European Parliament strongly condemned “the deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, and the brutal murders of women by the Iranian authorities, including the 2023 Sakharov Prize laureate Jina Mahsa Amini. ”
The resolution was adopted by a majority of 516 votes, 4 against, and 27 absentees.
According to their resolution, the European representatives called for the “immediate release of all victims of arbitrary detention and human rights defenders,” including activist Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
It also called for an end to the “judicial harassment” of Nisreen Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender, the resolution said.
The European representatives also called out the discriminatory laws, as well as random and arbitrary arrests, and Iran’s approach to what is known as “hostage diplomacy”.
Economic crisis
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi failed to implement a “rescue plan” to extricate the Iranian regime from economic crises and turbulent social conditions.
Iran is still a prisoner of its ideology and unable to deal realistically with the confusing regional reality, said Mahmoud Hamdi Abu al-Qassim, a researcher specializing in Iranian affairs. Therefore, the regime’s plan is to adopt an economic and political “policy of resistance,” and not rely on openness with the West, Abu al-Qassim argued.
According to the researcher, the Iranian leader carried out a policy of rapprochement with Russia and China. He also prioritized exporting Iran’s goods to its neighboring countries to avert U.S. sanctions and continued an approach of economic diplomacy to expand Iran’s ties with countries that are against the United States.
But this policy failed in resolving the crises that Raisi’s government inherited because of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. At the same time the scarcity of resources resulting from the sanctions has had an impact on the Mullahs’ regional influence. The regime was barely able to control the domestic situation after the killing of Mahsa Amini and authorities adopted a policy of severe repression in which it pursued activists, said Abu al-Qasim.
He said the “securitization” of the political, legal, and economic issues have been a tactic used by Raisi and the regime to “confront the state of rebellion against the regime, and they have already succeeded in controlling the Iranian street by force.”
Public rebellion
Given that living conditions are still deteriorating, the regime expects, from time to time, that the situation in the country will implode and that the momentum of protests will increase at any time, especially since the government in Iran faces a very complex regional scenario.
While the regime is tightening its grip for fear that the situation will explode in a way that might hurt its survival and control, it “is exploiting the current Israeli war on Gaza to enhance its legitimacy,” Abu al-Qasim said.
The regime uses the war and the anger it has planted to “affirm its point of view and its anti-American and Israeli tendencies. It encouraged anti-war protests and found it an opportunity to distract public opinion from its internal issues,” he said.
The regional developments in Gaza have given the regime a great opportunity to control the situation domestically and adopt a policy of extreme repression, including the executions, with no concerns about consequences.
Authorities also reimposed restrictions to cripple the feminist movement at home by passing a strict bill that increases prison terms and fines for women and girls who do not abide by a strict dress code.
