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Mr. Karimi was arrested during the National Student
Day in 2007 and spent 76 days in solitary
confinement in Section 209 of the Evin prison before
being released on a 150 million Tooman bail.
He was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and 74
lashes however his sentence was eventually converted
to a fine.
Human Rights Watch recently
published a new report in 2009 detailing the repression of Iran's
Kurdish population by the Iranian government in Iranian Kurdistan (Eastern
Kurdistan). In this report,www.ekurd.netthe Human Rights Watch strongly criticizes Iranian
government for violating human rights and freedom of expression in Kurdistan.
Kurds make up approximately 7 percent of the population and live mainly in the
northwest regions of the country.
In a report released in July 2008, the human rights
organisation, Amnesty International
expressed concern
about the increased repression of Kurdish Iranians,
particularly human rights defenders.
The report cited examples of religious and cultural
discrimination against the estimated 12 million
Kurds who live in Iran.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to take concrete
measures to end any discrimination and associated
human rights violations that Kurds, indeed all
minorities in Iran, face,” Amnesty said in its
report.
“Kurds and all other members of minority communities
in Iran, men, women and children, are entitled to
enjoy their full range of human rights.”
Part of this report translated by: Sayeh Hassan
Sayeh Hassan is a Toronto based Criminal
Defense Lawyer with Walter Fox and Associates.
Ms. Hassan is an Iranian pro-democracy activist
who has been involved with this movement for the
past eight years. She is also the author of the
shiro-khorshid-forever blog which focuses on
human rights and the pro-democracy movement in
Iran. Through her human rights work she stays in
close contact with dissidents inside Iran as
well retains contact with numerous Iran based
human rights organizations. Her writings often
focus on the plight of ethnic and religious
minorities in Iran, with a particular interest
in the persecution of the Kurdish and Baha'i
communities. Ms. Hassan writes regularly for
online publications such as Canada Free Press,
Persian Journal and the Kurdish Herald. She can
be contacted at sayehhassan (at) gmail.com
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
iranian com | ekurd.net | Agencies
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