[Fdu] Free Homa Statement by Former UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs

[Cynthia Wright]

*#FREEHOMA <http://www.homahoodfar.org/>*
>
> Free Homa Statement by Former UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs
>
> *​** Twenty-Two Former United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteurs 
> Call for the Release of*
>
> *Professor Homa Hoodfar, Imprisoned in Iran for “Dabbling in Feminism”*
>
> On the occasion of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly which 
> started in New York City on 13 September, we, former human rights 
> mandate holders for the UN, recall that the newly adopted Sustainable 
> Development Goals unequivocally reaffirm commitment to achieving 
> gender equality and empowering all women and girls as Goal 5.
>
> ​
>
> Underlining the obligation of all UN Member States to respect, protect 
> and promote gender equality and States Parties to fulfill obligations 
> under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 
> (ICCPR), we draw attention to the case of Professor Homa Hoodfar held 
> in solitary confinement in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, since 2 June 
> 2016. Today marks her 100th day of imprisonment. Her detention came 
> after a three-month period of unrelenting interrogation sessions and 
> the confiscation of her passports preventing her from leaving Iran. We 
> call for the release of Professor Hoodfar, a 65-year-old renowned 
> anthropologist from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada who has 
> dedicated her career to understanding and improving the status of 
> women and promoting gender equality, particularly within Muslim 
> communities.
>
> ​
>
> The Iranian judicial authorities at the Revolutionary Court have 
> continuously denied Professor Hoodfar access to her lawyers and to her 
> family, and have recently moved to dismiss her lawyers and deny her 
> bail, to which she is legally entitled. Professor Hoodfar suffers from 
> a rare neurological condition, which has clearly worsened in solitary 
> confinement. It is unclear whether she is receiving the medical care 
> and essential medication she requires. Her family has learned that she 
> was briefly hospitalized around August 8-10, 2016, barely able to walk 
> or talk.
>
> ​
>
> The Islamic Republic of Iran, a State Party to the ICCPR, has accused 
> Professor Hoodfar of collaborating with a hostile foreign government 
> against national security, promoting propaganda against the Iranian 
> state and for “dabbling in feminism.”  It is unclear how ‘feminism’ is 
> a threat to Iranian national security, given that Iran has committed 
> itself to the Sustainable Development Goal #5, which is gender equality.
>
> ​
>
> As the General Assembly meets to promote a human rights-based approach 
> to development, including gender equality, we urge the Islamic 
> Republic of Iran to comply with its own laws, and meet its legal 
> obligations under international treaties as well as its commitments 
> under the SDGs and other international instruments. We stress that 
> Iran is breaching its national constitutional principles by 
> arbitrarily arresting and detaining people for simply expressing their 
> opinion and conducting academic research, as is their professional 
> right and duty. Professor Hoodfar’s ill-treatment is a violation of 
> the rights of individuals to freedom of thought, opinion, and speech 
> which are explicitly protected under the ICCPR (Articles 18, 19, 21), 
> to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a State Party. Specific 
> violations of her rights under Iranian law include:​
>
> ​
>
>   * Not making the indictment and content of the interrogation file
>     available to Professor Hoodfar and her lawyer, while purported
>     details of the interrogation and the indictment are published in
>     the media.
>   * Denying bail, transfer to a general ward, family visitations and
>     consultations with her lawyer, all of which are due after an
>     official indictment.
>   * Denying her access to legal defense of her choosing. The court has
>     dismissed the two lawyers she sequentially appointed and has
>     assigned her a court-appointed lawyer against Iranian law and
>     standard international legal practice.
>
> In her forty-year career, Professor Hoodfar has focused on 
> understanding and promoting gender equality and women’s civil and 
> political rights in her academic work. Iranian born, a dual Canadian 
> and Irish national, Professor Hoodfar has promoted a contextualised 
> understanding of the status of Muslim women by challenging stereotypes 
> and polemical arguments, for example, regarding veiled women in 
> Canada, Malaysia, or Iran. She has spent years studying the social and 
> economic context of women’s work and family life, labor force and 
> political participation and the ways in which gender and gender 
> equality have been situated historically and legally across the Muslim 
> world.  Unafraid to study important yet controversial issues that 
> affect women’s lives such as reproductive rights, family planning, 
> legal autonomy and physical mobility, Professor Hoodfar’s work has a 
> broad geographic, historic, and legal expanse (including the first 
> published book on Muslim women and sports). She has conducted research 
> in Egypt, Iran, Canada, Afghanistan, Pakistan, among many other Muslim 
> majority and minority nations. She has consistently followed the 
> social changes and politics of her country of birth, Iran; at times 
> praising the Islamic Republic for innovative public policies that 
> improved the lives of some women, for example those that permitted 
> them to enter higher education in great numbers and allowed them to 
> receive theological training in religious seminaries for the first time.
>
> ​
>
> Deeply concerned about Professor Hoodfar’s arbitrary arrest and 
> deteriorating health, equally concerned that the Islamic Republic of 
> Iran is violating its own constitution and laws, as well as 
> obligations under international human rights treaties, we the 
> undersigned call for her immediate release.
>
> ​
>
> As the 71st session of the General Assembly commences, we draw the 
> attention of all UN Member States to this case and to Professor 
> Hoodfar’s 100th day in detention; we call upon the governments of 
> Canada and Ireland, global civil society, and all individuals 
> attending the session and related events to join in this campaign to 
> Free Homa Hoodfar and to raise the case of Professor Hoodfar with 
> their colleagues, counterparts, and allies.
>
> ​
>
> Signed by:​
>
> *Jorge Bustamante (former UN Special Rapporteur, Migration)*
>
> *Radhika Coomaraswamy (former UN Special Rapporteur, Violence Against 
> Women)*
>
> *Param Cumaraswamy (former UN Special Rapporteur, Independence of 
> Judges & Lawyers)*
>
> *Olivier de Schutter (former UN Special Rapporteur, Right to Food)*
>
> *John Dugard (former UN Special Rapporteur, Palestine & Occupied 
> Territories)*
>
> *Yakin Ertuk (former UN Special Rapporteur, Violence Against Women)*
>
> *Richard Falk (former UN Special Rapporteur, Palestine & Occupied 
> Territories)*
>
> *Anand Grover (former UN Special Rapporteur, Health)*
>
> *Hannu Halinen (former UN Special Rapporteur, Palestine)*
>
> *Thomas Hammarberg (former UN Special Rapporteur, Cambodia)*
>
> *Christof Heynes (former UN Special Rapporteur, Arbitrary & 
> Extrajudicial Executions)*
>
> *Sigma Huda (former UN Special Rapporteur, Human Trafficking)*
>
> *Paul Hunt (former UN Special Rapporteur, Health)*
>
> *Peter Leuprecht (former UN Special Rapporteur, Cambodia)*
>
> *Rashida Manjoo (former UN Special Rapporteur, Violence Against Women)*
>
> *Najat M'jid (former UN Special Rapporteur Sale of Children & Child 
> Pornography)*
>
> *Manfred Nowak (former UN Special Rapporteur, Torture*
>
> *Farida Shaheed (former UN Special Rapporteur, Cultural Rights)*
>
> *Gulnara Shahinian (former UN Special Rapporteur, Contemporary Forms 
> of Slavery)*
>
> *Theo Van Boven (former UN Special Rapporteur, Torture)*
>
> *Amos Wako (former UN Special Rapporteur, Arbitrary & Extrajudicial 
> Executions)*
>
> Media Contacts
>
> Lahore: Farida Shaheed, Former UN Special Rapporteur in the field of 
> cultural rights
>
> Montreal: Amanda Ghahremani | | +1 514 915 0920
>


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