Flogging, Amputations, and Hangings Are Business as Usual in Iran

Two celebrated Iranian poets, Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Musavi, will be lashed 99 times for the offense of shaking hands with the opposite sex. The two will also serve lengthy prison terms on charges of 'insulting the sacred" and "propaganda against the state." It's just the latest in a long string of human rights abuses, outlined in a report released by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran on Tuesday.

"The human rights situation in the country remains dire," the Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed said in a briefing at the United Nations on Tuesday. Despite the recent diplomatic deal over Iran's nuclear program which has produced a warming of relations with the West, Shaheed noted that there remains "a strong disconnect between the professed policy of engagement and the behavior of authorities on the ground."

Shaheed documented systematic torture, including the surgical removal of eyes, amputation, and widespread flogging. He criticized a closed political climate and routine detention of dissenting voices, that he said "continue[s] to undermine the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly."  Iran has detained at least 46 journalists for peaceful activities over the last year — including the Washington Post's reporter Jason Rezaian, who is currently imprisoned for espionage in the infamous Evin prison.

Rezaian's imprisonment has caused an international outcry, and Shaheed singled out the case for special attention, saying that "my position is that Jason's imprisonment is illegal under international law and Iran's own laws."

The lashing and imprisonment of poets Ekhtesari and Musavi has also provoked international attention. "'[Their] arrests and convictions are a travesty of justice, and send a chill over the already beleaguered creative community in Iran," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director of Free Expression Programs at PEN, an association of media professionals, when the two were sentenced earlier this month. "The spectacle of a regime flogging a poet to punish a handshake is a grave affront. For a country with a proud literary tradition, this is yet a new low."

The UN report singled out the "exponential" increase in executions in Iran over the past year. A least 694 people have been hanged — including 10 women and one child. If executions continue at this pace, Iran will put to death over 1,000 people this year. According to the UN, it's the highest rate in 25 years, although Iran has disputed the figures.

The UN report is based on interviews with Iranians in Europe as well as 30 Skype calls with Iranians conducted between January and June. Iran has barred Shaheed from the country.

Shaheed was appointed special rapporteur in 2011, and this is his fifth report on the country's human rights record — it's the first since Iran and world powers reached a landmark nuclear accord this summer. He expressed some optimism for human rights in the wake of the deal, saying the agreement  "can potentially have a beneficial multiplier effect on the human rights situation in the country."  But so far that effect has yet to materialize.