Iran, Human Rights

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. M. El Dannawi:

That this council—

1. Notes that 2024 marks 45 years since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which dramatically altered the sociopolitical landscape of Iran;

2. Condemns the Iranian regime’s systemic repression and violation of human rights, including through suppression of women’s rights, religious persecution, the use of morality police, public executions, torture, and state-sponsored terrorism;

3. Notes the concern over Tehran’s growing use of terrorism, espionage, cyber attacks and hostage-taking diplomacy to restrict and eliminate the Iranian democratic opposition;

4. Supports people in Iran in their demands for a just, democratic and secular Iran and urges the international community to do the same;

5. Endorses the United Nations' independent investigation into human rights violations and the commonwealth’s targeted sanctions against individuals and entities found to be directly responsible for or complicit in these violations;

6. Calls on the state government to continue dialogue and engagement with Iranian community associations and diaspora communities to amplify their voices and support their efforts; and

7. Calls on the federal government to continue dialogue with Iran to address the human rights violations being perpetrated against people in Iran.

(Continued from 15 May 2024.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:46): I rise on behalf of the Greens to support the motion put before this place by the Hon. Mira El Dannawi, and I thank her for doing so and for her work with the community. The Iranian Revolution of 1977-79 was the first in a series of mass popular civil insurrections that would result in the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in dozens of countries over the next three decades.

Unlike most of the other uprisings that would topple dictators in Latin America, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, the result of the Iranian struggle was not the establishment of liberal democracy but of a new form of authoritarianism. Through mass arms transfers from the United States, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi built one of the most powerful armed forces ever seen in the Middle East. His American-trained secret police, the SAVAK, are thought to have successfully terrorised the population into submission during the next two decades, through widespread killings, torture and mass detentions.

By the mid-1970s, most of the leftist liberal nationalists and other secular opposition leaders had been repressed through murder, imprisonment or exile, and most of their organisations banned. It was impossible to suppress the Islamist opposition as thoroughly, however, as it was out of mosques, among the mullahs, that much of the organised leadership of the movement against the Shah's dictatorship emerged.

Despite providing rhetorical support for an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran, the Carter administration continued military and economic support for the Shah's increasingly repressive regime, even providing fuel for the armed forces and other security services facing shortages due to the strikes. Under enormous pressure, the oil workers returned to work but continued to stage slowdowns.

Late in November, the Shah's nightly speeches were interrupted when workers cut off the electricity at precisely the time of his scheduled addresses. Massive protests filled the streets in major cities in December, as oil workers walked out again, and an ongoing general strike closed the refineries and the central bank.

Despite thousands of unarmed protesters being killed by the Shah's forces, the protesters' numbers increased, with as many as nine million Iranians taking to the streets in cities across the nation in largely non-violent protests. The Shah fled on 16 January 1979, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile two weeks later. He appointed Mehdi Bazargan Prime Minister, thus establishing a parallel government to challenge the Shah's appointed Prime Minister, Shapour Bakhtiar.

With the loyalty of the vast majority clearly with the new Islamic government, Bakhtiar resigned on 11 February. The regime had shifted far to the right by the spring of 1981, purging moderate Islamists, including the elected president, Abolhassan Banisadr, and imposing a totalitarian system.

On 12 September 2022, Mahsa 'Jina' Amini, who I will call Jina Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who had travelled to Tehran alone with her family, was detained on charges of 'mal-veiling' by a branch of the regime's security forces tasked with suppressing women, particularly in relation to their attire. Jina was transferred to a police station to obtain her commitment to the regime's misogynistic laws. While in custody she was beaten severely by agents of the state security forces and later died in hospital due to skull fractures.

Following this tragedy, waves of anti-regime protests broke out in Iran, starting on 16 September 2022, initially in condemnation of Jina's murder. By December 2022 the uprising had spread to at least 300 cities in all 31 provinces of the country, including many universities and high schools. On some days during this period at least 60 locations in Tehran alone flared with protests.

The uprising formed in protest to the regime's killing of Jina in an unplanned and somewhat spontaneous way, but it really is a reflection of an organised resistance across Iran, a resistance with deep social and political roots in fighting the suppression of popular demands for the past 40 years by the mullahs' rule.

The killing of Jina acted as a spark that exploded the powder keg of Iranian society. This explosive state has its roots in extensive sociopolitical suppression, egregious violation of citizens' human rights, economic ruin, high commodity prices, poverty, unemployment, hunger and environmental disasters emanating from corruption and mismanagement, among many other factors. As put by Dr Saba Vasefi, a scholar journalist, the young woman's death was a physical manifestation of a deep, national, decades-long pain. Her quote reads:

Mahsa [Jina] Amini’s murder burst open this four decades of problems in the throats of thousands of Iranians traumatised by the ruthlessness and the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic.

It has now been over a year since the death of Jina Amini, and Iranians continue to face terror and violence under the current regime. This is not a new behaviour of the Iranian regime. In 1988 Iranian authorities, acting under the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, summarily and extrajudicially executed thousands of political prisoners across the country. They executed between 2,800 and 5,000 prisoners in at least 32 cities across the country.

Today, over 10 people each week are put to death in Iran. Think about that: 10 families ripped apart at the hands of a brutal state, often for doing no more or less than speaking up for democracy, speaking up for freedom. In 2023, executions in Iran hit an eight-year high of some 834 people, and by the end of March that year already 95 executions had been recorded. Imagine all those that have not been recorded.

Too many innocent Iranians have lost their lives, have been repressed and have been silenced, and too many families have grieved and felt loss and pain under this regime. The endless persecution of peaceful protestors continues as we are here today in this council. Iran's so-called morality police still arrest women for not acting in accordance with interpretations of the law. They still place people within environments that lead to their torture and to their murder.

After the recent death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranians again find themselves in a perilous period. Heading to another general election with anticipated low voter turnout, this will be a significant challenge for the regime at a time when its public legitimacy is at its lowest.

Everyday Australian Iranians across the country are working, they are giving their time, labour and energy to ensure that the cause of democracy, of freedom for women, and life in Iran is something with which this government has to contend. The Greens stand in solidarity today with protestors across Iran and with communities fighting for the rights of women. The world will be a better place when Iran is free and its people live under a democratic republic in peace with its neighbours and with the world.

The Iranian people have shown us that the path to this ideal is necessarily through the popular abolishment of the present regime. The least we can do is stand with them in these places of democracy and remove the impediments that appeasement policy in the West has created towards this goal for far too many decades. With that, I commend the motion.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (16:55): I rise today on behalf of the opposition in support of the private member's motion moved by the Hon. Mira El Dannawi. When the death of Mahsa Amini first sparked protests in Iran in September 2022, the Iranian regime's violent crackdown on protestors, widespread arrests and retribution against women and girls shocked us all. I understand that at the time many community leaders contacted my colleague the Hon. Jing Lee in her role as shadow minister for multicultural South Australia to raise awareness of the matter and share their deep concerns about the Iranian authorities' repressive response.

In September 2022, the Hon. Jing Lee issued a public statement of support for the Iranian community in South Australia and declared that we, the Liberal Party, stood shoulder to shoulder with Iranians seeking freedom and justice. In 2022, the Hon. Tung Ngo brought a motion to this place about these protests and women's rights in Iran. It is a motion that passed this chamber with the support of the opposition, amongst the support of others in this place.

During that debate, I spoke about my time growing up under Sharia law, growing up in a country where at the time it was forbidden to practise one's faith publicly other than Islam, a place where I was required to wear an abaya in public, to cover my hair when requested to by matawa or religious police, and religious police were often accompanied by a police escort who could order the detention and the arrest of violators, where stonings, lashings and beheadings were common, where there was no freedom of speech, public worship or association, and a place where at the time the media and the internet were censored and where there was a ban on public demonstrations and marches.

In my contribution, I spoke about the importance of the freedoms and democracy we are so fortunate to have in Australia. I have not just read about the dispensing of freedoms in a book, left to imagine what it might ultimately look like, I have seen it firsthand. It serves as a reminder to me that we should never take our freedoms or our democracy for granted.

Australia is a liberal democracy, where exercising one's right of religion is a free choice, as it should be. People are free to choose if they practise a religion, what religion that may be and if they choose so how they wish to practise that religion. In some countries, wearing or not wearing a hijab is a choice. In Iran, the hijab is mandatory.

I note that since last speaking on this important issue in parliament, the report of the federal Senate inquiry into the 'Human rights implications of recent violence in Iran' has been released. The grave reports of human rights violations committed by the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps prompted the committee to make a series of recommendations to strengthen Australia's response to the regime. I also note that the 'Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran' has released the latest report into human rights in February 2024.

The Special Rapporteur found that the use of violence against protesters and political opponents, the deplorable treatment of women and girls, the repression of minority ethnic groups and sexual minority communities continues unabated. These reports further confirm what we have continued to see in the limited news and social media coverage coming out of Iran, along with the concerns raised by many community leaders and organisations who are striving to advocate for and amplify the voices of those trying to achieve change in Iran.

In addition to highlighting horrific human rights violations, the Senate inquiry's report found credible reports of the regime's increasing use of cybercrime, hostage diplomacy, foreign interference and intimidation and threats against Australian citizens, residents and their families. It is my understanding that many of the witnesses who gave evidence to the committee feared retribution from the Iranian government, either for families still in Iran or themselves and their family members here in Australia.

No-one living in Australia should feel threatened by a foreign power, and I wish to credit the bravery and determination of all who gave testimony to the inquiry, despite these fears. Further to the evidence presented to the Senate inquiry regarding espionage, foreign interference and hostage diplomacy, Iran's recent drone and missile attacks on Israel are destabilising and an escalation that threatens the region.

The commonwealth government has since imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans, including sanctions on 90 individuals and 100 entities in response to Iran's actions. I wish to again reiterate that we stand in solidarity with the women-led movement in Iran, and strongly support the rights of Iranians to calling for democracy and basic human rights and freedoms. We have a vibrant and passionate Iranian and Persian community in South Australia, who continue to be deeply affected by the policies and actions of the Iranian regime.

I wish to acknowledge and thank all the Iranian community leaders, organisations and volunteers in South Australia for their continued advocacy in support of the freedoms and the rights of women in Iran. They are a symbol of hope that, maybe one day, they, too, will share the freedoms that we here in Australia are so fortunate to have.

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (17:01): I thank honourable members for their valuable contributions to the debate: the Hon. Tammy Franks and the Hon. Laura Henderson. I was motivated to bring this motion by members of the Iranian community here in Adelaide, who I know also met with the Hon. Tammy Franks and shared their stories as well—groups such as the Australian Iranian Community Alliance and Australian Supporters of Democracy in Iran, as well as many individuals who have been outspoken advocates for human rights.

I thank everyone who shared their stories with me and continue to advocate fiercely for the rights of the Iranian people for freedom, democracy and social justice. I am proud to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran, and I am also proud to stand in solidarity with all people who are struggling for their freedom and dignity.

Motion carried.