Mehrangiz Kar
When we speak of prisoner’s rights, it means that we have left behind the age of dungeons and branding bodies and have caught up with civilization and the culture of human rights. Furthermore, it means that we possess a law and legal document to which we can refer. Even if ...
The Constitutional Revolution challenged absolute rule and made rulers accountable to people’s representatives. Now that we look back at the past and examine it judiciously, we realize that the issuance of the decree for constitutional monarchy by the Qajar king was a tremendous feat. Although the Constitutional Movement was plagued ...
Evin Prison, Iran’s most notorious prison, is the locus and center of the exercise of discrimination against women prisoners. Interrogators and judges are aware of these circumstances to the point where they use it as a threat: constantly reminding women prisoners who are charged with political crimes that, if they ...
The Supreme Cultural Revolution Council has ruled without legal authorization for a long time—this is not new. What is new is the infighting among the elite as they attack one another. The grievances are old and worn and if we choose the revolution as a marker of time, then the ...
Two of Iran’s main reformist parties now find themselves up against a force that is above-the-law that is bent on dissolving them within the framework of the law. The two parties are the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mujahideen of the Islamic Revolution, both of whose charters state the ...
Iranian women played a significant role in the victory of Iranian Revolution in 1979. They were also the first segment of population that, in the name of Islam and revolution, was treated with disrespect and animosity. Immediately after the Revolution on February 11, Iranian women lost the rights they had ...
Since 1997, when Mohammad Khatami became the President, the conservative faction has labeled the critics of approbative supervision as the enemies of the system. From the perspective of conservatives, who have always monopolized security, intelligence and police institutions, approbative supervision is a divine revelation that cannot be altered. All people ...
A while ago, Mrs. Hilary Clinton said: “We expect more from Iran.” Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rejoicing in the transformation in foreign policy from the White House and its serious inclination to understand the need of the Iranian government to maintain its stance regarding the development of nuclear energy from a purely ...
Precisely at a time when the eye can see nothing, a light shines in darkness. Precisely in the moments that many prisoners of recent weeks are subjected to torture to make confessions, a prosecutor in the judiciary has courageously broken the silence and spoken about illegal methods for extracting confession ...
Limits imposed on the flow of communication have not been able to keep the separated members of the great Iranian family in the dark about each other. Members of the family still manage to receive and pass on the news. The major piece of news now making its way from ...
About author
Mehrangiz Kar
Mehrangiz Kar is an attorney, writer, and activist working toward the promotion of democracy, rule of law, and human rights within the framework of Islamic law. Despite the Islamic Republic's frequent attempts to impede her efforts, Kar has been an active public defender in Iran’s civil and criminal courts, and has published regularly in several influential and independent Iranian journals. Banned from making public appearances within her country, including conferences, radio, and television, Ms. Kar has used international forums as a platform for voicing her opinions and advocating for democratic, political, legal, constitutional, and human rights of the Iranian people. In April of 2000, following her participation in a symposium in Berlin, she was arrested and imprisoned on charges of acting against the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Three of the five charges against her are pending, for which she may again be arrested upon her return. Banned from appearing on radio or television within the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ms. Kar has gained international exposure through appearing on numerous prominent radio and television shows. Recently she has appeared on Netherlands TV (2001), Finland TV (2001), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (2001), Italian TV (2000), and BBC World TV (1996). Ms. Kar has been interviewed by numerous Iranian and international newspapers, including The Washington Post(February 15, 2002) and Chicago Tribune (December 2001).
