Calling on Action

Last month, among the wave of Iranian activists jailed for their suspected sympathy to the opposition movement in the country, was human rights activist and lawyer Mohammed Mostafaei. The 34-year-old Iranian was imprisoned for a week. His crime? In reality, supporters suspect it's merely the result of his somewhat successful work over the past five years to change the Iranian constitution to raise the legal age for issuing execution sentences in the country from 15 for boys and 9 for girls to 18 for both. Over the past two years, Iran has hung 26 juveniles, the most in the world.

An excellent May 29 article in the Wall Street Journal describes a severe crackdown that was already underway in the country against activists, newspapers, magazines and groups working to protect civil liberties long before the recent Iranian election crisis. Even Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize, had her human rights organization closed by the government this past January. Mostafaei was featured in the article, which highlighted how he had already been hounded by the government.

Mostafaei got involved in the child execution issue after winning a case involving a 15-year-old girl who killed a man she says tried to rape her. Now, he currently represents 30 of the 135 Iranian youths on death row. Among other efforts, last year Mostafaei also produced this documentary about Iranian children who face execution. Partly because of Mostafaei, a Stop Child Executions campaign has formed in Internet-land and is circulating this petition. Signing and circulating that petition is one concrete way to help.

Another way to show your solidarity with Iranian democracy activists in general -- participate this Saturday, July 25, in a global day of action called United 4 Iran organized by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups in more than 50 cities around the world.

(Photo courtesy of United4Iran)