Rouhani’s record far from moderate
Hassan Rouhani has been president of Iran for more than six years. The Islamic Republic introduced him as a moderate clergyman and politician, and some Western media outlets, scholars and politicians bought the idea that Rouhani and his technocrat team were indeed opposed to the hard-liners and that they would be a benevolent force for improving human rights in Iran. A six-year period should be adequate to analyze and examine the performance of the Iranian president and his Moderation and Development Party.
Reports and data show that human rights violations have not only continued on Rouhani’s watch but have increased to an alarming level. The rate of executions has increased dramatically, with the Iranian regime ranked first in the world when it comes to the number of executions per capita. The executions have included juveniles, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups, including Ahwazi Arabs, Kurds and Sunnis. In order to impose fear on society, many people were hanged in public, including 38 juveniles, 93 women and 91 political prisoners.
This brings us to Rouhani’s other notorious record: Iran has become a leading executioner of children, as the number of juveniles put to death increased in 2018. Although Iran has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Rouhani’s government has made no effort to alter the country’s Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed.
Rouhani has also appointed or promoted several people who were reportedly involved in egregious and wanton human rights violations, such as the 1988 mass execution of more than 30,000 prisoners.
For example, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was a representative of the Ministry of Intelligence at the notorious Evin Prison and was implicated in the 1988 atrocities, served as Rouhani’s justice minister from 2013 to 2017. And Ebrahim Raisi, a former public prosecutor who was also implicated, was made Chief Justice of Iran in March.
Under Rouhani’s presidency, crackdowns on the Iranian population have also escalated. These include censorship of the media, restrictions on journalists, arbitrary arrests, inhumane punishments, and the detention of human rights defenders and political activists.
To suppress opposition, vague charges are often brought by the Islamic Republic’s judiciary system or the Islamic Revolutionary
Court. Examples include “waging war against God,” spreading “moharebeh” (corruption on Earth) and endangering the country’s national security.
The use of cruel and inhumane punishments is also on the rise. According to Amnesty International’s 2018 report, the use of various forms of torture, such as amputation and flogging, has been increasing at an alarming rate. One example included tying a man to a tree in public and flogging him 80 times.
During the six-year presidency of Rouhani, the human rights situation in Iran has deteriorated substantially. Rouhani is not a moderate but a regime loyalist.