July 12, 2011

Attention:   News, Features, Government/Political Affairs, Religion Editors

July 8, 2011 - John Baird, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, today announced that Canada, together with the United Kingdom and the United States, is increasing restrictions on the Iranian authorities to hold them accountable for their international human rights obligations (1). “This is not a sincere statement,” said Ms. Homa Arjomand, Coordinator of the International Campaign to close down Iranian Embassies.

Ms Arjomand further stated, “To take Mr. Baird’s statement seriously, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States need to expel the Islamic regime of Iran from all the International Agencies and close down all Iranian Embassies in their countries. Furthermore they need to freeze all bank accounts of the leaders of Islamic Republic of Iran, at least in their own countries and finally arrest and try all its leaders in an international court for their crimes against humanity.”

Arjomand continued by stating, “It was not long before, on March 4th, 2011, that United Nation shamefully appointed the Islamic Republic of Iran to become a member of the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women. Such an action purposely makes a mockery of the work done by women’s rights activists.” She further stated that “Discrimination against women and the oppression of women under the law of Sharia, led and controlled by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the head of state terrorism, have taken the most grotesque and outrageous forms. It is widely known that women’s rights have been increasingly under attack and they are being subjected to abuse for disobeying Islamic standards.  Daily degradation of women, prohibition from many forms of employment, field of study and sports, sexual segregation in buses, schools and public places, stoning to death of women or murdering them for sexual relations outside marriage, acid-throwing in the faces of women and flogging in public for putting on makeup, arresting and gang raping women are routine practices of this cruel regime.  The reality is that there has not been a day without violations against a number of protesting groups such as teachers, workers, students, writers, journalists and bloggers. The number of people being executed and tortured in prisons increases day by day. Over 100,000 execution since the birth of Islamic Regime of Iran should make every concerned citizen wonder how could this regime be tolerated.

 As Homa Arjomand had previously stated in a Public Announcement on July 21 2009, “the Islamic Republic of Iran is directly responsible for terrorizing people globally as well with its daily crimes against humanity from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Algeria and Palestine, even in the heart of Europe and the North America; from imposing reactionary and anti-human Islamic laws on people, from       z

In that same announcement in 2009  Ms Arjomand went further to state that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is directly responsible for sustaining terrorism as a main tool in further deepening the national, ethnic and religious splits in the Middle East and keeping alive this conflict as political capital and source for its power.”

Homa Arjomand, the coordinator of the International campaign to close down Iranian Embassies as well as the coordinator of the International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada urges the Canadian Government, the United Kingdom, and the United States to break all their diplomatic ties with the Iranian Regime and close down this Regime’s embassies immediately in order to, as Mr. Baird says, “increase restrictions on the Iranian authorities so as to hold them accountable for their international human rights obligations.” 

Media Contact:  Ms. Homa Arjomand 1- 416-737- 9500

Email: homawpi@nosharia.com       Web site: www.closedowniranianembassies.com, www.nosharia.com

 

1.          Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Canada Supports Intensified Restrictions on Iran.2011, from: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-ommuniques/2011/194.aspx?lang=en