updates on Iran and Human Rights

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This Week's Dispatch Awaits You

Thanks for joining us! This week we bring you Iranian human rights statistics and honor killings in The Unbelief Brief. We also discuss female athletics, the hijab, and the Olympics in EXMNA Insights.

The Unbelief Brief

Seven months into the year, Iran Human Rights tallies the number of executions [[link removed]] Iranian authorities have carried out. So far, this year’s tally is at 300, which includes “at least 49” in the month of July. The organization also asserts that only 28, or 9% of these executions were officially announced by authorities. It also appears that around 15 of the executions included the ridiculous non-offenses of “enmity against God” and “corruption on Earth.” While still egregious and unacceptable, the figures are a modest decline from 2023, which Iran Human Rights says “can be attributed to the parliamentary and presidential elections and the death of President Raisi [in May].”

Speaking of unacceptable disgrace, honor killings continue apace in Iran [[link removed]], a relentless staple of the culture of the Islamic Republic. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reports that a man has killed both his wife and his sister-in-law for the “preservation of honor.” After calling the police last Tuesday because his wife had “threatened” him, he left his home on instructions of the police, only to return a day later and murder his wife and her sister. A horrible waste of human life that keeps happening, over and over again.

Indeed—that’s not even the only honor killing [[link removed]] that happened this week in Iran! Over the past two years, a woman has been murdered by family members every few days in Iran. A 25-year-old mother of two young daughters is the latest victim, having been murdered by her father—“after a video of [the victim] at home with her cousin was circulated.” One can only imagine the supremely dishonorable behavior that must have been exhibited in this video to warrant murder in a country where women are killed simply for refusing to wear the hijab. This state of affairs must end and it won’t until a critical mass of us decide—with our actions as well as our words—not to tolerate it any longer.

EXMNA Insights

With the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in full swing, the BBC World Service [[link removed]] recently reported a surge of interest in the sport of fencing amongst Muslim women in the UK. The sport was initially popularized among Muslim youth by Ibtihaj Muhammad [[link removed]], best known for competing in the 2016 Olympics for the United States whilst wearing the hijab. The Muslim Girls Fence [[link removed]-] project, run by the nonprofit Maslaha [[link removed]], promotes the sport specifically to the Muslim community on the basis that it allows Muslim women to remain “modest” while engaging in an athletic sport. Aside from encouraging and creating much needed space for Muslim women to engage in any athletic sport, one can not ignore the self-limiting nature of this philosophy.

Exercising in a hijab [[link removed]] is, no doubt, a challenging endeavor, requiring that women be covered up to their wrists and ankles in loose-fitting clothing. In fact, this is the very reason Ibtihaj Muhammad’s parents enrolled her in fencing [[link removed]]; the uniform for fencing was one of the few sports that met their modesty standards.

The recent image of a women’s volleyball match between Spain and Egypt illustrates the senselessness of women’s Islamic modesty requirements in sports. The all-black, head-to-toe outfit resembles a sporty burqa. While some online praised the coming together of players from different faith backgrounds, one can not help but notice the absurdity of competing in a summer sport while completely covered in black spandex, all in an attempt to appease a misogynistic god obsessed with what women put on their bodies.

Muslim women in sports are regularly chastised by religious critics for wearing “revealing” athletic uniforms. Indian-Muslim tennis star Sania Mirza was criticized [[link removed]] by a religious organization that issued a fatwa ordering her to cover up for competing in a tennis skirt. Iranian boxer, Sadaf Khadem [[link removed]] defected to France after Iran issued an arrest warrant for her just because she competed in a sleeveless shirt and shorts. Sports such as gymnastics, swimming, and wrestling continue to remain off-limits for many observant Muslim women due to the “un-Islamic” uniform standards.

One must ask, is it enough that a ‘modest’ space simply exists for Muslim women in sports? Don’t Muslim women deserve to compete in any sport they’re able to without the strictures of 7th-century doctrine limiting their potential? While accommodating religious misogyny in the sports world may be laudable, shouldn’t we be challenging it at its source as well?

Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America

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