As the coronavirus pandemic is taking lives around the world, many governments are releasing prisoners who are not a threat to society in an attempt to lessen the spread of coronavirus in overcrowded prions. Iran has released 85,000 "low-level" prisoners, primarily non-violent petty thieves, etc. Prisoners that do not have a very good chance of being released are political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, who advocate for human rights.
Nasrin Sotoudeh (pictured above) is a human-rights lawyer and mother of two in Iran. She has defended women who do not want to wear the Islamic headscarf. In 2011 she was arrested and served three years in prison.
In June of 2018 she was arrested and charged with spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran's supreme leader. This time she was whipped, receiving 148 lashes, and sentenced to 38 years in prison. The Iranian government is so fearful of Nasrin, they will not even temporarily release her during the coronavirus pandemic.
The ungodly cruelty and misogyny of the Islamic nation of Iran can be traced to the man-made "revealed" Abrahamic religion of Islam and to Islam's "holy" book, the Quran. In the Quran at 4:34 Islamic men are instructed to beat/scourge women whom they fear may become rebellious towards the superior man. This verse teaches:
Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.
The Iranian government's brutal abuse of Nasrin strongly indicates it accepts and follows the ungodly spirit of this Islamic teaching.
Nasrin is not the only Iranian women who is resisting the theocratic government of Iran. An Iranian women who left Islam for Deism, which is punishable by death in Iran and in many other Islamic countries, belonged to a small and secret Deist group in Iran. At one Deist meeting the Iranian government conducted a raid and arrested everyone there. Fortunately she was late for the meeting and was able to flee Iran. She writes:
They're a small group of Deists that welcomed me and answered all my questions patiently. After a couple of months, I made up my mind and secretly converted from Islam to Deism.
As you probably know, converting from Islam to any other religion or ideology is considered to be an unforgivable sin in Islam, so we were all trying to keep our group and our meetings secret and be cautious about how we were trying to tell people around us about Deism. Unfortunately, six months ago Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah) found out about our group and struck one of our gatherings that I was luckily late to and detained all of my friends. I knew that they would come after all members of the group, so I managed to escape the country and came to Canada.
The last couple of months has been really tough for me especially when I found out they interrogated and threatened my family and imprisoned my friends and forced them to repent and confess that they've been deceived to Deism.
This brave and persecuted Iranian woman, who must currently remain anonymous, has not given up her Deism and has not stopped taking action to reach more Iranians with Deism. From Canada she has started a Deism website in Farsi, https://iranian-deist.com/. I profoundly admire her courage and spirit, and hope that her work and efforts to bring free-thought and Deism to her nation meets with great success.
