Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published
reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Iran.htm
Iran is a source,
transit, and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iranian women are
trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced
marriages. Iranian and Afghan children living in Iran are trafficked
internally for the purpose of forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation
and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers to pay debts, provide income
or support drug addiction of their families.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here
or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
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interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Political
Executions, Child Prostitution, and Forced Marriage at the Age of 9
: Ms
Zadeh talks on the lack of human rights in News & Civil
Society Perspectives from the Commission on Human Rights Sixty-first session
14 March - 22 April 2005 -- Contributors: Sebastian Zielinski (CONGO), April
11, 2005 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September
2011] Child
prostitution has risen 635 percent in recent years. Dozens of Iranian girls
are brought to By law, the father has the right to force a girl into marriage at the age of nine. A man can have up to four wives and forty "temporary marriages". Prostitution is thus codified in the Iranian law. Mentioning only a small part of the atrocities carried out by the Iranian regime, it is not hard to understand that Iran currently has the highest suicide rate in the world. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. human
trafficking report: China, Iran, N. Korea worst offenders Nicholas Sakelaris,
United Press International UPI, 20 June 2019 [accessed 20 June
2019] U.S. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said Thursday human trafficking is a strain on humanity
that violates basic human rights. He named China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Cuba among the worst
offenders. Those countries all
scored the lowest on the 2019 Trafficking in Person report released by the
U.S. State Department. 2020 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices: Iran U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/iran/
[accessed 10 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The law prohibits
all forms of forced or compulsory labor, but the government did not
effectively enforce the law and made no significant effort to address forced
labor during the year. It was unclear whether penalties were commensurate
with those prescribed for other analogous crimes such as kidnapping.
Conditions indicative of forced labor sometimes occurred in the construction,
domestic labor, and agricultural sectors, primarily regarding adult Afghan
men and boys younger than age 18. Family members and others forced children
to work. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were
reportedly significant numbers of children, especially of Afghan descent, who
worked as street vendors in major urban areas. According to official
estimates, there were 60,000 homeless children, although many children’s
rights organizations estimated up to 200,000 homeless children. The Committee
on the Rights of the Child reported that street children in particular were
subjected to various forms of economic exploitation, including sexual abuse
and exploitation by the public and police officers. Child labor also was used
in the production of carpets and bricks. Children worked as beggars, and
there were reports criminals forced some children into begging rings.
According to the Iranian Students News Agency, Reza Ghadimi,
the managing director of the Tehran Social Services Organization, said in
2018 that, according to a survey of 400 child laborers, 90 percent were
“molested.” Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 29 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The government
provides no protection to women and children forced into sex trafficking, and
both Iranians and migrant workers from countries like Afghanistan are subject
to forced labor and debt bondage. The IRGC has allegedly used coercive
tactics to recruit thousands of Afghan migrants living in Iran to fight in
Syria. Human Rights Watch has reported that children as young as 14 are among
those recruited. The fuel-price hike
that triggered the November 2019 protests was the latest sign of an economic
crisis driven by a combination of US-led trade sanctions and mismanagement by
the regime. The crisis has caused serious hardships for ordinary Iranians,
leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation. Rising number of
Iranian girls as young as 10 forced to marry Agence France-Presse
AFP, February 5, 2016 [accessed 5 February
2016] A growing number of
“girls at the age of 10 years or younger … are subjected to child and forced
marriages to much older men,” CRC said. Compounding the
problem were laws allowing sex with girls as young as nine, and a lack of
criminalization for sexual abuse of even younger children, it said. The committee also
lamented a law obliging wives “to fulfill sexual needs of their husbands at
all times,” which it stressed “places child brides at risk of sexual
violence, including marital rape.” Stressing the
devastating effects child marriage can have on the physical and mental health
of young girls, the experts called on Tehran to introduce national laws
clearly banning and criminalizing the practice. Inside Iran: The
industry of child trafficking Al Arabiya News, 15
June 2015 [accessed 17 June
2015] Al Arabiya’s
“Inside Iran” report revealed that a child in Iran can be sold for $150, and
subjected to child labor even before the age of three. The victims of
child trafficking are reportedly exploited in labor, begging, and drug and
organ trafficking, the report added. It is claimed
traffickers go searching for children in areas hit by poverty, or where drug
addiction is rampant. They could be kidnapped from their families and never
return back. Iranian islands a torture
ground for duped migrants Mohammad Jamil Khan,
Dhaka Tribune, 4 April 2015 www.dhakatribune.com/2015/apr/04/iranian-islands-torture-ground-duped-migrants [accessed 13 April
2015] www.dhakatribune.com/uncategorized/2015/04/03/iranian-islands-a-torture-ground-for-duped-migrants/ [accessed 31 January
2018] When hard-working
Bangladeshi migrants arrive in the UAE looking for jobs, they are steered by
dreams of turning their own lives around, while they seize every opportunity
before them to earn a little extra for their loved ones back home. But that leaves
them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous opportunity seekers. An Iran-based gang
of human traffickers lure the Bangladeshi men with promises of better jobs in
European countries – mostly in Turkey, Greece and Italy; but as soon as they
are smuggled out of the United Arab
Emirates, the workers are held captive in islands near the Iranian port city
of Bandar Abbas. Hideouts on the
islands – located in the 39km stretch of the Strait of Hormuz – are used to
torture the Bangladeshi expatriates, while their families back home are
contacted to demand ransom. Many of the hostages are unable to survive the
torture, and die there at the hands of their captors. Human trafficking
victims return from Iran M.H. Khan, Dawn the
Internet Edition, www.dawn.com/news/292913/human-trafficking-victims-return-from-iran [accessed 26 January
2016] Twenty-three
victims of human trafficking, including women and children, arrived at the
FIA’s office here on Saturday after serving for a year as unpaid labourers on
the agricultural land in Clerical courts set
free women traffickers Secretariat of the
National Council of Resistance of ncr-iran.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=783:iran-clerical-courts-set-free-women-traffickers&catid=163:women&Itemid=140 [accessed 13
February 2011] [scroll down] The state-run daily
Iran reported that a man involved in human trafficking of young Iranian
girls, each sold in Arab countries for over 50 million rials (US$4,600), received
a prison term of three to five months. An appeals court, however, overturned
the ruling and released the smuggler and ordered him to pay a fine of just
US$275. Most runaway girls
in www.wfafi.org/E-ZanVol14.htm [accessed 2
September 2014] [accessed 6 June
2017] In April, a number
of government officials and security officers were arrested during raids on
at least five houses used as brothels in and around the town of Neka,
northern Iran. Many runaway girls,
some as young as 13, were being forced into prostitution by organized child
prostitution rings. A number of officers from The Plight of Iranian Women and Children Under Islamic Rule [DOC] Prof. Donna M.
Hughes, Congressional Breakfast Conference, June 8, 2005 www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/plight.doc [accessed 13
February 2011] THE IDEOLOGY AND STATE OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM - The clerics’ version of sharia law imposes a crushing system of gender apartheid on Iranians based on the premise that women are physically, psychologically, intellectually, and morally inferior to men. The clerics made laws on how to control, punish, torture, and kill women and girls. Misogyny and violence against women were institutionalized. Save the Women,
Save Ourselves - Terror, inside and out Michael Ledeen,
National Review NRO contributing editor, April 04, 2005 www.usmessageboard.com/threads/save-the-iranian-women-save-ourselves.19502/ [accessed 2
September 2014] [accessed 29 April
2020] According to Dr. Azam, she had a skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe, a smashed nose, deep scratches on her neck, and evidence of flogging on her legs and back. "I could see this was caused by torture," Azam told Canadian journalists. He added that the nurse who examined Kazemi's genitals told him of "brutal damage." He believes she was tortured and raped. If he is correct, we can add Zara Kazemi to a long list of women who have been brutalized. Child Prostitution
Ring Run By Revolutionary Guards Officers Uncovered In www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1399081/posts [accessed 2
September 2014] A
number of government officials and security officers were arrested during raids
on at least five houses used as brothels in and around the town of Girls In www.msn.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1616:girls-in-iran-being-sold-in-pakistan-on-daily-basis&catid=6:women&Itemid=111 [accessed 2
September 2014] [accessed 10
February 2019] At least 54 Iranian
girls and young women, between the ages of 16 and 25, are sold on the streets
of Karachi in Pakistan on a daily basis, according to report outlining the
latest statistics. The report also
revealed that there are at present at least 300,000 runaway girls in Woman Facing Death
For Prostitution ‘Not Mentally Disabled’ Irish Examiner,
December 23, 2004 www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2004/1223/ireland/woman-facing-death-for-prostitution-not-mentally-disabled-354882847.html [accessed 2
September 2014] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Amnesty had said
the woman’s mother forced her into prostitution when she was eight. It said
the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine. Slavery of Children
and women in Persian gulf countries Morteza Aminmansour,
Persian Journal, Jun 20, 2004 www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news/exec/view.cgi/2/2675 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The Islamic
fundamentalists in E-ZAN Voice of Women against Fundamentalism in E-ZAN, VOLUME 6,
November 15, 2004 www.wfafi.org/E-ZanVol6.htm [accessed 13
February 2011] TO OUR READERS - The Iranian
regime displays a different kind of brutality towards women. Women’s Forum
Against Fundamentalism was the first organization in the Sex Slave Jihad [PDF] Prof. Donna M.
Hughes, FrontPageMagazine.com, January 27, 2004 www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/sex_slave_trade_iran.pdf [accessed 13
February 2011] womenfreedomforum.com/socialactivity2/sex-slave-jihad-donna-hughes/ [accessed 10
February 2019] The head of Iran’s
Interpol bureau believes that the sex slave trade is one of the most
profitable activities in Iran today. This criminal trade is not conducted
outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists.
Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling, and sexually
abusing women and girls. The price of
Iranian girls after entering the Persian Gulf trafficking market May 2005 SINA News Agency, 6
July 2004 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6
September 2011] The Colonel adds:
?The girls who run away from home have no idea what the future holds for
them. We have 200 missing girls in Tehran, as we speak and we only know of
the fate of a few. There are many rings lurking for these young women and
girls. They use these run-a-way girls for stealing, trafficking and for
illicit drugs and sex. Most of all they use these victims for their organs.?
Every once in a while bodies of unknown girls are found here and there in
large cities, particularly in Tehran. Some of these bodies are identified; however
most of them are buried without being identified because no one comes to
claim their body. The dealers of
human organs are also trafficking girls by promising them a better life and
transporting them across borders. Once taken to another country, the
traffickers sell the girls? body parts for enormous amounts of money. Iran's Sex Slaves
Suffer Hideously Under Mullahs Prof. Donna M.
Hughes, Insight on the News – Insight Magazine, 28 May 2004 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6
September 2011] A measure of
Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and
totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran
for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules
and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid
system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing and
stoning to death. Amnesty
International, Index Number: MDE 13/048/2004, Date Published: 10 December
2004 www2.amnesty.se/uaonnet.nsf/0/69E32AABCC1C8DB9C1256F66005702D4 [accessed 27 January
2016] www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/96000/mde130482004en.pdf [accessed 10 February
2019] "Leyla
M", who has a mental age of eight, is reportedly facing imminent
execution for "morality-related" offences arising from her being
forced into prostitution as a child. Human trafficking
from Iran to Gulf Shiekhdoms [PDF] Shargh daily, May
26, 2004 www.referendum-iran.org/Docs/CSRI/CSRI-Bulletin-107-June-4.pdf [accessed 13
February 2011] A group of Iranian
boys and girls will be sold in an auction today in Human Trafficking
and Forced Prostitution Katherine Toliao,
IranDokht www.irandokht.com/editorial/index4.php?area=pro§ionID=12&editorialID=761 [accessed 13
February 2011] womenfreedomforum.com/2006/02/12/human-trafficking-and-forced-prostitution/ [accessed 6 June
2017] This abhorrent form
of exploitation does not confine itself to adult women, but extends to
children as well. The head of the Tehran province judiciary asserts that
traffickers looking to sell women in the international market target girls
between 13 and 17, although some of the girls are reported to be as young as
8 and 10. The younger girls are often forced to work as maids until slave
traders deem them old enough to work out of clubs, motels, or brothels. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 28 January 2005 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/e7b8824bdd987268c1256fa8004a8753?OpenDocument [accessed 13
February 2011] [70] The Committee is
concerned about reports of trafficking and sale of persons under 18 years of
age, particularly young girls from rural areas, facilitated by
"temporary marriages" or "siqeh" - marriages which last
from 1 hour to 99 years. It is also concerned at reports of the trafficking
of such persons from Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iran [accessed 13
February 2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61688.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– According to foreign observers, women and girls are trafficked to All
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