Jan. 23
IRAN:
The Artist Making Dolls of the Women Executed in Iran
Women living in Iran have been executed for "crimes" like not wearing their
hijab correctly or defending themselves from rape. While the country's
government uses the death penalty as a silencing tactic, Iranian-American
artist Sheida Soleimani is bringing attention to the women who were supposed to
disappear.
Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani has never been to Iran, and she most
likely never will. After her 2014 photo series, National Anthem, which
displayed chaotic iconography from the country's even more chaotic political
history, appeared in the press, Soleimani started receiving threatening letters
from members of the Iranian government. Now, she's pretty sure she's on their
watch-list. However, her work provides such an incisive lens on the country
that it wouldn't be completely accurate to call her an outsider looking in. As
the daughter of 2 political refugees who were targeted by the government during
the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the country's war-torn discourse has always been a
part of Soleimani's life and her art.
Her latest, untitled photo series aims to bring attention to women in Iran who
have been executed by their government for "crimes" such as not wearing their
headscarf correctly or defending themselves from rape. According to Iran Human
Rights, 3,344 people have been executed in Iran since 2011 for minor offenses.
The total number of women executed in the country per year is unknown; the
government will report a certain amount of executions - sometimes adding false
charges - but many go completely unacknowledged. Even without this context,
it's clear that the women resurrected in Soleimani's surreal photographs -
bloated and pixelated - have gone through something grotesque.
Ahead of her solo exhibition in Cologne later this year, I talked to Soleimani
about the emotional, and multi-media, process behind her photos, identity in
art, and her deep connection to a place she'll never see.
Broadly: A lot of the work you made is very much tied to Iran. As a woman of
color, I'm always curious about how and why people choose to represent their
racial and gender identity through art. There seems to be two different camps
of artists of color: those who want to avoid the label and those who embrace
it. Did you always know that you wanted to explore your Iranian heritage?
Sheida Soleimani: Yeah, ever since I was young. I was raised in the United
States, but I didn't learn how to speak English until I was 6. My parents were
very specific about me learning my native tongue because they knew that I would
learn how to speak English when I went to school and met other kids. So I was
always really eager to share what was going with me when I learned how to speak
English. I was really excited to be able to communicate with other kids and,
once I started doing that, I felt like everything I had to say to them was so
foreign.
As I got older, that started to make me think about what people in the West are
exposed to and how they are exposed to different things, specifically through
the news and popular media. What's shown about Iran on the news is very
specifically framed. My parents being political refugees really made me want to
start talking about [what's happening in Iran] more.
Were your parents open with you about their experience as refugees?
They were always really candid with me. Sometimes I wonder if it was too much,
but I don't think so. When I was five, my mom would put me to bed and tell me
stories about when she was in prison and what the prison guards did to her.
[She was arrested and tortured by members of the Iranian government.] I think
part of that was because she didn't have anyone else to talk to about it. I
kind of became my parent's psychologist. My dad, over dinner discussion, would
talk about how his friends were executed and hanged and how he had to witness
public hangings. As a child, it was definitely a lot to hear about, but I
learned about the truth at a very young age. I'm thankful for that.
My parents are always my go-to. Even when I'm making this work now, I'll call
my parents and ask them what they think. The rest of my family still lives in
Iran, and they're my news source for getting news that's not filtered by
Western media. Anything that I can't find on the dark web comes from them,
especially during times of revolution and protest. There were a lot of things
that weren't talked about on Western TV when the Green Revolution started
happening in 2008, for example. Family members were telling me, "It's bad here.
There's sweepers cleaning up blood from the streets at night."
What do your parents think of your work?
It took them a little while, but my mom has always been really helpful. When I
started taking self-portraits she would help me set up photos even though I
was, like, half-naked. My dad is really interested in the activism of it. He
was a political activist in Iran, and that's actually why my mom got arrested.
He's definitely into displaying opinions - he thinks that's really important -
and my mom is more interested in the artistic process of it.
It seems like both of their philosophies influenced you in the way that your
work is visual, but it's not just "retinal" art. What are your thoughts on art
as activism?
I would consider myself an activist in some means, but my work is just to raise
questions. Everyone is going to take away something different from it, but at
least they'll get to see it. That's my biggest concern.
When did you start making work about Iranian women, specifically?
This work is pretty new. I started this in November, but I've really been
running with it because I have a few shows coming up. It's become really
important to me, so I'm going to try to make a whole show's worth by April.
I remember I was sitting in the car, having a conversation with my partner, and
I was just coming down from finishing National Anthem. Those images addressed a
lot of torture victims, whether they were male of female, and people who have
been victimized for speaking out. But then I started thinking about it more,
and I realized it was important for me, having a mother who went through what
she did, to highlight the women who have been executed. No one is representing
them or protecting them in the country of Iran, and they are killed if they try
to have a voice. I started thinking about what would happen if I started
forcing [people to look at] these images of these women on trial. And this just
after I had learned about Reyhaneh Jabbari, a woman who was executed for
killing her rapist. I was just thinking, "Wow, a woman can't even protect
herself from someone who is trying to rape her. He walks free, and she gets
killed. How can I start a conversation about this?"
The resulting images look 3-dimensional or like they're from 3D forms. What's
the process behind these compositions?
The 1st thing I do is look at the numbers online. I'm on Iran Human Rights
Watch, Amnesty International - which doesn't even cover 1/4 of the executions -
and on the dark web, where there are forums that people can confirm casualties
in Iran. If one of your family members has been jailed, no one in the
government will tell you if they have been executed or what has happened to
them. That's where these forums come in. The Humans Rights Watch put out a
report in 2013 that said that over 200 executions were not even claimed, and
last year saw the highest number of executions in 15 years. There are public
executions as well, and that's how the government tries to instill fear in its
citizens. They execute women in this way to send a message: don't do this or
you'll be killed, too. Reyhaneh Jabbari was one of those women.
The next thing I do is try to find images of these women. Very rarely are women
even allowed to have trials - it's really just a matter of formality - but when
they do have trials, sometimes images will be posted online. In the image I
made of the woman crying, that's from her trial, but other source pictures come
from mugshots. Since they're usually for web, the images are small and I need
to upsize them. That's why they appear pixelated - I leave them that way as a
nod to their online source. Then I print them on fabric and stuff them to make
them plush. The next thing I think about are objects that can tell the story of
the woman's execution. Most recently, I had an image of a woman who was
handcuffed and led to her death. I sourced and cut-up images of her hands and
placed handcuffs around her form. It's really all about playing with that
language and thinking about what an image can contribute to another image. Then
I set it all up in a corner of a room and photograph it.
Oh, wow. So these are all photographs of physical installations. They're not
digitally collaged at all?
No, not at all. I'm really bad at Photoshop.
Knowing that makes these images even more horrifying to me. The mangled doll
aspect... You're quite literally making these invisible women visible, in a way
that's fittingly disturbing.
I knew I wanted to print the women's faces on some sort of fabric to make them
plush, but I started playing around with things and then realized that when I
created my 1st sculptural form it really resembled the form of a Bobo doll,
which are those clown-looking dolls that are weighted at the bottom. The end
result of the doll really does look like a punching bag.
I mentioned this to a friend who is a psychologist, and she brought up Albert
Banduras' social learning experiment. The experiment was done in 1961 using 2
control groups of children. One group gets to go into a room with various toys
and they get to play without any direction. The second group of children,
before they get to go into this room of toys, watches a video of a person
displaying aggression toward a Bobo doll. After that group of children watches
the video, every single one of those kids decided to play with the Bobo Doll
aggressively. The first group didn't do that all. When started thinking about
these forms I was making out of pictures of executed women, I couldn't help but
see the link there. In a lot of villages in Iran, you are forced to go to the
city square and witness a woman get killed. People take their kids - it's so
normalized that it's like taking your kids to the circus.
I was actually horrified myself the other night when I was photographing one
them. I was positioning the dolls and touching them, and then I realized I was
thinking about not touching the dolls too roughly. They're inanimate objects,
but when I work with them I feel a connection and I feel like I have to treat
them a specific way because of what's happened to the women behind them. It's
like, I'm touching the face of this dead woman. It's strange. I get really sad.
(source: broadly.vice.com)
KUWAIT:
Kuwait urged to commute death sentences in spying case
Kuwait has been urged to drop plans to execute 2 men convicted of spying for
Iran and Hezbollah, with an international rights group claiming their trial was
"flawed".
Kuwait's first instance criminal court sentenced Hassan Hajiya, a Kuwaiti
national, and Abdulreda Dhaqany, an Iranian national, to death on January 12.
In both cases, Human Rights Watch said they were convicted "without adequate
legal representation".
"Issuing a death penalty sentence, especially after flawed proceedings, is a
terrible way for the Kuwaiti authorities to begin 2016," said Joe Stork, deputy
Middle East director.
"The authorities should commute the executions immediately and reinstate the
moratorium that had been in place from 2007 to 2013."
Hajiya's lawyer, Khaled al-Shatti, said that his client was held and
interrogated on an almost daily basis from August 13 to September 1, 2015, by
Homeland Security without any access to legal representation, the rights group
said in a statement.
It added that his lawyer sought access to the interrogations but the attorney
general denied him and all of the other lawyers of the 24 other defendants who
faced similar charges access to their clients.
Al-Shatti hopes to appeal Hajiya's death sentence within the next 3 weeks.
Human Rights Watch also said Dhaqany was not arrested, nor was he represented
by a lawyer before 3 judges in Kuwait's first instance criminal court sentenced
him to death in absentia. He is currently outside the country.
State prosecutors brought charges of espionage and possession of arms without a
licence against 26 people in all. Judges found 24 people guilty of possessing
arms without a licence and 18 among them for spying.
After a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2007, Kuwaiti
authorities executed 5 people in 2013. In September 2015, a court sentenced
seven people to death in relation to the Shia Imam Sadiq Mosque bombing in
June. On December 13, the appeals court upheld the death penalty for one of
them and commuted the other sentences.
(source: arabianbusiness.com)
THAILAND:
Senior cop gets death penalty for murdering official
A former senior police officer has been sentenced to death for his involvement
in the murder of a chief administrator of the provincial administration
organisation (PAO) in 2013.
The decision by the Region 4 Appeals Court overturns a lower court sentence of
life in prison against Pol Lt Col Somjit Kaewphrom. The former deputy chief of
Nong Rua district police station was convicted in the shooting death of Suchart
Khotthum in front of his house in Muang district on May 3, 2013. The family of
the slain official later appealed the lower court ruling.
Pol Lt Col Somjit was 1 of 5 defendants in the case. The other 4 - Pol Snr Sgt
Maj Veerasak Chamnanpol, Praphan Sripilai, Boonchuay Chungklang and Piyapong
Meekambang - were given life imprisonment for colluding in the murder.
Suthep Khotthum, head of the legal affairs unit of the Khon Kaen PAO, said on
Friday that the family of the late PAO deputy chief was satisfied with the new
ruling, given on Jan 19. Reporters were not allowed to attend.
"The family members of the slain official are satisfied with the appeal court's
decision. Justice has prevailed for all sides. Wrongdoers must be punished. As
for the convicts, they have the right to appeal the ruling," said Mr Suthep.
Pol Lt Gen Boonlert Jaipradit, chief of Provincial Police Region 4, said the
alleged mastermind of the murder had recently contacted police to fight the
case. However, police investigators had obtained solid evidence to link him
with the murder, said the regional police chief.
The investigation team has already submitted its report to prosecutors to
indict the alleged mastermind, he added.
Police earlier focused on adultery as the motive behind the killing. They
believed the defendants had acted under orders of a superior whom they called
"the boss" who was upset with the slain official's close relations with the
woman he was courting.
Daily News Online said the lower court had earlier sentenced Pol Lt Col Somjit
to life in prison and Mr Praphan to 37 years in jail and acquitted the three
other defendants of the murder charges. This prompted the family of the slain
official to appeal.
(source: Bangkok Post)
UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA:
Foreign Office 'has betrayed Briton on death row in Ethiopia' ---- Claims
government has failed 'ghost prisoner' denied access to a lawyer or his family
The partner of a British man sentenced to death in Ethiopia has accused the UK
government of wilfuly ignoring his plight.
Andargachew Tsege was given the death penalty at a trial held in his absence
six years ago, in contravention of international law. A prominent figure in an
Ethiopian opposition party, he disappeared in June 2014 during a stopover in
Yemen while travelling from Dubai to Eritrea, in what campaigners regard as a
politically motivated kidnapping. He was then illegally rendered to Ethiopia on
the command of the Ethiopian government, as part of a crackdown on dissidents
and civil rights activists.
Speaking ahead of Foreign Office minister James Duddridge's arrival on
Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the annual African Union
summit, Tsege's partner, Yemi Hailemariam, from north London, said she felt
betrayed by the UK government's apparent indifference.
Foreign Office officials, however, have yet to learn whether they will even be
granted a meeting with Ethiopia to raise Tsege's case.
"Since Andy disappeared in June 2014 our family has been living a nightmare,"
said Hailemariam. "My children are desperate to see their father again. Andy
believed in democracy above all - that's what he respected about Britain, and
it's what he hoped for in Ethiopia. He was sentenced to death for holding these
very British values - we simply can't understand why the government he believed
in isn't standing up for him."
It is now 18 months since Tsege was put in jail and UK ministers have yet to
request the 60-year-old's release. Letters to the Tsege's lawyers indicate that
Duddridge believes the father of three from Islington should appeal his
conviction through the Ethiopian courts, a stance his family fear reveals that
the UK government has accepted the validity of Tsege's conviction. Despite
being pressed last week on whether its position had changed, the Foreign Office
remains unmoved.
By contrast, the European Parliament cranked up the pressure on Ethiopia last
Thursday, passing a resolution demanding the country release Tsege
"immediately".
Tsege, who fled the country in the 1970s and sought asylum in the UK in 1979,
has been unable to contact a lawyer since his arrest, and his family have
similarly been blocked from seeing him.
A redacted transcript from a 30-minute meeting on December 26 last year between
Tsege and a British official allowed to visit him apperared to confirm he is
effectively a "ghost prisoner".
The transcript states: "He [Tsege] had been told there was a problem in that he
'wasn't in the system and hadn't been given a prisoner number'. He was also
denied other rights that other prisoners enjoyed such as watching TV, listening
to the radio and reading newspapers."
It added: "He didn't even know who was really responsible for him - he'd
written to ask but hadn't received a response yet."
Maya Foa, the head of Reprieve's death penalty team, said the time had come for
the Foreign Office to abandon soft diplmacy and call for the Briton's release.
She said: "Tsege has been subjected to an outrageous, unlawful ordeal, and if
the Foreign Office disagrees, it must explain why.
???It is unacceptable that a British citizen was sentenced to death in a
political show trial - where he wasn't present, and didn't even know about the
court proceedings - and then kidnapped into indefinite detention by the same
brutal regime. It's clear that there is no hope of 'due process' in Ethiopia's
courts, and that Andy's very wellbeing is at stake."
A psychological analysis of Tsege, based on the transcript from the prison
visit suggest his mental state has deteriorated significantly. Dr Ben Robinson,
of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, said the transcipt suggests Tsege may
have become suicidal.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "The foreign secretary has raised Tsege's
case with the Ethiopian government on 20 separate occasions, making it clear
the way he has been treated is unacceptable. We welcome the improvement in
access to Tsege, following the British Government's intervention, but it must
be more regular and it must include access to a lawyer.
The statement added: "Tsege has still not been given an ability to challenge
his detention through a legal process. The foreign secretary has written
formally to the Ethiopians requesting a timetable for that legal process."
(source: The Guardian)
JAMAICA:
Waste of time - Death penalty won't make a difference, says UWI professor
Given perennially low conviction rates by local courts of law in Jamaica, Alcan
Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at the University of the West
Indies (UWI) Anthony Clayton is suggesting that application of capital
punishment will hardly serve as a deterrent to murder.
"There are those who believe that if (Jamaica) re-introduces capital
punishment, (it) will solve crime," asserted Clayton at a Gleaner forum
yesterday. "But it won't because the chances of being convicted are only 5 %."
Clayton brought empirical data to substantiate his claims: "It doesn't matter
what the severity of the punishment is if the chances of being convicted are so
small," he argued.
The last incident of capital punishment in Jamaica took place in 1988. With the
murder rate ballooning out of control over the last 40 years, debate has been
raging in the public space about the effect of the death penalty.
COMMON POSITION
The debate on its retention reconvened in the House of Representatives in 2008,
with strong views emanating from both sides, although the arguments for
outnumbered those that were against.
The common position was that steps should be urgently taken to advance the
complete overhaul of the justice system to ensure that the process was fair and
that the method of death should include the electric chair or death by
injection, and should not be restricted to hanging.
But Clayton, who has conducted a comprehensive study of criminal behaviour
globally, is not convinced. "If the chance of convictions is very low, the
severity of the punishment doesn't matter," he argued.
He disclosed that the studies have found that a significantly higher number of
the perpetrators of murders are themselves killed while on the run than are
convicted by the courts of law for the crimes that they committed.
Clayton noted that between 2004 and 2010, some 61 % of the homicide levels
remained unsolved, while 39 per cent were 'cleared', which denotes that the
alleged murderers were merely identified.
CONVICTION RATES
Clayton revealed as well that 1/3 of this category was eventually acquitted.
"So only 12 of the 39 % survived long enough to get to court and were
sentenced," he said.
According to him, this means that the conviction rate overall was less than 5 %
per year.
"If you are a murderer, you are 3 times more likely to be killed and about 5
times more likely to be acquitted than you are to be sentenced," he said.
This, he added, has a lot of consequences for crime solving. "Many believe that
if capital punishment is re-introduced, it will solve the problem, but it
won't," he stressed. "Because the chance of being convicted is only 5 %.
Clayton noted that murder cases take up to 5 years to be concluded. He said
that witnesses in some of the protracted murder cases are themselves killed,
thereby affecting the outcomes of the trials.
(source: Jamaica Gleaner)
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