Moulavardi: All Men in a Village in Sistan and Baluchestan Have Been Executed

Shahindokht Moulavardi, the Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, criticized the removal of laws supporting the families of executed individuals in the fifth development plan, stating: "We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan where all the men of that village have been executed." In an interview with Mehr News Agency published on Tuesday, March 4, she said: "We have many cases where the head of the family has been imprisoned due to drugs or any other crime, and the law has confiscated his assets while a small apartment is the only shelter for his wife and children. What responsibility does the law have towards the woman and her three children whose only shelter has been confiscated? What duties do our executive bodies have?" She added: "Currently, 17 agencies and institutions have budgets and responsibilities in reducing social harms, but one must ask what the role of these agencies is in reducing the social consequences of crime imposed on the family institution. They have confiscated a family that had only one apartment and do not care at all what a woman with three children is supposed to do. The answer to this question is not at all important to the law enforcement agencies." Moulavardi emphasized: "We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan where all the men have been executed. Their survivors are now potential traffickers, both in terms of seeking revenge for their fathers and for securing financial resources for their families, but there is no support for these individuals." The Vice President stated that in the fifth development plan, the issue of "supporting the families of the executed was completely removed," but in Hassan Rouhani's government, this issue has been included again in the sixth plan. Moulavardi also said: "We believe that if these individuals are not supported, they are prone to repeat crimes, so society is responsible for these families who are victims of the crime of their breadwinner." Sistan and Baluchestan is one of the largest and poorest provinces in Iran; according to the 2006 census, out of a population of 2.35 million, over 640,000 are illiterate. Sistan and Baluchestan shares a 1,300-kilometer land border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and is considered one of the main routes for drug trafficking into Iran. According to Mehr, Ali Osta Hashemi, the governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, stated on February 13 that since the beginning of the year, 144 tons of drugs have been discovered and seized, most of which were opium. During this period, in addition to dismantling 120 drug trafficking gangs, more than 150 firearms were seized from drug traffickers. Meanwhile, international human rights organizations, especially Amnesty International, have called on Iranian authorities in recent years to end the wave of executions of low-income and poor individuals accused of drug trafficking, which often occur based on "unfair trials."