Iran Flogs, Arrests 500 for Not Fasting During Ramadan

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported the regime arrested or flogged at least 900 people for not fasting during Ramadan.

Shiraz officials arrested 500 people in the city alone, the group reports. The authorities issued verdicts “for 480 cases within 24 hours.” The majority of those found guilty, especially the younger people, received lashings “by the henchmen from ‘Implementation of Verdicts Unit.’” They also sent out 3,000 warnings to other citizens. But those not from Iran also face punishment:

On June 22, ninety-two boys and girls were arrested in Shahriar International Hotel of Tabriz on similar charges. Many of the arrestees were travelers that based on Islamic regulations were not in a condition to fast.

In the first week of Ramadan in Ilam alone, security forces arrested 200 and within a day barbaric decrees to flog them were issued.

Qazvin’s Prosecutor Esmail Sadeqi Niaraki stated on June 23: “Those who do not observe fasting not only receive their sentences on the day of their arrest, but their sentences are carried out as well. May these measures please… the supreme leader.”

The NCRI has kept a close eye on Iran during Ramadan. The regime added more torture practices on political prisoners, because fasting keeps them extremely weak. “Prisoners are constantly experiencing symptoms of dryness of mucus, muscle pains, severe headaches, blurry vision, vomiting and numbness,” they state.

Officials cut off water to Varamin’s Qarchak Prison for Women if they do not observe Ramadan. Police tortured and raped numerous women in this prison during the 2009 uprising. Prison officials told guards “to flog women who eat or drink during fasting hours.” But the regime also performed more executions during the holy month. On June 18, NCRI said the government readied 22 prisoners for death and issued ten more death verdicts.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) executed and crucified two boys under the age of 18-years-old because they did not fast during Ramadan. Residents in al-Mayadin, Syria, told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights the bodies were “suspended from a crossbar.”

“Apparently, they were caught eating,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the founder of the human rights group. “The children have been suspended by ropes from a pole since noon, and they were still there in the late evening.”