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"Significant violations" of human rights continue in Iran, a UN report published Wednesday said.
Maurice Copithorne, special representative for the UN Commission on Human Rights, who was unable to visit Iran to document the evidence for himself, criticized the treatment of women, religious minorities such as Baha'i followers, and the slow pace of legal reforms.
Between January and August 1998 the status of women in the Republic had not improved significantly he reported.
According to foreign wire services, young women continued to be harassed on occasion by Tehran police for failing to conform to the strict Islamic dress code.
A press report in February also revealed that stricter dress codes had been introduced along with penalties of three months to one year in prison, fines and up to 74 lashes.
Copithorne pointed out that he had "repeatedly pointed out the grossly offensive manner in which the dress code is on occasion enforced" referring to "whippings and worse."
With regard to legal reforms, the report criticized a law adopted by the Majlis -- the Iranian Parliament -- in May enforcing compulsory segregation of health care services for men and women.
On the question of the religious Baha'i sect, Copithorne called on the Iranian authorities to drop the death penalty for religious offences.
He said that he had witness testimony of "extreme physical abuse" at detention centers in Tehran.
New Moves on Rushdie Expose Iranian Rifts, The New York Times, October 21
A month after Iran's government dissociated itself from death threats to the British author Salman Rushdie, the decision is still exposing fissures among Iran's rival centers of power.
A majority in Iran's conservative-dominated Parliament has signed a letter insisting that a religious decree calling for Rushdie's death for blasphemy against Islam is still valid. They also declared that Muslims had a duty to carry out the decree.
Although Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharazzi, said on Sept. 24 that his country would not aid or reward anyone who killed Rushdie, two hard-line Iranian groups have since publicly vowed to carry out the 1989 decree, and they have offered new bounties on the author's life.
And last Friday, in the latest of several anti-government demonstrations, at least 75 members of the hard-line Ansar e-Hezbollah gathered in Tehran to issue new threats against Rushdie, unveiling a three-story mural dedicated to the memory of a man they said tried to kill the author nine years ago.
"We don't obey the foreign minister," chanted a member of the group, which has long been linked to violence and is believed to have the backing of high-level clerics in the government. "Remember our faces, Salman Rushdie. We will kill you."
According to journalists who were present, Iranian security forces made no effort to break up the demonstration, and neither has the government made any evident effort to silence the organizations now offering bounties of more than $3 million payable on Rushdie's death….
"We call on the government to apologize for this mistake," a group of war veterans said last week in announcing that it would collect $333,000 to be paid to anyone who assassinated Rushdie….
And the newspaper Kayhan reported on Sunday that another bounty had been offered by the 2,000 residents of Kiyapay village in northern Iran. A village official quoted by the paper said the residents had opened a bank account to gather donations and had pledged to provide farmland, fruit gardens, "a house, and 10 carpets as a reward for carrying out the execution sentence against the author of the blasphemous book."
Iranians Gather Across From Dutch Parliament, Protest Visit by Rafsanjani's Daughter, Iran Zamin News Agency, October 21
Hundreds of supporters of the National Council of Resistance residing in the Netherlands gathered this morning across from the Dutch Parliament where Fa'ezeh Rafsajani was scheduled to meet with a member of Parliament, and protested her visit to the Parliament.
The meeting was held upon an invitation by the Iranian Women's Association (supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran). The protesters added that the clerical regime uses Rafsanjani's daughter as a means to cover up its crimes against women. The protesters stressed that inviting Fa'ezeh Rafsanjani to the Parliament of the Netherlands is an insult to the people of Iran and the Netherlands.
Mr. Herry van Bommel, member of the Dutch Parliament, addressed the gathering of Iranian protesters: "I am glad that you held your demonstration today and conveyed your message to the people of the Netherlands and the world. We believe that human rights continue to be violated in Iran. I regret that she has been invited to this building and I regret that a speech had been arranged for her yesterday."