₦airaland Forum

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A Johor woman has accused an Islamic body from Kota Tinggi of harassment, alleging its officers visited to allegedly “scold” her for a lawsuit seeking to challenge a Johor state law allowing the unilateral conversion of children to Islam.

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Malay Mail has withheld the identity of the woman for her personal safety. In her lawsuit filed earlier this month, she said she was converted to Islam as a child in Johor by only one of her parents and without consent from the other parent, but did not profess Islam and instead practised Hinduism.

In a police report she lodged this morning, the woman said five officers from the Kota Tinggi Islamic Religious Department came to her house yesterday afternoon in a van, with the only uniformed officer introducing the group to be officers of the department.

Alone at her house with her three children, the woman said they had asked her to open her door, and they had then entered her house and scolded her for filing a lawsuit against the Johor state government. She is both a plaintiff and a witness in that lawsuit.

In the same police report, the woman said those officers had scolded her for not wearing a hijab in her own home.

She said the officers had breached her privacy by taking videos and photos of her, her three young children and her house without her permission. She added that she had lodged the police report out of fear and worry for the safety of herself and her children.

On March 3, this woman had along with 13 others filed a lawsuit against eight laws enabling unilateral conversion to Islam in seven states and Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

The eight respondents in the lawsuit were named as the state governments of Perlis, Kedah, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Johor and the government of the federal territories of Malaysia.

This afternoon, Arun Dorasamy — who is also one of the 14 plaintiffs who had filed the lawsuit — described the Kota Tinggi Islamic religious body’s visit to the woman’s house as “harassment”.

Arun, otherwise known as Arumugam Dorasamy, was speaking on behalf of the legal unit in non-governmental organisation Pertubuhan Hindu Agamam Ani Malaysia. The organisation, which deals with the Hindu community’s social welfare, is also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Arun said any Islamic bodies should instead challenge the lawsuit in the courts, instead of carrying out such harassment.

“They were interviewing and scolding her why she filed a case in the KL High Court, this is totally unacceptable. As a Malaysian, she has a right to file a case in any court of her choice.

“And all parties whether defendant or plaintiff must stand down and give due chance to the court to decide on the matter. This type of harassment to our plaintiff is uncalled for. It is illegal. It’s amounting to tampering with the witness. She is a witness in this case. And also, this is utterly a contempt of court,” he said in a press conference.

“And on behalf of all these 14 plaintiffs, and also legal unit Agamam Ani, we ask all the parties involved, Jabatan Agama Islam, we see you in court, whatever you want to bring forward, bring forward in court, do not come and harass our plaintiffs, this is not right,” he said.

“We take this one very, very seriously because one of the biggest problems why this issue has never been taken to court, because scared of harassment from the related Jabatan, and that’s exactly what is happening today,” he added.

He said efforts will be made to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Johor’s Islamic body over the harassment to the woman.

According to Arun, the Islamic body’s officers refused her request for them to speak to her lawyers instead, and had questioned her on her choice of attire in her own house besides also reprimanding her for not wearing the Muslim head covering for women in her house.

Arun said the Islamic body officers had also taken photos of the altar at the woman’s house.

Arun said the woman has been raised as a Hindu, always practised Hindusim, and was married to a Hindu husband with all her children also practising Hinduism.

As for the official records which state her religious status to be a Muslim, Arun said the woman has that status because of her unilateral conversion and does not know how she can rectify it, adding that it is not easy to renounce the religion.

“And when she comes out and wants to find a way out, she got harassed. So what’s the mother to do?”

“She doesn’t understand why they are there, never in her life she’s been visited by any religious authority ever, questioning her faith, questioning her outlook, why she is wearing this, why she is not wearing that, it is her right, and she’s in her house. You coming to the house and scolding a person, I don’t know how much that is allowed,” he said.

Arun said the Islamic body’s officers had also separately interviewed the woman’s three school-going children by asking them which school they go to and whether they are taught about Islam in school, as well as asking them what religion they practise.

Arun said that children should be interviewed according to procedure, such as during police interviews where the welfare department would be present, adding: “This is uncalled for, this is totally harassment, totally wrong.”

“She’s scared, she’s just worried about her children’s wellbeing if Jabatan Agama Islam will take her children away — that kind of normal thing that a mother would worry about,” he said.

Arun said the woman is shaken up and has also asked him if she is safe.

Arun said it is difficult for minorities in Malaysia to fight cases involving unilateral conversion and the only choice for them to defend their religious freedom is by going to court, adding that the rule of law is not being respected when such harassment happens after a lawsuit is filed.

The lawsuit was filed on March 3, and the court process is already underway with the first case management held on March 20 and the next case management on April 5.

The Ratnagiri Police arrested a person named Masood Rajjak Shah for forcing his wife to convert her religion to Islam. He along with his family members allegedly tortured the 25-year-old woman and took away around Rs 14,00,000 from the complainant and her maternal family. They also physically assaulted her and threatened her for life.

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The incident is said to have happened in Chiplun city of Ratnagiri district.

The FIR has been filed under sections 406, 420, 498 A, 323, 504, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and under sections 3(1)(g), 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s), 3(2)(va) of the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

As per the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, the complaint has been registered against the victim’s husband Masood Rajjak Shah, mother-in-law Naseema, sister-in-law Faiziya and Nikat, and brother-in-law Kazim. The victim in the complaint mentioned that her husband and her in-laws have been harassing her for the past three years and have been demanding money from her family. She also said that the accused persons hurled casteist abuses at her and tortured her to convert her religion to Islam.

As per the complaint, the victim woman met the accused Masood in the year 2017 and the duo soon fell in love. The latter then proposed marriage but the victim woman refused to marry. She said that she would not convert her religion to Islam and suggested they both stay in a live-in relationship instead. However, the accused then assured the victim that she would not need to convert her religion to Islam and she would be allowed to follow her religion post-marriage.

The duo got married on December 31, 2018, as per the Islamic rituals and Masood soon began imposing restrictions on the woman. He and his family members barred her from taking higher education and forced her to raise kids. The victim woman is the mother of two children and both are in Masood’s house at present.

A year after the marriage, the victim woman was asked to get money from her maternal home. The family members of the accused hurled the castiest abuses at the victim and said that accepting a Hindu in their family was huge and that she should pay for it. They tortured her and even demanded money from her grandfather, as per the victim.

The mother of the victim then obtained a loan of Rs 14 lakhs from the bank and gave it to Masood and his family. The amount was divided and sent to the bank accounts of all the accused. Rs 2 lakhs each were sent to Masood, Naseema, Faiziya, Nikat, and Kazim’s account and Rs 4 lakhs were sent to the victim’s account. Masood later took over the money from the victim’s account and used it to pay the long pending debts.

Reportedly, accused Naseema in the year 2020 demanded an additional Rs 1.5 lakh from the victim’s grandfather. She continued to harass the victim over her caste and asked her to convert her religion to Islam. The victim was also physically abused by her husband and also threatened her for life.

OpIndia talked to the victim who confirmed that she was forced to convert her religion to Islam post-marriage. She also said that she was being harassed by her in-laws over her caste. “I was harassed and abused over my caste. They also looted my family members for money. My husband also asked me to convert my religion. I have left that home and I have come to my grandfather’s house in Chiplun. But both my children are in my in-law’s captivity and I am worried for them. I have written to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) seeking action in the case,” she said.

After the complaint, the NCPCR wrote to SP Ratnagiri, Dhananjay Kulkarni seeking safe custody of the two minor children of the victim. the letter by NCPCR stated that the two minor children are at risk of torture and violence by the victim’s in-law’s family. “Please intervene in the matter and produce minor children before Child Welfare Committee to ensure the safety and security of children and their safe custody,” the letter directed.

Accordingly, the Ratnagiri Police has booked Masood Rajjak Shah, his mother Naseema, sister-in-laws Faiziya and Nikat, and brother Kazim in the case and has arrested Masood alone. While further investigations are underway, the victim has demanded strict action against all the accused and safe custody of her two minor children.

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On 20 December 2022, the Taliban issued a statement that all Afghan women are banned from attending university. The ban turned to reality the fear of what might happen when the Taliban government took power in August 2021.

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Immediately, women’s and girl’s dreams ceased. The lives of Afghan women were already precariously balanced from living in a country fragmented by conflict. The lives of Afghan women have been drawn into a battle of liberty, imperialism, and extremism. The right to education existed as a landmark on the horizon to freedom of thought and speech, and offered the possibility to carve out individual identities and voices.

Now women’s and girl’s hopes of a better future have been eroded. All aspects of the future for islamic Afghanistan are now in disarray. Women have been erased from education and will fall in the adage of “kor yar ghor”— home or grave—the two prominent places where a woman is permitted to occupy space.

We can expect that the home will be the site of increased domestic and intimate partner violence. We can expect that the grave will be the site for women dying from preventable diseases and during childbirth. Approximately a third of health professionals say that infant, child, and maternal mortality have increased since the Taliban takeover.

Rubenstein et al (2023) include reference to a report of two surveys involving 131 healthcare providers in Afghanistan. The respondents reported that health workers are experiencing targeted violence and that reaching women in labour is increasingly difficult in circumstances where women health workers require a Mahram (male guardian) to accompany them.

They risk harassment and violence when trying to reach health facilities. These findings indicate resistance and challenge to the strict imposition of Taliban rulings. By denying women access to education, the Taliban government is inflicting a further form of conflict on women, in addition to the armed conflict that the Taliban have waged for over two decades since the previous Taliban rule.

Resources to prevent violence against women and girls are depleting rapidly in light of a ban on Afghan women working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Before August 2021, NGOs delivered more than a third of the country’s healthcare. Even during the reign of President Ashraf Ghani, from 2014 to 2021, there were no women refuge centres due to strict socio-cultural taboos and because these safe houses have been “highly politicised for protecting women who, in leaving their violent husbands, have committed what many Afghans consider to be ‘moral crimes’”. NGOs provided the only recourse for women to access safety away from violence and to receive legal and psychological support. The 30-40 safe houses that were supported by NGOs are now closed and the fate of the women who were forced to flee back to their abusive families, or to live a life of destitution in informal settlement camps, is unknown.

Fundamentally, the Taliban’s ban on women attending university is an additional trauma on top of everything that has happened over the last four decades of conflict. The impact of banning women from university is so severe that there is a collective harm incurred to all Afghan women’s wellbeing. The humanitarian crises throughout the country are intensifying. There is an endless reign of terror as the Taliban continue to maintain a stronghold in controlling all Afghan lives. The dreams of every Afghan woman are now obliterated.

Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people.

Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists killed 27 Christians in two attacks this month in Kaduna state, Nigeria, local sources said.

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Both attacks took place in Zangon Kataf County, where 10 Christians were killed on March 14 in Langson village and 17 slain in Ungwan Wakili village on March 10, residents said.

Residents of Langson said dozens more were wounded in the attack that began at 9 p.m.

“I urge the government to match words with action by arresting the perpetrators since the government knows them and where they are,” said Sam Achie, president of the area community development association. “I appeal to Nigeria government to as a matter of urgency deploy more security agents to Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in order to arrest the recurring attacks on innocent Christians whose lives and property are being destroyed for no justifiable reason.”

In Ungwan Wakili, residents said Muslim terrorists attacked the village and nearby Christian communities at about 9 p.m. for about 40 minutes before retreating.

“My family house in the village was attacked by the terrorists and armed herdsmen,” resident Joshua Solomon told Morning Star News in a text message. “The house was burned down, and no one is left alive. They killed all my family members.”

Solomon identified 16 of those killed as Daniel Soji, Emmanuel Ibrahim, Jummai Gajere, Aaron Thomas, Rahila Sunday Ishaya, Blessing Zakaria, Felicia Zakaria, Gloria Zakaria, Gaji Tonak, Elizabeth Tokan, Peace Tokan, Favour Patrick, Peace Patrick, Chinwe Patrick, Ruth John and Emmanuel John.

He also identified six Christians receiving hospital treatment for wounds received in the attack as Precious Timothy, Sunday Ishaya, Jessica Zakaria, Chison Ikechukwu, Patience Matthew and Jessica Tokan.

Area resident Barnabas Tonak said his mother and an in-law with her two children were among those killed.

“Our attackers were Muslim Fulani herdsmen who came along with terrorists to invade our community,” Tonak said in a text message to Morning Star News. “In all, 17 Christians were killed during the attack. Five members of my family were among those killed, and another family member was injured. Aside from the killing of our people, these herdsmen have in the past deliberately destroyed our farms and crops.”

Christians from southern Kaduna who have fled to Europe condemned the attacks.

“We are concerned with the recent killings in Ungwan Wakili and other villages that resulted in the loss of over 17 lives, with innocent citizens injured,” Casimir Biriyok and Janet Nale, president and secretary respectively of the Southern Kaduna People in Diaspora (SOKAPDA), Europe, said in a statement. “These attacks are coming barely three months after the mass murder of 38 harmless Christian villagers in Malagum, Kamuru-Ikulu and Abun (Broni Prono) communities in southern Kaduna on Dec. 18, 2022.”

They said that they have heard no statement from authorities on the attacks, much less visits by officials to the survivors.

“The governments of Nigeria and that of Kaduna state have shown little support to either the victims or issued a simple statement of condemnation of the killings,” they said.

Christians from southern Kaduna living in Europe find it difficult to comprehend how human lives seem to have little or no value in Nigeria in general and in Kaduna state, they said.

“It is essential to hold those who have sworn to protect us to do the needful, for we in diaspora are frustrated that in the 21st century, technology like phone tracking, geo orbits satellite, drones and old-fashion spying, etc., have not been fully utilized,” Biriyok and Nale said. “The peaceful Kaduna state that we once knew is no more, and we sincerely hope that somewhere within the political class, someone will take security of lives seriously, for it is absolutely too tragic that our state has become a killing field.”

Muhammad Jalije, spokesman for the Kaduna State Police Command, said in a statement only that, “I can confirm that there was an attack, and people were killed.”

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Muslim extremists on March 15 seriously injured a pastor and his 14-year-old son as they were preparing for an all-night prayer vigil at their church site in eastern Uganda, sources said.

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Pastor John Balidawa, 35, and his son were hospitalized after a mob of Muslim extremists attacked them after 8 p.m. and destroyed their church building in Kigulu village, Mayuge District, he said.

Pastor Balidawa and his son, Gilbert Sanja, were setting up for the all-night prayer vigil of Ebenezer Christian Center when they heard stones hitting the roof of the church structure, he said.

Then six Muslim extremists entered, with Sheikh Shafi Mukama ordering the father and son to leave, while other from the mob kept watch outside, the pastor said.

“When I refused to obey their orders, the sheikh and two others started slapping me and then pushed me to the floor and thereafter stepped on my stomach,” Pastor Balidawa told Morning Star News. “Others started boxing my son, who started wailing and crying for help. For me and my son to survive is by God’s grace.”

Beaten unconscious, the pastor awoke alongside his son in a hospital in Buluuba to find the church’s senior pastor, 39-year-old Gerald Kato Wakabi, standing beside their bed. Pastor Balidawa learned that the assailants took their mobile phones and destroyed them along with the church building and its more than 70 chairs, he said.

Pastor Balidawa sustained a broken leg, a broken bone in his hand, swelling in his face and injuries to his intestines and stomach, Pastor Wakabi said. Pastor Balidawa’s son suffered a deep cut on his forehead, a broken bone in his right hand and swelling of his face.

Pastor Wakabi said on March 16 he found a written note at the site of demolished church that read, “No more church in this area. This area is holy ground for Allah’s worship only.”

In August 2022, Mukama sent a threatening message to Wakabi that read, “You should remove your church, because we cannot watch our members turning to Christianity and keep quiet,” the senior pastor said...

The church, begun in January 2022 and now with 47 in attendance including 12 converts from Islam, has broken into small house fellowships as the senior pastor encourages members to stand firm in the faith. The congregation is searching for another place of worship about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away, distant from the town mosque, and after settling there they will consider filing a police report, Pastor Wakabi said.

“The priority now is to safeguard the faith of the Christians from falling away from the faith, especially those members who converted from Islam to Christianity,” he said.

A 38-year-old man was sentenced on Wednesday at the Court in Aarhus to seven years in prison and expelled for life for repeatedly subjecting his wife to psychological and physical violence and rape.

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The 38-year-old was, among other things, sentenced for, in a period from October 2020 to November 2021, several times both day and night to have kicked and beaten his wife in the couple’s apartment in Aarhus, just as he also cut her hair and extinguished cigarettes on her body, so that she got burn marks.

In addition, he was convicted of having raped his wife several times against her will and of forcing himself to have sex, even though she refused.

In addition to the physical violence, the 38-year-old was also convicted of psychological violence against his partner by subjecting her to grossly degrading, insulting and offensive behaviour. Among other things, by ordering her to wear a headscarf, forbidding her to attend classes and to have a telephone, and by ordering her to sleep on the floor and sit naked on the floor for several hours while he spat and urinated on her.

The 38-year-old was also convicted of witness intimidation, as he had threatened the wife several times to kill her family if she told anything to the police.

In December 2021, the 38-year-old was then arrested after he had threatened the life of the upstairs neighbor because he suspected that the wife was having an affair with him. The 38-year-old was remanded in custody, and the further investigation led to the very long indictment, according to which he was sentenced on Wednesday.

“It is an unusually serious case, and what the woman has been exposed to over such a long period is very violent. In addition to the long unconditional prison sentence, the 38-year-old was also ordered to pay compensation of DKK 200,000 to the woman. It is a high compensation in relation to practice in the area, so both prison sentence, deportation and compensation show how seriously the court has viewed the case,” says special prosecutor Birgitte Ernst.

The 38-year-old, who is an Iraqi citizen, was expelled from the country permanently.
He pleaded not guilty and appealed the sentence. He must remain in custody until he can serve his sentence.

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In a disturbing incident , two brothers in Greater Noida murdered their sister because they doubted her character. Prima facie the case appears to be that of a suspected honour killing, reports reveal.

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DCP Central Ram Badan Singh said that on March 14, a decomposed dead body of a woman was recovered from the Hindon river in the Ecotech-3 police station area. During the investigation, the deceased was identified as Najma, daughter of Akhtar, a resident of Kakrala village.

Najma was married, but she was having a dispute with her husband. Najma was living in Surajpur in a separate room without her husband. His brothers Shahrukh and Sartaj doubted her character.

On getting information about this, when station in-charge Sunil Dutt interrogated both the brothers on the basis of suspicion, they confessed to killing their sister. He said that on the night of March 8, he coaxed his sister Najma to a deserted place in the Bisrakh area and strangulated her to death.

After committing the murder, they threw the dead body in the Hindon river for the purpose of disposing of it. The dead body had come to the police station Ecotech-3 area.

Both the brothers told during interrogation that their sister had left her husband and was living separately. Because of this, various discussions were happening in society about her character. Tired of these discussions, he killed Najma.

Honour killings show the ugly side of our society, OpIndia had earlier reported an incident in which a 19-year-old girl was smothered with a pillow by her brothers Tohid and Danish for reportedly having a love affair with a youth whom the latter did not approve of. The brothers learned that the victim was planning to elope with her boyfriend and marry him in court. They were infuriated over this and killed her.

burp18:
Look at this guy's threads. They're all anti-islam. All his threads are anti Islam and Seun and his moderators are not going to do a thing about it.

Posting about the activities of terrorists is apparently "anti islam". So you agree that terrorists represent islam-- good to know.

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In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the constant stream of death tolls from rebel attacks reads like a Twitter feed — 40 killed in this town, nine killed in that village. On Saturday, at least 31 people were butchered in eastern DRC, mostly women and young children.

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Many of these attacks are carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group. In addition to murdering villagers, attackers often loot and torch homes.

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs says, “There are multiple reports when they go into a village of them singling out Christians for death [and] allowing Muslims not to be killed or even to go free.

“So there is an element to this that is very much Christian persecution and Christians being targeted as they try to create an Islamic caliphate and a place where Sharia law is followed.”

In total over the last two weeks, 72 Christians have been killed in eastern DRC. Thousands of refugees are displaced or fleeing to neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.

These attacks are having their desired effect. The Church in eastern DRC is dwindling.

Nettleton says, “In the area where this attack just happened, there is one denomination that before the violence broke out this denomination had 25 churches in this area. Today they have eight. Another denomination before the violence had 54 churches. Now they have 11.”

Yet, the story isn’t over. God is still at work in DRC, and the persecuted Church needs our support and prayers!

“Those brothers and sisters are a part of our family, and if a part of our family is suffering, of course, we should care. We should care very much about that.”
Nettleton says, “I think one of the ways we can pray is for the government response to this…. ADF is active on both sides of the border. The DRC government and the Ugandan government have tried to cooperate to get more stability, to get more control and more peace in this region. We can pray for those efforts to be effective.”

For persecuted Christians, Nettleton asks, “Pray for a sense of God’s presence with them even as they go through major suffering and these kinds of attacks. Pray that their faith will remain strong.”

A police officer in Nîmes was bitten by a man who was armed with a knife, France Bleu Gard Lozère reported on Monday.

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A police officer was bitten during an arrest on Rue Henri IV last Friday in Nîmes (Gard). He was ordered to be off duty for two days. The alleged perpetrator was armed with a knife [and] suspected of threatening three girls in the street. His accomplice, an 18-year-old man, was also arrested.

He is additionally suspected of having shouted “Allahu Akbar”. Both were released. They will have to answer to the court shortly.

Saudi Arabian court recently handed down a sentence of two years in prison and a fine of 50,000 SAR to an Indonesian male Umrah pilgrim for being caught committing an indecent act while performing tawaf in front of the Kaabah in Masjid Al Haram, Makah.

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The man with the initials MS was found guilty of sexually harassing a Lebanese pilgrim...

Based on the facts revealed in court, it is known that the 26-year-old defendant was proven to have committed sexual harassment with the evidence of two eyewitnesses and direct confessions from the accused.

Two security officers around Hajar Aswad and Masjid Al Haram at the time of the incident, who were witnesses at the trial, explained that they saw MS hugging the victim from behind. CCTV footage also shows MS repeatedly pressing his body against the victim’s body from behind. The victim then screamed when MS put his hand on her chest.

At the time of the incident, the accused was said to be alone doing the tawaf and not with his entourage because he had done the tawaf for the umpteenth time.

Conversations among the companions of the Umrah congregation who discussed this case stated that the second and third tawaf should have been carried out on the 2nd or 3rd floor at that time. Still, the perpetrator chose to perform the tawaf on the 1st floor and jostled the female pilgrims.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that its nationals had been arrested for the sexual harassment case. The ministry said they are currently studying the case and had appointed lawyers for MS to take further legal steps...

Children as young as 12 have been subjected to rape, electrocution and flogging for their involvement in nationwide protests against the Iranian regime, according to rights group Amnesty International.

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The nongovernmental organisation reported today that 'Iran 's intelligence and security forces have been committing horrific acts of torture, including beatings, flogging, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence against child protestors as young as 12 to quell their involvement in nationwide protests.'

The investigation by Amnesty international revealed 'the torture methods that the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij, the Public Security Police, and other security and intelligence forces' had used against young people in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced 'confessions'.

Protests have been mounting against the Iranian state both within and outside of the country since 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody in Tehran in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating strict hijab rules.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said Iran's 'violence against children exposes deliberate strategy to crush the vibrant spirit of the country's youth and stop them from demanding freedom and human rights.'

She claimed that Amnesty had obtained testimonies from the victims and their families detailing the extent of the horrific torture endured against scores of children.

19 eyewitnesses, including two lawyers and 17 adult detainees were able to corroborate the claims.

The report read: 'A former detainee told Amnesty that, in one province, Basij agents forced several boys to stand with their legs apart in a line alongside adult detainees and administered electric shocks to their genital area with stun guns.

'Most of the children arrested in the past six months appear to have been released, sometimes on bail pending investigations or referral to trial. Many were only released after being forced to sign “repentance” letters and promising to refrain from “political activities” and to attend pro-government rallies.'

The organisation also reported that state agents had used rape and other sexual violence as a weapon against child detainees to break their spirit, humiliate and punish them, and to extract confessions.

A mother told of how state agents raped her son with a hosepipe when he was detained.

Other torture methods included floggings, shocks and holding children's heads under water, it was reported.

One boy said: 'They gave us electric shocks, hit me in my face with the back of a gun, gave electric shocks to my back and beat me on my feet, back and hands with batons.

'They threatened that if we told anyone, they would [detain us again], do even worse and deliver our corpses to our families.'

Amnesty removed any reference to identifying details - such as the ages of the children and the provinces in which they were detained - in order to protect them and their families.

Children were reportedly held in cruel and inhumane detention centres, deprived of basic facilities, exposed to cold temperatures and placed in prolonged solitary confinement.

Figures vary on how many have been killed in the horrific conflict between the Iranian state and its people since late last year.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency calculated in December that at least 522 people had become victims to the regime in four months of protests against the Iranian regime.

70 minors were among the dead, according to the agency.

Nearly 20,000 had been detained, including 110 on charges that could result in death sentences.

Iran's government has looked to clamp down on civil disobedience since September 2022, when protests broke out in response to the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.

22-year-old Amini had recently been admitted to university and planned to become a lawyer when she was detained by police for improper wearing of a headscarf.

She fell into a coma after her arrest and died in suspicious circumstances in hospital in Tehran on 16 September 2022.

The Islamic Republic's officials told media that Amini suffered a heart attack while detained by 'morality police', denying reports she had been beaten.

Leaked medical scans and assertions of police brutality led observers to believe she had died at the hands of the police.

Iran witnessed its largest protests since at least 2009 in response to her death, amid a clash between a state tending towards stricter observation of inferred religious law and a more liberal Iranian community.

Iranian 'morality police' have since launched sporadic campaigns to verbally or violently arrest and 're-educate' women found in breach of regulations in response to changing dress codes and norms.

The mandatory wearing of the hijab was introduced by supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini on 7 March 1979, immediately after the Islamic Revolution.

The nation also adopted its 'morality police' around this time to regulate behaviour after a period of secularisation through the mid-20th century.

In the year to March 2014 - the last with data available - patrols stopped nearly three million women for not wearing their hijab in line with regulations.

The first modern 'morality police' units were developed in Saudi Arabia in 1926, and similar squads tasked with enforcing dress codes and prayer attendance have emerged worldwide since.

In 2020, Amnesty International reported the horrors of Iranian interrogation tactics, which included pepper spraying genitals, pulling finger nails and stringing up prisoners in agonising positions.

Concern grew on Tuesday over the well-being of five young Iranian women who filmed themselves dancing without headscarves in a viral video, after allegations they had been arrested and forced into confessing.

The footage showed the women dancing with bare midriffs beneath highrises in the Tehran residential district of Ekbatan to the song "Calm Down" by Nigerian Afrobeats singer and rapper Rema.

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It spread widely on TikTok and other social media channels last week around International Women's Day on March 8.

Activists, apparently from the Ekbatan area, first posted the video on Telegram and Twitter. They said authorities had been asking residents in the area if they knew the women, based on the footage.

On Tuesday the activists alleged the women had been detained and forced into making a video in which they expressed regret.

In the Islamic republic it is illegal for women to dance in public as well as to not wear the Islamic headscarf.

Abolition of the obligatory headscarf rule has been one of the chief demands of the protest movement that erupted in September after the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code.

After the initial viral footage of the five, another video emerged on social media of four women, their heads fully covered, stepping forward one by one to express regret.

It appeared to have been filmed in a similar Ekbatan area, but neither the video nor the circumstances in which it was made could be verified.

Whether the women had been released was also not immediately clear.

Ekbatan, a middle-income area popular with young professionals and families, saw repeated anti-regime actions in the past few months.

Rema retweeted video of the women dancing with their long hair uncovered and commented: "To all the beautiful women who are fighting for a better world, I'm inspired by you, I sing for you and I dream with you."

The song "Calm Down" became a global hit after Rema issued a remix with superstar Selena Gomez.
The video also caught the attention of German Member of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann.

"On Women's day, they published this video. Wouldn't be worth news, but they danced in Iran," Neumann tweeted.

"The regime investigated, put them in prison, forced them into confessions and to wear hijab," she alleged.

During the protests hundreds of people have been killed, including dozens of security force personnel.
Thousands were arrested for participating in what Iranian officials described as "riots" and blamed on hostile forces linked to the United States, Israel and their allies.

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