One of IHEU's Dutch member organization, HIVOS (the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation), is being targeted by the Islamic regime in Iran.

Please act now to ask the Iranian government to stop the execution of Ehsan Fattahian scheduled for Wednesday, November 11, 2009.

Mina Ahadi and Nazanin Afshin-Jam write: "Behnoud Shojaee and Akram Mahdavi are scheduled to be executed in Evin prison this Sunday October 11, 2009, which falls one day after the International Day Against Execution. Some reports say that they may be executed tomorrow. Another juvenile, Safar Angooti is scheduled to be executed on October 21st. The Supreme Court is also deciding the fate of another minor on death row, Ali Mahin Torabi.

Speaking in the plenary debate at the Human Rights Council on 30 September on the Rights of Women, IHEU representative Cathy Buchs condemned the increasing use of rape as a political weapon in Sudan, Iran and other States, contrasting this with the “perverted sense of morality” that condemned 10 women to being whipped in Sudan for wearing trousers.

Iran Solidarity is calling for people across the world to stand with the people of Iran on July 25 and every day. Since its recent establishment, over 1,000 people and organisations have joined Iran Solidarity, including Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Mina Ahadi, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Taslima Nasrin. Its successful launch at the House of Lords on July 13 was hosted by Dick Taverne and chaired by Fariborz Pooya, head of the Iranian Secular Society. Speakers included the philosopher A C Grayling, campaign organiser Maryam Namazie, and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. You can see footage of the launch here.

IHEU has strongly condemned the execution of children in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Pakistan and the practice of child marriage. In a statement to the annual meeting on the Rights of the Child held at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, IHEU called the continuation of child marriage "a disgrace" and judicial killing of children "the ultimate barbarity".

When I agreed to write about Humanist movements in the Middle East, I thought I had the whole idea in my head. But when I sat down to write, I felt confused. “How do we define Humanism?” The question came to my mind. I started searching, browsing and reading. I realised that it was not only me; the concept is too broad, too undefined.

Thirty years ago when the reign of political Islam officially started in Iran and while the whole world saw what they were told was an ‘Islamic revolution’ on the screens of their televisions, I and many people of my generation, feeling suffocated and oppressed by numerous rules and regulations, started to rebel against the new powers who were crushing our revolution.

In a joint statement with Center for Inquiry, IHEU has condemned abuses of women's human rights, including child marriage and "honour" killings, especially in Pakistan and Iran. IHEU also attacked the culture of censorship that now prevails in the Human Rights Council.

A year after the world was stunned by images of a 17-year-old girl being stoned to death in Iraqi Kurdistan, an international panel will debate the rise of honour killings, violence against women, gender apartheid and political Islam in Kurdistan/Iraq and the Middle East. High-profile speakers will include women’s rights activists, academics and experts from Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Sweden, New Zealand and Britain.