modern slavery in iran

Modern slavery, human trafficking and trafficking in persons are umbrella terms used to refer to instances of exploitation where a person cannot leave or refuse to work due to threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuses of power. Black men were mostly eunuchs working inside the king’s harem and houses, while black women were servants to Iranian women. [41] [28], Male slaves were referred to as ḡolām (in Arabic lit. The IUSSP XXIVth General Population Conference in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, August 18–24, 2001. p. 4.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), Slavery in the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC), Slavery in Hellenistic Iran (c. 330–238 BC), Slavery in Parthian Iran (c. 238 BC–224 AD), Slavery in Sassanid Iran (c. 224–642 AD), Slavery under the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Persianate Muslim dynasties (c. 642–1220 AD), Slavery under Mongol and Turkoman rule (c. 1220–1502 AD), Slavery in Safavid Iran (c. 1502–1736 AD), Slavery under Nader Shah and his successors (c. 1736–1796 AD), Slavery in Qajar Iran (c. 1796–1925 AD), BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI iii. Modern day slavery is most common in Africa and Asia Pacific. Translated by Avans. [6] The meaning of the term "slaves" (doûloi, servi) mentioned in this context is disputed, as it may be pejorative rather than literal.[7][8]. Manumissions were recorded, which suggests that a freedman who was challenged would be able to document their free status. Iran: Fear of imminent execution/fear of flogging, Leyla M [32], One of the biggest slavery institutions in Safavid Iran was the royal Safavid harem and court. Some of the laws governing the ownership and treatment of slaves can be found in the legal compilation called the Matigan-i Hazar Datistan, a collection of rulings by Sasanian judges. North Korea has the highest incidence of modern slavery (4.37% of population) and weakest government response. Amir H. Mehryar, F. Mostafavi, & Homa Agha (2001-07-05). At the same time and under various pressures, the British Empire decided to curb the slave trade through the Indian Ocean. In fact, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights widened the definition of “slave” to include any individual who is not able to refuse work of their own volition. [23], Slavery was a common institution in Safavid Iran, with slaves employed on many leves of society. The UN General Assembly defines human trafficking as, “illegal and confidential relocation of persons within the national borders, usually from developing countries and countries with instable economy in order to take sexual and economical advantage of women and girls for the profit of users, smugglers, criminal syndicates and other smuggling activities including forced housework, fabricate marriage and stepchildren and confidential employment.”. Although governments have taken steps and raised awareness about modern slavery, it is difficult to detect and recognize in many cases. [33] In Iran’s modern history, Africans were integral to elite households. Modern slavery affected children as well as adults. [22] Timur Lenk “had as many as a thousand captives, who were skilful workmen, and laboured all the year round at making head pieces, and bows and arrows”. There are an estimated 2,058,200 people in modern slavery in Pakistan – 1.13% of the entire population. A. Perikhanian (1983). Modern slavery is a hidden crime that affects every country in the world. This was publicly acknowledged in 2008 by Hassan Abbassi, one of the clerical regime’s main theoreticians. [45], As in previous times, slaves were used as eunuchs, domestic servants and concubines in the harems; as military men, administrative staff, or field laborers; it was considered a matter of status to have slaves in the household. 2021. Today, 167 countries still have slavery, affecting about 46 million people. While the United States has 707 incarcerated people per 100,000 citizens, for example, China has 124 to 172 per 100,000 people and Iran 284 per 100,000. According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, approximately 6.9 million people were in some form of modern slavery in these countries. [2], On the whole, in the Achaemenid empire, there was only small number of slaves in relation to the number of free persons. African slaves were imported by the East African slave trade across the Indian Ocean, and white slaves were mainly provided from the Caucasus area or the Caspian Sea through warfare and slave trade. Below is an overview of countries by the largest populations of people said to be in a situation of slavery. Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn Navāʾi, Tehran, 1376 Å ./1997.p 336, CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom, "Elamites and Other Peoples from Iran and the Persian Gulf Region in Early Mesopotamian Sources", http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arsacids-ii, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/class-system-iii, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-iii, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-iv, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/fath-ali-shah-qajar-2, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slavery_in_Iran&oldid=1024213726, Articles to be expanded from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Sources of slaves were both foreign (e.g., non-. Why is the situation of garbage sorter children growing worse? Modern Day Slavery in Iran – Illegal Labor Camps Posted on July 26, 2012 We have addressed the hijacking the current regime in Iran makes of the War on Drugs agenda to justify severe human rights violations in the past, and participated in a global campaign to draw attention to it. Tehran: Nashre No. The Muslim invasion of northern India also resulted in a slave route of Hindu Indians through warfare and slave raids. Slaves were procured through warfare, slave raids, by purchase or as gifts. Modern day slavery in Iran – The price of the Islamic revolution. The Iranian people are modern day slaves to the Islamic revolutionary system, suffering dearly so that the leadership and the rich and wealthy can enjoy these dire times in their mansions. One of the most tragic aspects of such gender discrimination and exploitation in Iran is the sprawling business of trafficking of young women and girls for modern slavery. In fact, if anything, it just means that slavery is harder to track and occurs far from the eye of local authorities. [19] The use of domestic slaves was of the kind common in Islamic regions. [54] During the Qajar dynasty, slave soldiers, ghilman, were used for the royal guard, and they were mainly white slaves from Caucasus. [35] The slave concubines were sometimes forced to convert to shia islam upon entering the harem, and referred to as kaniz. Prison labor and modern slavery. Owners could also voluntarily manumit their slaves, in which case the former slave became a subject of the Sasanian King of Kings and could not lawfully be re-enslaved later. It also serves as a counterpoint to studies of slavery in the Indian Ocean and the Ottoman Empire. Shah Sultan Hossain’s (r. 1694–1722) court has been estimated to include five thousand slaves; male and female, black and white, of which one hundred were black eunuchs. Guests Che Sidanius, Rani Hong, CEO of Freedom Seal and Irina Bukharin, Senior Analyst at C4ADS, joined host Keesa Schreane to discuss the challenges the world and financial industry face in the fight against modern slavery, answering these questions and more! The UN General Assembly defines human trafficking as, “illegal and confidential Copyright©2018 The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). [15] The major part of slaves from Central Asia were Turkish, captured through raids, or sold by their families or as war prisoners by other Turkish tribes, and Turkish slaves came to be the most popular ethnicity for slaves in Iran. Thus, a history of Iranian slavery is crucial to understanding the character of the modern nation. Slaves are attested in the cuneiform record of the ancient Elamites, a non-Persian people who inhabited modern southwestern Iran, including the ancient cities of Anshan and Susa, and who were eventually incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire. 1970. But, with trafficking at the root of much modern slavery it is clearly a worldwide phenomenon, not limited to the west or to any particular country. [34] The slave concubines (and later mothers) of the Shah's mainly consisted of enslaved Caucasian, Georgian and Armenian women, captured as war booty, bought at the slave market or received as gifts from local potentates. At the beginning of the 19th century both white and black, as well as indigenous, slaves were traded in Iran. Taheri, Abolghasem. The monarchs of the Safavid dynasty preferred to procreate through slave concubines, which would neutralize potential ambitions from relatives and other inlaws and protect patrimony. Over 40 million people caught in modern slavery, 152 million in child labour – UN 19 September 2017 More than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery – forced labour and forced marriage – in 2016, a United Nations study has found, revealing the true scale of such practices that disproportionately affect women and girls. 1295-1304). Modern slavery is often known as human trafficking. BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI iv. It also serves as a counterpoint to studies of slavery in the Indian Ocean and the Ottoman Empire. The copyright of all the material published on this website has been registered under © 2016 the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. In Iran’s modern history, Africans were integral to elite households. On any given day in 2016, an estimated 520,000 men, women, and children were living in modern slavery in the Arab States. In one of the most notorious cases of human slavery that the ITF has encountered in years, three Pakistani seafarers onboard the Iranian-flagged MV Borhan 3 spent 22 months without ever being paid a single dollar. Figueroa, Don Garcia. (In Farsi), Solṭān-Aḥmad Mirzā ʿĀżod-al-Dawla, Tāriḵ-e Ê¿ażodi, ed. Cambridge University Press. 2001. When the number of white slaves diminished, free Iranian men were employed for the royal guards rather than the previous white ghilmans. The report shows that modern slavery has many brutal forms and that it is an issue that remains mostly hidden from public view. A UK report on modern slavery identifies its various manifestations – sexual exploitation, labour exploitation and domestic servitude – concluding that increased awareness results in an increase in detection and reporting. It is noted that the position of the formerly powerful eunuchs of the royal harem diminished in this period because of their shrinking numbers. Modern slavery can be dealt with by ensuring fundamental rights for all. Some of the products you buy could have been made by slave workers. Obviously, there is a maximum lack of transparency on the part of the mullahs’ fundamentalist regime, particularly when it comes to the violations of women’s rights and issues such as modern slavery. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing and stoning to death. In case of a slave who was, e.g., one-half manumitted, the slave would serve in alternating years. In these countries of the empire, slavery had already undergone important changes by the time of the emergence of the Persian state. But slavery in Iran spanned two major periods, Mirzai … Usually, captives were prisoners of war that were recruited from those that rebelled against Achaemenid rule. This is a prevalence of 3.3 victims per 1,000 persons. Greek writers of the time expressed that all Persian people were slaves to their king. [10] Principles that can be inferred from the laws include: To free a slave (irrespective of his or her faith) was considered a good deed. [2], Herodotus has mentioned enslavement with regards to rebels of the Lydians who revolted against Achaemenid rule and captured Sardis. Accessed 28 Mar. [55] Female slaves had in some aspects more freedom than free Muslim women, as they were allowed to move about alone outside of the harem without veils and mingle with men, and were less harshly punished for voluntarily extramarital sexual relationships. A creditor could arrest an insolvent debtor and confine him to debtor’s prison. Eunuchs had offices in the general court, such as in the royal treasury and as the tutors and adoptive fathers of non-castrated slaves selected to be slave soliders (ghilman), as well as inside the harem, and served as a channel between the secluded harem women and the outside court and world.[38]. [18], The slaves were used in Iran itself, particular in the households of the Muslim governors, but Iran was also a great transfer area of the slavet rade to the Abbasid Caliphate. Both male and female slaves were used for domestic service and sexual objects. About 135 thousand victims in the Arab States were children below the age of 18 years. [56], The 1828 war with Russia put an end to the import of white slaves from the Russian Empire borderlands as it undermined the trade in Circassians and Georgians, which both Iran and neighboring Turkey had been practicing for quite some time. Slave-owners had the right to the slaves' income. Slavery in Qajar Iran (c. 1796–1925 AD) At the beginning of the 19th century both white and black slaves were traded in Iran. The Global Estimates of Modern Slavery report, released in 2017, finds that some 40.3 million people were subjected to contemporary forms of slavery — 71 per cent of … [11] Slaves had some rights including keeping gifts from the owner and at least three days of rest in the month.[12]. To obtain permission to copy, redistribute or publish the material published on this website, you should write to the NCRI Women’s Committee. A brief study of human trafficking in Iran and the role of regime officials in facilitating it, A Special Report by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. [5], Under the Achaemenids, Persian nobles in Babylonia and other conquered states became large slave owners. In the Islamic period up to the Mongol invasion. Slavery was an existing institution in Egypt, Media and Babylonia before the rise of the Achaemenid empire. However, the creditor could not sell a debtor into slavery to a third party. Iranian women’s participation and decision-making in public life – Report to CSW65, NCRI Women’s Committee Annual Report 2021 on women in Iran, For rural women of Iran life means suffering and working as slaves, Bill to Protect Children and Adolescents Fails to Protect Girls, April 2021 Monthly Report – The mullahs’ CSW membership is a disgrace, Monthly Report March 2021 – exile of women political prisoners, executions, Monthly Report January 2021 – One million working Iranian women have lost their jobs, Monthly Report December 2020: Ramping up violence against women in prisons, Saba Kord Afshari refused food, medicine to gain her mother’s freedom, Increasing number of women peddlers – Our children are suffering from hunger, Conditions of nurses in Iran: 80% deprived of vaccine, facing death, Iranian officials’ wealth and the empty tables of women heads of household, Working towards a democratic and peaceful world – Rashida Manjoo, Brave women of Iran stood up to a misogynous regime – Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Süssmuth: Women must stick together in their fight for a better world, Female political prisoners were raped in the 1980s – Rashida Manjoo, Mothers of November 2019 martyrs call for boycott of the sham elections in Iran. Prisoners of war (asÄ«r) could be ransomed but were otherwise enslaved, and rebellions and upheavals such as the Afghan occupation (1722-1730) resulted in the enslavement of thousands; in these cases, the usual custom of only enslaving people of a different religion were overlooked. Prison labor, or penal labor, is work that is performed by incarcerated and detained people.Not all prison labor is forced labor, but the setting involves unique modern slavery risks because of its inherent power imbalance and because those incarcerated have few avenues to challenge abuses behind bars. [36] [37] This analysis of slavery in modern Iran considers the full social, political, and economic spectrum. Slave eunuchs performed various tasks in many levels of the harem as well as the general court. You can make a difference Iran (1.6%) Modern day slaves produce some of our everyday products. 2, 1992, pp. [30] Both male and female slaves were employed by their masters as entertainers, dancing, playing music, serving [31] and by giving sexual services by prostitution at private parties. Slavery in Pre-Achaemenid Iran. In some cases, women are lured into sexual exploitation through false promises of work. This generates an estimated $150 billion in illegal profits every year, making forced labor the second largest international crime. But, with trafficking at the root of much modern slavery it is clearly a worldwide phenomenon, not limited to the west or to any particular country. How will COVID-19 impact efforts to end modern slavery, forced labour, human trafficking, and child labour, as countries committed to in SDG Target 8.7? Some victims are sexually exploited in Iraq before being sold to traffickers who take them abroad. Debt slavery was no longer common. They recruited a substantial number of their domestic slaves from these vanquished peoples. Some of the ways in which modern slavery presents itself is through organ harvesting, the smuggling of children, and the enrolling of citizens in involuntary servitude. 1984. Iran, victimizing women and girl children more than any other sector of Iranian society. “Single Article” – In Iran, no one shall be recognized as slave and every slave will be emancipated upon arrival at Iran`s territorial soil or waters. [46] Visiting Europeans could also have slaves in their household during their stay, however their slaves could leave any moment they wished with the claim that as Muslims, they were not compelled to serve Christians. One of the most tragic aspects of such gender discrimination and exploitation in Iran is the sprawling business of trafficking of young women and girls for modern slavery. According to Islamic practice of slavery and slave trade, non-Muslims were free to enslave, and since many parts of Iran remained Zoroastrian the first centuries after conquest, some non-Muslim "infidel territory" were exposed to Muslim slave raids, particularly Daylam in northwestern Iran and the Pagan mountainous region of Ḡūr in central Afghanistan. Slaves are attested[1] in the cuneiform record of the ancient Elamites, a non-Persian people who inhabited modern southwestern Iran, including the ancient cities of Anshan and Susa, and who were eventually incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire. 1983. This amounts to 17 per cent of the total number of people in modern slavery living where there is limited if any, government action. Trafficking of young women and girls from Iran for modern slavery, particularly to Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, is a common practice. Indication – Having been informed about or referring of someone who has been subjected to trading or treatment as a slave, every official is obligated to provide him with means of liberation, immediately, and to inform the district court for guilt’s prosecution. There would also have been agricultural slave workers in Iran, but the information about them are insufficient.[21]. The use of slaves for military service, ghilman, initially disapeared during the Mongol period, but it was revived and became important again during the reign of Ghazan (r. [57] The UN General Assembly defines human trafficking as, “illegal and confidential Slaves were mainly obtained either through sale or warfare. Misogyny and rampant corruption are inextricably intertwined with the existence of the regime ruling Iran, victimizing women and girl children more than any other sector of Iranian society. The practice of pledging one’s person for debt, not to mention self-sale, had totally disappeared by the Persian period. The Global Estimates of Modern Slavery report, released in 2017, finds that some 40.3 million people were subjected to contemporary forms of slavery — 71 per cent of them, women and girls. White slaves were mainly provided from the Caucasus area or the Caspian Sea through warfare and slave trade. [29] Male slaves were used for military services as ghilman, or castrated and used as eunuch servants, while female slaves were used as domestics or as concubines for sexual service. Officials from three countries are investigating allegations of slavery in Indonesia's fishing industry. The 1828 war with Russia put an end to the import of white slaves from the Russian Empire borderlands as it undermined the trade in Circassians and Georgians , which both Iran and neighboring Turkey had been practicing for quite some time. [47] Slaves owned by the Turkmen tribes were used to herd their flocks and till their land, and in southeast Iran slaves were almost exclusively held for agricultural labor. [50] [51] The slave concubines of the harem were mainly white, dominantly Turkmen and Kurdish captives under the supervision of female chief called aqal (aḡūl). Modern slavery includes trafficking, forced labour, slavery, worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and use of child soldiers. In Pakistan, debt bondage is the most prevalent form of slavery which is mainly found in the brick making, agriculture, and carpet weaving industries, according to Global Slavery Index. [17] Translated by Gholamreza Samii. Their treatment of the slaves is the same, meaning that slaves in both eras had and have a much-reduced life expectancy. [16], A third slave route through northwestern Iran provided Turkish slaves, people from Caucasus as well as saqaliba (Europeans) by the Volga trade route, and Christian Greeks, Armenians, and Georgians from the Caucasus through the Muslim raids in the Caucasus region. "Iranian Society and Law". Uniquely in comparison to Western slave systems, Sasanian slavery recognized partial manumission (relevant in the case of a jointly owned slave, only some of whose owners were willing to manumit). Human slavery, once native to developing and underdeveloped nations, has now evolved into a global issue of modern day slavery with numbers estimated to be 40 million in 2016 as per a research conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation. Prison labor and modern slavery. The Cambridge History of Iran. According to the index, the risk of modern slavery is highest in North Korea, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, DR Congo, the Gambia and Burundi. Slavery has been linked to at least 50 different product types including coffee, chocolate, cotton, sugar, footwear, toys, electronics, gold, diamonds, palm oil, timber. [44] Black slaves were mainly divided into ZangÄ«s or Bambassee, who were imported from Zanzibar across the Indian Ocean; and ḤabaÅ¡Ä«s from Ethiopia, Somalia (also called Souhalis and Nubees) and southern Sudan (also called Nubees). (In Farsi), Ricks, Thomas. [42] Muslim Iranian slaves were mainly sold to Arabia and Afghanistan, and it was said; “most of the slave girls employed as domestics in the houses of the gentry at Kandahar were brought from the outlying districts of Ghayn.”[43], African slaves were provided from East Africa via the Indian Ocean trade, but also increasingly through the Persian Gulf by Arab and Persian traders, or by land by pilgrims returning from Mecca, which caused Iranian to call the slaves haji. pp. This analysis of slavery in modern Iran considers the full social, political, and economic spectrum. “The Long Fall of the Safavid Dynasty: Moving beyond the Standard Views.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. Slaves were often given to the Zoroastrian, Excessive cruelty towards slaves could result in the owners' being brought to court; a court case involving a slave whose owner tried to drown him in the. The main reason is that the corrupt officials and institutions of the Iranian regime have turned them into a profitable business opportunity. Why is the situation of garbage sorter children growing worse? Foran, John. White slaves were often provided through warfare such as the Russo-Iranian wars, tribal incursions, slave raids and punitive expeditions in Caucasus and Northern Iran, which provided for Christian Armenian, Georgian and Circassians, and for Muslim Iranians capture in slave raids by the Turkmens. (In Farsi, Sherley, Anthony, Robert Sherley, and Thomas Sherley. Although governments have taken steps and raised awareness about modern slavery, it is difficult to detect and recognize in many cases. Hassan Abbassi said, “The situation of our Islamic government has reached the point where our Shiite girls are being auctioned in the (United Arab) Emirates.”. Iran - 16.2 per 1,000 . [58], Although the diplomatic efforts of the Russians and the British did result in a decline in the trade, slavery was still common in Iran under the Qajar dynasty, and it was not until the first half of twentieth century that slavery would be officially abolished in Iran under Reza Shah Pahlavi. [3] He has also mentioned slavery after the rebellion of Egypt in the city of Barce[4] during the time of Cambyses and the assassination of Persian Satrap in Egypt. Asia Why Southeast Asia struggles to tackle modern-day slavery. The countries with the highest risk of modern slavery in the world are North Korea, Syria, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Eritrea and Turkmenistan. ", According to Plutarch, there were many slaves in the army of the Parthian general Surena. Mirzai, whose research focuses primarily on the modern period of slavery in Iran, explained that Gulf-Arab traders – dominated by the Sultanate of Oman, which controlled vast regions bordering the Indian Ocean – brought slaves to Iran from northern and northeastern parts of the African continent, including Tanzania (Zanzibar), Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. How will COVID-19 impact efforts to end modern slavery, forced labour, human trafficking, and child labour, as countries committed to in SDG Target 8.7? There are 40.3 million people estimated to be in modern slavery. Modern slavery exists in all 167 countries covered by the Global Slavery Index. [13] Persian Zoroastrian slaves became common in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, and many of the mothers, concubines, and slave qiyan musicians are identified as originally Persian. A UK report on modern slavery identifies its various manifestations – sexual exploitation, labour exploitation and domestic servitude – concluding that increased awareness results in an increase in detection and reporting. In Part II of our series, we look at the countries with the greatest number of individuals living in modern-day slavery. Pakistan was ranked sixth out of 167 countries in […] [25] Slave raids were conducted through which people were enslaved, and these were often directed toward Christians in the Caucasus region. The GSI includes data on the number of people living in conditions of modern slavery, the analysis on government response and forms of slavery, such as forced labor, forced marriage, debt bondage, and sexual exploitation. You can read the short transcript instead. From the Mongols to the abolition of slavery. Trade between modern-day Iran and African countries goes back several hundred years. Family members have trafficked girls and women to escape desperate economic circumstances, to pay debts, or resolve disputes between families. ISBN 9780521246934. 5: Institutions. Comparing modern and transatlantic slavery. When you start to make the comparison it shows that both the transatlantic slave trade and modern slavery today have the same purpose which is to maximise huge profits. Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery. [27] Finally, slaves were given as gifts: until 1780, the Christian Armenians were forced to regularly provide girls and male youths as tributes to the Safavid ruler; the Shah also gave slaves away, as diplomatic gifts to foreign ambassadors and to the ulema. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. Active involvement is defined as development of the research, participation in the research, or monetary or in-kind support. The Global Slavery Index reports that the Asia-Pacific region had the highest number of victims across all forms of modern slavery, accounting for 73 per cent of victims of forced sexual exploitation, 68 per cent of those forced to work by state authorities, 64 per cent of those in forced labour exploitation, and 42 per cent of all those in forced marriages.

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