A/HRC/19/66 raided dormitory buildings using sticks, daggers, chains, metal rods, Molotov cocktails, teargas, white phosphorous pellets and electrified batons. Dormitory rooms were vandalized and students were beaten. The witness reported being thrown on the ground and beaten with electrified and regular batons by the police, and later arrested and transferred with a group of 50 other students to Shapur Police Station in central Tehran. The students were allegedly deprived of food and water for 24 hours and subjected to beatings. 38. Several organizations also requested the Special Rapporteur to investigate the death of those killed “as a result of individual or mass executions inside and outside the prisons” during the 1980‟s. In this regard, he was presented with a catalogue of some 20,000 cases of individuals, including juveniles, affiliated with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), who have been allegedly executed, abused or tortured by Government authorities since 1980.27 He also received information from the Habilian Association, which claims to represent 17,000 victims of violence at the hands of MKO members since 1980. 39. The Special Rapporteur is not in a position to examine the above-mentioned cases, but would like to point out that the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran reviewed the matter of mass executions and violence during the 1980‟s in 1989, concluding that the allegations of mass murder deserved to be the subject of detailed investigation and information from the Government concerned in conformity with international practice. 28 40. The Special Rapporteur notes, however, that the failure to resolve thousands of cases of torture and extrajudicial execution is indelibly etched into the consciousness of the Iranian people and should be the subject of a comprehensive examination. IV. Situation of human rights Women’s rights A. 41. The Special Rapporteur met with representatives of the Communication Network of Women, which claims to represent 1,600 women‟s non-governmental organizations across the country. They conveyed their concerns about the Special Rapporteur‟s impartiality and expressed their view that gender equality had significantly improved since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, noting that the matter required a comprehensive study of data for the past 30 years. Like the Human Rights Committee, the Special Rapporteur has taken note of the impressive improvements in literacy rates and statistics that show a marked increase in female enrolment in educational institutions since 1990. He also acknowledges reports that that the Islamic Republic of Iran is on track for reducing the maternal mortality ratio by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015.29 42. Other reports that focus on women‟s rights suggest that additional efforts must be made to facilitate the socio-economic equality of women in the country; for instance, two former female university students explained during an interview that, although the number of women enrolling in Iranian academic institutions is high, women continue to be subject to discriminatory practices that hinder equal access to all the academic and professional 27 28 29 Fallen for Freedom: 20,000 PMOI Martyrs, Partial List of 120,000 Victims of Political Executions in Iran under the Mullahs’ Regime, vol. 1 (Paris, People‟s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, September 2006). E/CN.4/1989/26, para. 68. See United Nations Development Programme, “UNDP Iran and the MDGs”, available from www.undp.org.ir/index.php/millennium-development-goals/the-mdgs-in-iran. 13