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طنز عظما كه كله شد from nikoo on Vimeo.
Seems like while building a career out of condemning the atrocities in Gaza, the IRI officials are taking careful lessons from its perpetrators: turning Iran into an open air prison. [I am in no way comparing the monstrous living conditions imposed on the people of Gaza to Tehran].
Why release Tajzadeh? I wonder? And Jalaipour? Tabataie? Abtahi? … Well, just take a look at how quiet they have been after their release. They are forced to keep deathly quiet, because as soon as they speak out, it’s back to prison for them (as Emad Bahavar was “called” to prison this week). They keep the dissidents in jail for months and months and months, most of it in ghastly solitary confinement, in brutal conditions … and then release them, forcing them to renew their leave day by day … to make sure they remain quiet.
The IRI officials have learned that they can release them … to have them on a leash and make sure they don’t utter a word. It gets less negative media attention if they are outside prison, but they are living inside an open air prison anyway.
And even that’s not working! Just remember Nabavi’s 10 day leave … His home was on fire!
This encounter Samaneh Navab recounts on her blog about meeting Safaie Farahani (who was recently released) demonstrates this to the core.
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Dad was standing in the line at the sandwich shop, and we were standing a bit farther back. Dad suddenly ran to us and said: “hurry up! come and see him!”
At first we thought dad had mistaken him with someone else, but a few seconds later, we too were running towards him. Yes, it was him alright: Safaie Farahani.
My mind had stopped and I couldn’t say anything. We only managed to say that we are so proud of him, and that he keeps our hopes alive.
With this weird smile he replied: our time here [on earth] is almost up. Your hopes should lie with god first, and then yourselves, the younger generation.
Dad told him that I was a student at Amir Kabir University. It was interesting to me that the first thing he asked was: did the university hold the final exams? [there was talk that the exams would be canceled]. So even he knew about this?!
He said that his appeal would be answered any day now, and that there was no way he’d get less than five years. He said that even now they are not free, and they must renew their leave of absence every week.
He seemed very determined, and when mom told him that our hearts are with him and that we pray for him everyday, he said that everybody’s fate rests in god’s hands.
He seemed calm and determined. It was really awe inspiring.
I remembered Galileo, and Tajzadeh, and Nabavi and Abtahi and … I was dizzy.
Iranian authorities have detained more than 45 Baha'is in the last four months, and as many as 60 Baha'is are imprisoned in Iran on the basis of their religion beliefs, the State Department said.
Iranians have also recently detained more than a dozen Christians, according to the State Department.
"The United States is increasingly concerned about the Iran's ongoing persecution of Baha'is and other religious minority communities," said Philip J. Crowley, assistant secretary for public affairs, in a statement on Friday.
The State Department's condemnation comes a day after it released a human rights report on Iran that blasted the country's government for abusing religious minorities, among other criticisms.
"Government rhetoric and actions created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shia religious groups, most notably for Baha'is, as well as for Sunni Muslims, evangelical Christians, and members of the Jewish community," Thursday's report said.
Iran is an Islamic Republic where Shia Islam is the state religion.
The Iranian government did not respond directly to the State Department on Thursday or Friday. However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the West on Friday for ignoring religious principles like monotheism.
At a meeting with Iranian intellectuals, "the president stressed that [many] efforts should be made to ... promote justice and support [a] campaign against oppressors and help monotheism flourish," Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
Thursday's State Department report said that Iran's government prevents Baha'is from gathering in homes to worship and bans Baha'is from public schools, universities, the social pension system and government leadership posts unless they conceal their faith.
"The government repeatedly pressured Baha'is to recant their religious beliefs in exchange for relief from mistreatment," the report said.
All seven members of Iran's Baha'i national leadership body, who were arrested in 2008, remained in prison at the end of 2009, according to the report.
The Baha'i faith was founded in Iran in the 19th century. Today, Baha'is are the country's largest religious minority, with 300,000 members, according to the official Baha'i Web site.
Thursday's State Department report also accused the Iranian government of destroying a Sufi library and religious hall in Isfahan; demolishing several Sunni mosques; and requiring evangelical Christian groups to submit congregation membership lists to the government.
The report was part of a broader State Department release of human rights reports on 194 countries.
Jafar Panahi was taken into custody nearly two weeks ago by Iranian security forces during a raid on the filmmaker's Tehran home. A state prosecutor has said Panahi's detention is not political and that the filmmaker is suspected of committing unspecified "offenses."
Human Rights Watch noted that Panahi and fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who was picked up along with Panahi, have not been charged since being arrested on March 1. In a statement released Saturday, the rights group also criticized Tehran for providing no legal basis for the filmmakers' continued detention.
"The Iranian authorities should either charge these men or release them immediately," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the rights group's Middle East director.
Human Rights Watch said a third filmmaker was also still in custody. That report could not be independently verified.
Panahi, 49, supported Iran's opposition following the disputed June presidential election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. He was briefly detained last summer when he visited the gravesides of the victims of Tehran's postelection unrest and was later banned from traveling abroad.
The filmmaker has won awards at the Chicago, Cannes and Berlin film festivals, although several of his films have been banned from showing in Iran.
Whitson said that by targeting a high-profile artist like Panahi, "the Iranian government is sending a clear message that it is willing to go after anyone it considers a threat."
"If well-known figures like Panahi are not immune from arbitrary arrest and detention, ordinary Iranians will think twice before engaging in any activity that may seem critical of the government," Whitson said.
Ahmadinejad's re-election has been challenged by a range of public figures, including filmmakers and singers who have expressed support for the opposition and criticized the harsh government crackdown on street protesters.
The opposition contends Ahmadinejad won through fraud and that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner.
WASHINGTON — The United States charged Thursday that Iran's already poor human rights record had "degenerated" in 2009, particularly with a security crackdown after disputed presidential elections.
The sharp criticism of Iran, contained in an annual State Department report on human rights abuses worldwide, comes as the Obama administration pushes for tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear ambitions.
"The government's poor human rights record degenerated during the year, particularly after the disputed June presidential elections," the State Department said.
In a press briefing after the release, senior State Department official Michael Posner underscored the point that Iran's "poor human rights situation rapidly deteriorated after the June elections."
Iran is "a place where we are continuing to see severe repression" and the United States is continuing to pay "great attention" to the situation there.
Specificially, the report itself said "freedom of expression and association and lack of due process continued to be problems within Iran."
It recalled that Iranian police and the paramilitary Basij "violently suppressed demonstrations" after incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of a contested election.
Dozens, if not scores were killed, and at least 4,000 individuals had been detained by August, it said.
"A massive show trial involving many of the more prominent detainees was undertaken in September," the report said.
It also referred to the Iranian government's crackdown on new media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.
"After the June election, there was a major drop in bandwidth, which experts posited the government caused to prevent activists involved in the protests from accessing the Internet and uploading large video files," it said.
"The government continued to restrict freedom of religion severely, particularly against Bahais and, increasingly, Christians," it added.
the post-elections protests killing hundreds who were mostly buried without acquiring their identities or informing their families.
Women are systematically terrorized, repressed, and deprived of humane activities. The mullahs’ brutality however has failed to rein in the Iranian women’s demand for a democratic and equal life and they are present at the forefront of all democratic protests.
ersecution is no longer limited to religious minorities, Sunni and Sufi Shiites, but it also includes religious Shiite authorities who oppose Khamenei’s medieval regime.
I was listening to my cellmate’s lullaby, he was singing for his daughters Parya and Zahra. His melancholic lullaby was followed by the sobs of another cellmate, and I burst into tears too. It was the second time that he was arrested. The first time, he was sentenced to one year in jail, and this time he has to serve another 10 years. All his joy and excitement was about seeing his children who would visit him on Monday.
On the day of the visit, the children, without caring that they were surrounded by people and before their parents’ eyes (and in the middle of the seats and chairs of the visit hall), jumped up and down and performed hand stands to show their father their progressing athletic abilities.
The father, who was proud of his children, wore a smile. The mother, with her innocent expression, was trying to deny her pain of solitude and expectation. She was looking at her husband with joy and at her children’s excitement with love.
And I, who had been away from the school environment for months, kept staring at Parya and Zahra, and would tell my mother about them. One of the most memorable moments which has been carved in my mind is the moment this family spent together.
They were as though in a vacuum, in the heavens, in a place outside this world, not surrounded by anyone. They only had their compassion for each other. Without paying attention to the guards, the walls, and other prisoners, they shared their smiles. I always hope to see Parya and Zahra outside prison, or wish that they were able to visit thirty minutes longer. As they said their farewell, I tried not to look at them, so that the spectacular moment of their reunion would be etched in my mind forever. The beautiful girls mocked the fake world around their father with every move and jump.
The fate of children like Zahra and Parya is the story of our time. It has been written for years now, and every day, another Zahra and Parya visit their father. Or a child like “Ava” would sit next to the Haft-Seen table (The table arrangement made by Iranians for Norooz), sing to her fish, and cry,“This year daddy is in jail!”
I saw Parya and Zahra about to depart, still holding on to their father’s hand. They walked toward the exit with a smile on their face as though they were going to the fair.
I wanted to hold their hands too and share their joy. Before the father said goodbye, I turned my face so I would not be able to see his tearful eyes. However, now, I was watching the tearful eyes of my mother who was getting ready to separate from her son. I mimicked Parya and Zahra in my embrace with my mother.
When Parya and Zahra were calling us, I couldn’t keep my eyes away anymore. The two angels waved at me. They are angels, except that they don’t have wings.
Farzad Kamangar is a teacher who worked in the poor areas of Kurdistan. He is a human rights and environmental activist. He was arrested, subjected to torture, and sentenced to death in a trial that lasted less than three minutes.
The 8th of March, International Women’s Day, is a reminder of the common protests by women around the world. Women all over this planet have made efforts on this day to declare their demands based on existing socio-economic conditions. Throughout history, Iranian women have made their voices and demands heard across our country.
This year, however, the Iranian women celebrate International Women’s Day during a time when a dynamic movement is fighting for the “right to citizenship” and “civil liberties” – a movement in which it can be said that women are bearing the brunt of the responsibilities, and if not, are at minimum equally involved and responsible as their male counterparts. Women are paying a high price in many areas such as detention and imprisonment, deprivation from work and education, being banned from leaving the country, deprivation of their civil liberties, and even death and martyrdom.
Even though Iranian women have played a central role throughout the past 100 years of our history in the advancement of justice and freedom (take for example the Constitutional Revolution, the tobacco movement, the nationalization of oil, the Revolution of 1957, and a variety of other social movements and protests in the past thirty years), and fighting by the side of their male counterparts. This time, however, women have been present in a more determined and informed manner than in the past. They have been cognizant of their gender and have played an active and influential role in the movement.
The experiences of the various women’s groups fighting against injustice and discrimination in the past decade (through collaboration, cooperation, campaigns, and various coalitions) were collectively, consciously, and responsibly transferred by women onto the Green movement.
We women demonstrated that we can move in a common direction and resolve social problems and political crises. We find appropriate and intelligent solutions through dialogue, regardless of our ethnic, racial, religious, or social differences. It was these experiences that demonstrated to achieve civil demands, a principle adherence and commitment to non-violence and an ability to remain patient and resist is needed. It also demonstrated that one can hope for change and allowed for the green movement to stay away from any form of violence and conflict.
As a result of these historic efforts and struggles, Iranian women expect their aspirations and demands to be advanced not because they pertain to a specific group but rather as aspirations belonging to society at large, so that our nation can move toward progress and democracy.
As such, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, women activists in Iran will once again announce the demands that have been raised by women over the years:
On the threshold of March 8th, we announce loud and clear that we will remain by the side of the people and the Green activists. We will also continue our independent efforts and will not sit still until we achieve our aspirations and demands, because we are countless.
Signed by a number of women activists in Iran.
The online journalists of women's rights blog we-change.org were given the "Net Citizen" award, a new prize by Google and French media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to defend freedom of expression online.
Dozens of the Iranian site's contributors have been detained for reporting online on huge anti-government demonstrations that broke out amid claims of fraud in Iran's election, RSF said.
"The Iranian women's movement has always shown resistance... Now the movement is bringing its experience and methods of working democratically into cyberspace," said one of its members, Parvin Adalan, accepting the award at Google's Paris offices.
Google and RSF said in a statement that the site, formed in 2006, "has become a point of reference for information on women's rights in Iranian society," and "Iranian cyber-feminists have created new spaces for expression."
"Female online journalists show the world the abuses of power suffered in recent months by demonstrators and the population in general" in Iran, they said.
Among others shortlisted for the prize was Tan Zuoren, a 55-year-old Chinese journalist jailed for five years for his reporting on poorly built schools that were destroyed in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, southwestern China.
Google and RSF said Tan, a contributor to the Chinese language human rights blog 64tianwang.com, had urged "Internet users to mobilise to establish the truth" and was harassed by authorities and put on trial for subversion.
Tan's nomination came at a sensitive time for Google's relations with China.
The US firm has threatened to pull out of China, the world's biggest online market, accusing authorities there of online censorship and of hacking the accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Google senior vice-president David Drummond said at Thursday's prize-giving that Iran and China were among the regimes that posed "the most systemic risk and the most immediate risk to individuals" by cracking down on online dissent.
The prize was awarded on the eve of RSF's "World Day Against Cyber Censorship" on Friday when the group publishes a list of countries it accuses of "displaying a disturbing attitude towards the Internet."
This year it said it has added several countries, including Australia, South Korea, Turkey and Russia, to the list of states it is monitoring for breaches of online media rights.
A senior manager of US Internet giant Google, David Drummond, said there was an "alarming trend" of government interference in online freedom, not only in countries that are widely judged to have poor human rights records.
Fars state-run News Agency
The deputy Prosecutor of Qom announced that a number of Monafeghin members (literally meaning hypocrite used by the regime to refer to the PMOI) who had communications with this organization and with Camp Ashraf were arrested.
Mahmoud Talebi said, "In a number of operations a monafegh group that carried out activities against the government was arrested in Qom"."These people were carrying out activities against the Islamic Revolution and government and intended to subvert the revolution and velayate faqih (leadership)".
Committee of Human Rights Reporters
According to reports, Evin Prison officials have prevented Mahdieh Golro from seeing her husband, Vahid Lalipour and this jailed student activist has been barred from receiving visits in the past two weeks. Vahid Lalipour who was also just recently released from prison after 3 months has not been able to visit his jailed wife despite constantly going to judicial and security institutions and officials prevent this couple from visits under various pretexts.
“Here, the ghastly executioners have exceeded all inhumane boundaries. I have no other alternative but to resort to hunger strike and seek your support to find a safe haven for me
Today, 6 April 2009, when my sister came to visit me, the barbaric behaviour of my jailers towards me and my sister in the visitors’ hall annihilated my patience. They not only subjected me to the most disgraceful and humiliating type of body search and inspection, and even confiscated the smallest piece of paper and a phone number I was carrying, but they also did worse than that to my sister. The visitor’s hall’s wardens, Misters Islamic, Ahmadi and Khosravi, and Mrs. Shahbazi behaved most callously towards me and my family who had only come to visit me. They only granted us 3 minutes just to be awkward with us. My sister had tried for a month to be given the chance to visit me and had travelled from Tehran to Karaj. And yet they only gave us 3 minutes to talk. Our objections to their behaviour only caused more violence towards us. This kind of behaviour was of course contrived by the management and higher authorities of “Gohardasht” prison.
The day Amir Heshmat Saran died (Murdered) under extremely suspicious circumstances, the prison authorities instructed us to keep quiet about it and not to mention anything to anyone. As everyone knows, we did quite the opposite and exposed the circumstances under which Amir Heshmat lost his life.
For sometime now, no one in this prison has been following up my ill health. My health has been deteriorating due to the inflicted tortures by the “Ministry for Security”. The prison clinic at “Rajayee Shahr” prison refuses to refer me to a civilian hospital as I need to have a M.R.I. scan done to diagnose my illnesses. I have been suffering from the loss of 50% of my vision due to blows to the back of my head which has partially damaged the rear side of my brain.
Today, in my family’s presence, the head warden threatened me: “You counter revolutionary idiot, you will soon join your friend Saran”!
Dear compatriots, I have been captive for over ten years as a political prisoner; since the students’ uprising on 9 July 1998. Have I any option other than starting a hunger strike?
Behrooz Javid Tehrani
This year will be a crucial and uncertain year for Iran and for its relations with the European Union. The domestic hostility toward the regime that erupted in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections last June has not died away but has become stronger and more determined.
The Ashura riots of December and the violent suppression of protests during the recent anniversary to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution were some of the fiercest to date. The regime’s sharp crackdown ahead of the anniversary did not stop thousands from marching in the streets, despite the threat of swift retribution. The likelihood of more arrests, trials and bloodshed is a concern for many in the international community.
More ominously, following the riots the regime put 16 opposition members on trial for taking part in the demonstrations, with prosecutors indicating that some would be charged with the offense of mohareb — “making a war against God” — a capital crime.
The heavy-handed approach adopted by the regime is causing friction even among its loyalists. A former member of Iran’s parliament, Javad Ettaat, argues that the “government is contravening the principles of Islam by using an iron fist against protesters.” Mohammad Taghi Khalaji, a cleric and devoted follower of Ayatollah Khomeini, was arrested on Jan. 12 after saying at a Tehran mosque that Iran’s leaders should repent for their actions.
The European Parliament has been paying close attention to Iran’s deteriorating situation. There has been pressure to impose targeted sanctions aimed at impeding the financial operations of the country’s Revolutionary Guard, which holds a virtual monopoly over strategic industries such as banking, defense and construction. Since many European companies have profited from investing in such firms, deciding on the terms of sanctions could prove cumbersome.
On the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Iranian government’s equivocal position is also a source of growing concern. Many European lawmakers are worried by the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran on Europe’s doorstep and are not convinced by the regime’s claim that it seeks only nuclear energy.
It is critical, therefore, that the EU demonstrate its commitment to the Iranian people through actions, rather than words by taking a tougher stance against the regime. Targeted sanctions aimed at the Revolutionary Guard would be an important step, but so is clearly expressing solidarity with the millions of Iranians who are fighting for a democratic and pluralist society.
Europe should stand with Iran’s civil society, and the European Parliament has already paid tribute to the courage of all those Iranian men and women who are defending their basic freedoms and democratic principles. A concrete demonstration of its commitment is the request to make better use of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.
Eighty Members of the European Parliament, including its former president, Hans-Gert Pöttering, and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, are urging the parliament to honor its commitment to human rights by remembering the life of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman who was killed last June in Tehran while standing up for her rights. We believe that the European Parliament should commemorate her sacrifice by hanging a poster of her image on the external wall of the parliament’s premises in Brussels, beside the poster of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s democratic opposition.
Agha Soltan has become a symbol of the desire for freedom of a people that Europe must help. This simple act could demonstrate the importance of Europe’s soft power, which frightens the Islamic Republic more than the threat of military force by keeping the media spotlight on the regime’s human rights record and emphasizing its growing isolation. It would also foster stronger ties between Iran’s civil society and the outside world, while setting an example to the international community that the EU is committed to the principles enshrined in its own Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Europe’s policy for Iran is not regime change, but when human rights and democracy are at stake we cannot simply close our eyes.
LONDON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday it is no longer selling gasoline to Iran, the latest oil company to make such a move during threats of tougher sanctions against the Islamic republic.
"Shell is not currently selling gasoline to Iran," a company spokesman said. He declined to comment on whether it was related ...
