Parisa Kakaee: A Life Devoted to Community Service, Now Serving at Evin Prison

Parisa Kakaee, the women activist and a member of the Committee for Human Rights Reporters, was arrested on January 1, after responding to a telephone summons and appearing at the office of the Intelligence Ministry. Currently seven members of the Committee are being detained in Ward 209 of Evin prison, and other members have been threatened and summoned

In the following interview, we spoke with Parisa Kakaee’s mother.
Q:What was Parisa like as a young girl?
A:She was always a kind girl. She especially showed kindness to those who were younger and more vulnerable than she was. When she was in kindergarten at the age of five, she took care of the younger children. When I came to pick her up from school, her teacher told me that Parisa helped prepare the younger children’s snacks and milk. She made sure that the kids were fed first.
Her love and generosity towards others continued over the years, through grade school and on. She helped children who had less money and support, children who came from single-parent families. She would save her allowance and buy presents for children who earned good grades. She would buy them socks, notebooks, and pencils. She was very popular with the otherchildren. As she grew older, she would talk to the mothers about their children and offer them support and advice. In high school, she studied the natural sciences, then decided to switch majors so that she could study psychology because she wanted to learn more about the social sciences and human behavior. She felt that she could contribute more to society through her work as a psychologist.
At the university, she continued to help others and volunteered at many organizations, such as the Ameneh Orphanage, the White Cane Center for the Blind, and numerous children’s organizations which helped serve underprivileged children. She helped their mothers enter training programs to enable them to work and support their children. She loved to hike and often took other children, who normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to go, with her. She visited homes for the elderly and later, she was hired at UNICEF Iran and traveled to disparity provinces such as Sistan and Baluchistan.
She was always very independent. From a very young age, she would say that women should be independent and not be afraid.
Q: How did you learn of her arrest?
A:Parisa told me that someone from the Ministry of Intelligence called and told her that she had to be taken in. I told her not to go. But she told me not to worry. She said that she had done nothing wrong, was not affiliated with any political groups. Her work was to report on human rights.
Q: Have you had contact with her since her detainment?
Since she’s been taken in, she’s called about 3 times, with her interrogator nearby. Her father, brother, and I have been able to visit her twice for 20 minutes where we speak to her over the phone with a glass dividing us. She was in good spirits and said that she had not been treated badly. I had given her money and she used it to buy shampoo, soap, and clothes, since she did not have permission to accept clothes from home. She has access to her heart medication and when she caught a cold, was taken to the prison clinic and treated right away.
Q:Have the authorities mentioned the possibility of releasing Parisa on the condition of putting up bail?
A:No, we haven’t heard anything. But we wouldn’t be able to offer anything since we rent our apartment and have nothing to offer.
Q:How are you holding up?
A:I’m having a difficult time. I don’t understand why they arrested her. She has always done good for her community and has tried to help and empower others. She doesn’t deserve this.
I cry everywhere, people stop me in public and ask me what’s wrong. I can’t sleep. I worked for 32 years at the Ministry of Education and have received numerous honors for my teaching services. Parisa’s father was a high ranking officer in the air force, who’s now retired. He doesn’t leave the house, he’s so sick with worry. He waits for her phone call to hear her voice. When he does leave, he’s distracted. He almost got hit by a bus recently, he was so distracted, when he was crossing the street.
We were never political. We never got involved in political activities. We just want her to come home.

Alireza Firoozi & Sourena Hashemi Are Detained in Evin

Prisoners released from Evin prison today say they have seen Alireza Firoozi & Sourena Hashemi inside EvinRAHANA Prisoners’ Rights Unit- Eyewitnesses have seen Alireza Firooozi & Sourena Hashemi inside an Evin ward in the last few days. Both student activists had disappeared since December 2nd, 2009 while on a trip to Tabriz and all signs pointed to an arrest by authorities.According to several prisoners who were released today, the 2 student activists were in an Evin ward 10 days ago but were moved to an unknown location later. This new development comes as their families had been told by Evin and Court officials in the past that their sons were not detained in Evin.Alireza’s family went to Evin prison last night hoping to get information from prisoners who were being released. Upon seeing the photographs of the 2 students, 8 released prisoners positively identified Sourena Hashemi. Although the freed prisoners did not have any information about Alireza Firoozi, it is quite likely that he is detained in Evin as well since the 2 activists were arrested while travelling together.It is not clear at this point whether the 2 activists are detained at Evin or another prison. Earlier on, officers of the Tehran Police force concluded that Alireza was in Tehran by tracking his cell phone signal.Alireza & Sourena have not contacted their families since their arrest more than a month ago. During this time agents from the intelligence ministry have used their email information to check the contents of their accounts and chat online with their friends and families.Alireza & Sourena were expelled from Zanjan University and detained, after exposing a University official for sexual abuse.Sourena Hashemi is a member of a Liberal student organization and Alireza Firoozi is blogger-journalist and human rights activist.

Iran’s Revolutionary Echoes

Iran’s continued unrest, now extending through the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Shah, raises the question of whether the Islamic Republic is about to fall. As in 1979, millions of Iranians have taken to the streets, this time to protest electoral fraud in the presidential vote last June.
The cheated presidential candidates, both veterans of the revolution, instinctively thought of a replay of history. Mir Hossein Moussavi saw the green symbols of the demonstrators as representing the color of the House of the Prophet, and urged his supporters to continue their nightly rooftop chants of “God is Great!” Thus, the first slogan of the opposition invoked the religious credo of the 1979 revolutionaries. More recently, protesters chanted it during the funeral demonstrations for Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri in the closing days of 2009.
And yet we risk being led astray by memories of 1979. It is far too soon to predict another revolution. But t he divide between Iran’s society and its government is much greater today than it was under the Shah 30 years ago. Change seems just as inevitable.
Technological advances greatly favor the 2009 protesters. Text messages, Twitter, and the Web are infinitely superior to the smuggled cassettes of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s speeches that fueled the opposition in 1979. What’s missing this time, however, is a charismatic leader comparable to Khomeini. Indeed, the striking feature of the Iranian opposition movement is the lack of effective leadership, despite the astonishing persistence of protests. As Moussavi has readily acknowledged, neither he nor the other presidential candidate, Ahmad Karroubi, feels in charge by now.
The greatest difference between 2009 and 1979 was created by the revolution itself. R evolutions give birth to a new political class, and Iran’s Islamic revolution was no exception. The Iranian leadership formed after the revolution consisted of a narrow ruling stratum and a much broader supporting group that was given charge of administration and political mobilization.
In the 20 years since Khomeini’s death, the composition of this political class has changed drastically. The clerical elite has gradually lost power to the military-security groups, from whose ranks President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged. Bureaucratic and security services dominated by the Revolutionary Guards and its militia, the Basij (Mobilization Corps), are now firmly in command.
The leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blessed the Revolutionary Guards’ decision to steal the presidential election. By identifying squarely with the military-security apparatus headed by Ahmadinejad, Khamenei has alienated an important segment of the ruling clerical elite. He has also reduced his own status as the ultimate arbiter in Iranian society, a role that was central to Khomeini’s dominance of the system. As a result, he has produced a rupture between the two pillars of the revolutionary regime: the clerical elite and military-security structure.
The growth of Khamenei’s personal, extra-constitutional power introduces a strong element of uncertainty into Iran’s future. Political regimes that rely on personal power, commonly known as dictatorships, prove to be fragile in crisis. This was the weakness of the Shah’s regime, which collapsed as he became paralyzed in his decision-making. There was nothing behind him supporting the system.
Khamenei’s backing of the June 2009 putsch now appears to be a costly mistake. With this single error, he has undermined what had appeared to be a robust post-revolutionary course for the first and only theocracy in modern history. The cries of “God is Great!” have now been overtaken by chants of “Death to the Dictator!” in recent demonstrations in Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz, and other Iranian cities.
The Iranian regime is now critically dependent on decisions made by one man, the Leader. For that reason, it is demonstrating a degree of fragility that is comparable to the Shah’s regime in the latter part of the 1970’s.
Most spokespersons of the Green protest movement advocate civil disobedience instead of revolution. Earlier this month, Ezattolah Sahabi, who was a member of the revolutionary provisional government in 1979, issued a statement in Tehran stating categorically that “a revolution in today’s Iran is neither possible nor desirable.” At roughly the same time, five prominent opposition intellectuals living in exile released a reformist, not revolutionary, manifesto directed against the “despotic guardians.”
But there is little chance that these children of the Islamic revolution – now graying reformists – will remain in control of the Green movement, which now reflects the aspirations of a post-revolutionary generation of young women and men and students.
The ayatollah-dictator and the Revolutionary Guards have tried their best to discredit their opponents by concocting, through forced confessions at show trials, a conspiracy of regime change based on a “velvet revolution” produced by “Western social sciences.”
Deep down, they know there is no conspiracy. Their fear is grounded in what they see in front of them: the forward march of history.

Nine to be executed as Iran plans crackdown

Nine more dissidents will be executed soon, a senior member of Iran's judiciary declared today, as the regime stepped up its efforts to deter another huge opposition rally planned for next week.
The regime is sufficiently worried that it has ordered state television not to broadcast the usual historic television footage of insurrection on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah, lest the scenes incite today's opposition to follow suit.
Last Thursday it hanged two men for allegedly plotting against the regime - a move condemned internationally but praised by Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a hardline cleric , during Friday prayers in Tehran. "May God not have mercy on those who are lenient with the corrupt on earth," he said. "There is no room for clemency. It is time for severity."
On Saturday the regime broadcast the trial of 16 opposition supporters, two of them women, for allegedly plotting against the Islamic Republic and conspiring with its foreign enemies.
Today Ebrahim Raisi, a senior member of the judiciary, announced that nine more alleged members of "anti-revolutionary" groups would be hanged soon. "They had participated in riots with the aim of creating disunity and toppling the system," he said.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, leader of the so-called Green movement, showed no sign of backing down, however. To the contrary, the man defeated in last June's hotly-contested presidential election has today published one of his strongest attacks on the regime to date, accusing it of perpetuating the "tyranny and dictatorship" of the Shah's era and saying the Islamic revolution of 1979 had failed.
Unusually Mr Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, the other main opposition leader, have publicly urged their supporters to take to the streets next Thursday, the 31st anniversary of the fall of the Shah, setting the scene for one of the biggest and potentially most explosive confrontations yet between a rattled regime and an increasingly bold opposition.
Analysts said the regime was clearly trying to deter opposition supporters from taking to the streets on February 11, but Mr Mousavi, whose nephew was one of a dozen people killed during the last big opposition demonstrations on December 27, appears to be growing increasingly defiant and outspoken.
In a statement published on his website the former prime minister, who played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Shah, seemed determined to undermine the regime's claims to be the guardian of the revolution - and to claim that mantle for the opposition - ahead of next week's anniversary.
"Stiffling the media, filling the prisons and brutally killing people who peacefully demand their rights in the streets indicate that the roots of tyranny and dictatorship remain from the monarchist era," he declared. "I don't believe that the revolution achieved it goals."
He went on: "Dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind. The most evident manifestation of a continued tyrannical attitude is the abuse of parliament and the judiciary. We have completely lost hope in the judiciary." He also suggested the regime was rigging elections just as the Shah did.
Despite that, Mr Mousavi promised that the Green movement "will not abandon its peaceful fight...until people's rights are restored". He called Ayatollah Janati "heartless", and continued: "He is unaware of the power of innocent blood and does not know that the blood of martyrs destroyed the Shah's regime."
The opposition has proved adept at hijacking state-sponsored rallies that the regime cannot cancel without huge loss of face, and will attempt to do the same next Thursday.
The regime has made clear that it will deal harshly with any demonstrations. "Anyone breaking ranks with the Iranian people will be considered a n agent of foreigners," said Bigadier General Hossein Hamedani, Tehran's Revolutionary guard commanders. "Any voice or colour other than the voice of the Islamic revolution will be pushed aside, and if a minority makes such an attempt it will be firmly confronted."

CNN;Moussavi: Shah's 'tyranny' continues in Iran

Mir Hossein Moussavi, the Iranian opposition leader and symbol of anti-government fervor, lashed out against Iran's Islamic Republic Tuesday, saying remnants of the "tyranny" and "dictatorship" that prevailed under the toppled Shah of Iran's regime persist today.
"In the early years of the Islamic Revolution, most people were convinced that the structure of the revolution would destroy the past political situation of tyranny and dictatorship, and I was one of them who believed that," said Moussavi, a former prime minister.
But now, he said, that's not true anymore.
"The current political situation in Iran indicates the presence of the remaining roots of tyranny and dictatorship of the Shah," whose regime was overthrown in 1979 and replaced by an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"I don't believe that the revolution achieved its goals," said Moussavi, speaking out forcefully as the tensions over Iranian politics continue.
The regime is marking the anniversary of the shah's overthrow with a series of events that began this week and culminate on February 11. Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another Iranian opposition leader, have urged supporters to demonstrate.
Those celebrations coincide with Iranian trials and executions of street protesters who demonstrate against the June 12 presidential election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the final results Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over Moussavi, a result seen by many Iranians as questionable or rigged.
The initial protests broke out last summer and have persisted. In late December, at least seven people were killed and hundreds arrested, witnesses said, as they took to the streets on Ashura, a Muslim holy day which occurred on December 27. Moussavi's nephew was among those killed during those protests.

The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence.
Police have arrested 4,000 people in the post-election crackdown.
Moussavi, who made his Web site comments in a question and answer format, said an Iranian government that reflects "dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind" and he added he has lost hope "that the revolution had removed all those structures which could lead to totalitarianism and dictatorship."
"The most evident manifestation of a continued tyrannical attitude is the abuse of parliament and judiciary. We have completely lost hope in the judiciary," he said.
"Stifling the media, filling the prisons and brutally killing people who peacefully demand their rights in the streets indicate the roots of tyranny and dictatorship remain from the monarchist era."
The semi-official Fars news agency reported Tuesday that Iran will soon execute nine more people in connection with the country's post-election riots. The nine are among 11 who were sentenced to death by Tehran's Revolutionary Court last month.
Iran vows to execute protesters
Two were hanged last week, and a senior judiciary official was quoted as saying "the two people who were executed as well as the other nine who will soon be executed had certainly been arrested during the recent riots.
"Each had belonged to an anti-revolutionary group, had aspired to sow dissent and to uproot the regime," the official said.
Moussavi also praised the grass-roots Green opposition movement. But he said while protesters should vent their opinions, they should follow law and not overstep legal bounds. Any law-breaking would hurt the reform movement, he said.
"The ultimate goal is to move toward an independent, free and united Iran. Women and men of all cultures, classes and ideas should have opportunities," he said. "The Green movement stands for human dignity, open ideas, diversity and freedom of expression."
Moussavi hasn't been arrested since the protests began, but he is facing the wrath of an establishment targeting reformers like him. At the same time the regime is risking even further civil unrest if it takes him into custody.
Recently, Iran's parliament asked authorities to arrest "the main instigators and directors" of violent anti-government protests, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday, the same day massive pro-government rallies were held in Tehran and other cities.
Legislator Hassan Noroozi named three people he said "must be arrested" -- Moussavi, Karrubi, and Fa'ezeh Hashemi, daughter of the former reformist president, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"They must not remain on the sidelines and be safe," Noroozi said. "Those who issue statements and invite people to create chaos in the streets and attack one another must be dealt with according to Islamic laws."
Pro-government crowds demonstrating in Tehran have chanted "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and "Death to Moussavi."
Noting the pressure and threats in the highly-charged political environment, Moussavi has said on his Facebook page that he is ready for "martyrdom."

Breaking News: Lar residents clash with anti-riot police

Today, people from the city of Lar clashed with anti-riot police forces and attacked Melli and Mellat banks and a police station. The clashes were a result of the people’s discontent over the decision to make Gerash, one of the nearby villages into a city.
Some windows were smashed and people were arrested and injured. Anti-riot police used tear gas and fired shots to disperse [the crowd]. The people reacted by fighting back. Consequently, a number of people were injured and were sent to Imam Reza hospital, the only hospital in the city.
There were many arrests, but only 16 have been transferred to Shiraz so far. From yesterday and today, the [police force] has arrested 120 people, and ten of them have been released since. People are banned from traveling and anti-riot police are remaining in the streets. [City officials] have promised that a group from Tehran would be arriving today at 3:00pm to investigate the people’s claims. The people believe that this is a lie. Additionally, according to reports, strikes are being planned that will result in shops in the city closing their doors until the people receive their rights.

Translation by: Tour Irani

family of one of the 3 members of CHRR has refused allegations of ‘Moharebeh’

A family of one of the three members of Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) has refused allegations of ‘Moharebeh’ (waging war against God).

Green Path Movement (Jaras): Mehrdad Rahimi, Shiva Nazar Ahari, and Saeed Haeri, three detained members of CHRR have been charged with ‘Moharebeh’. In a conversation with Jaras, one of their family members has denied the allegations and the TV confessions.

Editor’s Note: According to Islamic law, ‘Moharebeh’ carries a sentence of execution. The three CHRR members were arrested in events following the June 2009 Presidential elections.

Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission, two organizations supporting human rights around the world, have issued statements condemning the possible death sentences against prisoners. The two organizations have expressed concern and have asked Iranian officials to respect the rights of the arrested and the protesters.