Friday, March 19, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Maryam on BBC The World on Sharia law in Britian
To hear my interview on Sharia arbitration in Britain on BBC The World on 15 March 2010, click here.
Of course the BBC has made me a Muslim and also cut out the bit where I said sharia courts are on the rise like the burqa is on the rise because of the political Islamic movement ... but what else can we expect from the BBC.
Of course the BBC has made me a Muslim and also cut out the bit where I said sharia courts are on the rise like the burqa is on the rise because of the political Islamic movement ... but what else can we expect from the BBC.
Monday, March 15, 2010
One Law for All Campaign quoted in yesterday's Guardian
To read an article in the Guardian, which quotes the One Law for All Campaign, click here.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Rahman Ebramizadeh, and his son, Esa must be released immediately and unconditionally!
Based on the news we have received from student activists, on 3 March 2010 the notorious Revolutionary Guards have arrested a labour activist Rahman Ebrahimzadeh and his son Esa and have taken them to Oshnaveyeh’s detention centre. A week later, they were transferred to Oromieye’s prison to appear in court. Rahman’s family, worried for their safety, health, and wellbeing, attempted to find out their whereabouts, and to demand their immediate release, but prison authorities have kept a tight lip. The house search was conducted without any prior notice, or any search warrant.
Around the same time, two more of Rhaman’s sons, Loghman and Behnam Ebrahimzadeh received threatening phone calls. Loghman was taken to Oshnaveyeh’s detention centre for questioning on 9 March 2010. Following an International 2009 May Day rally in Park Laleh in Tehran, Behnam who is a blogger, labour and children activist, and also a member of the Society in Defence of Children was arrested and briefly kept in Evin prison.
Around the same time few other labour activists: Hossein Betrooti, Fata Soleymani, Abbass Hashempour, Samad Ahmadpour, and Rahman Tanha were also arrested and transferred to Oshnaveyeh’s detention centre. Also, Children’s activists: Shiva Nazar Ahari, Saeed Jalalifar, and Maryam Ziya are still in prison and there are no news about their health and wellbeing.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran calls all human rights organisations and individuals to support our call, and demand immediate and unconditional release of Rahaman Ebrahimizadeh, his son Esa, and all other labour and children activists.
Take an action
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
A sample protest letter is provided below:
I/we condemn the arrest and intoregation of labour and children rights activists in Iran. I/we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran.
Name/ organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
City/country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--------------------
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran(CFPPI)
Shiva Mahbobi
Campaign Organiser
Address:CFPPI
BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 7984445278
www.iranpoliticalprisoners.com
http://cfppi.blogspot.com
freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
zendani.tv@gmail.com
Around the same time, two more of Rhaman’s sons, Loghman and Behnam Ebrahimzadeh received threatening phone calls. Loghman was taken to Oshnaveyeh’s detention centre for questioning on 9 March 2010. Following an International 2009 May Day rally in Park Laleh in Tehran, Behnam who is a blogger, labour and children activist, and also a member of the Society in Defence of Children was arrested and briefly kept in Evin prison.
Around the same time few other labour activists: Hossein Betrooti, Fata Soleymani, Abbass Hashempour, Samad Ahmadpour, and Rahman Tanha were also arrested and transferred to Oshnaveyeh’s detention centre. Also, Children’s activists: Shiva Nazar Ahari, Saeed Jalalifar, and Maryam Ziya are still in prison and there are no news about their health and wellbeing.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran calls all human rights organisations and individuals to support our call, and demand immediate and unconditional release of Rahaman Ebrahimizadeh, his son Esa, and all other labour and children activists.
Take an action
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
A sample protest letter is provided below:
I/we condemn the arrest and intoregation of labour and children rights activists in Iran. I/we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran.
Name/ organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
City/country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--------------------
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran(CFPPI)
Shiva Mahbobi
Campaign Organiser
Address:CFPPI
BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 7984445278
www.iranpoliticalprisoners.com
http://cfppi.blogspot.com
freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
zendani.tv@gmail.com
Iranian activist detained and in danger of imminent deportation to Iran
Hambastegi - International Federation of Iranian Refugees(IFIR)
Press Release
12 March 2010
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) has set up the Free Jamal! 2010 campaign to save the Iranian activist Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) from deportation to Iran.
IFIR today urged the Japanese government to release Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) immediately and to revoke his deportation order.
Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) is a 42-year-old, Iranian born, activist who is a public and outspoken opponent of the theocratic regime in Iran. In 1990 he moved to Japan and since 1992 he has been active in opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran publicly. His political activities and promotion of human rights had brought him to the attention of the Islamic Republic’s authorities. Thus Mr Saberi applied for political asylum in Japan in May 2001 which was refused in May 2002. IFIR was informed by Mr Saberi’s lawyer that he was arrested and detained by the Japanese Immigration Authorities on 4th March 2010 with the intention of deporting him to Iran.
Abdolah Assadi, Executive Director of IFIR said in a statement: ‘We are trying our best to rally the public opinion against the Japanese government and its blatant violation of Jamal’s human rights. We, therefore, hereby declare that as far as we are concerned the Japanese government will be responsible for any harm that, we have no doubt, will jeopardize Jamal Saberi’s life and/or safety.’
The Free Jamal! campaign has organised a day of lobbying Japanese embassies and consulates around the world for Monday, March 15. Its automated online service has already been used by over 400 people to send a letter of protest to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan. In addition several hundred people have sent protest letters to Japanese embassies and consulates across the world.
Free Jamal! campaign organiser Patty Debonitas said today: ‘It’s unbelievable that after having seen what happens to opponents inside Iran anyone would even consider returning someone like Mr Saberi, with his very public profile of opposition, to Iran. People across the world were able to witness the human rights abuses by the Islamic Republic, particularly over the last ten months. I wonder how the Japanese authorities can think it in any way safe or justifiable to return Mr Saberi to Iran. This would no doubt mean certain threat to his life and safety.’
The Free Jamal! campaign has set three goals for its campaign. It wants to get Mr Saberi out of detention immediately and get his deportation order revoked. Patty Debonitas: ‘The next step will be helping him obtaining and leading a normal life. Mr Saberi has been in Japan for twenty years and has applied for asylum 9 years ago. It is time he can feel safe and protected by granting him refugee status.’
------------------------------------------------
Note to Editors:
1) IFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers; provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center; and provides referrals for services.
Contact Free Jamal! Campaign:
Patty Debonitas, London UK
Mobile: +44 (0) 7507978745
Email: freejamalcampaign@gmail.com
Blog: freejamal.blogspot.com
Press Release
12 March 2010
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) has set up the Free Jamal! 2010 campaign to save the Iranian activist Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) from deportation to Iran.
IFIR today urged the Japanese government to release Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) immediately and to revoke his deportation order.
Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) is a 42-year-old, Iranian born, activist who is a public and outspoken opponent of the theocratic regime in Iran. In 1990 he moved to Japan and since 1992 he has been active in opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran publicly. His political activities and promotion of human rights had brought him to the attention of the Islamic Republic’s authorities. Thus Mr Saberi applied for political asylum in Japan in May 2001 which was refused in May 2002. IFIR was informed by Mr Saberi’s lawyer that he was arrested and detained by the Japanese Immigration Authorities on 4th March 2010 with the intention of deporting him to Iran.
Abdolah Assadi, Executive Director of IFIR said in a statement: ‘We are trying our best to rally the public opinion against the Japanese government and its blatant violation of Jamal’s human rights. We, therefore, hereby declare that as far as we are concerned the Japanese government will be responsible for any harm that, we have no doubt, will jeopardize Jamal Saberi’s life and/or safety.’
The Free Jamal! campaign has organised a day of lobbying Japanese embassies and consulates around the world for Monday, March 15. Its automated online service has already been used by over 400 people to send a letter of protest to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan. In addition several hundred people have sent protest letters to Japanese embassies and consulates across the world.
Free Jamal! campaign organiser Patty Debonitas said today: ‘It’s unbelievable that after having seen what happens to opponents inside Iran anyone would even consider returning someone like Mr Saberi, with his very public profile of opposition, to Iran. People across the world were able to witness the human rights abuses by the Islamic Republic, particularly over the last ten months. I wonder how the Japanese authorities can think it in any way safe or justifiable to return Mr Saberi to Iran. This would no doubt mean certain threat to his life and safety.’
The Free Jamal! campaign has set three goals for its campaign. It wants to get Mr Saberi out of detention immediately and get his deportation order revoked. Patty Debonitas: ‘The next step will be helping him obtaining and leading a normal life. Mr Saberi has been in Japan for twenty years and has applied for asylum 9 years ago. It is time he can feel safe and protected by granting him refugee status.’
------------------------------------------------
Note to Editors:
1) IFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers; provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center; and provides referrals for services.
Contact Free Jamal! Campaign:
Patty Debonitas, London UK
Mobile: +44 (0) 7507978745
Email: freejamalcampaign@gmail.com
Blog: freejamal.blogspot.com
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Warning to the Japanese Government - Do not deport Jamal
By: Farshad Hoseini
Mr. Jamal Saberi was arrested by Japanese immigration authorities in 2010, 03, 04 and now in risks to be deported to Iran. He is a tireless activist against the IRI for the last 18 years and has been intensively active for the last two decades by being interviews and posting tens of and anti-IRI articles in the union workers and progressive media in Japan. The refusal of Jamal’s application for political asylum is not really limited to his personal case but rather, as reflected by Japanese media, as a political scandal devolving the fishy ties behind coulisses between Japanese authorities and the IRI.
While the IRI insists in his deportation to Iran, the Japanese government has shown green light by suspending Jamal’s refugee demand. Jamal’s case shows the hypocrisy, double character, and violation of human dignity in democracy systems. In this light, the Human Rights value seems rather marketing - trick in an attempt to better sell Japanese goods around the world. This implicitly shows that this is the market which determines the so-called Human rights engagement of such systems in case of accepting or refusing political refugees -- or even detaining or, worst, deporting another asylum seeker. A secret and invisible economic hand seems being active beyond the rule of offer-demand while plotting how to handle with opponents of the totalitarian IRI.
The refusal of jamal’s political asylum, who is a well known Iranian political activist in Japan, seems a complaisance from Japan toward a corrupt and illegitimate regime which on the verge of collapse, a regime hated by an increasing majority of people in Iran. Regarding Jamal’s well known activities his deportation will highly risk a persecution by IRI authorities because of his both political opinion and activities. For millions of the oppressed people of Iran, this complaisance would mean a shameful shake- hand and even dirty security collaboration between Japan and the criminal IRI whose hands are bloodied with torturing, raping, and killing of our people.
We are concerned and thus will lead the popular indignation of our oppressed people against the Japanese collaborators. The Japanese government, like any other one in the world, must know that any violation to IRI opposition activists will face worldwide protests. We do not allow Japanese or any government bargain for their own life of Iranian opponents around the world. We remind Japanese government that if someone is illegal in Japan, this will be the IRI representatives, the ones who do not represent Iranian people, and the ones who must be detained and brought before an international court for their crimes against Iranian people. No Iranian asylum seeker, who opposes such a regime, should be arrested, mistreated, and deported to Iran. Jamals, who during his detainee has been helping other asylum seekers, and his likes, are harmless and human-loving activists. They defend democracy, social justice, human rights values, and a humanitarian system of government in Iran.
Jamal must be immediately released. The Japanese government is expected to apologies Iranian people for arrest and mistreating of jamal. Jamal’s demand of political refugee, also other asylum seekers, must be accepted.
Please sign this petition to support Jamal and other Iranians whose demands of political refugees have been irrelevantly refused.
http://hambastegi.ruzeroshan.com/jamalS
10 March 2010
Mr. Jamal Saberi was arrested by Japanese immigration authorities in 2010, 03, 04 and now in risks to be deported to Iran. He is a tireless activist against the IRI for the last 18 years and has been intensively active for the last two decades by being interviews and posting tens of and anti-IRI articles in the union workers and progressive media in Japan. The refusal of Jamal’s application for political asylum is not really limited to his personal case but rather, as reflected by Japanese media, as a political scandal devolving the fishy ties behind coulisses between Japanese authorities and the IRI.
While the IRI insists in his deportation to Iran, the Japanese government has shown green light by suspending Jamal’s refugee demand. Jamal’s case shows the hypocrisy, double character, and violation of human dignity in democracy systems. In this light, the Human Rights value seems rather marketing - trick in an attempt to better sell Japanese goods around the world. This implicitly shows that this is the market which determines the so-called Human rights engagement of such systems in case of accepting or refusing political refugees -- or even detaining or, worst, deporting another asylum seeker. A secret and invisible economic hand seems being active beyond the rule of offer-demand while plotting how to handle with opponents of the totalitarian IRI.
The refusal of jamal’s political asylum, who is a well known Iranian political activist in Japan, seems a complaisance from Japan toward a corrupt and illegitimate regime which on the verge of collapse, a regime hated by an increasing majority of people in Iran. Regarding Jamal’s well known activities his deportation will highly risk a persecution by IRI authorities because of his both political opinion and activities. For millions of the oppressed people of Iran, this complaisance would mean a shameful shake- hand and even dirty security collaboration between Japan and the criminal IRI whose hands are bloodied with torturing, raping, and killing of our people.
We are concerned and thus will lead the popular indignation of our oppressed people against the Japanese collaborators. The Japanese government, like any other one in the world, must know that any violation to IRI opposition activists will face worldwide protests. We do not allow Japanese or any government bargain for their own life of Iranian opponents around the world. We remind Japanese government that if someone is illegal in Japan, this will be the IRI representatives, the ones who do not represent Iranian people, and the ones who must be detained and brought before an international court for their crimes against Iranian people. No Iranian asylum seeker, who opposes such a regime, should be arrested, mistreated, and deported to Iran. Jamals, who during his detainee has been helping other asylum seekers, and his likes, are harmless and human-loving activists. They defend democracy, social justice, human rights values, and a humanitarian system of government in Iran.
Jamal must be immediately released. The Japanese government is expected to apologies Iranian people for arrest and mistreating of jamal. Jamal’s demand of political refugee, also other asylum seekers, must be accepted.
Please sign this petition to support Jamal and other Iranians whose demands of political refugees have been irrelevantly refused.
http://hambastegi.ruzeroshan.com/jamalS
10 March 2010
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Save activist Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran
Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) was arrested on Thursday 4 March 2010 by the Japanese Immigration Bureau in Tokyo with the intention of deporting him to Iran.
Mr. Jamal Saberi is a well known political opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been politically active for the last 18 years in Japan. His lengthy political activities with the Worker-communist Party of Iran, and against the Islamic regime of Iran have come to the notice of Iranian authorities and he applied for refugee status to the Japanese Minister of Justice on May 10, 2001.
The fate of opponents of the regime has been well documented over the last 30 years and has gained international focus in the last 10 months: Imprisonment, widespread use of torture, rape, show trials, executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be a major abuser of human rights with no evidence of improvement.
Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion and political activities. His life and freedom would be in imminent danger if he were to be deported to Iran.
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees calls for the immediate release of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) and he must be granted refugee status.
We have set up an online appeal that will send your letter of protest straight to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan.
You can sign it here: http://hambastegi.ruzeroshan.com/jamalS
We must act quickly to save Jamal from deportation!
We call on all individuals and organisations to help save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran where his life and liberty are in danger.
You can also write to the Japanese embassy in the country where you live, a list with contact details is here:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html
We have included a sample letter at the end of this email. Please send your appeal immediately.
For further information, contact Farshad Hoseini Tel:0031 613940534 or E-mail farshadhoseini@yahoo.com.
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network IFIR
Postbus 1312
5602BH Eindhoven,
Netherlands
http://www.hambastegi.org
IFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers;provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center;and provides referrals for services.
We have also included the Japanese Ministry of Justice and UNHCR contact details here:
Ministry of Justice
Address: 1-1-1 Kasumigaseki,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8977
Phone: +81-3-3580-4111
e-mail: webmaster@moj.go.jp
UNHCR Representation in Japan
UN House 6th Floor
5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel +81-3-3499-2011/2310
FAX+81-3-3499-2272
UNHCR Representation in Japan
Protection Unit
Tel 03-3499-2075
Mail jpntopu@unhcr.org
SAMPLE LETTER
RE: Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei)
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my strongest concern over the fate of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) who is currently detained by the Japanese Immigration Bureau and is going to be deported to Iran from Japan. Jamal Saberi is a political opponent which will face serious persecution if deported to Iran.
I urge the Japanese Immigration Authorities to immediately release him and cancel his deportation order. I also urge the UNHCR and the Japanese Immigration Ministry to grant him refugee recognition.
I am awaiting your immediate intervention in this life-threatening situation. Needless to say, the UNHCR and the Japanese government will be held accountable for Jamal Saberi's life and freedom.
Signed
Name
Organization
CC: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com
Mr. Jamal Saberi is a well known political opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been politically active for the last 18 years in Japan. His lengthy political activities with the Worker-communist Party of Iran, and against the Islamic regime of Iran have come to the notice of Iranian authorities and he applied for refugee status to the Japanese Minister of Justice on May 10, 2001.
The fate of opponents of the regime has been well documented over the last 30 years and has gained international focus in the last 10 months: Imprisonment, widespread use of torture, rape, show trials, executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be a major abuser of human rights with no evidence of improvement.
Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion and political activities. His life and freedom would be in imminent danger if he were to be deported to Iran.
The International Federation of Iranian Refugees calls for the immediate release of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) and he must be granted refugee status.
We have set up an online appeal that will send your letter of protest straight to the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the UNHCR representation in Japan.
You can sign it here: http://hambastegi.ruzeroshan.com/jamalS
We must act quickly to save Jamal from deportation!
We call on all individuals and organisations to help save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran where his life and liberty are in danger.
You can also write to the Japanese embassy in the country where you live, a list with contact details is here:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html
We have included a sample letter at the end of this email. Please send your appeal immediately.
For further information, contact Farshad Hoseini Tel:0031 613940534 or E-mail farshadhoseini@yahoo.com.
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network IFIR
Postbus 1312
5602BH Eindhoven,
Netherlands
http://www.hambastegi.org
IFIR is an international non-governmental organization with over 42-branches in 16 countries worldwide which advocates promoting and protecting the rights of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers;provides evidentiary support through its Documentation Center;and provides referrals for services.
We have also included the Japanese Ministry of Justice and UNHCR contact details here:
Ministry of Justice
Address: 1-1-1 Kasumigaseki,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8977
Phone: +81-3-3580-4111
e-mail: webmaster@moj.go.jp
UNHCR Representation in Japan
UN House 6th Floor
5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel +81-3-3499-2011/2310
FAX+81-3-3499-2272
UNHCR Representation in Japan
Protection Unit
Tel 03-3499-2075
Mail jpntopu@unhcr.org
SAMPLE LETTER
RE: Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei)
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my strongest concern over the fate of Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) who is currently detained by the Japanese Immigration Bureau and is going to be deported to Iran from Japan. Jamal Saberi is a political opponent which will face serious persecution if deported to Iran.
I urge the Japanese Immigration Authorities to immediately release him and cancel his deportation order. I also urge the UNHCR and the Japanese Immigration Ministry to grant him refugee recognition.
I am awaiting your immediate intervention in this life-threatening situation. Needless to say, the UNHCR and the Japanese government will be held accountable for Jamal Saberi's life and freedom.
Signed
Name
Organization
CC: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com
Monday, March 08, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Maryam quoted in today's Sunday Herald Scotland
To see the article entitled Scots Lawyers lead way with Sharia advice, Sunday Herald Scotland, 7 March 2010, click here.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
International Women's Day at Trafalgar Square
To see photos of our action on March 6, go to Iran Solidarity's blog.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
IWD Events Reminder: 8 March Seminar on Sharia Law and 6 March solidarity action with women’s rights movement in Iran
One Law for All is holding a seminar on Sharia Law in Britain for International Women’s Day. The seminar will be held on Monday 8 March 2010 at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL from 1830-2030hours.
The seminar aims to bring together campaigners, lawyers, and experts to discuss ways in which Sharia courts can be prohibited in Britain. It will make recommendations and lay out the legislative and legal avenues available to help bring about equal rights for all. Speakers at the event are: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (British Muslims for Secular Democracy); Yassi Atasheen (One Law for All); Clara Connolly (Women Against Fundamentalism); Ismail Einashe (One Law for All); David Green (Civitas); Denis MacShane (MP); Rony Miah (Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Lawyers’ Secular Society); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All); Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); Yasmin Rahman (Women Against Fundamentalism); and Joan Smith (Writer and Activist).
Tickets for the seminar are £10; £3 students/low income.
To register for the seminar, please send in a completed booking form by email before March 7. You can download the booking form here:
http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/8-march-2010-london/. You can also register from 1800pm onwards at the event. Please arrive by 1800 for registration and refreshments.
One Law for All would also like to invite you to join an event organised by Iran Solidarity, Equal Rights Now and others on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the Northern Terrace of London’s Trafalgar Square from 1200-1400hours to show solidarity with the women’s rights movement in Iran. You can find out more about the event here: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/.
For more information on any of the above events, please contact:
Maryam Namazie
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
The seminar aims to bring together campaigners, lawyers, and experts to discuss ways in which Sharia courts can be prohibited in Britain. It will make recommendations and lay out the legislative and legal avenues available to help bring about equal rights for all. Speakers at the event are: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (British Muslims for Secular Democracy); Yassi Atasheen (One Law for All); Clara Connolly (Women Against Fundamentalism); Ismail Einashe (One Law for All); David Green (Civitas); Denis MacShane (MP); Rony Miah (Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Lawyers’ Secular Society); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All); Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); Yasmin Rahman (Women Against Fundamentalism); and Joan Smith (Writer and Activist).
Tickets for the seminar are £10; £3 students/low income.
To register for the seminar, please send in a completed booking form by email before March 7. You can download the booking form here:
http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/8-march-2010-london/. You can also register from 1800pm onwards at the event. Please arrive by 1800 for registration and refreshments.
One Law for All would also like to invite you to join an event organised by Iran Solidarity, Equal Rights Now and others on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the Northern Terrace of London’s Trafalgar Square from 1200-1400hours to show solidarity with the women’s rights movement in Iran. You can find out more about the event here: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/.
For more information on any of the above events, please contact:
Maryam Namazie
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Maryam Namazie's interview on 8 March on New Jersey's FM Progressive Radio Show
New Jersey's Only FM Progressive Radio Show returns. This week Bob analyzes last Thursday's Health Care Summit...
30 minutes into the show, In our main interview, journalist, activist and correspondant, Eddie Goldman speaks with one of the most noted rights activists in the world, Maryam Namazie.
Originally from Iran but now based in London, Maryam Namazie is a rights activist, and commentator and broadcaster on Iran, rights, cultural relativism, secularism, religion, political Islam, and other related topics. She is spokesperson for Iran Solidarity, Equal Rights Now, the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain, and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, along with being active in numerous other organizations.
We discuss the upcoming activities that One Law for All will be having to celebrate International Women's Day. There will be a solidarity action in London on Saturday, March 6, organized by Equal Rights Now and Iran Solidarity, to show solidarity with the women's rights movement in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has imposed a system on women in that country that has been called sexual apartheid, similar to the racial apartheid which existed in South Africa for many decades. There will also be a seminar organized by One Law for All, and involving numerous other organizations, on Sharia Law in Britain, held March 8, which is International Women's Day.
The historic mass struggle to overthrow the brutal Islamic Republic regime in Iran is continuing to grow, and we discuss its prospects for victory. We also explain what those in the U.S. who support it can do to assist it.
Click here to listen to this great show.
Please make sure to support grassroots progressive radio. Follow Bob on Twitter. Visit the website, pass this show along, post this show, send it to radio stations, or do whatever you can to help.
http://twitter.com/Bobcarsonmma
http://bobcarson13.podomatic.com
Email: carsonscorner@gmail.com
30 minutes into the show, In our main interview, journalist, activist and correspondant, Eddie Goldman speaks with one of the most noted rights activists in the world, Maryam Namazie.
Originally from Iran but now based in London, Maryam Namazie is a rights activist, and commentator and broadcaster on Iran, rights, cultural relativism, secularism, religion, political Islam, and other related topics. She is spokesperson for Iran Solidarity, Equal Rights Now, the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain, and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, along with being active in numerous other organizations.
We discuss the upcoming activities that One Law for All will be having to celebrate International Women's Day. There will be a solidarity action in London on Saturday, March 6, organized by Equal Rights Now and Iran Solidarity, to show solidarity with the women's rights movement in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has imposed a system on women in that country that has been called sexual apartheid, similar to the racial apartheid which existed in South Africa for many decades. There will also be a seminar organized by One Law for All, and involving numerous other organizations, on Sharia Law in Britain, held March 8, which is International Women's Day.
The historic mass struggle to overthrow the brutal Islamic Republic regime in Iran is continuing to grow, and we discuss its prospects for victory. We also explain what those in the U.S. who support it can do to assist it.
Click here to listen to this great show.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Release Elham and political prisoners in Iran
Elham Ahsani, a university student, was arrested on Tuesday 9 February 2010 at her home by the Islamic Regime’s secret service in Teheran. The reason for her arrest is not known, although it may be connected to the recent protests against the Islamic regime in Iran. Elham was initially arrested along with her brother Nader Ahsani, but Nader was among the 28 prisoners who were released on 21 February 2010; The continuous demonstrations of 700 families of political prisoners in front of the Evin Prison forced the regime to free 28 prisoners.
Initially, Elham’s family were not told of her whereabouts, but under the pressure, the prison authorities claimed that Elham is held in the Evin prison. While in prison, she is under an immense physical and mental pressure, and hasn’t been allowed to see her family.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI) is concerned about the life and the safety of Elham Ahsani . The Islamic Regime of Iran must release Elham, and all other political prisoners.
We call on all human rights organisations and concerned individuals to send a protest letter and demand an immediate and unconditional release of Elham Ahsani.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
Shiva Mahbobi
Campaign Organiser
Address:CFPPI
BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 7984445278
www.iranpoliticalprisoners.com
freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
zendani.tv@gmail.com
Initially, Elham’s family were not told of her whereabouts, but under the pressure, the prison authorities claimed that Elham is held in the Evin prison. While in prison, she is under an immense physical and mental pressure, and hasn’t been allowed to see her family.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI) is concerned about the life and the safety of Elham Ahsani . The Islamic Regime of Iran must release Elham, and all other political prisoners.
We call on all human rights organisations and concerned individuals to send a protest letter and demand an immediate and unconditional release of Elham Ahsani.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
Shiva Mahbobi
Campaign Organiser
Address:CFPPI
BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 7984445278
www.iranpoliticalprisoners.com
freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
zendani.tv@gmail.com
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Interview on BBC Oxford
After speaking at Think Week at Lincoln College in Oxford, I went down to BBC Oxford for an interview on Sharia law and faith schools. To hear the interview, click here, go to Bill Heine's programme. My interview starts half an hour into the programme.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sharia Law violates Ethics and Freedoms
Maryam will be speaking on topic of Ethics and Freedom and how Sharia law violates it for Oxford Think Week.
Date: 25 February 2010
Time: 1300-1400
Venue: Lincoln College, Oxford
For more information, click here.
Date: 25 February 2010
Time: 1300-1400
Venue: Lincoln College, Oxford
For more information, click here.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Families of Political prisoners in Iran need your support
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran
22/02/2010
Following the on-going demonstrations that have started in summer of 2009 in Iran, hundreds of people have been arrested, imprisoned and several have been executed. In concurrence with the mass arrests families of these political prisoners have been gathering in front of the notorious Evin prison and Revolutionary Court in Tehran demanding their immediate and unconditional release. These support for these demonstration are growing: on 30th January 2010 the number of the protesters reached an all time high of 2000 families and their supporters, and on 11th February 2010, the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution, around 1000 of people gathered to demand the release of all political prisoners. Despite the brutal assault by the guards and thugs deployed by the regime, the families are determined to continue their protest in order to keep the pressure on the regime to free their loved ones.
In several occasions the regime was under such a pressure that they were forced to release around a hundred of prisoners. On 16th February 2010 more than 300 families gathered in front of the Evin prison, shouting “free all political prisoners” and ultimately forced the authorities to release 18 of these prisoners. The most recent gatherings were on 22nd February 2010 when more than 600 families gathered in front of the Revolutionary Court and 21st February when 700 gathered in front of Evin Prison which forced the prison’s authority to release 29 prisoners. In last few weeks more people including families of ex-political prisoners and families whom their children have been executed previously have joined the protest.
As a result of these continuous demonstrations, the Islamic regime has been forced to release several political prisoners, but these families need help and support to free their children and all other political prisoners, they need an international support, they need your support to echo their voice globally.
Background information
The current protests in front of the notorious Evin prison are the extension of the protests in the streets of many cities in Iran which began in June 2009 and resulted in many men, women, and even children as young as 12 years old being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and raped.
Many of those arrestees are still in prison; some of them have been executed or disappeared and no one knows their whereabouts, even their families. This is not the first time the Islamic regime has fiercely cracked down any sign of opposition to its existence and brutally suppressed the struggle of the people for freedom. The resistance of the Iranian people against the Islamic regime has been ongoing for the past three decades, but this time is different; these demonstrators are defying all levels of authorities within the regime, and even shouting "death to the dictator" meaning the supreme leader which according to the Islamic rules it carry a punishment of death by execution.
Take an action
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
A sample protest letter is provided below:
I/we condemn the Islamic regime’s attack on demonstrators in Iran. I/we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran and an end to the executions in Iran.
Name/ organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
City/country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22/02/2010
Following the on-going demonstrations that have started in summer of 2009 in Iran, hundreds of people have been arrested, imprisoned and several have been executed. In concurrence with the mass arrests families of these political prisoners have been gathering in front of the notorious Evin prison and Revolutionary Court in Tehran demanding their immediate and unconditional release. These support for these demonstration are growing: on 30th January 2010 the number of the protesters reached an all time high of 2000 families and their supporters, and on 11th February 2010, the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution, around 1000 of people gathered to demand the release of all political prisoners. Despite the brutal assault by the guards and thugs deployed by the regime, the families are determined to continue their protest in order to keep the pressure on the regime to free their loved ones.
In several occasions the regime was under such a pressure that they were forced to release around a hundred of prisoners. On 16th February 2010 more than 300 families gathered in front of the Evin prison, shouting “free all political prisoners” and ultimately forced the authorities to release 18 of these prisoners. The most recent gatherings were on 22nd February 2010 when more than 600 families gathered in front of the Revolutionary Court and 21st February when 700 gathered in front of Evin Prison which forced the prison’s authority to release 29 prisoners. In last few weeks more people including families of ex-political prisoners and families whom their children have been executed previously have joined the protest.
As a result of these continuous demonstrations, the Islamic regime has been forced to release several political prisoners, but these families need help and support to free their children and all other political prisoners, they need an international support, they need your support to echo their voice globally.
Background information
The current protests in front of the notorious Evin prison are the extension of the protests in the streets of many cities in Iran which began in June 2009 and resulted in many men, women, and even children as young as 12 years old being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and raped.
Many of those arrestees are still in prison; some of them have been executed or disappeared and no one knows their whereabouts, even their families. This is not the first time the Islamic regime has fiercely cracked down any sign of opposition to its existence and brutally suppressed the struggle of the people for freedom. The resistance of the Iranian people against the Islamic regime has been ongoing for the past three decades, but this time is different; these demonstrators are defying all levels of authorities within the regime, and even shouting "death to the dictator" meaning the supreme leader which according to the Islamic rules it carry a punishment of death by execution.
Take an action
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com
A sample protest letter is provided below:
I/we condemn the Islamic regime’s attack on demonstrators in Iran. I/we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran and an end to the executions in Iran.
Name/ organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
City/country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monday, February 22, 2010
Call for action by Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran
22 February
We have received reports of prisoners being viciously attached by the Islamic guards in an organised and mass scale. In several occasions the guards have marched to the prison cells and started beating the prisoners brutally until they were unconscious. The most recent case happened on 12 February 2010 when the guards have attacked prisoners in Rajaeeshahr Prison.
Also, Mansour Osanlo, director of the syndicate for municipal bus drivers in Tehran, who has been in Rajaeeshahr prison since 2006 was transferred to a solitary confinement following the 12th February raid. Mansour Osanloo has been removed from solitary confinement a week later and returned to the general section of Rajaeeshahr prison.
Some of the other recent prison raids are as follow:
- 27 January 2010, in few occasions the guards have attacked prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in the city of Karaj
- 21 January 2010, prison raids in Oroomiye Prison
- 15 December 2009, guards have brutally beaten political prisoners in ward number 4 of the Gohardasht prison in Karaj.
In these violent attacks the guards used batons, electric shocker and other torture devices to torment the prisoners.
The brutal treatment of the prisoners must be stopped and the Islamic regime must be put under an international pressure to free all political prisoners immediately, and unconditionally.
Take an action:
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir.
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com.
We have received reports of prisoners being viciously attached by the Islamic guards in an organised and mass scale. In several occasions the guards have marched to the prison cells and started beating the prisoners brutally until they were unconscious. The most recent case happened on 12 February 2010 when the guards have attacked prisoners in Rajaeeshahr Prison.
Also, Mansour Osanlo, director of the syndicate for municipal bus drivers in Tehran, who has been in Rajaeeshahr prison since 2006 was transferred to a solitary confinement following the 12th February raid. Mansour Osanloo has been removed from solitary confinement a week later and returned to the general section of Rajaeeshahr prison.
Some of the other recent prison raids are as follow:
- 27 January 2010, in few occasions the guards have attacked prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in the city of Karaj
- 21 January 2010, prison raids in Oroomiye Prison
- 15 December 2009, guards have brutally beaten political prisoners in ward number 4 of the Gohardasht prison in Karaj.
In these violent attacks the guards used batons, electric shocker and other torture devices to torment the prisoners.
The brutal treatment of the prisoners must be stopped and the Islamic regime must be put under an international pressure to free all political prisoners immediately, and unconditionally.
Take an action:
Send a protest letter to the Islamic Regime of Iran.
You can also send your letter to Iranian embassy in your country.
Please send your letter to: info@leader.ir and dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir.
please send a copy for our record to: freepoliticalprisoners@gmail.com.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
IWD Events: 8 March Seminar on Sharia Law and 6 March solidarity action
Hello
We would like to invite you to a One Law for All seminar on Sharia Law in Britain for International Women’s Day. The seminar will be held on Monday 8 March 2010 at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL from 1830-2030hours.
The seminar aims to bring together campaigners, lawyers, and experts to discuss ways in which Sharia courts can be prohibited in Britain. It will make recommendations and lay out the legislative and legal avenues available to help bring about equal rights for all. Speakers at the event include: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (British Muslims for Secular Democracy); Yassi Atasheen (Lawyer); Rony Miah (Lawyers’ Secular Society); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All); Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); and Yasmin Rahman (Women Against Fundamentalism).
Tickets for the seminar are £10; £3 students/low income.
To register for the seminar, please send in a completed booking form by post or email before March 1. You can download the booking form here.
We would also like to invite you to join an event organised by Equal Rights Now and Iran Solidarity on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the Northern Terrace of London’s Trafalgar Square from 1200-1400hours to show solidarity with the women’s rights movement in Iran. You can find out more about the event here.
For more information on any of the above events, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Warm wishes
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
We would like to invite you to a One Law for All seminar on Sharia Law in Britain for International Women’s Day. The seminar will be held on Monday 8 March 2010 at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL from 1830-2030hours.
The seminar aims to bring together campaigners, lawyers, and experts to discuss ways in which Sharia courts can be prohibited in Britain. It will make recommendations and lay out the legislative and legal avenues available to help bring about equal rights for all. Speakers at the event include: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (British Muslims for Secular Democracy); Yassi Atasheen (Lawyer); Rony Miah (Lawyers’ Secular Society); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All); Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); and Yasmin Rahman (Women Against Fundamentalism).
Tickets for the seminar are £10; £3 students/low income.
To register for the seminar, please send in a completed booking form by post or email before March 1. You can download the booking form here.
We would also like to invite you to join an event organised by Equal Rights Now and Iran Solidarity on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the Northern Terrace of London’s Trafalgar Square from 1200-1400hours to show solidarity with the women’s rights movement in Iran. You can find out more about the event here.
For more information on any of the above events, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Warm wishes
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
Saturday, February 13, 2010
11 February protests against the Islamic regime of Iran
On 11 February 2010 (22 Bahman) there were large protests in several cities across Iran despite the Islamic regime of Iran’s brutal crackdown.
In weeks prior to the day, the regime arrested and threatened political activists, women’s rights campaigners and students. Former political prisoners were summoned and threatened with prosecution for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against God’ if they were caught participating in the protests. On 11 February, too, the regime’s forces came out en masse and brutally attacked protestors and arrested around 1,000 people in Tehran alone.
Despite its repression, video footage shows protestors pulling down posters of Khamenei and trampling on them and clashing with the regime’s security forces. Slogans of ‘Down with Khamenei’ were even heard during Ahmadinejad’s speech and had to be censored when being broadcast on state television. Protestors even managed to entirely take control of some neighbourhoods for a while and there were reports of women unveiling and trampling on their veils. Groups of protestors also tried to march on to Evin prison to demand the release of political prisoners but were brutally pushed back. There were a number of reports of shots being fired in the crowds and video footage of at least one protestor killed. Security forces also shot paint pellets in the crowd for identification purposes.
There were also huge protests in cities across the world in solidarity with the people of Iran and against the Islamic regime. Some protests were met with arrests and police brutality. In London, Iran Solidarity UK activist Bahar Milani was arrested along with a number of others though she and the others were subsequently released without charge.
Iran Solidarity’s actions were broadcast via various media outlets, including in interviews with Patty Debonitas on CNN and Maryam Namazie on ITN.
Once again, protests showed the resolve of the Iranian people for freedom despite the all-out repression of a regime fighting for its very survival.
Iran Solidarity calls on people everywhere to continue their unequivocal support of the revolutionary movement in Iran to rid Iran and the world of a medieval theocracy. We also call for the isolation of the regime and the shutting down of its embassies.
Notes:
1. To see some key video footage of February 11 protests in Iran, see below:
* Footage of ‘Government Supporters’:
Below you can see a video of crowds bussed in to hear Ahmadinejad’s speech. Whilst some were obviously the regime’s rent-a-mob and mercenaries, many were also forced to attend for a variety of reasons, including keeping their government jobs. This video shows at least a section of the crowd more interested in sleeping, sightseeing, playing football and chatting then listening to Ahmadinejad’s speech. Also close to the end of the video, there is a flag on the ground with the ‘Allah’ in the centre torn out...
* Security forces out on the streets en masse:
* Footage of attacks on protestors:
Here is footage of a protestor who has been shot in the face:
Here is footage of police brutally beating a protestor:
Here is footage of a protestor with a bloody head:
Here is footage of teargas being used on protestors:
* Despite the crackdown, below is footage of protests, including of clashes with the regime’s security forces:
You can see protestors trampling on Khamenei’s poster:
Protestors and baseejis clashing:
* The slogans often heard included:
Political prisoners must be released
Death to dictator
Guns, tanks and baseeji are no longer effective
We didn’t give lives for reconciliation
2. Video footage of protests in London:
* Maryam Namazie speech at London rally:
* Shiva Mahbobi, Maryam Namazie, Sohaila Sharifi, Bahram Soroush and block traffic at London rally; Shiva is arrested and later released.
* Bahar Milani is arrested for trying to throw red paint on the embassy:
* To see photos of protests in London and other cities, visit Iran Solidarity blog.
3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
4. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
5. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts on our blog.
6. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
7. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
8. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
In weeks prior to the day, the regime arrested and threatened political activists, women’s rights campaigners and students. Former political prisoners were summoned and threatened with prosecution for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against God’ if they were caught participating in the protests. On 11 February, too, the regime’s forces came out en masse and brutally attacked protestors and arrested around 1,000 people in Tehran alone.
Despite its repression, video footage shows protestors pulling down posters of Khamenei and trampling on them and clashing with the regime’s security forces. Slogans of ‘Down with Khamenei’ were even heard during Ahmadinejad’s speech and had to be censored when being broadcast on state television. Protestors even managed to entirely take control of some neighbourhoods for a while and there were reports of women unveiling and trampling on their veils. Groups of protestors also tried to march on to Evin prison to demand the release of political prisoners but were brutally pushed back. There were a number of reports of shots being fired in the crowds and video footage of at least one protestor killed. Security forces also shot paint pellets in the crowd for identification purposes.
There were also huge protests in cities across the world in solidarity with the people of Iran and against the Islamic regime. Some protests were met with arrests and police brutality. In London, Iran Solidarity UK activist Bahar Milani was arrested along with a number of others though she and the others were subsequently released without charge.
Iran Solidarity’s actions were broadcast via various media outlets, including in interviews with Patty Debonitas on CNN and Maryam Namazie on ITN.
Once again, protests showed the resolve of the Iranian people for freedom despite the all-out repression of a regime fighting for its very survival.
Iran Solidarity calls on people everywhere to continue their unequivocal support of the revolutionary movement in Iran to rid Iran and the world of a medieval theocracy. We also call for the isolation of the regime and the shutting down of its embassies.
Notes:
1. To see some key video footage of February 11 protests in Iran, see below:
* Footage of ‘Government Supporters’:
Below you can see a video of crowds bussed in to hear Ahmadinejad’s speech. Whilst some were obviously the regime’s rent-a-mob and mercenaries, many were also forced to attend for a variety of reasons, including keeping their government jobs. This video shows at least a section of the crowd more interested in sleeping, sightseeing, playing football and chatting then listening to Ahmadinejad’s speech. Also close to the end of the video, there is a flag on the ground with the ‘Allah’ in the centre torn out...
* Security forces out on the streets en masse:
* Footage of attacks on protestors:
Here is footage of a protestor who has been shot in the face:
Here is footage of police brutally beating a protestor:
Here is footage of a protestor with a bloody head:
Here is footage of teargas being used on protestors:
* Despite the crackdown, below is footage of protests, including of clashes with the regime’s security forces:
You can see protestors trampling on Khamenei’s poster:
Protestors and baseejis clashing:
* The slogans often heard included:
Political prisoners must be released
Death to dictator
Guns, tanks and baseeji are no longer effective
We didn’t give lives for reconciliation
2. Video footage of protests in London:
* Maryam Namazie speech at London rally:
* Shiva Mahbobi, Maryam Namazie, Sohaila Sharifi, Bahram Soroush and block traffic at London rally; Shiva is arrested and later released.
* Bahar Milani is arrested for trying to throw red paint on the embassy:
* To see photos of protests in London and other cities, visit Iran Solidarity blog.
3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
4. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
5. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts on our blog.
6. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
7. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
8. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
Thursday, February 11, 2010
February 11 demos in London and elsewhere.
In support of the people in Iran protesting against the Islamic Republic's regime, the following solidarity protests will be held on 22 Bahman, Thursday 11 February 2010 (in Australia and New Zeland on Friday, 12 February) by Iran Solidarity groups:
UK
Thursday 11 February 2010
Time: 2-8pm
Iranian embassy in London at 16 Prince's Gate, SW7 1PT
(between Knightsbridge and High Street Kensington tube stations)
Email: iransolidarityuk@gmail.com
Mobile: 07507978745
Canada
Vancouver
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Time: 5:30 PM
Place: Vancouver Art Gallery, Howe & Robson
e-mail: iransolidarityvancouver@gmail.com
Deutschland
Frankfurt
Donnerstag, 11 Februar
Mahnwache vor dem iranischen Konsulat in Frankfurt am Main, Raimundstr. 90
11:00 bis 17:00 Uhr
E-Mail:shahnaz1@t-online.de
Tel: 004915781688732
Österreich
Wien
Donnerstag, 11. Februar 2010 ab 17 Uhr
Ort: vor der Filiale der Fluglinie "Iran Air", Wien 1., Kärntnerring 1
Email: iransolidarityaustria@gmail.com
Sweden
Gotenborg
Thursday, 11 February
iransolidarity.swe@gmail.com
Tel:0704469483
Australia
Friday, 12 February
Time: 11am – 1pm
Place: Iranian embassy, Canberra
Other events:
South Australia
Email: dariush2000@yahoo.com
Phone: 0431713128
NSW State
Sydney
Email: ifirsydoffice@optusnet.com.au email
Phone: 0411553152
Victoria County
Email: free.pars@yahoo.com
Phone: 0413405545
Melbourne
Email: iran.solidarity.melbourne@gmail.com
Phone 0413405545 or 0402 360 442
Facebook: Iran Solidarity (Melbourne)
New Zeland
Demo is on Friday 12th Feb 2010.
The address is:
151 Te Anau Road
Hataitai 6021, Wellington, New Zealand
There is a bus leaving Auckland on Thursday 11th Feb at 10pm going to Wellington for the protest.
For further info please contact
Babak Badie:
006427382063
Also see WPI protests taking place here.
UK
Thursday 11 February 2010
Time: 2-8pm
Iranian embassy in London at 16 Prince's Gate, SW7 1PT
(between Knightsbridge and High Street Kensington tube stations)
Email: iransolidarityuk@gmail.com
Mobile: 07507978745
Canada
Vancouver
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Time: 5:30 PM
Place: Vancouver Art Gallery, Howe & Robson
e-mail: iransolidarityvancouver@gmail.com
Deutschland
Frankfurt
Donnerstag, 11 Februar
Mahnwache vor dem iranischen Konsulat in Frankfurt am Main, Raimundstr. 90
11:00 bis 17:00 Uhr
E-Mail:shahnaz1@t-online.de
Tel: 004915781688732
Österreich
Wien
Donnerstag, 11. Februar 2010 ab 17 Uhr
Ort: vor der Filiale der Fluglinie "Iran Air", Wien 1., Kärntnerring 1
Email: iransolidarityaustria@gmail.com
Sweden
Gotenborg
Thursday, 11 February
iransolidarity.swe@gmail.com
Tel:0704469483
Australia
Friday, 12 February
Time: 11am – 1pm
Place: Iranian embassy, Canberra
Other events:
South Australia
Email: dariush2000@yahoo.com
Phone: 0431713128
NSW State
Sydney
Email: ifirsydoffice@optusnet.com.au email
Phone: 0411553152
Victoria County
Email: free.pars@yahoo.com
Phone: 0413405545
Melbourne
Email: iran.solidarity.melbourne@gmail.com
Phone 0413405545 or 0402 360 442
Facebook: Iran Solidarity (Melbourne)
New Zeland
Demo is on Friday 12th Feb 2010.
The address is:
151 Te Anau Road
Hataitai 6021, Wellington, New Zealand
There is a bus leaving Auckland on Thursday 11th Feb at 10pm going to Wellington for the protest.
For further info please contact
Babak Badie:
006427382063
Also see WPI protests taking place here.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Maryam speaking at a Human Rights Festival today
Date: 10th February 2010
Time: 6pm
Venue: Human Rights Festival at Kingston University
Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1 2EE
Maryam will be speaking on the revolutionary movement in Iran and Iran Solidarity.
Time: 6pm
Venue: Human Rights Festival at Kingston University
Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1 2EE
Maryam will be speaking on the revolutionary movement in Iran and Iran Solidarity.
WPI TV interview with Hamid Taqvaee on 11 February protests
This week's WPI TV, the English language TV programme of WPI, on the anticipated protests in Iran and abroad on the anniversary of the fall of the Shah's regime, 22Bahman (11 February).
Long live the revolution in Iran
Currently there is a vast revolution taking place in Iran. Today there are demonstrations across Iran and in many countries around the world. The aim of this movement is to overthrow 31 years of the Islamic regime which represents 31 years of executions, stoning, sexual apartheid, inequality for women, barbaric and backward religious laws, lack of fundamental rights for working people, lack of freedom of expression, lack of the right to protest, strike and organise, imposition of utmost poverty on 70 million people in Iran and spread of terror in the Middle East and the world. This is a regime that has created one of the most brutal and corrupt systems in the world.
The people of Iran, who have fought for 31 years against this regime, by bringing an end to the Islamic nightmare, want to establish a human society, a society that is secular, where the death penalty and all brutal Islamic punishments have been abolished and religious government ended; where all the misogynist laws have been revoked; where unconditional freedom of expression, organisation and strike has been established.
The Islamic regime’s end is here, and the people of Iran aim to smash the entire machinery of suppression of this regime. The end of the Islamic regime will also deal a death blow to the political Islamic movement in the Middle East, as well as to its offshoots in the rest of the world. It will put an end to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions and adventures.
The revolution of the people of Iran deserves your enthusiastic support. We call on you to turn every opportunity and every day into a day of solidarity with the revolution in Iran for freedom and for getting rid of one of the most murderous regimes of contemporary history.
Join us to say that the Islamic regime of Iran must go!
Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI)
11 February 2010
The people of Iran, who have fought for 31 years against this regime, by bringing an end to the Islamic nightmare, want to establish a human society, a society that is secular, where the death penalty and all brutal Islamic punishments have been abolished and religious government ended; where all the misogynist laws have been revoked; where unconditional freedom of expression, organisation and strike has been established.
The Islamic regime’s end is here, and the people of Iran aim to smash the entire machinery of suppression of this regime. The end of the Islamic regime will also deal a death blow to the political Islamic movement in the Middle East, as well as to its offshoots in the rest of the world. It will put an end to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions and adventures.
The revolution of the people of Iran deserves your enthusiastic support. We call on you to turn every opportunity and every day into a day of solidarity with the revolution in Iran for freedom and for getting rid of one of the most murderous regimes of contemporary history.
Join us to say that the Islamic regime of Iran must go!
Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI)
11 February 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
We will show them whose day 11 February (22 Bahman) is... It is ours!
Dear friend
February 11 or 22 Bahman is the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution – a left-leaning revolution against the Shah and for freedom and prosperity, which was crushed by the Islamic movement.
But since history is written by the victors, this failed revolution is often called an ‘Islamic’ one. And every year, on this day, the Islamic regime of Iran holds commemorative rallies to mark ‘its’ day.
But not this time.
This time, the tide has turned and on Thursday 11 February 2010 the people in Iran and those standing in solidarity with them across the globe will come out in their millions to reclaim history and push forward the present-day revolutionary movement that aims to end 30 years of Islamic medievalism and drag Iran into the 21st century.
‘…If history is the story of change, then real history is the history of the undefeated - the history of the movement and people who still want and are struggling for change, the history of those who are not willing to bury their ideals and hopes of a human society, the history of people and movements that are not at liberty of choosing their principles and aims and have no choice but to strive for improvements…’ (Mansoor Hekmat, The History of the Undefeated, http://hekmat.public-archive.net/en/0910en.html).
On 11 February and everyday until we are rid of this vile regime, join us and be part of real human history in the making…
Warm wishes,
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Coordinator
Iran Solidarity
Notes:
1. Join us on 11 February in front of the embassies of the Islamic regime. You can find out more about some of the many events being held here.
2. Send a letter of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran over recent and impending executions. As you know, two young men Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour were executed at dawn Thursday, January 28 for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against god’. For details, click here.
3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
4. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
5. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.
6. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
7. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
8. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
February 11 or 22 Bahman is the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution – a left-leaning revolution against the Shah and for freedom and prosperity, which was crushed by the Islamic movement.
But since history is written by the victors, this failed revolution is often called an ‘Islamic’ one. And every year, on this day, the Islamic regime of Iran holds commemorative rallies to mark ‘its’ day.
But not this time.
This time, the tide has turned and on Thursday 11 February 2010 the people in Iran and those standing in solidarity with them across the globe will come out in their millions to reclaim history and push forward the present-day revolutionary movement that aims to end 30 years of Islamic medievalism and drag Iran into the 21st century.
‘…If history is the story of change, then real history is the history of the undefeated - the history of the movement and people who still want and are struggling for change, the history of those who are not willing to bury their ideals and hopes of a human society, the history of people and movements that are not at liberty of choosing their principles and aims and have no choice but to strive for improvements…’ (Mansoor Hekmat, The History of the Undefeated, http://hekmat.public-archive.net/en/0910en.html).
On 11 February and everyday until we are rid of this vile regime, join us and be part of real human history in the making…
Warm wishes,
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Coordinator
Iran Solidarity
Notes:
1. Join us on 11 February in front of the embassies of the Islamic regime. You can find out more about some of the many events being held here.
2. Send a letter of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran over recent and impending executions. As you know, two young men Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour were executed at dawn Thursday, January 28 for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against god’. For details, click here.
3. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
4. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
5. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.
6. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
7. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
8. For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
Sunday, February 07, 2010
On Sharia law, banning the burqa, and One Law for All 100 Club
Hello
Nearly 70 people gathered at a fundraising dinner on January 27 at a gastropub in West London to support One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. A C Grayling was the event’s keynote speaker. Guests also heard from comedian Nick Doody, Magician Neil Edwards, One Law for All activist Ismail Einashe, Singer/Songwriter David Fisher, campaign organiser Maryam Namazie and MC Fariborz Pooya.
You can see AC Grayling’s speech on the concept of one law for all here:
Part 1
Part 2
You can see Maryam Namazie’s brief speech below:
One Law for All 100 Club was announced at the dinner. The Club aims to secure 100 donors willing to donate £10 or more a month towards the campaign.
The steady donations will be instrumental in allowing us to organise our activities for the coming year, including a March 8, 2010 seminar on Sharia law in Britain (see booking form below), an art gallery show in Spring, a June 20 rally, a concert in the Fall, a December 11 conference on apostasy and Sharia laws as well as a survey of women who have been to Sharia councils and tribunals and a ‘know your rights’ legal campaign.
We will also continue raising awareness via the media and various speaking engagements. To hear a recent discussion we had in support of banning the burka on Ireland’s Newstalk radio and read articles about a recent debate on women’s rights trumping religious laws at the UCD Law Society in Dublin, click here.
We will also continue writing about the issue whenever possible. You can read a recent article on Sharia law in the Independent World Report here.
If you are able to join the One Law for All 100 Club, please click here for further information and a standing order mandate form.
We rely solely on your support to push forward our campaign against Sharia and religious laws and in support of secularism and universal rights so please do take the time to help if you can. No amount is too little or too big for that matter.
Thanks again.
Best wishes
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Spokesperson
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
P.S. To register for the upcoming March 8 seminar on Sharia law in Britain at Conway Hall from 1830-2030hours, please fill registration form available here.
Nearly 70 people gathered at a fundraising dinner on January 27 at a gastropub in West London to support One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. A C Grayling was the event’s keynote speaker. Guests also heard from comedian Nick Doody, Magician Neil Edwards, One Law for All activist Ismail Einashe, Singer/Songwriter David Fisher, campaign organiser Maryam Namazie and MC Fariborz Pooya.
You can see AC Grayling’s speech on the concept of one law for all here:
Part 1
Part 2
You can see Maryam Namazie’s brief speech below:
One Law for All 100 Club was announced at the dinner. The Club aims to secure 100 donors willing to donate £10 or more a month towards the campaign.
The steady donations will be instrumental in allowing us to organise our activities for the coming year, including a March 8, 2010 seminar on Sharia law in Britain (see booking form below), an art gallery show in Spring, a June 20 rally, a concert in the Fall, a December 11 conference on apostasy and Sharia laws as well as a survey of women who have been to Sharia councils and tribunals and a ‘know your rights’ legal campaign.
We will also continue raising awareness via the media and various speaking engagements. To hear a recent discussion we had in support of banning the burka on Ireland’s Newstalk radio and read articles about a recent debate on women’s rights trumping religious laws at the UCD Law Society in Dublin, click here.
We will also continue writing about the issue whenever possible. You can read a recent article on Sharia law in the Independent World Report here.
If you are able to join the One Law for All 100 Club, please click here for further information and a standing order mandate form.
We rely solely on your support to push forward our campaign against Sharia and religious laws and in support of secularism and universal rights so please do take the time to help if you can. No amount is too little or too big for that matter.
Thanks again.
Best wishes
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Spokesperson
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk
P.S. To register for the upcoming March 8 seminar on Sharia law in Britain at Conway Hall from 1830-2030hours, please fill registration form available here.
Support Gita Sahgal
Amnesty International and Cageprisoners
Statement by Gita Sahgal
7 February 2010
Gita Sahgal writes:
This morning the Sunday Times published an article about Amnesty International’s association with groups that support the Taliban and promote Islamic Right ideas. In that article, I was quoted as raising concerns about Amnesty’s very high profile associations with Guantanamo-detainee Moazzam Begg. I felt that Amnesty International was risking its reputation by associating itself with Begg, who heads an organization, Cageprisoners, that actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals.
Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty had suspended me from my job.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when a great organisation must ask: if it lies to itself, can it demand the truth of others? For in defending the torture standard, one of the strongest and most embedded in international human rights law, Amnesty International has sanitized the history and politics of the ex-Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg and completely failed to recognize the nature of his organisation Cageprisoners.
The tragedy here is that the necessary defence of the torture standard has been inexcusably allied to the political legitimization of individuals and organisations belonging to the Islamic Right.
I have always opposed the illegal detention and torture of Muslim men at Guantanamo Bay and during the so-called War on Terror. I have been horrified and appalled by the treatment of people like Moazzam Begg and I have personally told him so. I have vocally opposed attempts by governments to justify ‘torture lite’.
The issue is not about Moazzam Begg’s freedom of opinion, nor about his right to propound his views: he already exercises these rights fully as he should. The issue is a fundamental one about the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination and fundamentally undermine the universality of human rights. I have raised this issue because of my firm belief in human rights for all.
I sent two memos to my management asking a series of questions about what considerations were given to the nature of the relationship with Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Cageprisoners. I have received no answer to my questions. There has been a history of warnings within Amnesty that it is inadvisable to partner with Begg. Amnesty has created the impression that Begg is not only a victim of human rights violations but a defender of human rights. Many of my highly respected colleagues, each well-regarded in their area of expertise has said so. Each has been set aside.
As a result of my speaking to the Sunday Times, Amnesty International has announced that it has launched an internal inquiry. This is the moment to press for public answers, and to demonstrate that there is already a public demand including from Amnesty International members, to restore the integrity of the organisation and remind it of its fundamental principles.
I have been a human rights campaigner for over three decades, defending the rights of women and ethnic minorities, defending religious freedom and the rights of victims of torture, and campaigning against illegal detention and state repression. I have raised the issue of the association of Amnesty International with groups such as Begg’s consistently within the organisation. I have now been suspended for trying to do my job and staying faithful to Amnesty’s mission to protect and defend human rights universally and impartially.
Her campaign website will be available by Monday.
Statement by Gita Sahgal
7 February 2010
Gita Sahgal writes:
This morning the Sunday Times published an article about Amnesty International’s association with groups that support the Taliban and promote Islamic Right ideas. In that article, I was quoted as raising concerns about Amnesty’s very high profile associations with Guantanamo-detainee Moazzam Begg. I felt that Amnesty International was risking its reputation by associating itself with Begg, who heads an organization, Cageprisoners, that actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals.
Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty had suspended me from my job.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when a great organisation must ask: if it lies to itself, can it demand the truth of others? For in defending the torture standard, one of the strongest and most embedded in international human rights law, Amnesty International has sanitized the history and politics of the ex-Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg and completely failed to recognize the nature of his organisation Cageprisoners.
The tragedy here is that the necessary defence of the torture standard has been inexcusably allied to the political legitimization of individuals and organisations belonging to the Islamic Right.
I have always opposed the illegal detention and torture of Muslim men at Guantanamo Bay and during the so-called War on Terror. I have been horrified and appalled by the treatment of people like Moazzam Begg and I have personally told him so. I have vocally opposed attempts by governments to justify ‘torture lite’.
The issue is not about Moazzam Begg’s freedom of opinion, nor about his right to propound his views: he already exercises these rights fully as he should. The issue is a fundamental one about the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination and fundamentally undermine the universality of human rights. I have raised this issue because of my firm belief in human rights for all.
I sent two memos to my management asking a series of questions about what considerations were given to the nature of the relationship with Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Cageprisoners. I have received no answer to my questions. There has been a history of warnings within Amnesty that it is inadvisable to partner with Begg. Amnesty has created the impression that Begg is not only a victim of human rights violations but a defender of human rights. Many of my highly respected colleagues, each well-regarded in their area of expertise has said so. Each has been set aside.
As a result of my speaking to the Sunday Times, Amnesty International has announced that it has launched an internal inquiry. This is the moment to press for public answers, and to demonstrate that there is already a public demand including from Amnesty International members, to restore the integrity of the organisation and remind it of its fundamental principles.
I have been a human rights campaigner for over three decades, defending the rights of women and ethnic minorities, defending religious freedom and the rights of victims of torture, and campaigning against illegal detention and state repression. I have raised the issue of the association of Amnesty International with groups such as Begg’s consistently within the organisation. I have now been suspended for trying to do my job and staying faithful to Amnesty’s mission to protect and defend human rights universally and impartially.
Her campaign website will be available by Monday.
Friday, February 05, 2010
All out on Feb 11 in support of the people of Iran!
To people of the world
To all labour unions and rights’ organisations and individuals
All out on Feb 11 in support of the people of Iran!
The end of the Islamic regime of Iran is near. A regime that has kept itself in power for 31 years by execution, torture and repression is about to go. We call on you to support the struggle of the people of Iran for toppling this regime and for bringing freedom, equality, welfare, secularism, an end to gender apartheid, free speech, freedom to organise and strike, and an end to the death penalty, torture and stoning and all brutal Islamic punishments.
On Thursday Feb 11 people of Iran will be preparing themselves for massive demonstrations across Iran. Simultaneously, around the world in front of the Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates people will be holding demonstrations in support of the people of Iran. We call on you to show your solidarity by joining these demonstrations.
For international solidarity with the people of Iran!
A human revolution for a human rule!
Khalil Keyvan
Secretary,
Worker-communist Party of Iran - Organisation Abroad
5 February 2010
To all labour unions and rights’ organisations and individuals
All out on Feb 11 in support of the people of Iran!
The end of the Islamic regime of Iran is near. A regime that has kept itself in power for 31 years by execution, torture and repression is about to go. We call on you to support the struggle of the people of Iran for toppling this regime and for bringing freedom, equality, welfare, secularism, an end to gender apartheid, free speech, freedom to organise and strike, and an end to the death penalty, torture and stoning and all brutal Islamic punishments.
On Thursday Feb 11 people of Iran will be preparing themselves for massive demonstrations across Iran. Simultaneously, around the world in front of the Islamic Republic’s embassies and consulates people will be holding demonstrations in support of the people of Iran. We call on you to show your solidarity by joining these demonstrations.
For international solidarity with the people of Iran!
A human revolution for a human rule!
Khalil Keyvan
Secretary,
Worker-communist Party of Iran - Organisation Abroad
5 February 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Your solidarity will be recorded in the history of the Iranian people's struggle for freedom
A Message to workers and Labor Syndicates and honored Italian people
To active members and authorities of CGIL, CISL and UIL in Italy
Dear Friends
Accept our regards from the beating warm heart of one of the most important centers of people's struggle for freedom and equality. From the International Committee Against Execution. Your solidarity with the fights of young workers of Iran and people of Iran for liberty and for the crack-down, jail, torture and execution’s state is warmly welcome. Your solidarity and protest against the Islamic regime of executioners has excited us and all Iranian people. This solidarity has to be an important symbol of solidarity with the struggle of Iranian people and must be exported worldwide. You're considered as a pattern and symbol for all workers' syndicate in different parts of the world. Your fight these days in defense of Iranian people's life, and respect and the initial rights of Iranian workers and those who object to the Islamic Republic is an important mandate.
Your objection, is actually an echo of Iranian people fallen to their blood in the streets of Tehran. You are by the side of Iranian families and people who are spending their fifth day of protest in front of Evin Prison (one of the most frightening prisons of Iran across the Middle East) the objections which are encountered by different types of presses, detentions and hurts and insults. In front of high and thick walls of Evin Prison people chant for release of political prisoners and stop the executions. You are the echo of these chants in the capital of Italy. Your solidarity will be recorded in the history of Iranian people's fights for liberty. Your name will be recorded in the list of those who crack the Bastille’s Prison of Islamic Republic of Iran, who break down the execution machine of Islamic Republic, and Terrorism Exportation of Islamic Government. The fore coming generation will hail all of you who helped in overthrowing of Fascism government of Islamic Republic.
Islamic Republic is the government of torture and execution. This government has been continuing the path of torture & massive execution. With using these tools and methods, they could deny to pay the workers' wages, they could bans the Labor’s organization, they could deny the right of organize and the right of stick, with these tools they could arrests and tortures the representatives of workers, cracks the labor gatherings down and has put the society and seventy million people of Iran away from their rights. But today a revolution is in progress in the Iranian society which is definite to overthrow this terrifying system forever. There is a dark future for the Islamic Republic. This government has to depart so is trying in full potential to continue the tortures and executions and each day of this system means more executions and more tortures.
If all the Labor organizations all workers trade unions and Syndicates worldwide set together, if all the workers across the world want it, the wildest government of Iran can be overthrown. If the workers syndicates unite with the people of Iran, and all make an international solidarity action, the people of Iran will quickly overthrow the Islamic Government and the world will get rid of this dirty spot. With all our potentials we will try to overthrow this system and make Tehran the absolute capital to protect the labor and Workers' right worldwide.
Wishing for That Day
Long Live international solidarity with Iranian struggle
Long Live Workers and Labor Syndicates of Italy
Farshad Hosseini
International Committee Against Executions
farshadhoseini@gmail.com
Phone Number: 0031681285184
February 4th 2010
To active members and authorities of CGIL, CISL and UIL in Italy
Dear Friends
Accept our regards from the beating warm heart of one of the most important centers of people's struggle for freedom and equality. From the International Committee Against Execution. Your solidarity with the fights of young workers of Iran and people of Iran for liberty and for the crack-down, jail, torture and execution’s state is warmly welcome. Your solidarity and protest against the Islamic regime of executioners has excited us and all Iranian people. This solidarity has to be an important symbol of solidarity with the struggle of Iranian people and must be exported worldwide. You're considered as a pattern and symbol for all workers' syndicate in different parts of the world. Your fight these days in defense of Iranian people's life, and respect and the initial rights of Iranian workers and those who object to the Islamic Republic is an important mandate.
Your objection, is actually an echo of Iranian people fallen to their blood in the streets of Tehran. You are by the side of Iranian families and people who are spending their fifth day of protest in front of Evin Prison (one of the most frightening prisons of Iran across the Middle East) the objections which are encountered by different types of presses, detentions and hurts and insults. In front of high and thick walls of Evin Prison people chant for release of political prisoners and stop the executions. You are the echo of these chants in the capital of Italy. Your solidarity will be recorded in the history of Iranian people's fights for liberty. Your name will be recorded in the list of those who crack the Bastille’s Prison of Islamic Republic of Iran, who break down the execution machine of Islamic Republic, and Terrorism Exportation of Islamic Government. The fore coming generation will hail all of you who helped in overthrowing of Fascism government of Islamic Republic.
Islamic Republic is the government of torture and execution. This government has been continuing the path of torture & massive execution. With using these tools and methods, they could deny to pay the workers' wages, they could bans the Labor’s organization, they could deny the right of organize and the right of stick, with these tools they could arrests and tortures the representatives of workers, cracks the labor gatherings down and has put the society and seventy million people of Iran away from their rights. But today a revolution is in progress in the Iranian society which is definite to overthrow this terrifying system forever. There is a dark future for the Islamic Republic. This government has to depart so is trying in full potential to continue the tortures and executions and each day of this system means more executions and more tortures.
If all the Labor organizations all workers trade unions and Syndicates worldwide set together, if all the workers across the world want it, the wildest government of Iran can be overthrown. If the workers syndicates unite with the people of Iran, and all make an international solidarity action, the people of Iran will quickly overthrow the Islamic Government and the world will get rid of this dirty spot. With all our potentials we will try to overthrow this system and make Tehran the absolute capital to protect the labor and Workers' right worldwide.
Wishing for That Day
Long Live international solidarity with Iranian struggle
Long Live Workers and Labor Syndicates of Italy
Farshad Hosseini
International Committee Against Executions
farshadhoseini@gmail.com
Phone Number: 0031681285184
February 4th 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
In defence of Iranian asylum seekers
Letter of the Federation of Iranian Refugees to the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about the situation in Iran and the condition of the Iranian asylum seeker
Copy: human rights organizations
I am writing to put to you a few points about Iran and the condition of the Iranian asylum seekers.
When turning down the applications of the Iranian asylum seekers, as well as in reply to us, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR), departments of refugee affairs of the governments have often state things to the effect that the cases submitted by the Iranian applicants are all fake and one cannot, therefore, believe what they say. In reviewing the cases the said offices accept many of the reasons the applicants offer to explain their escape, and yet respond to them by saying: our ministries have the condition of human rights in Iran under careful watch and so, as far as those ministries are concerned, should you return to Iran, you will not face any trouble. So, let us review the condition of human rights in Iran and see whether the country is safe and free as has been claimed by the refugee offices of the Western governments.
Khatami came to the office of the President in 1997. He had been advertised, inside and outside Iran, as a novel Islamist president. “His Excellency” too advertised himself as the representative of a smiling, perfumed-with-rose-water Islam seeking “the dialog of the civilizations” and, together the whole farcical, state-made Reformist Movement he was the figurehead thereof, made lots of empty promises for both domestic and foreign markets. Thus, simultaneously with Khatami’s taking over with such deceptive razzmatazz, incomparably more effective in the West than in Iran itself, the Western governments basically adopted a hard-line policy towards Iranian asylum seekers. They adopted this policy with the carefully calculated aim of actively supporting the rosy-depicted “reformist movement” made of “harbingers of change” from within the state machinery in Iran. That policy has remained the official policy of the Western governments for over 12 years now. It is with deep regret that we maintain that as far as the welfare of the Iranian refugee applicants is concerned, such harsh policies have caused, in a cumulative manner, the spread of physical and emotional ailments, notably depression, among a great majority of them.
Even the current mass protests in the country, that is, even witnessing the whole catalogue of obvious, horrific crimes being committed by the Islamic Republic against the people during just the past seven months, has not caused the European countries to implement a more indulgent, humane policy towards the Iranian refugees. This is happening against the backdrop of an ongoing, systematic political persecution and prosecution in Iran. Extensive individual, group and mass arrests, not only in the street but through raiding people’s homes and work locations, have been occurring on an hourly basis. Journalists’ offices, photographers’ offices, and student dormitories are raided. Student activists are persecuted and/or prosecuted on trumped up charges and sentence to the most ridiculously harsh sentences. The protesting youth are marked and, consequently, persecuted, e.g., kidnapped in the street, jailed, tortured, raped, and then even prosecuted on fabricated charges based on confessions extracted under torture. The arrests have, in quite a few cases by now, led to the slaying of the detainees. In one known case the detainee’s corps was set on fire after being tortured and raped, namely, the case of a young girl by the name of Tarane Moosavi (not related to Moosavi the political figure) whose burnt corps was found in the desert areas near Tehran. In yet another terrorist spirit a group of pro-Khamenei murderous Mullahs have declared on December 29, 2009: ‘we consider the rioting mob on the day of Ashura (December 27, 2009) concrete examples of counter-revolutionaries, the enemies of God, and [therefore] “corrupting elements on the face of the Earth”.’ They have thus demanded that the pertaining organs of the regime sentence them to the maximum punishment under the barbaric Islamic code, that is, execution. Reported news clearly state that the detainees are put through the most anti-human physical and psychological forms of torture. Raping the detainee boys and girls is being used systematically, that is, as a general official policy that consciously utilizes the “shame”, the “pain” and, in this case, the horror and therefore the silence that is supposedly associated with rape. But, incredibly enough, even this regime’s conspiracy has been defeated by its very victims. Intelligent, brave young boys and girls have stepped forward, told their stories, and exposed the tyrannical character of the regime to the whole world.
Particularly since December 27, all authorities of the regime, from Khamenei to the Minister of Intelligence, from the commanders of the thuggish militia, Basij, and the so-called Revolutionary Guards to the Imams of Friday Prayer of every city, town and village, they have all been issuing orders and Fatvas (religious decrees) threatening the people with their divine code of punishment. In a word, no objector has remained safe from, and the whole world has been shocked by, the unfathomable cruelty of this regime. As Amnesty International reports, “at least five demonstrators arrested during protests on Ashoura, 27 December, have been charged with moharebeh (enmity against God), which carries the death penalty.” Also, today, Tuesday, January 26, Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) reported that Koohyar Goodarzi and Mehrdad Rahimi, two of its seven imprisoned members who had been arrested on December 20, 2009, were charged with moharebe.
Now, I would like to ask you, the authorities of the European Union, how do you assess the prevalent political atmosphere in Iran? On the basis of what positive changes brought about by the Islamist regime towards the observation of human rights are the Iranian asylum seekers in the EU countries treated so inhumanely? Has it ever occurred to you that helping the Iranian people and Iranian refugees may actually prove to be a policy incomparably more efficient than the naïve policy of expanding relations with their enemy, that is, the policy you have followed so far hoping to somewhat “appease” the regime in Teheran? Have you ever cared about the depth and the extent of the terror that the Iranian people have suffered on a daily basis for the past 30 years in the clutches of a world-class terrorist regime, a few of whose authorities are, as you very well know, internationally wanted criminals? Do we still need to produce further evidence, that is, in addition to what you and the rest of the world have seen on television screens, on the internet, on the websites of European Foreign Ministries, the EU, the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and so on, and so forth, in order to convince you that human rights are not violated as such in Iran but simply non-existent? Is it not enough evidence that Human Rights Watch wrote in its news release of January 9, 2010, subtitled Accusations and Official Charges Place Activists at Risk of Death Penalty: ‘"The authorities should be working to ensure the rights and safety of citizens exercising their rights to gather peacefully," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, they are preparing the groundwork to impose the harshest of punishments."’ The International Federation of Iranian Refugees has always emphasized these naked facts about Iran. Now the events of the recent months have only born them out beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt.
Prior to Ahmadinejad becoming President in August 2005, the Western governments had been willingly beguiled by Khatami, his so-called “reform movement” and “dialogue of civilizations”. But it was not even a year after he had taken the helm to save the regime with his hollow promises that the people’s protest, headed by the student movement, against the suppression of a “reformist” paper was brutally crushed, and Khatami himself called the defenders of the freedom of his own faction’s press “thugs”! From then on every single move by the people for any improvement in their condition was branded as “the Western cultural invasion” and nipped in the bud. The confrontation between the two factions over the degree or the form of oppression quickly came to an end with Khatami’s affirming his allegiance to “His Holiness the Supreme Leader” and Khamenei’s reciprocating by stating the obvious: “the two factions are the two wings of the system”, stressing the mutual necessity up until then of the stick faction and the carrot faction for the protection of the regime as a whole.
The setback inflicted by the people on the prior-to-Khatami crumbling regime was finally reversed by coming to power of Ahmadinejad and his military-security cabinet. An unprecedented degree of terrorist oppression was imposed - from suppression of the remnants of the so-called reformist press to the closure of NGO’s to the bloodiest attacks on labor, student and women’s rights activists across the political spectrum; from murdering detainees under torture such as Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, and Zahra Baniyaghoob, a physician who had been arrested for holding her fiancé hand at a park, to group public hangings on cranes intended to terrorize the society at large; from extensive street attacks by the “moral police” on young boys who dared to style their hair and young women who ventured wearing colors other than black and dark brown to the most barbaric sweeping of thousands of addicts off the streets, labeled “operation combating thuggery”.
Now, the Western governments reject the Iranian asylum seekers and force them to return to Iran claiming that the condition in their country is “safe and free”, I presume? But may I ask you, the highest ranking authorities of those governments, what exactly do you consider to be the criteria for measuring safety and freedom when it comes to a country such as Iran? May I ask what changes, however small, have you observed with regard to the condition of human rights in Iran throughout the past 30 years? Do you consider a country safe and free where, as the only country in the world now, under age youth are kept in jail only to be hanged before the astounded eyes of the whole world as soon as they turn eighteen for “crimes” such as homosexuality? Do you consider Iran safe and free while, as Amnesty International sums up its report on child execution, “Mosleh Zamani’s death [on December 17, 2009] brings the number of alleged juvenile offenders executed in Iran since 1990 to at least 46.”? Do you consider a country safe and free where the state has, from the get go, denied the people, especially the women and the youth, the right to choose even the color of their clothes, and has harassed them around the clock to force its dress code on them? May I request that you search “women in Iran” on YouTube to see first hand a few gory instances of terrorism the Islamist regime has subjected the women to since day 1? There is currently a clip on YouTube in which a general of the so-called Revolutionary Guards by the name of Ghasemi explicitly, mockingly and intimidatingly talks about raping the detainees of the recent events in the usual depraved Islamic fashion, calling it “going into the Jacuzzi”. So far the names of four young detainees of the recent events killed as a result of torture in the concealed Kahrizak prison General Ghasemi is mocking about have been revealed: Mohamad Kaviyani, Mohsen Rooholamini, Amir Javadifar, and Raamin aghazade-Ghahramani. Further, I presume you have seen the video clip of the police pickup truck that ran over the protesting people at December 27, 2009 demonstration in Teheran? Now, I ask you before the people of the world who have seen only the recent episode of the terrorism of the Islamist regime against its own people, is Iran a country to be called safe and free?
As far as women are concerned, we, at IFIR, maintain that the women who escape a country in which they are deprived even of the right to attend stadiums to watch sports matches, a country in which they are legally defined as second-class citizens, a country in which gender apartheid rules in all social, cultural, political and economic aspects of life, in a word, the women who escape a land that is nothing but a large prison for them should be treated with the highest degree of respect and compassion and be granted asylum with no questions asked and solely on the basis of the fact that they are women and that they have fled the hellish atmosphere created by a barbaric, misogynist theocracy. Likewise, we insist that the youth who flee a country in which hundreds are flogged on a daily basis for having dared to hold the hand of their boy friend or girl friend, the youth who, as the world has witnessed during the past seven months, are the veritable children of the twenty-first century, flee a country ruled by pre-medieval norms and standards should be embraced by much more humane refugee policies in the EU countries. By the same token, when labor activists, journalists, authors, intellectuals, students, reporters, and so on, are arrested or even kidnapped and subjected to the most cruel forms of torture, their peers who succeed in braking out should meet with much more generous, humane refugee policies in Europe.
There are thousands of other cases of the violation of human rights that cannot, of course, be cited in this letter. I just sum up by saying that what have been violated in Iran during the past 30 years are, indeed, humans themselves rather than their rights as such. What I would like to highlight here, however, is that the Iranian regime, as the standard bearer of political Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the Horn of Africa, is not only seeking access to nuclear weapons in order to further expand its sphere of influence but is also busy creating an atmosphere of terror in the Western countries through its sidekicks in those countries by means of terrorist as well as non-terrorist acts, such as striving to put in place Islamic law, or Shari’a, on both sides of the Atlantic. From this perspective the Iranian regime has been under the spotlight as an infinitely dangerous regime for the whole global community. And the Iranian asylum seekers are the people who have fled exactly from the heart of such terrorist hell. Turning a blind eye on this simple fact by the Western governments stems from another, simpler fact, that is, not to understand, or pretend not to understand, rather, that the terrorism of the Islamist regime throughout the past 30 years has been, naturally, first and foremost against the Iranian people themselves. Yet they are not only not accepted as refugees when they escape for the fear of all the above-mentioned forms of suppression but are pressurized to return to their previous hellish conditions as they are deemed free and safe by the Western governments!
We, at IFIR, are well aware of the arguments of the used by the Western governments’ refugee departments that are based on the Geneva Convention on Refugees. Nevertheless, we insist that the said departments take account especially of the intensification of suppression under Ahmadinejad during the past five years, not be so strict and rigorous when it comes to demanding document and evidence, and adopt a policy leaning more towards respecting their human rights. What I tried to do in this letter was to establish the fact that the regime of Islamic Republic, as the source of all terrorism inside and outside Iran, is itself the most significant evidence of suppression and persecution of the Iranian people.
In conclusion, we, on behalf of thousands of Iranian refugees, request that the Western governments adopt a much more open, accommodating policy towards them. Further, we request that these governments break all diplomatic ties with the Islamist regime in Iran so that it will be completely isolated from the international community as a terrorist, oppressive, and gender-apartheid regime.
Sincerely,
Abdollah Asadi
Secretary,
International Federation of Iranian Refugees
February 03, 2010
Copy: human rights organizations
I am writing to put to you a few points about Iran and the condition of the Iranian asylum seekers.
When turning down the applications of the Iranian asylum seekers, as well as in reply to us, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR), departments of refugee affairs of the governments have often state things to the effect that the cases submitted by the Iranian applicants are all fake and one cannot, therefore, believe what they say. In reviewing the cases the said offices accept many of the reasons the applicants offer to explain their escape, and yet respond to them by saying: our ministries have the condition of human rights in Iran under careful watch and so, as far as those ministries are concerned, should you return to Iran, you will not face any trouble. So, let us review the condition of human rights in Iran and see whether the country is safe and free as has been claimed by the refugee offices of the Western governments.
Khatami came to the office of the President in 1997. He had been advertised, inside and outside Iran, as a novel Islamist president. “His Excellency” too advertised himself as the representative of a smiling, perfumed-with-rose-water Islam seeking “the dialog of the civilizations” and, together the whole farcical, state-made Reformist Movement he was the figurehead thereof, made lots of empty promises for both domestic and foreign markets. Thus, simultaneously with Khatami’s taking over with such deceptive razzmatazz, incomparably more effective in the West than in Iran itself, the Western governments basically adopted a hard-line policy towards Iranian asylum seekers. They adopted this policy with the carefully calculated aim of actively supporting the rosy-depicted “reformist movement” made of “harbingers of change” from within the state machinery in Iran. That policy has remained the official policy of the Western governments for over 12 years now. It is with deep regret that we maintain that as far as the welfare of the Iranian refugee applicants is concerned, such harsh policies have caused, in a cumulative manner, the spread of physical and emotional ailments, notably depression, among a great majority of them.
Even the current mass protests in the country, that is, even witnessing the whole catalogue of obvious, horrific crimes being committed by the Islamic Republic against the people during just the past seven months, has not caused the European countries to implement a more indulgent, humane policy towards the Iranian refugees. This is happening against the backdrop of an ongoing, systematic political persecution and prosecution in Iran. Extensive individual, group and mass arrests, not only in the street but through raiding people’s homes and work locations, have been occurring on an hourly basis. Journalists’ offices, photographers’ offices, and student dormitories are raided. Student activists are persecuted and/or prosecuted on trumped up charges and sentence to the most ridiculously harsh sentences. The protesting youth are marked and, consequently, persecuted, e.g., kidnapped in the street, jailed, tortured, raped, and then even prosecuted on fabricated charges based on confessions extracted under torture. The arrests have, in quite a few cases by now, led to the slaying of the detainees. In one known case the detainee’s corps was set on fire after being tortured and raped, namely, the case of a young girl by the name of Tarane Moosavi (not related to Moosavi the political figure) whose burnt corps was found in the desert areas near Tehran. In yet another terrorist spirit a group of pro-Khamenei murderous Mullahs have declared on December 29, 2009: ‘we consider the rioting mob on the day of Ashura (December 27, 2009) concrete examples of counter-revolutionaries, the enemies of God, and [therefore] “corrupting elements on the face of the Earth”.’ They have thus demanded that the pertaining organs of the regime sentence them to the maximum punishment under the barbaric Islamic code, that is, execution. Reported news clearly state that the detainees are put through the most anti-human physical and psychological forms of torture. Raping the detainee boys and girls is being used systematically, that is, as a general official policy that consciously utilizes the “shame”, the “pain” and, in this case, the horror and therefore the silence that is supposedly associated with rape. But, incredibly enough, even this regime’s conspiracy has been defeated by its very victims. Intelligent, brave young boys and girls have stepped forward, told their stories, and exposed the tyrannical character of the regime to the whole world.
Particularly since December 27, all authorities of the regime, from Khamenei to the Minister of Intelligence, from the commanders of the thuggish militia, Basij, and the so-called Revolutionary Guards to the Imams of Friday Prayer of every city, town and village, they have all been issuing orders and Fatvas (religious decrees) threatening the people with their divine code of punishment. In a word, no objector has remained safe from, and the whole world has been shocked by, the unfathomable cruelty of this regime. As Amnesty International reports, “at least five demonstrators arrested during protests on Ashoura, 27 December, have been charged with moharebeh (enmity against God), which carries the death penalty.” Also, today, Tuesday, January 26, Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) reported that Koohyar Goodarzi and Mehrdad Rahimi, two of its seven imprisoned members who had been arrested on December 20, 2009, were charged with moharebe.
Now, I would like to ask you, the authorities of the European Union, how do you assess the prevalent political atmosphere in Iran? On the basis of what positive changes brought about by the Islamist regime towards the observation of human rights are the Iranian asylum seekers in the EU countries treated so inhumanely? Has it ever occurred to you that helping the Iranian people and Iranian refugees may actually prove to be a policy incomparably more efficient than the naïve policy of expanding relations with their enemy, that is, the policy you have followed so far hoping to somewhat “appease” the regime in Teheran? Have you ever cared about the depth and the extent of the terror that the Iranian people have suffered on a daily basis for the past 30 years in the clutches of a world-class terrorist regime, a few of whose authorities are, as you very well know, internationally wanted criminals? Do we still need to produce further evidence, that is, in addition to what you and the rest of the world have seen on television screens, on the internet, on the websites of European Foreign Ministries, the EU, the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and so on, and so forth, in order to convince you that human rights are not violated as such in Iran but simply non-existent? Is it not enough evidence that Human Rights Watch wrote in its news release of January 9, 2010, subtitled Accusations and Official Charges Place Activists at Risk of Death Penalty: ‘"The authorities should be working to ensure the rights and safety of citizens exercising their rights to gather peacefully," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, they are preparing the groundwork to impose the harshest of punishments."’ The International Federation of Iranian Refugees has always emphasized these naked facts about Iran. Now the events of the recent months have only born them out beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt.
Prior to Ahmadinejad becoming President in August 2005, the Western governments had been willingly beguiled by Khatami, his so-called “reform movement” and “dialogue of civilizations”. But it was not even a year after he had taken the helm to save the regime with his hollow promises that the people’s protest, headed by the student movement, against the suppression of a “reformist” paper was brutally crushed, and Khatami himself called the defenders of the freedom of his own faction’s press “thugs”! From then on every single move by the people for any improvement in their condition was branded as “the Western cultural invasion” and nipped in the bud. The confrontation between the two factions over the degree or the form of oppression quickly came to an end with Khatami’s affirming his allegiance to “His Holiness the Supreme Leader” and Khamenei’s reciprocating by stating the obvious: “the two factions are the two wings of the system”, stressing the mutual necessity up until then of the stick faction and the carrot faction for the protection of the regime as a whole.
The setback inflicted by the people on the prior-to-Khatami crumbling regime was finally reversed by coming to power of Ahmadinejad and his military-security cabinet. An unprecedented degree of terrorist oppression was imposed - from suppression of the remnants of the so-called reformist press to the closure of NGO’s to the bloodiest attacks on labor, student and women’s rights activists across the political spectrum; from murdering detainees under torture such as Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, and Zahra Baniyaghoob, a physician who had been arrested for holding her fiancé hand at a park, to group public hangings on cranes intended to terrorize the society at large; from extensive street attacks by the “moral police” on young boys who dared to style their hair and young women who ventured wearing colors other than black and dark brown to the most barbaric sweeping of thousands of addicts off the streets, labeled “operation combating thuggery”.
Now, the Western governments reject the Iranian asylum seekers and force them to return to Iran claiming that the condition in their country is “safe and free”, I presume? But may I ask you, the highest ranking authorities of those governments, what exactly do you consider to be the criteria for measuring safety and freedom when it comes to a country such as Iran? May I ask what changes, however small, have you observed with regard to the condition of human rights in Iran throughout the past 30 years? Do you consider a country safe and free where, as the only country in the world now, under age youth are kept in jail only to be hanged before the astounded eyes of the whole world as soon as they turn eighteen for “crimes” such as homosexuality? Do you consider Iran safe and free while, as Amnesty International sums up its report on child execution, “Mosleh Zamani’s death [on December 17, 2009] brings the number of alleged juvenile offenders executed in Iran since 1990 to at least 46.”? Do you consider a country safe and free where the state has, from the get go, denied the people, especially the women and the youth, the right to choose even the color of their clothes, and has harassed them around the clock to force its dress code on them? May I request that you search “women in Iran” on YouTube to see first hand a few gory instances of terrorism the Islamist regime has subjected the women to since day 1? There is currently a clip on YouTube in which a general of the so-called Revolutionary Guards by the name of Ghasemi explicitly, mockingly and intimidatingly talks about raping the detainees of the recent events in the usual depraved Islamic fashion, calling it “going into the Jacuzzi”. So far the names of four young detainees of the recent events killed as a result of torture in the concealed Kahrizak prison General Ghasemi is mocking about have been revealed: Mohamad Kaviyani, Mohsen Rooholamini, Amir Javadifar, and Raamin aghazade-Ghahramani. Further, I presume you have seen the video clip of the police pickup truck that ran over the protesting people at December 27, 2009 demonstration in Teheran? Now, I ask you before the people of the world who have seen only the recent episode of the terrorism of the Islamist regime against its own people, is Iran a country to be called safe and free?
As far as women are concerned, we, at IFIR, maintain that the women who escape a country in which they are deprived even of the right to attend stadiums to watch sports matches, a country in which they are legally defined as second-class citizens, a country in which gender apartheid rules in all social, cultural, political and economic aspects of life, in a word, the women who escape a land that is nothing but a large prison for them should be treated with the highest degree of respect and compassion and be granted asylum with no questions asked and solely on the basis of the fact that they are women and that they have fled the hellish atmosphere created by a barbaric, misogynist theocracy. Likewise, we insist that the youth who flee a country in which hundreds are flogged on a daily basis for having dared to hold the hand of their boy friend or girl friend, the youth who, as the world has witnessed during the past seven months, are the veritable children of the twenty-first century, flee a country ruled by pre-medieval norms and standards should be embraced by much more humane refugee policies in the EU countries. By the same token, when labor activists, journalists, authors, intellectuals, students, reporters, and so on, are arrested or even kidnapped and subjected to the most cruel forms of torture, their peers who succeed in braking out should meet with much more generous, humane refugee policies in Europe.
There are thousands of other cases of the violation of human rights that cannot, of course, be cited in this letter. I just sum up by saying that what have been violated in Iran during the past 30 years are, indeed, humans themselves rather than their rights as such. What I would like to highlight here, however, is that the Iranian regime, as the standard bearer of political Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the Horn of Africa, is not only seeking access to nuclear weapons in order to further expand its sphere of influence but is also busy creating an atmosphere of terror in the Western countries through its sidekicks in those countries by means of terrorist as well as non-terrorist acts, such as striving to put in place Islamic law, or Shari’a, on both sides of the Atlantic. From this perspective the Iranian regime has been under the spotlight as an infinitely dangerous regime for the whole global community. And the Iranian asylum seekers are the people who have fled exactly from the heart of such terrorist hell. Turning a blind eye on this simple fact by the Western governments stems from another, simpler fact, that is, not to understand, or pretend not to understand, rather, that the terrorism of the Islamist regime throughout the past 30 years has been, naturally, first and foremost against the Iranian people themselves. Yet they are not only not accepted as refugees when they escape for the fear of all the above-mentioned forms of suppression but are pressurized to return to their previous hellish conditions as they are deemed free and safe by the Western governments!
We, at IFIR, are well aware of the arguments of the used by the Western governments’ refugee departments that are based on the Geneva Convention on Refugees. Nevertheless, we insist that the said departments take account especially of the intensification of suppression under Ahmadinejad during the past five years, not be so strict and rigorous when it comes to demanding document and evidence, and adopt a policy leaning more towards respecting their human rights. What I tried to do in this letter was to establish the fact that the regime of Islamic Republic, as the source of all terrorism inside and outside Iran, is itself the most significant evidence of suppression and persecution of the Iranian people.
In conclusion, we, on behalf of thousands of Iranian refugees, request that the Western governments adopt a much more open, accommodating policy towards them. Further, we request that these governments break all diplomatic ties with the Islamist regime in Iran so that it will be completely isolated from the international community as a terrorist, oppressive, and gender-apartheid regime.
Sincerely,
Abdollah Asadi
Secretary,
International Federation of Iranian Refugees
February 03, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Remember Them!
Dear friend
I want you to remember two names - Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour.
They were two young men who were executed by the Islamic regime of Iran at dawn this past Thursday, January 28 for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against god’.
Yet another two beloved, murdered for protesting medievalism and theocracy …
And whilst this act of barbarity will leave many of us outraged and ‘speechless’(see writer Jim Herrick’s act of solidarity against the executions), we can only do them justice if we keep the pressure on.
The Islamic regime of Iran is on its last legs and will do anything it can to maintain power just a while longer. It is flexing its muscles to intimidate and threaten and we need to flex ours.
It plans to execute at least another 66 people that we know of in the coming weeks.
But we just cannot – no, we will not - let them.
Those on death row, languishing in prisons and who dare to come out onto the streets of Iran every opportunity they can represent the undefeated even after thirty years of Islamic rule. We must come out in full force to stop the executions and support the people of Iran in their struggle to get rid of this regime.
We mustn’t let up until we win. The future is ours.
In solidarity,
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Coordinator
Iran Solidarity
Notes:
Things you can do:
1. Send a letter of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran over recent and impending executions. For details, click here.
2. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
3. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
4. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.
5. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
6. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
I want you to remember two names - Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour.
They were two young men who were executed by the Islamic regime of Iran at dawn this past Thursday, January 28 for the ‘crime’ of ‘enmity against god’.
Yet another two beloved, murdered for protesting medievalism and theocracy …
And whilst this act of barbarity will leave many of us outraged and ‘speechless’(see writer Jim Herrick’s act of solidarity against the executions), we can only do them justice if we keep the pressure on.
The Islamic regime of Iran is on its last legs and will do anything it can to maintain power just a while longer. It is flexing its muscles to intimidate and threaten and we need to flex ours.
It plans to execute at least another 66 people that we know of in the coming weeks.
But we just cannot – no, we will not - let them.
Those on death row, languishing in prisons and who dare to come out onto the streets of Iran every opportunity they can represent the undefeated even after thirty years of Islamic rule. We must come out in full force to stop the executions and support the people of Iran in their struggle to get rid of this regime.
We mustn’t let up until we win. The future is ours.
In solidarity,
Maryam
Maryam Namazie
Coordinator
Iran Solidarity
Notes:
Things you can do:
1. Send a letter of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran over recent and impending executions. For details, click here.
2. Support Iran Solidarity and its demands by signing up to our petition.
3. Sign up to the Manifesto of Liberation of Women in Iran.
4. Join our daily acts of solidarity with the people of Iran. Since Monday July 27, we have organised acts of solidarity EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is easy to join in – just videotape or photograph yourself doing something and send it to us to upload to our blog. You can see other acts here.
5. Join rallies and events in various cities against the executions and the Islamic regime of Iran, including every Saturday. You can find out about such protests on our blog.
6. Set up Iran Solidarity groups in your neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and cities. So far we have groups in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Like the solidarity committees during the anti-apartheid era, these committees can be instrumental but we need many more in every city in the world for that to happen.
For more information or to send in your daily acts of solidarity, contact:
Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
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