ETERAZ

The article in today's Independent detailing the precipitous curtailment of personal freedoms and civil liberties since the election of the invariably controversial and often asinine Ahmadinejad is undeniably accurate, since it's hardly a state-secret that horror stories abound of police abuses which occur under the guise of "preserving public piety". The Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, is the most high-profile critic of the IRI's encroachment upon and regular violation of the most basic of human rights, and she undoubtedly performs a vital role in the struggle for reform and greater openness in Iran and has remained resolute and undeterred in that role despite the great personal risk that comes with any such endeavor inside Iran and similarly authoritarian states. She has received numerous death threats and threats to the safety of her family through various "unofficial" channels and yet has chosen to continue her invaluable and indispensable work in shaping world public opinion and drawing attention to the woeful state of Iran's human rights record. In this respect she deserves our unswerving admiration and support.

That being said, we must be wary and cautious when such criticisms are mobilized as part of the all-out propaganda war currently taking place vis-a-vis Iran's involvement in Iraq and the furore surrounding its nuclear program. Criticisms needs to remain focused and not diverted to the cause of the Bush administration's ulterior (though barely masked) agenda to unilaterally attack Iran, even before Iraq's fate as an American protectorate has been sealed. The hawkish director of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, recently stated in an interview with the National Review Online that Bush will attack Iran if Barack Obama wins the presidential election in November. Whether such a forecast will prove accurate is yet to be seen, but in light of recent reports which detail the ramping up of the Bush administration's efforts to conduct a series of air strikes inside Iran, in which plans to strike as many as 2000 targets have been drawn up, we shouldn't be at all surprised by the alacrity of Bush, Cheney et al., to mire the next president in yet another desperate and unwinnable quagmire (made all the more palpable in the stark light of the aftermath of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual shindig), that would in all likelihood make Iraq appear like the "cakewalk" it never was, and whose delusional 'victory' remains limited to the fantasist mindset of the Wolfowitz's and Feith's of this world.

This is the perennial dilemma: one needs to be able to clearly and unequivocally denounce human rights abuses taking place inside Iran without providing fodder for those of a neoconservative persuasion, who will draw on such criticisms in their own quest to realize their dangerous and predatory Project for the New American Century, which if realized will ensure much of the world and even space is corralled and forced firmly under the thumb of Pax Americana and its accompanying military might.

Here's an excerpt from Iran's brutal morality police are growing in power, warns Nobel Prize-winner in today's Independent:

"Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's feared morality police have been acting with renewed vigour against what they consider to be unIslamic behaviour. Although the doctor's death last October is widely known among Iranians because they have internet access, the case received only a brief mention in the state-run media.

Shirin Ebadi, a Tehran-based lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her tireless defence of human rights, is now seeking justice in the case.

Yesterday, she warned that the morality police, who frequently stop women in the street to accuse them of wearing headscarves that are too skimpy, are now threatening to enter the offices of private companies in their Islamic zeal.

Ms Ebadi also said that human rights in Iran had regressed over the past eight years – from the persecution of homosexuals to the recent arrests of leaders of the Bahai religious sect, to bus drivers jailed for protesting over low pay."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/irans-brutal-morality-police-are-growing-in-power-warns-nobel-prizewinner-842090.html