Can a Petition Save a Life?
Huffington Post / Bernard-Henri Lévy
01-Sep-2010 (5 comments)

...as implacable as dictatorships may be, and as unscrupulous, soulless, and lacking in virtue as their leaders may be, they are never completely autistic and, in the trial of strength they are engaged in with the democratic world, a combat that amounts to their way of being and their second nature, they pay attention to all the signs.

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David ET

my response on huffinigton post

by David ET on

In case of Nazanin Fatehi petitions and campaigns worked ( a female juvenile who was sentenced to execution for defending herself and her 15 year old niece during rape attempt). After collecting more than 300,000 signatures and world wide campaign by Iranian born former Miss Canada 2003 ,Nazanin Afshin-Jam, we were able to save Nazanain Fatehi from death and she is free now, So petitions and worldwide actions can work. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Fatehi
As a result Nazanin Afshin-Jam and I co-founded stop child executions organization which with help of attorney Mohammad Mostafaei -who recently had to flee Iran (Sakineh's former attorney) - have saved many others from execution.
But we could not save Delara Darabi , the Iranian 17 year old painter who was eventually executed: //www.stopchildexecutions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93&Itemid=58
Sakineh is still alive and every voice, signature and every effort counts


Ari Siletz

Of course petitions help!

by Ari Siletz on

But all appeals have to be responsibly worded. Parham is right in criticizing this passage:  

 "...of a woman whose sole crime is, perhaps, to have fallen in love would be exorbitant and far too risky for the regime."

What are they trying to do, make the IRI foam at the mouth at the expense of Ashtiani?The French were far more delicate in handling the  Clotilde Reiss case.


MM

The petitions help, and they certainly do not hurt.

by MM on

We have had several cases where the writing campaign either

* reduced the sentence from a barbaric act to a more humane sentence

* freed the person all-together

Do not stop. period.


Darius Kadivar

YES it Can ... because it is a "Marriage de Raison"

by Darius Kadivar on

In politics you never have friends ... you merely have allies ...

Marjane Satrapy and BHL Demonstrate in Paris 

BHL Gathers Secular Opposition in Paris (June 11th, 2010 ) 

And as such France's stance on Iran and it's unconditional support for the Iranian expat community activists has been not only politically courageous but I should say creative under Sarkozy's Presidency as under no other world leader to date (including the very Neutral Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: Barak H. Obama) to display a vehement public stance and support for the Iranian civil rights organization or human rights activists but more importantly in recognizing the existence of an Iranian Civil Society. That in itself is a great asset !

I would have loved to have seen this early on back in the 1980's when we Iranian expats had to leave our country and seek refuge in France, or other countries in Europe or the US or Canada. But at the time people did not understand Iranians nor their plight and blamed it on our own Poor Choice overlooking the silent majority who did not share what the Mullah's had done to their country. Instead under the Socialist President Mitterand they chose to sell arms to both Iran and Iraq in a bloody 8 year war without taking sides.

At least that policy has changed be it in public display of support ... and I personally as a French Iranian welcome this attitude.

The Green Roll Petition in Paris:

//iranian.com/main/2009/jul/paris-green-scroll

the Public support of the French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand to Jafar Panahi:

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand Demands Jafar Panahi's Immediate Release

And during Cannes Film Festival:

CANNES GOES GREEN: Jafar Panahi Honorary Jury Member in Absentia as Robin Hood Opens Festival

Acknowledging Iran's Civil Society and Arts:

EMINENT PERSIANS: Paris Memorial for Ostaad Shojaeddin Shafa (July 13th,2010)

EMINENT PERSIANS: Hadi Khorsandi and Shahbanou Farah at French Ministry of Culture (13th July, 2010)

Kouchner's Support to Bahman Ghobadi:

SOLIDARITY: French Foreign Minister Kouchner Visits Bahman Ghobadi Film Screening

and the Greens:

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner praises Iran's Green Struggle

Support to Shirin Ebadi: 

France's FM Bernard Kouchner Bows to Iran's Shirine Ebadi

Obviously that they don't do anything for free but who does ?

The reason the French let go of Bakhtiar's assassin however grotesque and disgusting from our point of view was without doubt the cynical political calculation aimed at freeing an innocent French citizen:

Iran, A Hope: Une Pensée Pour Clotilde ...

Was it grotesque on behalf of the French who often boast about Moral Standards and virtues eversince the French Revolution ? Absolutely !

But We Don't Choose our Allies in Politics we take what we can have or what is available.

At the Time of Poland's Solidarnosc the same was true. France's Francois Mitterand was supportive of Solidarnosc but still greeted General Jaruzelski in Paris to the outrage of his own Prime Minister of the Time Laurant Fabius.

It would be an error in my humble opinion for the Iranian Diaspora not to sieze this opportunity to become even more vocal and insist on the plight of Iranians back home including in this case Sakineh.

As to this women's genuine complicity or not in the assassination of her husband in my opinion is not much the issue but the social and juridicial pattern of thought that puts people in such extreme situations and a backward regime whose only answer to the ills of it's society is to deliver an even more cruel sentance particular at odds with universal civilized standards and humanistic values for which we Persians were once admired for.

But Yes there is always a level of cyniscm and Real Politics in the way a government behaves on an international Level. But it is up to us in the Diaspora and the Civil society at large to sieze every opportunity we get to push world leaders including the current French Government and the petitioners ( some of whom belong to the French Socialist Opposition to Sarkozy) to make similar commitments be it symbolically towards defending our rights.

It may not do miracles but it sure DOES MATTER and DOES HAVE An Influence in the way  world leaders percieve and evaluate the potential Force of a civil rights movement or of civil society in a given country as opposed to it's own leadership.

As Such even with it's share of dissappointments ... Sarkozy is Our Best Ally ! ... simply because his interests coincide with ours ...

Or in otherwords Like the French say it's a: "Faute D'Amour C'est Un Marriage de Raison"

Tommorow it may be Segolene Royal but in the meantime we have to cope with what we can get out of this administration in support of Iranians against their regime.

But that does not mean we have to be blind or innocent about the sincerity of this support but simply awake to the realities of the time and get the best out of it while it lasts ...

 


Parham

Ah, the French...

by Parham on

Two things really bother me in this article:

1- "...is it merely by chance that the first country to have committed itself, through the voice of Nicolas Sarkozy, to the cause of the young woman is the same one that initiated the petition?"

I am actually wondering who will be the next person to jump on the bandwagon and use the cause of Sakineh Ashtiani for self-promotion. Let's not forget this is the same country and the same president that just a few months ago, released the assassin of Shapour Bakhtiar (by all accounts the only democracy-minded political personality in charge in Iran in the past 40-50 years, and one who had fought for French independence alongside the resistance during WWII) in exchange for a French citizen imprisoned in the same Islamic Republic.

2- "...of a woman whose sole crime is, perhaps, to have fallen in love would be exorbitant and far too risky for the regime."

Let's not forget this woman has been convicted because she, along with her lover, has assassinated her husband. The protests are taking place because she has been condemned to death by stoning (and for some because they're simply opposed to the death penalty), which is a particularly cruel way to put someone to death. The protests are not, in any case, there because she was condemned to death because she fell in love!

I'm wondering if the protagonists (Sarkozy, Bruni, Henry-Lévy, etc.) are blind to the fact that what they're really doing is a little too obvious to the eyes of anyone who follows the state of the affairs of the world.