VIEW

Back to the past

This latest round of executions is about more than the old enmity with the Kurds

by Roya Hakakian
16-May-2010 (3 comments)
Five young Iranian Kurds were executed last Sunday in summary trials reminiscent of the era that immediately followed the fall of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Even according to government-backed press, the victims had been kept incommunicado for most of their imprisonment and had little or no access to lawyers — a violation of Iran’s own laws. Gone are the regime’s efforts at keeping up pretenses, at casting itself as the authentic but misunderstood regional democracy. The evolutionary clock, which the West briefly believed to have been ticking in Tehran, positively wound down last week>>>

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

حربه اعدام

برای پایان دادن به این خشونت وحشیانه چه می‌شود کرد؟

by Hossein Bagher Zadeh
14-May-2010 (3 comments)
مخالفت با اعدام مخالفت با مجازات جانیان نیست (در واقع، می‌توان استدلال کرد که اعدام برای مجازات جانیان کافی نیست)، مخالفت با اعدام مخالفت با خشونت است، مخالفت با مجازات بی‌گناهان است، مخالفت با آدم کشی است، مخالفت با گروگان کشی است، مخالفت با وحشیت بدوی است. اعدام تنها اعدامی را از حیات محروم نمی‌کند و بلکه اعدام کننده را از انسانیت تهی می‌کند. اعدامی می‌رود، ولی اعدام کننده می‌ماند با همه آثار و عواقب روانی و فرهنگی و اجتماعی اعدام برای او و جامعه و محیط و نزدیکان او. اعدام مسئله اعدام کننده است نه اعدامی>>>

EXECUTIONS

They want our silence

We are weary and tired. But we are also angry and heartsick.

by Reza Mohajerinejad
10-May-2010 (57 comments)
Farzad Kamangar died yesteday, hanged from a crane with four other political prisoners. I re-read a half dozen times the letter he wrote last month entitled, “Be Strong Comrades.” In that letter he asks, “Is it possible to carry the heavy burden of being a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to see the lumps in the throats of the students and witness their thin and malnourished faces and keep quiet?” I woke up yesterday morning to the news that five more political prisoners had been hanged by the Islamic Republic of Iran>>>

PRISONER

خيره‌سر

نگفتن و انتقاد نکردن جنايت و خيانت است که گفتن نه تنها اتهام و جرم نيست بلکه خدمتی بزرگ

by Majid Tavakkoli
04-May-2010 (4 comments)
آنچه که من در دفاع از خود برای تبری از اتهام مورد اشاره دادستانی و رأی دادگاه انقلاب ذيل ماده ۵۱۴ قانون مجازات اسلامی به اتهام توهين به رهبری بيان می‌کنم اين است که اساساً لفظ «ديکتاتور» لفظی توهين‌آميز نيست. بسا اين‌که بسياری از نحله‌ها و جريان‌های سياسی و فلسفی به ستايش از اقسامی از ديکتاتوری پرداخته‌اند. چنان‌که در آثار افلاطون (و افلاطونی‌ها) به ستايش از حکومت‌های ديکتاتوری (استبدادی) فلاسفه و طبقه کارگر (ديکتاتوری پرولتاريا) برمی‌خوريم و حتی در انديشه اسلامی با انديشه فارابی درباره رييس اول در مدينه فاضله مواجه می‌شويم که همه اين جريان‌ها شخصی ديکتاتور صالح را بهترين حاکم و حاکم واقعیِ خير ِ جامعه و جمعيت آن جامعه می‌دانند>>>

VIEW

Tragic Joke

Iran, gender discrimination, and the UN's Women's Commission

by Dokhi Fassihian
02-May-2010
The Iranian regime must have a real sense of humor. In a year when their human rights abuses reached ever lower depths with an exponential rise in political prisoners, prison rapes, torture and executions, the regime tried to get a prime spot on the UN Human Rights Council. Their bid failed. But the jokers had another trick up their sleeves. Two weeks ago just as a senior Iranian cleric declared that women's un-Islamic garb - meaning a wisp of hair showing - is the root of men's immorality and the cause of earthquakes, the regime moved to secure a seat on the UN's Commission for the Status of Women (CSW)>>>

WOMEN

Gendar Apartheid

It is high time that we begin to reject our position as the carriers of the male burden

by Samira Mohyeddin
02-May-2010 (3 comments)
The United Nations has given a seat to the Islamic Republic on its women's council, despite a petition signed by Iranian women activists urging them not to allow this most perverse form of satire. The United Nations have now enshrined my right to be stoned, they have enshrined my judicious right to be half a person; my right not to divorce or child custody, my right to no freedom of mobility, my right not to higher education after marriage without permission of my husband. The country that guarantees my subjugated role in society is now sitting on the women's council of the United Nations>>>

HEROES

Iran's honour and future

The resilience of Iran’s imprisoned students and journalists

by Nasrin Alavi
18-Apr-2010 (2 comments)
“Unity” is a word that Iran’s hardline elite uses a great deal these days. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s televised address on 21 March 2010 on the occasion of nowrooz (Persian new year) was typical, in its reference to “the unity and solidarity of the Iranian nation”. The Iranian president’s rhetoric here is, in its brazen disregard of the country’s reality, at least consistent. This is the man who celebrated the fraudulent presidential election of 12 June 2010 - of which he was the chief beneficiary - as an example to “the world” (no less) of a “new humanitarian and true method of democracy” >>>

NO WAY

Killer candidate

UN Human Rights Council and Iran’s candidacy

by Elahe Amani
15-Apr-2010 (11 comments)
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in a provocative act, has announced its candidacy for the United Nation Human Rights Council, a UN organization based in Geneva. The candidacy of Iran comes at a time that during the last 10 months, Iranians are experiencing one of the darkest periods of human rights violations since 1979 revolution. The candidacy of Iran for the UN Human Rights Council is comparable to electing apartheid South Africa to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination>>>

BAHAI

Struggle fought in hearts

Human rights in Iran

by Randolph Dobbs
08-Apr-2010 (7 comments)
Whatever happens in the show-trial of seven Bahai leaders in Iran, the larger issue is the fate of the Iranian people. The question is: What kind of nation does Iran aspire to become? Will it remain a repressive society unable to overcome the effects of religious bigotry? Or will it live up to the ideals not only of international human rights but also Islamic standards of justice? Bahais have the greatest respect for all religions>>>

MEDIA

Why Do Some Iranians Hate “Soraya”?

Controversy over “The Stoning of Soraya M.”

by S. Mostofi
06-Apr-2010 (4 comments)
When a Middle Eastern cultural center announced a special cast-and-crew screening of a film about stoning in Iran, coming up on April 15, 2010, local members in Los Angeles began a Facebook firestorm. “Crap propaganda!” screamed one irate Iranian FBer. “The film has zero artistic value!” wrote another. Some Iranians love to hate anything that can be reasonably criticized, and “The Stoning of Soraya M.” has plenty to hate. It’s anti-Iran propaganda, some say; others insist the stoning never happened—journalist Freidoune Sahehjam made it up, which is why he wouldn’t name names in his book of the same title>>>

SAHARKHIZ

زندان بدون اتهام

وضع جسمی پدرم نگران کننده و وضع روحی اش خوب است

by Mehdi Saharkhiz
04-Apr-2010 (one comment)
وضعیت جسمانی عیسی سحرخیز، از روزنامه نگار در پی اعتصاب غذا در روزهای آغاز سال نو رو به وخامت گذاشته است. مهدی سحرخیز فرزندوی درگفت وگو با کمپین بین المللی حقوق بشر در ایران گفت که او طی ماه های گذشته ۲۰ کیلوگرم وزن کم کرده است و زندان انفرادی و شرایط زندان سلامت وی را به صورت جدی تهدید می کند. این درحالی است که پس از هشت ماه بازداشت وی وضعیت حقوقی پرونده ی این روزنامه نگار همچنان بلاتکلیف باقی مانده است پیگیری های وکیل مدافع و نیزخانواده وی نیز در این زمینه بی نتیجه باقی مانده است>>>

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

جمهوری اعدام

سی سال مردم ما با رژیمی روبرو هستند که عمدتا با زبان اعدام و کشتار سخن می‌گوید

by Hossein Bagher Zadeh
31-Mar-2010 (3 comments)
افزایش اعدام‌ها در سال‌های اخیر به روشنی هدف ارعاب را دنبال می‌کند. در سال ۲۰۰۹ تعداد اعدام‌‌ها به گزارش عفو بین‌الملل دست کم به ۳۸۸ تن رسیده است. این بزرگترین آمار اعدام سالیانه در یکی دو دهه اخیر است. و ‌چرا؟ چون در این سال، جمهوری اسلامی با بزرگترین چالش مردمی ایران تحت عنوان جنبش سبز روبرو بوده است. رژیم که در برابر یک جنبش مسالمت‌آمیز دموکراسی‌خواه قرار گرفته تنها راه مقابله با آن را سرکوب و آن هم از نوع خونین آن می‌شناسد>>>

RIGHTS

Restoring Integrity

Amnesty International should not barter away the human rights of minorities and of women for “peace”

by Global Petition
28-Mar-2010
In this context, it is crucial for human-rights defenders and organisations to clearly define principles and core values that are non-negotiable. Our commitment to countering, among others, Islamophobia, racism, misogyny and xenophobia should at no time blur our recognition of the authoritarian, often fascist, social and political agendas of some of the groups that suffer human-rights abuse at the hands of the big powers. The broader issue of principle which we raise here, is one which concerns all of us as human-rights defenders from different parts of the world>>>

PRISONER

فریادی از زندان

نامه تکان‌دهنده از بند ۳۵۰ اوین

by Saeed Malekpour
26-Mar-2010 (5 comments)
اکثر اوقات شکنجه‌ها به صورت گروهی انجام می‌گرفت و در حالی که چشم بند و دست بند داشتم چند نفر با کابل، چماق، مشت و لگد و گاهی شلاق ضرباتی به سر و گردن و سایر اعضای بدنم می‌زدند. این کارها به منظور وادار ساختن من به نوشتن آن‌چه توسط بازجویان دیکته می‌شد و اجبار به بازی کردن نقش در مقابل دوربین طبق سناریو دلخواه و نوشته شده توسط آنان می‌بود. گاهی شکنجه‌ها توام با شوک الکتریکی بود که بسیار دردناک بوده و تا چند لحظه پس از آن امکان حرکت نداشتم>>>

JUSTICE

IRI vs. Ziba Kazemi

The only case where the Islamic Republic has been forced to defend itself in court

by Shahrzad Arshadi
10-Mar-2010 (6 comments)
What a day! On march 8, 2010, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, we were at Montreal’s courthouse for the last day of trial for Ziba Kazemi’s case against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trial started at 9:15 AM and ended at 12:15 PM. The courtroom was packet with supporters, many of which were standing in the room while others were waiting outside. A majority of the audience, including Stephan Kazemi, were wearing unified black T-shirts with Ziba kazemi’s portrait printed in front with the phrase “She is still alive” under it>>>
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