PRISONER
The “Truth is Your Salvation”
by Nafise Azad
Write Mehrnoosh. Write on the interrogation forms marked with “Truth is Your Salvation.” Perhaps this time, if you are truly honest, they will set you free. Write my sister. Write that we were a few women, who dreamed of an equal world, a more feminine world. Write that we could no longer tolerate the insults and injuries resulting from discrimination. Write that we believe a better world is only possible through equality. Write that we had dreams
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16 AZAR
Photo essay: Solidarity meeting in Washington, DC
by
Ali Khaligh >>>
COURAGE
From across the world we will remember all those who stand for freedom
The other day I read an article by a long-time friend and fellow activist, Heshmat Tabarsadi. I was struck by the powerful words, the courage that did not mince words, but cut directly to the point. Tabarzadi still lives in Iran, and it is for him and for the thousands of others fighting for freedom for Iran, that we must come out on 16 Azar. I met Heshmat more than a decade ago. We were both growing our student organizations, and we forged an alliance called the United Student Front
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NEDA
Why does the international media focus so much macabre interest in the dying moments of an Iranian woman?
The ruthless exploitation of the death of Neda for political purposes is an egregious example of a propaganda war being waged by the enemies of Iran – everyone should be concerned, however, since the manipulation of the media and public opinion is a feature of domestic news coverage in the West as much as it is of reporting on a Middle Eastern state, notes Reza Esfandiari and Yousef Bozorgmehr. The tragic death of Miss Neda Agha-Soltan continues to reverberate five months after her shooting in Tehran
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VIOLENCE
ایران ایدهآلِ آینده نیازمند قوانینِ ضدنفرت است تا دیگر یک گروه نتواند با ترویجِ نفرت از دیگری (به بهانههای دینی، قومی، باورمندانه، جنسی یا جنسیتی) به خشونت در مورد او دست یازد
سبز جنبشی بیخشونت است و از این نظر تجربهای است آغازین برای ما. تجربهای آغازین نه از آن که پیشتر جنبشهای بیخشونت در ایران وجود نداشتهاند. جنبش سبز جنبشی آغازین است زیرا، برعکس جنبشهای پیشین (مانند جنبش تنباکو یا جنبش ملی شدن صنعت نفت) رویکردِ بیخشونت را نه تنها آگاهانه به کار گرفته، بل کنشِ بیخشونت را با گفتمانِ بیخشونت، و ترویجِ آن، همراه کرده است. پس جنبش سبز به هرگونه گرایش یا ایدئولوژی که از اهمیت جنبهی خشونتپرهیز جنبشِ مردمیِ امروز ایران بکاهد، بیاعتنائی میکند. از این رو، جنبش سبز نه تنها جنبشی سیاسی- اجتماعی که جنبشی آموزشی نیز هست
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16 AZAR
The Student Movement fighting battles that evolved from 1953
Young people continue to die in Iran. In December of 1953 following the coup d’état that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossedeqh, students of Tehran University staged a protest in response to a visit by then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. During the demonstration police shot and killed three students. Today when we read about the deaths of Ahmad Ghandchi, Azar Shariatrazavi, and Mostafa Bozorgnia more than 50 years ago, it isn't hard to see the similarities they had with students today
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WOMEN
"The Glass House" shows disadvantaged girls’ passion to live and find hope
The Glass House (Fictionville, 2009) is an amazing movie reveals what goes on at Omid-e-Mehr center in Tehran, Iran. Founded by Marjaneh Halati, Omid-e-Mehr, or “Hope for Kindness”, is a non-profit organization helping disadvantaged young women of Iran to get back on their feet and learn the right skills to independently function in the society. As painful as it may sound, this movie was not about the pain these young women go through, although the story evolves around their problems and challenges
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POINT
We must establish a society where life has more significance than death
Thirty-one years ago, a few months after the 1979 Revolution, the generals and close associates of the Shah, including his long time PM Amir Abbas Hoveyda, were shot to death without trial. The crowds cheered. When the father of the Rezai brothers, was asked to fire the shots, he refused. He was not a killer even though three of his own sons, members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, had been killed under the Shah. One of those generals was Hassan Pakravan who had long been retired at the time of his execution
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REMINDER
It is a folly to consider the nuclear negotiations and human rights concerns as mutually exclusive
More than a hundred detainees have been on trial for the past two months in what have been widely condemned by human rights organizations as "show trials" without minimal adherence to standards of due process and fair trials. The defendants are a mixture of well-known personalities, regular street protesters, and a small group who were detained before the election and accused of connections with opposition groups. The inclusion of the latter group, arrested in April 2009, well before the June 12 election, in trials connected with post-election unrest has been somewhat of a mystery until now
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RETRIBUTION
مسبب فاجعه نه مادر احسان نصراللهی بلکه نظام قضایی حاکم بود
تراژدی قتل بهنود شجاعی دو رویه دارد. یکی سرنوشت جوانی است که به خاطر دست داشتن در یک نزاع خشونتبار در سن زیر 18 سال، به صورت خشن و فجیعی کشته میشود. دیگری وضعیت مادر داغدیدهای است که مجبور میشود (آری، مجبور میشود) برای تسلی خاطر خود دست به قتل بزند. و این دومی فاجعهای کمتر از اولی نیست. نظام قضایی ایران بر فرهنگی استوار است که به دوران بدویت بشر بر میگردد. در این فرهنگ، مجازات به معنای مدرن جایی ندارد و در برابر جنایت دو، و تنها دو، واکنش وجود دارد: عفو یا انتقام
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DERAKHSHAN
دفاع از حسین درخشان و اعتراض به حکم اعدام او وظیفه ی هر انسان آزادی خواهی است
by Mahshid Rasti
نزدیک به یک سال از دستگیری حسین درخشان میگذرد. ابتدای دستگیری اش در وبلاگشهر گرد و خاک زیادی به پا شد . بعضی او را خائن به ملت و بعضی او را پدر ملت و بعضی او را ناجی افسانه ای خواندند. من در دسامبر سال گذشته این مطلب را در مورد درخشان نوشتم. و امروز هم همان احساس را در مورد درخشان دارم. حسین درخشان نه انسان خوبی بود ، و نه دوست خوبی برای انسانهایی که به او اعتماد کردند. ولی حسین درخشان یک انسان است. و یک انسان حتی اگر بد کند و بدی کند و حتی اگر مثل حسین درخشان باشد ، باید از حقوق انسانی اش دفاع کرد.
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SOLIDARITY
Stand with human rights activist mothers worldwide
We may think this kind of protest is new in Iran, but Iranian mothers have always spoken out against violence, disappearance and the torture of their sons and daughters. Prior to the 1979 revolution, only two mothers’ organizations existed in the country. Both were affiliated with underground groups involved in struggles for democracy. They worked in opposition to the monarchy of the Shah’s regime, who’s policies had turned, at the end, to the jailing and torture of intellectuals, feminists, students, and labour union advocates
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IDEAS
We need to abolish any woman-centered law in the industrialized societies
About 40 years ago as the feminism around the world raised to a visible phenomenon, a heated dialogue came up with a question posed as, what is it that the feminist are eagerly going after? Answering some difficult questions such as, if the justice equates to equality for women’s right, or women are equal to men, was set to the top of feminists’ agenda. Is happiness the key? We should know by now that changes and advancements in our lives are motivated by an underlying and mysterious physiological effect in our body and soul called happiness
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POINT
They have proven this time and again they have no respect for women
I was one of the thousands of protestors who gathered in front of the United Nations on September 23 to say NO to Ahmadinejad and yes to democracy in Iran. We were not 400 people as CNN claimed. There were thousands of us, from different groups that had gathered at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, from the Mojahedin and the royalists to the green movement supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi and independents like me, who came together or rather, appeared at different stages to show our support for a righteous cause, to support our people’s quest and struggle for democracy
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POINT
Disparaging Islam and the Iranian-American identity
I want to argue that Iranian-Americans are mainly distancing themselves from Islam and in many cases leaving it as a coping strategy for dealing with the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Middle East sentiments in the United States. Iranian-Americans are dissociating themselves from Islam as a repositioning strategy to deal with the prejudices and suspicions which have been directed at them since 9/11. Feeling vulnerable and helpless, many Iranian-Americans have often unconsciously absorbed the fears and the sensibilities of their ordinary fellow Americans and the mainstream media about Islam and Moslems
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