Monday, May 29, 2006

They Threatened to Burn Her Children in Front of Her

The likes of Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Elaheh Rostami and Iran Action are desperately trying to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran as an acceptable form of government to the world. In their numerous meetings they tell their gullible audiences lies and half truths and try to excite their inherently anti-American audiences with the heroic fairy tales of anti-imperialist struggles by the Islamic state.

Then there are the likes of Shirin Ebadi, who talks about the horrors of the Islamic Republic to her Iranian audiences, who know these things too well, but when she gets the international stage opportunity, she chooses to talk about Palestine and Guantanamo.

Here is one Iranian lioness however, who risked it all to tell the world about the murder of Shwaneh Ghaderi. Read about what Dr. Roya Toloii suffered as a result and understand why Iranians like me feel so strongly about Islamic Republic apologists and their allies:

Dissident tells of assaults and threats against children during 66 days in jail run by Iran's clerical regime - By Philip Sherwell in Washington

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those two rabid anti-Americans must be on IRI's payroll.

Hanif Leylabi said...

If you were at the Action Iran meeting (which was packed out) then you would have heard Shirin support political prisoners and criticise the regime.

You would have also seen a huge queue of ordinary Iranians waiting for her to sign a copy of her book, as well as dozens signing up to Action Iran.

Azarmehr said...

Hanif unfortunately I was not able to attend Shirin Ebadi's lecture. I did try to send a message to Shirin Ebadi through my contacts warning her that sharing the panel with Elaheh Rostami and Ziba Mir-Hosseini was a mistake, as these two are promoters of the Islamic Republic. Nevertheless I am glad Ebadi on this occasion apparently did highlight the human rights abuses in Iran.

by the way, is this 'leftie' referred to in this report below on Ebadi's lecture, you?!

"..What I found most interesting, though, was Ebadi’s response to the comments made by an anti-war activist, who spoke during the Q&A.

The young man criticised Ebadi for raising concerns about Tehran’s oppressive practices at a time when the country was under the threat from military attack. He seemed to argue that, by highlighting the regime's dismal human rights record, Ebadi was providing the ‘warmongers’ in Washington with the rhetorical ammunition needed to make the case for an ‘invasion’ of the country.

To me this intervention - however well-intended - seemed to be a sad illustration of how part of the anti-war movement have lost the plot.

Never mind the fact that a full-scale military ‘invasion’ of Iran is not something even the most hawkish supporters of a tough line on Iran would wish to contemplate, the very idea that all talk about human rights should be suspended for as long as the nuclear crisis continues strikes me as the least progressive thing I have ever heard from the mouth of someone who probably claims to be a left-wing internationalist.

It almost rivals the sense of shame and disgust every decent liberal or left-winger should feel when seeing the (not so gorgeous) George Galloway touring the world’s dictatorships, saluting their leaders for their ‘strength, courage, and indefatigability’.

What was Ebadi’s response?

It was obvious that she was taken aback by the idea that anyone could argue that the solution to the current crisis was less rather than more democracy. Indeed, leaning over the lectern and pointing her finger at the culprit, she made it clear that this was not the kind of anti-war movement she wanted to be associated with. On the contrary, she said, only by empowering the people of Iran will it be possible to avoid crises like the current one. In her view, there should be no moratorium on democracy and human rights anywhere or at any time – least of all in Iran – precisely because it is the lack of these precious commodities that gives rise to such conflicts in the first place.

Embarrassed to receive a telling off from no one less than a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the young man left the event almost immediately. And indeed, once the Left begins to pit peace against human rights, there really is nothing 'left' to say."