Before and After

It was a weird feeling before going for the op. Imagine you are 90% back to normal but to get back to 100% you are told you have to go through this painful process that sets you back to worse than how you were when the injury first happened.


Perhaps the before and after pictures shown here demonstrate the dilemma I was going through. I tried to keep a brave face but I was dreading the next few hours, days and weeks.

The first hurdle is over and now I am going through the critical post-op aftercare days.


As I have always said, I am not a spiritual person, I don't know if things happen for a purpose or not, but one can learn so much from each experience. Once again I have been reminded how mortal and feeble we all are. You can be the cock o' the north and rule the roost one day, and then bed ridden the next day. One must always be humble and recognise that nothing, good or bad, will remain the same forever. We should appreciate the good times and remain hopeful during the dark times.


These experiences are great opportunities to learn who your real friends are too and who reads your blog :))) which reminds me to thank again all those who wished for my recovery.


Its frustrating typing with just the left hand but at least this has now filled part of my day, I better go and do some exercises now.

I Had a Dream

I am just getting ready for my pectoral tendon operation tomorrow. I am told I will have my arm in a sling for a few weeks, and I may not be able to type. Its such a comfort to know however that there are so many good Iranian bloggers now that do the kind of work I do, i.e. tell the world about what is happening in Iran.

I am a bit in two minds about the operation. I am almost back to normal now, except that I lack confidence about doing heavy lifting with my right arm. Even swinging the golf club the other day worried me and I had to stop after a few attempts on the driving range. I am reassured by the surgeon that I should be able to get back to 100% in a few months if I have the operation and I will be able to continue with all the sports I love doing.

Any way back to the subject of my post. I had a lovely dream last night, it seemed so real and strangely enough I remember while I was dreaming, I kept saying I should write about this in my blog :) I dreamt I was back in my ancestral town of Astara by the Caspian sea.

Astara is derived from the Persian word Ahesto-ro, where travel gets slow, because of the marshlands that surround it. It was divided into two and the northern part was lost to the Tsarist Russia after the treaty of Gulistan. Whole families were divided by the river, and separated families used to come by the opposite sides of the river and ask each other how they were for many years after the divide.

The spoken language in Astara until the early to mid part of the previous century was Talysh before a mixture dialect of Turkish and Persian spoken today in the Azerbijan province took over. Talysh is an old Iranian language which can be traced back to the Medes. See examples of Talysh language. Persian speakers can easily understand most of the Talysh language. I am told my maternal grandfather used to speak in Talysh and considered it his mother tongue. There is still a sizable minority, around 800,000, of Talysh people who live in the province of Aran, which unfortunately changed its name to the Republic of Azerbijan in 1919. The Talysh people who live in the Republic of Azerbijan are severely repressed by the Turkish chauvinists who rule Aran today and are banned from speaking their language and practising their culture.

Last time I saw Astara, it was still a small town and most its inhabitants knew each other. The people in Astara were decent, truthful and honest people. Burglaries, for example, were unheard of, and people left their front door open without fear. I remember telling my grandfather to lock the front door as we left his house once, and him telling me not to worry for there are no thieves in Astara.

I am told Astara is no longer like that and because it is now an important border trading town, many people from outside the town have moved in and its original indigenous character has greatly changed. In fact I have been warned I would be unpleasantly shocked if I ever see it again.

Whenever I go to Cyprus or some Greek island, I am most reminded about Astara. It had that Mediterranean look and feel to it.

But back to my dream. I was surrounded by my many cousins and taken to my paternal grandfather's house, where we used to stay during our summer holidays. To get to the house itself, one had to walk past where they kept the turkeys and the chickens and then through this big delightful garden, with all kinds of fruit trees; figs, pears, apples, lemons everything. If you wanted a fruit, you just picked it from the trees. I could actually smell that unforgettable scent in my dream. Then there was the water well and the hand operated water pump and finally the house itself. It was built of wood and raised above the ground on wooden columns. As I walked up the steps to the porch, my eldest uncle greeted me in the usual way, "Hey little sledge hammer, you are back!"

He was an interesting character. He had a fearsome reputation for his temper, and when his eyebrows tangled together as he frowned, you felt big trouble was just round the corner. He left school at a young age, his reasoning was that Hitler will soon invade and all the text books will change so there was no point in wasting time and learning the current ones :) And that's the best excuse I have ever heard to skive off school :)

After he left school, he started trading by secretly crossing the border at night and smuggling goods in and out of the country. As a result of these cross border runs, he had learned basic Russian that he could get his way round with. What he was most famous for however, was when during the Russian occupation of Iran after the second world war, he had beaten up a Russian soldier who had stolen something from his shop. A daring act in broad day light, which had increased his reputation amongst the locals.

His shop was at the only cross road with traffic lights in the town. I used to cycle to his shop on this bicycle which was too big for me and I could just about use its pedals but the bike was too high for me to get off from and once I got close to his shop, I would shout 'Amoo, uncle!' and he would come out of the shop and grab the bike and help me get off. On one occasion I recall, he was too busy bartering with a punter inside the shop, and he could not hear my frightened screams of 'Amoo, Amoo' but I was lucky that the bobby on the crossroad noticed my frantic screams, ran after me and grabbed the bike.

One of my cousins I have never seen. He was born after I left Iran, but I recognised him in my dream from the photos I have seen of him. My cousins have also had children whom I have never seen and I was being introduced to them in the dream as the 'cousin from England'. Of course so many of my relatives have also died without me being able to even go to their funerals. All my grandparents, two of my uncles, aunt, and many friends amongst them.

My cousins then took me on a tour of the town. One by one, landmarks and buildings in the surreal formats you expect to see in dreams appeared to me. The finale was one of the things I loved most about Astara. Grilling this fish endemic to the Caspian Sea, in the evenings on the beach. It is such a meaty chunky fish, you could put it on a skew just like you do with kebab. Yummee, and so I woke up disappointed that my dream had to come to an end.

Women's Rights Activist Abducted

The following has been posted by the Iranian Political Prisoners Association:

Hana Abdi, a 21 year old student of Sanandaj University was abducted from her grandfathers’ house by the Intelligence Ministry agents a couple of days ago and her where about is unclear, says her mother.

According to Hana’s mother, the Intelligence Ministry has not clarified the reasons for Hana's arbitrary arrest, yet the information centre of the ministry has already informed her family that Hana’s court would start in a months’ time, it is suspected that her arrest is due to activities concerning a petition which supported womans’ rights in Iran.

Hana abdi was very much involved in teaching literacy to the poor and especially to the women in villages and used to hold celebrations for those women who overcame addiction in the ‘Azarmehr' association. The association provides the means for battered and addicted women to over ride their problems.

Hana and her friend Ronak Safar Zadeh, had set up collections to support destitute women. Ronak Safarzadeh was also arrested by the Ministry on 9 October 2007, and is reported to be in a bad state of mind. She had recently called her family from prison expressing concern over her extended detention. According to her parents, Ronak's interrogations have finished but she has been kept in detention for unspecified reasons.

Can't Join if You are Critical of Iranian Regime

Yesterday's article in the Independent by By Jerome Taylor confirms the suspicions I had about the inconsistencies of 'Stop the War Campaigns', which I wrote about back in March this year:
http://azarmehr.blogspot.com/2007/03/inconsistencies-of-stop-war-campaigns.html

I know Yassmine Mather, who is mentioned in the Independent article. I have known her from some earlier campaigns seven years ago, in the aftermath of the student uprising in Iran. She is a committed Socialist and definitely against any military intervention in Iran. If Stop the War Coalition refuses her to join the 'coalition', then it really goes to show that the group's true agenda is nothing other than keeping the Ayatollahs in power.

The Independent article finishes by quoting Andrew Murray, chair of Stop the War Coalition, as saying ".. It's completely untrue to say we are apologists. We are no more supporters of the Tehran regime than we were of Saddam Hussein or the Taliban."

I just wish Jerome Taylor had asked Murray the question I keep asking the SWP, to name just one occasion, in the last 28 years, when they had a campaign against the theocracy of the Ayatollahs in Iran or the Taliban in Afghanistan. Andrew Murray, you are an apologist and a supporter of those who keep people in chains and in misery. You are a disgrace.

US Embassy Hostage Crisis Days

4th November was the anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, in 1979, by Student Followers of Imam Khomeini's Path. US diplomats were taken hostage for 444 days and finally released when President Reagan was elected by the US voters.

I remember as a young teenager in those days, going outside the US embassy building in Tehran where I joined the discussion groups on the pavements, as was the custom in those days. There was still relative freedom in the aftermath of the revolution but up to a point. You could not, for example, publicly support the monarchy or Dr. Bakhtiar but Marxists groups and the MeK openly sold their newspapers in the streets. The Islamo-Socialists like MeK, supported the takeover from the very beginning and called it a heroic action against the US imperialism. They were still doing their futile best to win Khomeini's favour. The pro-Soviet Communist Tudeh party was also over the moon about what had happened as you can imagine. They too wanted to win Khomeini's favour and in their publications, Ayatollah Khomeini was always revered as Imam Khomeini in enlarged bold letters. Later when the moment was right, Khomeini did not hesitate to massacre any of their members and supporters, whether they had used bold letters to describe him or otherwise.

The other major Marxist organisation at the time, the Fedayeen took their time in deciding whether to support the takeover or not. In fact it was not until Khomeini referred to them as American Marxists that they decided it was in their best interests to go along with everyone else. This delay in supporting the take over, later played a key part in the split in the Fedayeen organisation into the Majority(Bolshevik) and Minority(Menshevik) factions, with the Majority becoming even more pro-Soviet and pro-Khomeini than the Tudeh party itself.

For days and weeks, the embassy became the focus of different political parties marching in support of the embassy take over and the occasion was exploited as a PR exercise to make themselves and their support for the take over known to the public. The Islamist groups would pledge in their slogans 'If America Attacks, We Shall Turn All of Iran into Karbala' while the Marxists would pledge in their slogans 'If America Attacks, We Shall Turn All of Iran into Vietnam'. Marxists argued sincerely that Vietnam was more contemporary and appropriate in the slogan than what had happened in Karbala 1300 years ago, while the Islamists would argue that this was an Islamic revolution and the Vietnamese were not Shiite Muslims.

It all seems like a comedy when I look back on those days and remember the slogans. Each group wanted to sound even more radical and uncompromising than the others, coming up with more and more heroic slogans. 'Savour that day that Khomeini will give me the Jihad Order, The Army of the World will not be able to match me!"

What was forgotten as usual in the midst of all this frenzy and excitement amongst the Iranians who were arguing the appropriateness of Vietnam or Karbala, was the national interest. When I joined the discussion groups outside the US embassy building, it was not expedient for my health and safety to publicly argue against the take over, instead I used to pose the question as a young innocent teenager would 'what is in our national interest to hold these Americans here?'. The question was asked in a way that it did not deny there was a national interest but was simply asked by a kid who wanted to learn the facts from his 'wiser' all knowing elders. Watching these 'wiser' elders dither and fluster in their replies on the rare occasions where my question was not ignored was often just as comical as the slogans I heard in those days.

Perhaps the one slogan that now has a serious ring to it was:
'Cannons, Tanks and Machine Guns Have no Effect Any More,
Carter has no idea of the joyous moment of martyrdom'

Carter and his diplomats who had called Ayatollah Khomeini a Saint and 'Iran's Gandhi', had no idea what a can of worms they had opened up.

I have been browsing the blogs these days, and a lot of the blogs by the younger generation of Iranians have been apologising for what happened back in 1980. Perhaps if they had watched former top ranking US embassy hostage, Bruce Langdon, on VOA Persian, they would not feel so apologetic. On his VOA Persian appearance, he seemed more apologetic and compromising to the mullahs than anyone else.

I watched with disbelief when Bruce Langdon tried to exonerate even Khomeini, saying his information! was that Ayatollah Khomeini was not so keen on the takeover but just wanted to go along with the power in the street :) Such a statement is typical of the deluded naive illusions of the Carter era officials. Khomeini did not need to go along with the power in the streets, Khomeini WAS the power in the streets. What Khomeini said happened, simple as that. The sad thing is Bruce Langdon is still so flimflammed after 444 days of being a hostage and 28 years after the event.

The post-Islamic revolution generation of Iranians do not need to apologise for what happened back then. We had nothing to do with it. We rejected very quickly the tragic mistakes of our previous generation who left us in this mess, and we are not as deluded as the US State Department officials and diplomats about the nature of these clerics ruling our country.

We have stood up to these Ayatollahs and 'useful idiots' all on our own in a variety of ways without any support from anyone or anywhere and we will continue to do so until an Iranian government is returned to our country and our Iranian Sun and Lion flag is raised again.

The Worst Option

Ever since Ahmadi-Nejad became the president, we have feared a military attack on Iran as the worst option. Instead we have presented the pro-democracy movement in Iran as the most viable option to bring peace and stability to Iran, the region and to the world.

Sadly the Islamic Republic apologists, individuals like Ray Takyeh, Fareed Zakaria, Hossein Nasr, Laura Rozen etc. and organisations like CASMII, Iran Action, SWP etc. have consistently tried to diminish the strength of desire for change from the current theocracy to a secular democracy amongst the young dominant Iranian population and have tried to present the Islamic Republic as an acceptable form of government and even a 'shining beacon of democracy'. Their efforts with the help of funding they receive from the Islamic Republic petro-dollars and the misguided support of 'useful idiots' has meant that the pro-democracy movement in Iran has not been able to enjoy the support and the recognition it deserves and hence not count as a credible alternative to the ever increasing menace of the clerics ruling Iran.

Yet there now seems to be an even worse option on the table. Limited strikes on military and nuclear targets which will destroy much of Iran's infrastructure but keep the clerics in power!

In fact the Ayatollahs in Iran seem to be welcoming the limited strikes, and as always their biggest fear has been regime change from within.

Well for those who have consistently defended the Islamic Republic and turned a blind eye on the human rights abuses by the religious dictatorship in Iran, and repeatedly played down the potential of the pro-democracy movement in Iran, here are photos from the students at Alameh University today protesting against the arrests and expulsions of their student colleagues. The pro-democracy movement in Iran despite all the obstacles in its way is still alive and kicking, it just needs more help and publicity.

The Good News and the Bad News

The bad news, or I am sure for some people the good news, is that I have injured myself in an accident. See the lovely bruises in the picture :) I need to have an operation to stitch my pectorial tendon back on again and then some time before hopefully a full recovery.



The good news however is that Fakhravar's speech at DePaul University in Chicago, seems to have been a huge success.

Shame that none of the useless incompetent ex-pat Persian media we have, reported anything of the event at DePaul university.

I am sure many Iranians inside Iran would have found Fakhravar's speech and the event at DePaul university much more interesting than VOA Persian's typical report on car traffic in Karachi!

Oh, but VOA is getting a little bit more responsive to criticism, if you now send them an email criticising their "we are a news broadcasting only" policies and programs, they will send you a standard stereo reply below, but it does not matter what you send them, the reply is the same to whoever writes it and whatever you write :))

'Dear Listener:

Thank you for your comments. Our announcement for the present inspection noted that it will address the Board’s structure, its guidance and management processes, relations with broadcasting entities’ management, and legislative foundations for these roles. Although you observations do not fall in this range, we will keep them for future reference.

Sincerely,

Tom Carmichael
Deputy Team Leader'

150 Years Under Putin

Putin in Persian means the boot, and '150 Years under Putin' is the title of an article by Iranian satirist, Ebrahim Nabavi, meaning 150 years under the boot and with obvious reference to Putin's visit to Tehran.

Nabavi himself was an active revolutionary who helped bring the clerics to power in 1979. In return for his revolutionary efforts, Nabavi enjoyed a series of official positions, amongst them, in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Ministry of Interior and he was also the chief executive of channel 2 in the Islamic Republic of Iran State TV Broadcasting. However revolutions devour their own children, and Nabavi in the late 90s became one of those devoured children.

In '150 Years Under Putin', Nabavi re-examines how his generation were always encouraged to shout 'Death to America, Death to England and Death to Israel' but never anything against Russia and he lists a series of historic facts on how Iran has suffered so much from her Russian northern neighbour.

The gist (not a word by word translation) of Nabavi's article is this:

- Iran lost a great part of its territory to the Russians after years of war between the incompetent Qajar kings and the powerful Tsarist Russian armies.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- During Iran's constitutional revolution that demanded to put a limit on the king's powers and establish an elected parliament, the constitutionalists seeked refuge in the British embassy. The Russians on the other hand, allied with the new despot Qajar king, bombed the newly built parliament building while the deputies were inside. Further support for the despot king meant Russian troops pouring into Iran and killing thousands of Iranian freedom fighters.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The Communists came to power in Russia and decided to establish a republic in Gilan, a northern province of Iran. In effect they tried to secede another part of our integral territory.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Reza Shah, the 'bloodthirsty dictator' - as Iranian Communists refer to him - founder of the new Pahlavi dynasty, arrested 53 Communists in total during his 16 year reign. One of them, Dr. Taghi Arani, was killed in prison but the other 52 went to Russia and there they were either killed or exiled or lived in misery and poverty for the rest of their lives and yearned to return to Iran.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- During the Second World War, Iran was occupied by allies and was used as a bridge to send aid to Stalin. When the war ended, Americans and the British left as was agreed, but the Russians stayed and wanted to secede Azerbijan from the rest of Iran this time.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Mossadiq was appointed by the 2nd Pahlavi king, as the Prime Minister, and he led the drive for nationalisation of Iranian oil. Because Mossadiq was anti-Soviet, the Russians labeled him as an English lackey, and when it was too obvious that Mossadiq was not an English lackey they labelled him as an American lackey. The Soviet backed puppet Tudeh Party, demanded all Iran's oil should be nationalised except that in the North which was run by the Russians! After Mossadiq was toppled, the Soviet Union was the first to recognise the new government. Many Tudeh Party members fled to Russia. Again they encountered desperate conditions, some were imprisoned and some had to toe the Soviet Party line to the letter in order to have a basic living standard.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The White Revolution or the Shah's program of reforms took place. Women were given the right to vote and feudal landlords had to pass the ownership of their land to the peasants and divide it amongst those who worked on the land. Workers were given a share of the profits on top of their wages. Army recruits were given the choice to serve as literacy corps, Health and Hygiene corps or Agricultural corps. The reforms were backed and encouraged by the Americans.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Shiite clerics came to power in 1979, US embassy was occupied, Israeli embassy ceased to exist but the Russian embassy got bigger and bigger. The Soviet backed puppet Tudeh Party were told to back Khomeini and the clerics. The new theocracy started a mass arrest of Iranian Marxists including the Tudeh party leaders and members and most of them were executed. Russia maintained good relations with the Ayatollahs and never complained about the massacre of Iranian Communists. Some Marxists fled to Russia where they suffered great hardship. Those who were lucky, managed to escape again and flee to Western Europe and America, where they now enjoy comfortable lives.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Saddam started a war against Iran. Saddam was pro-Soviet. His weapons were all Russian made. Iranians resisted the Iraqi aggression with the remnants of the US weapons they had from before the 1979 takeover of the country by the clerics.
While we shouted long live Palestine and death to American Saddam, Russia, the PLO, Cuba and the Socialist camp backed Saddam.
Islamic Republic resorted to buy arms from Israel.
Finally the US toppled Saddam.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The Soviet Union collapsed and the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea became many. Our share of the Caspian Sea was reduced further and further from 50% with the full backing of the Russians.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

Now Putin (the boot) comes to Tehran, so that we can be further trampled on by the Russian boots as we have been in the last 150 years.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel
----

Precisely my thoughts when we organised this protest outside the Russian embassy last year on the anniversary of the liberation of Azerbijan from the Soviet yoke.
VOA Persian however declined to give coverage to our protest and the points we were raising. Perhaps many of their staff still believe Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel :))

Mehdi Jami and Radio Zamaneh

I must admit, I have never listened to radio Zamaneh Persian radio broadcast from Holland. I have however met Mehdi Jami on two previous occasions, before he became the director of radio Zamaneh. My first impressions of him were, what an apology for a man and as I listened to him more, my impressions were what a disgrace for the human race.
A twiggy servile creepy groveller who would scrape the bottom of the barrel to justify and say something positive about the clerics in Iran, followed by 'and I am not a supporter of mullahs you know'. Get the idea? A pisspot just like Hossein Derakhshan. You want to lift them up by their collar and clubber them round the ears but then you think, is there any point in hitting this cockroach?

So when I read the translation of the article by Janny Groen and Annieke Kranenberg in de Volkskrant about the mess at Radio Zamaneh, I really was not surprised to find out what was happening there.

When President Ahmadi-Nejad made the famous statement 'There are no homsexuals in Iran', I didn't put anything on my blog, because it was widely reported and ridiculed by the mass media any way, but I did look around to see which of the usual Islamic apologists tried to do the usual window dressing job for their masters in Tehran, and I could not find any. Not even Hossein derakhshan, who has managed to enroll at SOAS without a BA but with the help of media studies scholar!, Annabelle Sreberny, had any bright sparks on how to help his beloved Ahmadi-nejad with this one.

I did not however realise that Mehdi Jami had managed this difficult task until I read the article by Janny Groen and Annieke Kranenberg :)

''Everyone knows that he meant to say that Iran does not have institutionalized homosexuality, no marriages between same sexes"

So there you go. You get the picture on what sort of a revolting lackey the poor Dutch tax payers are paying for. Another example of how Iranian dissidents are accused of receiving money from the West, but in reality, the only people who are receiving grant after grant, are the Islamic regime's apologists and lackeys.

My message to these Western governments is don't waste your tax payers money with such lame radio and TV stations. Iranians have enough of these inside Iran, and my message to the people in the West is, next time your government tells you there isn't enough money for your schools or hospital or community projects, it has probably been spent on promoting the Islamic Republic apologists and lackeys living in your countries without you even knowing about it.

Islamic Turks Still as Inhumane as when they Massacred Armenians

Islamist Turkish President Abdullah Gul, may condemn the US Congressional Committee vote on the 1915-17 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottomans, but the truth is the inhumane neanderthal behaviour is still inherent amongst many Islamist Turks who yearn for those Ottoman years.

Take the case of what happened to the 5 Iranian refugees, only recently, just prior to Abdullah Gul's visit to the city of Van. Iranian refugees, Arya (Abolfazl) Ajorloo, Ali (Mahan) Alemzadeh, Mojtaba Vatanpoor, Pejman Piran and Alireza Ranjbar had been stranded in the border city of Van for several years. Some of the five had already obtained refugee status from the UN HQ in Van and should have been allowed to leave Turkey already. Instead they were all called to report to the local police station, then taken into a separate room and beaten senseless by several armed savage Turkish police officers wearing bullet proof jackets. Turkish police is so brave and manly!

They were then stuffed into the back of a van and driven towards the Iranian border but at some point the victorious captors had to change their minds, when Ajorloo started having a seizure, and were dropped off few kilometers before the border with Iraqi Kurdistan. Of course the Turkish police were kind enough to give the five refugees a useful tip "If the Kurdish border guards start shooting, put your hands up and wave these white flags".

The five are now in Irbil. The UN at Irbil is about as useful as beauty make up on Debra Cagan. They are not allowed to leave the town and are extremely demoralized. 'We expected more from the international community. What have we done other than oppose the Iranian government?" Alemzadeh told me on the phone. "But I tell you something Potkin, at least the people in Irbil are ten times more humane and hospitable than the Turks. As comical as the UN here is, we are so grateful to the kindness of the local people. Many of whom were at one point refugees themselves and understand our plight."

Such is the true nature of bully Turks and their disregard for basic human rights. Do you want these Turks to be in Europe one day? No Thanks!

Tell the UN and the Turkish authorities what you think of their behaviour:
Turkish Embassy in London : +442073930202
UN Refugee HQ in Ankara : 00903124411696

Some More Pics from Al-Quds and Counter Demo

Hezbollah supporters marcing past the counter demo.



One counter demonstrator got behind the Iranian regime supporters with a placard saying oppose Government of Iran - Support People of Iran :))



One poster that said it all :

Ahmadi-nejad at Tehran University

Tehran University under military siege yesterday, during Ahmadi-Nejad's visit. Thank God we don't have to rely on Western media correspondents for news and pictures any more.
Here is a picture of protesting students which some Western correspondents referred to as a "couple of dozen":

Protests at Tehran University

Reuters reported scuffles at Tehran university today ahead of the speech by President Ahmadi-nejad. This picture grabbed my attention. The poster held by the male student asks for the release of three Tehran University students from prison and the one held by the female student asks "We have questions too, why just Columbia?"

The question is one asked by Iranians all the time. For the SS-lamic regime has one window dressing in order to impress the outside world but the reality of what happens inside Iran is always different from what is nicely packaged for outside of Iran.

Ahmadi-nejad is prepared to answer questions from Columbia students but not from Iranian students. The consequences of asking questions in Iran can lead to imprisonment.

Counter Demo to Al-Quds Rally

For the last three decades, Islamic Republic has organised Al-Quds rallies across the European cities on the last Sunday of Ramadan. In London, except on one occasion three years ago, the Al-Quds march has taken place completely unopposed. On that rare occasion three years ago, there were only seven of us then but we still managed to persuade a UK Left wing group not to join the rally.

The whole purpose behind the carnival is nothing but propaganda for the Islamic Republic of Iran. By arranging this annual rally, the Islamic Republic wants to pretend to be a friend of the Palestinian people and attempt to recruit from those gullible individuals who would believe such Islamic Republic misinformation.

The truth is of course very different. The clerical theocracy ruling Iran has brought nothing but misery, poverty, corruption, drug addiction, crisis and instability for the iranian people and it sure won't bring prosperity and happiness for the Palestinians or any other people.

The Al-Quds rally in London this year was different for two reasons however. There were much fewer participants in the Islamic government sponsored march. In fact the marchers were more than two hours behind the schedule, desperately applying their rent a crowd expertise before they could begin their march. More significantly, the rally did not go unopposed today. Not only it did not go unopposed, but this time we were joined by other British groups and individuals who felt it was time to stand up to supporters of Islamic terrorism marching in the streets of London.

Kudos to all the hard organising by Harry's Place in particular and the signatories to the Euston Manifesto, as well as Worker's Liberty and Class War who made it possible to finally show an opposition to the IRI lackeys in London. Today, thousands of people passing the Eros statue in Piccaddilly, realised that there are many who are prepared to stand up to the onslaught of Islamic fundamentalism in this country.

Hopefully we can now build on this.














A Che Guevara fan at the Al-Qods march. So many Iranian
kids of his age were executed in the 80s for admiring
non-Islamic Che and the infidel Fidel!














Does she realise what will happen to her
if she walks in the streets of Tehran like that??
Probably not, I imagine she only watches the BBC.

Debra Cagan Has to Go

It was only the other day I wrote a post on my blog on how much harm has been caused to our people by unthoughtful remarks made by US officials in the last three decades. Ever since the Carter administration, there seems to be some kind of competition amongst the white house staff, on who can come up with the most outrageous and ignorant statement that can bring about maximum damage. I mentioned Andrew Young calling Ayatollah Khomeini a saint!, Ambassador Sullivan referring to Khomeini as 'Iran's Gandhi', Clinton and Armitage calling the theocracy in Iran a democracy and so on.

Now to top this extensive list of uninformed ignorant official statements, we have the latest winner for the trophy of cretinous comments. The winner is Debra Cagan for her remarks in a meeting with UK MPs on how much she hates ALL Iranians.

Make no mistake, she/he - however you want to refer to this steroids overdosed 'ADVISER!!' - was not referring to the Iranian regime, it was referring to the Iranian people, and ALL of us.

When it comes to alienating friends and allies and promoting enemies, no one does it as good as the US officials. If its the so called 'Homeland Security' illiterates at US airports, you may take it with a pinch of salt. After all pay peanuts and you get monkeys but I doubt very much if Debra Cagan gets paid peanuts, she just looks like a monkey.

Debra Cagan has to be sacked immediately if the US has any interest in keeping the most pro-Western population in the Middle East on her side. Only her quick dismissal can reassure the Iranian people that she was just one rotten apple, one amateur diplomat or whatever her official job title is, who got a job she did not deserve and therefore was consequently dealt with.

Tyranny of the Islamic Republic

I have some differences of opinion with the way Robert Tait has portrayed the likes of Khatami and Ibrahim Yazdi in his article, Tyranny in Tehran, but he has done an exceptional job so far in reporting from Iran.

Unlike most other correspondents in Tehran, he does not just paraphrase the official IR government when reporting the news from Iran, he goes out and investigates the news.

In particular, Robert Tait's report, printed in the Observer today, describes very well, the way dissidents are treated in Iran and how dissent is quickly clamped on by the regime.

Another aptly reported subject in Tait's report is the widely rumoured desire by US government for regime change in Iran and the famous $75m of annual US state department funding for pro-democracy projects in Iran.
What a load of cod's wallop. I know not of one single Iranian dissident or pro-democracy project who has received a single dime of this money, yet we have all been accused of it by anti-American groups and individuals.

During my IVLP visit to US and in our meeting with the State Department officials, we were categorically told, the US is not after a regime change but change of regime's behaviour, and when we asked how they intended to change the regime behaviour, the reply was some poxy ridiculous website that no one had even heard of. Good luck US State department and your desire to change the Islamic Republic's behaviour, but we would be grateful if you just stop giving the clerics platform after platform for their propaganda.

Critical Days for Burma

I remember when I was interviewed by CNN, the presenter tried to sound all doom and gloom and used Burma as an example of a hopeless case where regime change was not possible.
"I point out Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for 10 years and still no democratic reform there" was the interviewer's exact words.

I have been following the events in Burma ever since the brave British national, James Mawdsley, was arrested there for distributing pro human rights leaflets. It fascinated me how the quest for justice motivated a British national to risk his life and freedom for that of others so many miles away. I admire Aung San Suu Kyi so much as well. She left her comfortable Cambridge life to serve her people, never showing any regret, never losing her determination. Many times, I hoped Parastoo Forouhar, whose parents were stabbed to death by Islamic Republic agents in their home, would be our own Aung San Suu Kyi.

Now that thousands of people have taken to the streets in Burma again, it has made me think and reflect over the past years that I have followed news of Burma. I ask myself, how is it in all these years since Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest, I never heard anyone in the West dare to justify the junta rule in Burma? No junta apologists ever appeared to have a free platform to promote the military dictatorship in Burma. No Burmese official was ever invited to Western universities and received honorary PHD? Yet when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a religious dictatorship and a religious apartheid, their apologists are given forum after forum to promote and justify the theocracy in Iran.

In fact ever since the beginning of the Islamic revolution in Iran, outrageous remarks have been expressed in support of the most reactionary despots in the world by influential people in the West. People that you would assume should have a reasonable degree of intellect for the positions they occupy.

Andrew Young called Ayatollah Khomeini a Saint! The US ambassador to Iran, at the time of the revolution, David Sullivan, likened the bloodthirsty Khomeini to 'Iran's Gandhi". Clinton and Armitage, ignored the unelected Guardian Council selection process of candidates, and claimed Iran was a democracy! The principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and a retired US Navy captain, Gary Sick, who has held impressive posts like the deputy director for International Affairs at the Ford Foundation, has gone out of his way in the past 28 years to buy friends for the Islamic Republic and promote murderers like Rafsanjani as moderates. If I gave examples of European statesmen, journalists and Left wing admirers of the theocracy in Iran, the list of such absurd adulation for the Islamic Republic and its henchmen will go on and on.

Where did we go wrong? Why is our message not getting across? Why is it that Islamic Republic apologists and supporters like Massoud Behnood and Hossein Derakhshan are able to get grants after grants from various foundations and institutions, and yet we struggle to fight a petro-dollar regime, which is a threat to the world, on our shoe string personal budgets?

Perhaps that is the answer to all these questions. The Islamic rulers in Iran are much more cunning and shrewd than their Burmese counterparts. They know how to spend their money to influence the international public opinion and buy their "useful idiots". We on the other hand, have to fight an army of IRI apologists and "useful idiots" before we can even get near to the Islamic Republic.

On these critical days for Burma, our hearts and minds are with the people of Burma who have risen against the tyranny of their oppressors. We express our solidarity with them and wish they can live a peaceful life where they will no longer have to look over their shoulder when they speak, a precious privilege that is so often taken for granted by the people in democratic countries.

Channel 4 Its a Free World

I was just channel hopping and came across this TV drama on channel 4, called 'Its a Free World'. It was about a couple of girls who were struggling to start their own recruitment agency by recruiting migrant workers for low paid dirty jobs. What caught my eye when I was channel hopping was this Iranian family that appeared on the program. They were playing the roles of asylum seekers whose application for asylum had been rejected and were living in sub-standard conditions in fear of being picked up and returned to Iran. No problem so far.

What bothered me was when the family started telling their story. The program is set in today's contemporary world, so you would think this Iranian family who were seeking asylum were refugees from the Islamic Republic, but when they started telling their story, it started from the man's family who were booksellers and were persecuted during the Shah for having sided with Mossadiq in 1953 and having published books that were critical of the Shah. There was no mention of the Islamic Republic, or no mention of the Ayatollahs, it seemed whoever wrote the play was just too scared to mention those words, so he or she had gone for the safe option of yes you guessed it, the 1953 coup :)

'My family sided with Prime Minister Mossadiq who was elected by the people' his voice raising when he said the words 'elected by the people' :)) what load of non-sense, Mossadiq was not elected by the people, he was appointed by the Shah. I don't know about you but I have just had enough of these people who have just read a couple of lines about the 1953 coup and bring it up for just about every subject you can think of.

First BBC Report of Ahmdinejad's NY Visit

I just watched the BBC lunch time news and its reporting of Ahmadinejad's visit to New York. A few protesters were shown as a bunch of Zionist lunatics outside Columbia university with their amateurish make shift placards. Some of the protesters looked like they were interviewed but the sound of their interviews and their slogans was muted during the BBC news programme.

On the other hand, part of Ahmadinejad's interview with some US based channel (may be CBS?) was shown, where Ahmadinejad was masterfully playing the innocent, saying "what use is nuclear weapons? Soviet Union had them but despite their nuclear weapons they were overthrown." while the interviewer approvingly nodded his head.

Meanwhile Columbia university claimed today that their invitation of Ahmadinejad will consist of questions and answers session by those who oppose Ahmadinejad too.
As a "gift" to Columbia university, Ahmadinejad announced Kian Tajbakhsh, who apparently is a Columbia graduate, will be released from prison in Iran. Columbia university must be delighted by such a generous gift!

Thus, so far, it seems that president Ahmadinejad is winning the propaganda game, just as I predicted and feared. After this visit and with the way the Western media will report his visit, and the platforms that the likes of Columbia university will give Ahmadinejad, there will be more recruits for militant Islam, and there will be more Western "useful idiots" who will be charmed and schmoozed by the lovely words, the "humility" and the simplicity of this president.
Whether anyone will realise the ability of Ahmadinejad to look you in the face and lie through his teeth will remain to be seen, but I am sure if they could see this clip of Ahmadinejad on Youtube and understand it, they would be more savvy to such charm offensives by the mullahs and their representatives.

In the Youtube clip Ahmadinejad is shown on State TV before he became the president and the realities after his presidency. Before Ahmadinejad became the president, he claims on State TV, how detrimental and pointless it is for the State to interfere in people's choice of dress and hair style etc.
"..Our youngsters want to cut their hair the way they want to, what is to you and I?(smiles)..Its not up to the state to bother with such trivial matters..Iran is a country with mixed ethnic groups, traditions, types and styles.. it is beneath the state to interfere in such personal tastes and humiliate the people. The state should serve all Iranians...Is the problem of our country that so and so girl dressed in this way?.."

Next we see few victims amongst thousands of Ahmadinejad's Morality Campaign, who are arrested or cautioned because a few strands of their hair is showing, after this man becomes the president of the Islamic Republic.

Western mass media, Western Academics, Western "Useful Idiots", if you want to believe president Ahmadinejad and be charmed by his deceptions, its up to you; but just think of the seeds of lies and misinformation which you are scattering.

Militant Islam will make life like hell for you just as it did for the Iranian journalists, academics, intellectuals and just about every other Iranian.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam Interview with Spiegel

The good news is that not every Iranian ex-pat is a turncoat and a traitor like Shahin Parvizi.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam once again makes us proud and uses the power and influence of her position to promote human rights in Iran.
See:
Interview with Spiegel

Two Clips on Iran

What comfort seeking reporters like Richard Engels of MSNBC like to spend their time filming:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=b3d2f05e-df3f-4757-ad2f-bbf56a88cf87&f=34&fg=rss

and scenes which should get reported by Western media correspondents that never make the headlines:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KWIRPJrtnZM

6 Days in Oman

Just when I thought I could have a rest and stay away from the ever increasing stress of airports, I ended up spending six nights in Oman last week.

When I was a kid, Oman was a little non-entity. We on the other hand were the ones to whom the people in the region looked up to.

Now imagine how I felt when I was shown the Omani police boats patrolling the Omani waters, with their main task being to stop Iranian refugees enter Oman illegally. It was like an arrow through my heart and I cursed the ragheads and the pseudo-intellectuals of the previous generation who have reduced our people to such lows.

Oman is now a stable country in a volatile region and the people of Oman enjoy the prosperity that the stability has brought them. So much of this prosperity is because of a reformist forward looking king, but of course one must not forget the toil of the migrant workers in Oman who have helped build the country too.

As soon as you enter the airport, you see the migrant workers with worried looks on their faces, queuing for their permits to be approved.

The English language daily, Oman Times, is not really worth reading, the front page is boring and just about government officials visiting or hosting their counterparts. On the next pages however, I came across notices that I have never seen in any other newspaper. A big notice on the page 3, was a picture of a Pakistani national who had been sacked by his employers. Imagine someone getting fired from their work and then his employers announce it in the newspapers with full picture and details! Other notices were about other migrant workers, again with their pictures and full details, who had absconded their duties and left before their contract was due. The notices warned other employers of the legal implications of hiring them.

Oman has a rugged beauty about its landscape. Its mountains and even the greener parts of the country have an austere look about them. This coarse and craggy scenery however is what makes it interesting and not flat and boring like Dubai. It breaks the monotony of the repressive humid heat around in Oman at this time of the year.

The luxury hotels in Oman are on par with the ones in Dubai, even better some people think. They are as near to paradise as you can have on earth.

The people of Oman have come a long way since I was a kid. Iran on the other hand has regressed further and further every year, and it will not get any better until we break this mood of apathy and submission to the status quo.

Turkish Islamist Government Arrests Secular Iranian Dissidents

Five Iranian secular dissidents who have been accepted as bonafide refugees by UNHCR, were beaten up by the Turkish police and their whereabouts is currently unknown. Despite the numerous witnesses who saw the Turkish police beat up the five Iranians, the Turkish authorities say they have no knowledge of where the five are.

Iranian refugees in Van, Turkey, fear that the five have been rounded up and returned to the Islamic Republic as a first act of co-operation between the two Islamist governments in cracking down against secular dissidents.

Mahan (Ali) Alemzadeh, Arya (Abolfazl) Adjorloo and Mojtaba Vatanpoor, members of the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS), and Alireza Ranjbar and Pezhman Piran were protesting at the Turkish authorities for not allowing them to leave Turkey despite their asylum cases having been approved by the UNHCR a long time ago.

Abdullah Gul, the newly appointed Islamic president of Turkey, will today be visiting the border city of Van, as the first stop of his post election victory domestic trip. The pro-Islamic mayor of Van, Burhan Yenigün, has ordered 10,000 roses to be distributed amongst the Van residents to greet the Turkish Islamist president.

Secular people in Turkey should express solidarity with their Iranian counterparts against their new Islamic government and demand to know the whereabouts of the five Iranian refugees.

Family Members Arrested Before Meeting Louise Arbour

International Transport Workers' Federation, reports the wife and sister of the imprisoned Iranian bus union leader, Mansour Osanloo, were arrested in Tehran after they attempted to meet with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, who was visiting Iran.

Relatives of a number of detained students who were also there to see Arbour were arrested along with Osanlou's wife.

Following the incident, Shirin Ebadi, who was also meeting Arbour, protested vehemently and a few minutes later they were released.

Five other families have also been arrested after taking part in the commemoration of the 19Th anniversary of the massacre of Iranian political prisoners.

Pilgrims of a Different kind

While the Islamic Republic has poured so much of its resources into harassing respectable Iranian women for showing a few strands of hair, something very sinister has been happening under the disguise of pilgrimage to the tomb of the eighth Shiite Imam in Mashad, North East Iran.

A human trafficking gang has been using the Islamic Republic as a transit country for transferring prostitutes from the ex- Soviet Republics to the Persian Gulf countries. To do this the gang had to obtain Iranian visas for the women under the disguise of pilgrims to Iran's holy Shiite shrines.

The Iranian leader of this gang, then moved the women from Mashad to Karaj, just outside Tehran, where they "earned the money" for the rest of their journey by hosting clients in Iran. Then they would be moved to the port of Bandar-Abbas in South Iran, and sent to the Persian Gulf countries by boats.

Many of these unfortunate women were initially told that they would be sent to the Persian Gulf countries to work in the hotels and bars, but once the gang got hold of their IDs and passports, they had no other choice but to do as the gang forced them to.

Typical of the Islamic Republic and its wrong priorities and the way those running Iran waste all the resources of the country. While the country is infested with prostitution gangs and narcotics, the Iranian authorities concentrate on arresting ordinary Iranian women for not fully observing the Islamic dress code!

Beware of Those with a Frozen Intellect

"Some reactionary groups with a frozen intellect have infiltrated the seminaries and are taking over crucial posts in the country and are becoming active in politics"

The above statement is not made by some secular Iranian opposition figure, it is in fact made by Ayatollah Tabasi, himself a figure straight from the dark ages with a caveman mentality. Yet even Ayatollah Tabasi regards the takeover of Iran by the Hojjatieh sect, alarming and a step back.

Despite all this, there are so many individuals posing as intellectuals and so many so-called "progressive" organisations in the West that somehow still want to justify the Islamic Republic as an acceptable and legitimate government. They themselves however, as Ayatollah Tabasi phrases it so well, have a "frozen intellect".

19th Anniversary of the Massacre of Iranian Political Prisoners

Nineteen years ago, during the months of August to September, a hideous crime was taking place in Iran. As Ayatollah Khomeini drank the "posion chalice" and signed the peace treaty with Saddam Hossein, he feared the release of the Iranian political prisoners would result in organising the mass discontent of how the war was handled, into a serious political challenge to the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Thus personally, in his own handwriting, Khomeini gave the go ahead for the massacre. He wanted absolute fear to reign over the population in the aftermath of the war.

Iran's political prisoners were called in to face kangaroo courts of three clerics. The prisoners were asked two questions each, "Do you believe in Allah?", "Are you prepared to renounce your organisation?". The prisoners had no idea about the consequences of their replies. In fact a 'No' to any of the above questions meant immediate execution. Many of the prisoners had already finished their prison sentences but were still not released, some were even brought back after they had been released.

The victims included teenagers, whole families, men and women. During the months of August and September, all prison visits were cancelled, families were told not to bring any medicine or food for their loved ones. All this time the killing inside Iran's prisons continued.

Those executed were buried in unmarked mass graves on the outskirts of the towns. In Tehran, one mass burial was accidentally discovered by an Armenian priest who had become curious as to why stray dogs kept digging there for bones.

Even the successor to the position of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Montazeri, could not stay silent about the crime and protested to Ayatollah Khomeini. His protests resulted in his removal from the position of successor to Khomeini and his house arrest for the last 19 years. Yet while an Ayatollah protested at this massacre, the rest of the world remained silent and offered no sympathy.

Watch the documentary, The Tree That Remembers, to learn more about the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners.

Typical Ray Takeyh Suggestion

It comes as no surprise to read Ray Takeyh's latest article in the Financial Times, where true to his typical ways he tries to knock down a potentially effective action against the Islamic Republic, that of designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, and instead suggesting some mumbo jumbo of "comprehensive dialogue encompassing the totality of differences between Islamic Republic and the US to arrive at some common perspective....". In other words lets buy Islamic Republic more time, the pivotal objective of Takeyh's hidden agenda and that of his gang.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr's mafia has done so well in the past to confuse the hell out of the US State Department about Iran. During my IVLP visit to US last Novemeber, we had a meeting at the US State Department. We were told that the US does not have a policy of regime change in Iran, instead the US policy is changing the behaviour of the Islamic regime! So I asked, "OK, how do you intend to change the regime's behaviour?" The reply was, "we have a website" :)) and what a load of bollocks that website was.

Desperately trying hard to hold back my laughter at such naivety and stupidity, I felt like leaving the meeting there and then and saying "Good luck with changing the regime's behaviour through your website". Seyyed Hossein Nasr's tentacle of "Iran Experts" had done a very good job of influencing such idiotic policies at the State department.

I wonder if 10 months further since our IVLP visit, Hossein Nasr, his son Vali, Ray Takeyh and the rest of this IRI sponsored mafia can still pose themselves as unbiased "Iran experts". If so, we have some very dangerous times ahead.

With Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Just before going to US, I got a chance to meet Nazanin Afshin-Jam in London but I just didnt have time to write about it. She was just as I expected her to be, friendly and down to earth and very dedicated.

It was more than a year ago I wrote this post about Nazanin and it was such a joy to meet this wonderful and kind person face to face .

I wish her all the best for all the good work she is doing.

The Old Dinosaurs of the Past and VOA Persian

If anyone ever doubts Fakhravar, when he refers to Nasser Zarafshan as a hardened Stalinist, they only need to read Zarafshan's own latest writing where he rebukes Abbas Milani, for having turned back on Mao:
http://web.peykeiran.com/vs2005/article_body.aspx?ID=11439

The above is in Persian only unfortunately, English readers just have to trust me. The first thing anyone who can read the article will ask, will be 'my God, which decade does the author live in? and when will he move on from worshipping the likes of Mao and Stalin?'

However for those who follow Iranian politics, all this should not come as a surprise. For we all know that the old dinosaurs of the Iranian Left, never moved on from the mumbo jumbo and the misconceptions of the 60s and 70s. The "good old years" where they imagined, those living under Mao and Stalin had prosperous happy lives and had reached the highest form of human society :))

What should be surprising however, is when Voice of America(Persian) presenter describes a worshipper of mass murderers like Stalin and Mao as an Iranian national hero!! purely because Zarafshan was a good friend of her dad! This brings us to another bad trait of the previous Iranian generation, that of nepotism and promoting your own friends only. It is this very characteristic of the old Iranian generation that has turned VOA(Persian) into a closed shop of "our own friends only", which denies air time to an important dissident figure like Fakhravar, much more appealing to the younger Iranian generation, yet promotes the old Iranian dinosaurs who are no longer relevant to the young Iranians. This is why an important event like the Prague conference, does not receive due coverage by the VOA(Persian), because Fakhravar was there, yet a pathological liar with a shady past, who has failed his exams in International Security in Reading university is promoted by VOA Persian to the Iranian viewers, as an "expert" in International Security and thousand more examples like this.

If we want to change Iran, its no good just getting rid of the Ayatollahs from power, we have to change the mentality of the old generation that led us to this mess in the first place. How can we do this at VOA(Persian) however, when its one of the most unaccountable American institutions I have ever come across.

4 weeks of hard labour

I have finally returned to UK after spending four weeks of, I am not kidding, hard labour in America. I can not recall having worked this hard and been so anxious in my entire working career. For the first time in the last 28 years, there were days that I did not read and follow up Iran related news, neither on TV, radio, newspapers or the internet. I was just so consumed with my work, but that was the good part, for I love my work.

The worst things I will remember however about the four weeks in Washington, will be the repressive unbearable heat and humidity and once again the encounter with the stupidest officials I have ever come across in my life, the US Homeland Security at Dulles airport. These so called Homeland Security people represent the embodiment of the worst combination. Stupid, ignorant and illiterate people who have been given a lot of power. That is a bad combination. Too much power is never good, too much stupidity is detrimental, the combination of the two is just a disaster.

Mothers Gather Outside Karaj Police Station

Mothers of 270 Iranian youth, who were arrested after attending a rock concert, gathered outside Karaj police station today to find out about the whereabouts of their children.

I wonder if people in the West can possibly begin to understand this. Having your children arrested and not tell you where they are kept or what is happening to them, just because they attended a rock concert!

In Anticipation of Social Unrest

Baseej women members prepare in anticipation for social unrest and civil protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran.


More Pictures:
FARS News Agency

US Embassy Ignorance

Majid Kavousifar, seen in these pictures before being hanged, left Iran for Abu Dhabi two days after the assassination of one of the corruptest and most repressive judges in the Islamic Republic. Judge Moghaddas who was assassinated by Kavousifar and his nephew, was responsible for handing out long sentences to many political activists. Moghaddas sometimes even boasted that he sentenced the accused without even reading their files!

Kavoussifar had introduced himself as the killer of Moghaddas to the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi, where he had applied for asylum. The embassy guards handed him over to the Interpol, which informed Islamic Republic's authorities of the incident.
I thought it was just the Homeland Security at the US airports who were the thickest officials in the world!

Here, Majid Kavousifar is seen smiling and saying his last goodbye. Why are so many victims smiling in these latest round of public executions? Perhaps if there is any after life, it will be better than living under the mullahs.

The film footage of the execution.

No Fear at the Gallows

Victim laughs at death and the rest seem to show no fear:

http://web.peykeiran.com/vs2005/iran_news_body.aspx?ID=42105

From the latest round of executions in the Islamic Republic.

CIS Soldiarity Music Video

The CIS(UK) is growing stronger and stronger and attracting more talented Iranians.
Here is a solidarity music video by CIS(UK):

'We can cross any hurdle, if only we stand together'

And here is a new clip from Iran on youtube, Iranian women resisting the Law Enforcement Officer who wants to make arrest for 'immodest' Hijab.

Police Commander's Admission

"If we had not carried out the campaign against thugs and hoodlums, then you would have seen how the network that gives them orders to disrupt the society's security would have created havoc after petrol rationing." Islamic Republic Police Commander, Ismaiil Ahmadi Moghadam, speaking at the 'Police, Society and the Security of Society' seminar on Wednesday.

So there is no doubt now. The whole campaign and the reason the Iranian press photographers were purposely brought to cover these brutal public beatings, was to create terror and fear amongst the population in anticipation of public protests against petrol rationing in the Islamic Republic.

Commander Ahmadi Moghadam is also Ahmadi-Nejad's brother-in-law.

Half Moon

Last night, we went to watch the movie, Half Moon, directed by Bahman Ghobadi. I be honest with you, I am not really into arty farty films, with excruciating long boring scenes that no one really understands but pretends to understand. I remember I felt like the little boy at the Emperor's New Clothes when I was watching the award winning Iranian movie, Taste of Cherries. "What a load of boring crap that was" I remember was my candid comment to those who were pretending they had enjoyed the film while struggling to hide their yawns.

Half Moon, however is nothing like that. It will be amongst the best movies I have ever seen. Half Moon, is about the common struggle of all Iranians to preserve their joyous culture. Something that the intellectuals in the West just never understood or probably think of as "bourgeois nonsense". Ghobadi illustrates some of the hardship of what Iranians have to go through for what people in most other places take for granted, such as the baffling stupidity of why women can not sing in the Islamic Republic.
"So she sings, how is that a crime?" The old man who is leading his sons to perform a big concert says to the Islamic Republic Law Enforcement Officer without getting a worthwhile reply.

There are some magnificent scenes in the movie. Such as when Mamo enters the forbidden village where women singers are held, and 1344 women perform the Daf in their colourful dresses.

The film is about a people who are struggling to keep their joyous culture and as such the movie can not just be a sad and depressing one. In fact it is full of unique humour and despite all that happens, its unique humour remains a central part of the movie.

Some are hesitant to take part in the journey, some give up half way and turn back, some die, but at the end an incredibly beautiful woman who remains a mystery shows them the way and saves the day. Again another symbolic piece for the belief that the saviour of Iran will be the women of Iran.

The film is full of symbolic scenes such as when a woman's voice at a burial makes the dead person come alive again. I suppose this can be interpreted in many ways by different people, but for me it was the reawakening of men who had been denied life in its full by excluding the many pleasures of life that exist.

I can write more and more about the scenes, but let me not spoil it for you and just recommend you to see the film if you can.

Fun Thing to Do!

I was reading in Hoder's post today a reference he made to the occasion when along with BBC Persian adviser, Massoud Behnood and another BBC Persian reporter, Behzad Boloor, they went to the Iranian embassy in London and voted for Rafsanjani to be the next president of the Islamic Republic.

Well I was not surprised to hear the scum bag, Massoud Behnood to go to the embassy to vote - on the first round of elections he denied voting on VOA Persian, saying he did not have valid documents to vote with. Scum bag Massoud Behnood's expertise is in nothing other than how to be close with whoever is in power. To hear Behzad Boloor also voted for Rafsanjani however, was a bit of an eye opener for me. I had met Behzad Boloor once in a party. He seemed like a regular guy and full of jokes against the ruling clerics in Iran. How could he be so naive to vote for the very person who was at the peak of his power during the mass execution of Iranian political prisoners in August-Septemeber, 1988??

I had to ask him and was hoping that he would say, Hoder is talking crap, I was never with him. Yet this was his reply to me:

'I know it look sstarnge now but that day it was a fun thing to do since I ran away from Iran during Rasanjani's time.
dar shahr e kooran ... yek cheshm padeshaast'

Well in the eyes of those who promote the Islamic Republic, Behzad's vote was just another statistics that people of Iran take part in these "elections" and that Islamic Republic is a "legitimate democracy". Its so sad to see so many Iranians refer to their past mistakes that have contributed to a sheer catastrophy for our country, as 'it was a fun thing to do at the time'!

And one wonders how all the likes of Hoder, Behnood and Behzad Boloor end up in the BBC Persian?!

May be I will bump into Behzad somewhere again, and may be afterwards I will be able to say about the encounter, "It was a fun thing to do!".

Terror Free Tomorrow Poll

I have been so fed up with research from the so-called "Iran experts" and such, who base their "research" on simple anecdotes of "an Iranian man told me ...". Many times I have tried to explain to them not to expect a heartfelt true reply from an Iranian in Iran to a political question, because telling the truth in countries run by despots can have consequences. This concept can be difficult to grasp sometimes for people priviliged enough to live in countries where they don't have to look over their shoulders.

For this very reason, even I was surprised at the poll results by Terror Free Tomorrow. To think that 61% of Iranians were willing to tell complete strangers over the phone that they opposed the current Iranian system of government, just goes to show how fed up Iranians are with the Islamic Republic.

The report concludes what impartial observers of Iran have been saying for years, that the Iranian people are pro-Western, pro-American, and profoundly want a democratic government instead. Told you so! :)

What Did Lenin Say About the "Iraqi Resistance"?

Communists are very much like religious fundamentalists in many ways. One of these similarities is when they rely on quotes by their holy figures, who have died many years or centuries ago, to resolve their "intellectual dilemmas".

Just by chance browsing on the Internet, I came across a debate between some UK Lefties on whether the "Iraqi resistance" should be supported by them. Simon Assaf and Ann Alexander of the Socialist Workers(?) Party (SWP), were quoting Lenin in July 1916 :), when Lenin was discussing the Easter rising against the British rule in Ireland and the other side were bringing up other quotes by Lenin. And there I was bemused by it all. The "Iraqi resistance" includes Moqtada Sadr supporters who drill holes into their kidnapped victims by electric power drills and Al-Qaedeh who behead human beings like sheep, and here we are the "intellectuals" and "progressive :)" figures of the Left who have to rely on Lenin's quotes from 1916 to resolve their dilemma of whether they should support the "Iraqi Resistance" or not?!

Meanwhile a human being has been put in a sack buried up to his waist and stoned to death in the Islamic Republic of Iran this week while another human being, a mother of three children awaits her stoning next. Have any of you heard any condemnation from these "Internationalists"? any demos? simple statements? anything?

Perhaps they are looking for quotes from Lenin about stoning! May be somewhere amongst all that writing there is a quote which justifies stoning by the Proletariat or criticises it as a bourgeoisie activity before they can make up their "progressive" minds.

What feeble minds, what pathetic creatures!

Pourya's Escape

We all saw the pictures and the film footage of the recent brutal Islamic police beatings of the Iranian youth on the Internet. The campaign to publicly beat the youth in the streets was solely aimed to instill fear and terror amongst the Iranian population. The Islamic regime rattled even by the recent punitive sanctions expects more and more social unrest like the protests at petrol rationing. The regime's answer, as always to the country's social difficulties, is to contain people by creating sheer fear in them. Such was the audacity of the regime that it brought along state media's photographers to film and picture the inhumane scenes of their beatings, and in order to dampen the international reaction to the graphical pictures of its barbaric nature, they claimed these were common "criminals and thugs" who had made life like hell for the local residents.

Two of those beaten in these attacks were brothers Pouria and Pouya Fazlollahi. Not only they are not thugs but they are most decent and likeable youngsters you will come across. Pouya is a national Greco-Roman style wresting champion and Pourya played for the national Iranian indoor football team. The two were local sporting heroes in their working class neighbourhood and much liked by the residents.

Yet they were targetted for the public beating campaign. Their crime was having been reported for spreading flyers in support of Reza Pahlavi. The residents who dared, protested as much as they could, but the beatings went ahead. Pouya's whereabouts is still unknown and Pourya was beaten up so badly that he was taken to hospital after several days of being held in a secret detention centre. His friends and supporters created a near riot in the hospital and managed to help him escape from the hospital. Pourya headed straight for the borders.

In the last four weeks or so, I have been nervously worried about organising Pourya's escape to safety. All the credit goes to my courageous friend, Afsaneh. This lioness who has suffered 8 years in the Islamic Republic prisons and lost her right eyesight as a result of continuous beatings to her head, volunteered to bring Pouya to safety through a perilous journey. Yesterday they both safely completed their journey. Pourya's wrists still bear the marks left by the tight handcuffs they had put on him, but he is remarkably in high spirits, particularly after Reza Pahlavi personally called him last night and listened to his horrific plight.

Threat to Europe

I spent four days in the sunny Algarve region of Portugal this week. Its a beautiful place, deep golden sand beaches enclosed by incredible rock formations in the shape of golden cliff rises, good food and an easy leisurely pace of life. If you ask a Portuguese native the directions to a place, he will probably reply something like this, 'you see the rotunda (roundabout), you go straight, then the traffic light, you go straight, then another one, you don't go left, you dont go right, but straight, then another rotunda, you go straight...' After a few minutes you realise that all he had to say was, 'keep going straight until you get there!' In fact it seems all you have to do to get to your destination in the Algarve, is to go straight and eventually somehow you will get there. If you keep going straight towards West, you come to Sarges, the most South Western point or the end of Europe.

Europe is not just a geographical entity however, it has also become known as a set of values and liberties since the end of the war and more so after the collapse of the Communist repression.

When I was in Algarve, I heard about the attack on Glasgow airport and the unexploded car bombs in London . Of course at first I was relieved that there was no mass casualties and fatalities but soon one starts to think how easy it is for the terrorists to get lucky just once. For now it seems the people in Europe have just lost one more small privilege because of the Islamist extremists, that of being dropped at the terminals, just one more stress factor added to the whole stress of flying these days.


This is of course nothing compared to the tragedies that can be just round the corner. The threat to Europe is so great, and so much of it is the result of European politicians not taking the Islamic threat seriously and not stopping those who vehemently despise the European values, from entering the countries in Europe and those who collude with Islamic extremists around the world and yet enjoy the benefits of life in Europe.


It boggles the mind when you come across so many Iranian secular asylum seekers with proven track records of fighting against the religious dictatorship in Iran, who are left in limbo with their asylum applications for years and yet it seems the Islamic extremists with proven track records of being a threat against European values, can so freely come and go as they please.

I was reading in the Telegraph about one of the bombers who survived the failed attack on Glasgow airport. If only the hospital that employed him or the UK immigration authorities asked for just one letter of reference from his university professors in Baghdad. Apparently this guy was such an extremist religious zealot that even his mother did not dare to be without her head scarf in front of him. He was such a nuisance in his university that they just let him pass his exams so that he would leave the campus as soon as possible and not be a threat to the rest of the students. Yet he seems to have been allowed into the UK and secured employment with no problem at all! Another badge of honour for the mess they call the Home Office in Britain.

As my immigration lawyer friend in UK once told me, getting asylum in UK is just like lottery, there is no sound logic or criteria for obtaining it, its just sheer random luck! This lottery of who you let in the country however, can one day mean the end of Europe as we know it however.