Amnesty Concern on Arzhang Davoodi's Condition

Amnesty International have issued the following statement raising serious concerns on Arzhang Davoodi's deteriorating conditions as a result of his marathon hunger strike.

Arzhang has been a staunch supporter of Fakhravar and yesterday, a group of Iranian ex-political prisoners including my Iran-Iraq war veteran friend, Hamid Alizadeh, urged Arzhang in an open letter to end his hunger strike.

'PUBLIC - AI Index: MDE 13/087/2008 26 June 2008 UA 183/08 - Fear of torture or other ill-treatment/Medical concern/Prisoner of conscience IRAN - Arzhang Davoodi (m), aged 56, teacher and writer Political activist Arzhang Davoodi has been prevented from appealing to the Supreme Court against a 15-year sentence handed down as punishment for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. He has been tortured.

Arzhang Davoodi, a writer and the Director of the Parto-e Hekmat Cultural Education Center in Tehran, was arrested in October 2003 for being involved in the production of a TV documentary called Forbidden Iran in which he spoke out about human rights violations in Iran. He was held in a detention facility run by the Revolutionary Guards until March 2004, spending over three months in solitary confinement. He was then moved to Evin Prison in Tehran, where he was severely beaten and tortured: his jaw and shoulder were broken. Arzhang Davoodi was not charged for at least a year.


In a letter from prison dated July 2005, he said that he had been sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and 70 lashes by a Revolutionary Court, which deals with crimes against national security. His appeal was rejected. He was convicted on charges of establishing and directing an organisation opposed to the government; writing and publishing a book opposed to Iran's system of government, called Manifesto for a Secular Iran; organizing action to undermine the state; and involvement in the production of the TV documentary.

On 20 September 2005 he was sent into internal exile in Bandar Abbas Prison, Hormozgan Province, 1500 km south of his home in Tehran. He was told of his sentence, but never given a written copy of his sentencing order, though this is required by law. His sentence was passed behind closed doors and his lawyers, who have yet to see the court’s sentencing order, were not allowed in. Arzhang Davoodi's appeal is now due to be heard by the Supreme Court, but this cannot be done without the sentencing order, which he is also obliged to sign.

Arzhang Davoodi was sent back to Evin Prison in December 2007, for questioning. On 14 April 2008 he was put into solitary confinement, for reasons unknown, and began a hunger strike on 18 April. Ten days later he was transferred to Section 6 of Reja'i Shahr Prison in the city of Karaj, 20 km west of Tehran; this section of the prison is for violent criminals, including murderers.

In a DATE radio interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle his wife, Nazanin Davoodi, said that she had last been allowed to visit him in May 2008, when he was in Reja'i Shahr Prison. On 6 June she had spoken to him by phone, and found that he was too weak to talk for long. The Evin prison authorities have threatened to move Arzhang Davoodi back to Bandar Abbas unless he stops his hunger strike.

The TV documentary Forbidden Iran was filmed secretly and illegally. It was widely broadcast in northern Europe in December 2003 and in North America in January 2004. Arzhang Davoodi had assisted in the making of the documentary and was one of those interviewed on film. During his interview he spoke about political prisoners and the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. The documentary can be seen at http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/iran. '

Student Suicides in Iran

Two Iranian students in separate incidents in Lahijan university and Sistan university, committed suicide last week as a direct result of constant harassment by the Herasat - The body of informants who spy and report in universities and government work places in the Islamic Republic.


The female student in Lahijan was being interrogated by the Herasat in their office, on the fourth floor, when she could take no more and jumped out of the window and chose to end her life instead.

The student in Sistan took an overdose after repeatedly having been informed on by the Herasat. This is the second student to have committed suicide in this university in recent months.

Farinaz, a 21 year old medical student in Shahrekord, also recently committed suicide after constantly being harassed, beaten up and detained by Herasat because her hejab observance did not meet the Herasat requirements.

Amirkabir News website, which is run by AKU students, states according to official figures, there are 4200 suicides amongst Iranian students every year.

Ahmad Nasseri, the vice chancellor of Sistan university reacted to the recent suicides by saying "We all know things need improvement, but things will not become ideal until the Hidden Imam
appears to us again."

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

There was so much happening in Iran in the last two weeks which was not being fully told in the mass media, that I didn't get a chance to write about this powerful and captivating book by Khaled Hosseini. I purchased the book in the airport before flying to Sardinia two weeks ago. It turned out to be one of those books that you just can't put down when you start reading them. In fact when I got to the page where the little girl is being taken to the orphanage and yet shows so much grace in her darkest hour, my heart sank and I had to read the rest of the book to the very end there and then.

I met Khaled Hosseini at the US embassy in London during a screening of the Kite Runner. He seemed a very amiable and kind natured chap, and I hope through his books he can continue to alert the world attention to the terrible plight of Afghanistan and particularly how the Afghan women have suffered and continue to suffer from the male driven religious ignorance and tyranny.

Ahmadi-Nejad's Brother Denies Palizdar's Claims

President Ahmadi-Nejad's brother, Dawood, head of the President's Inspectorate Commission, condemned Palizdar's allegations in a press conference, saying when someone's false allegations unsettles the stability in the country, silence is not condoned.

Iranian president's brother said 'Palizdar's claims that there was also a problematic case against me but it was ignored because I am related to the president is not true.'

Some Western media wrongly reported Palizdar as an ally of president Ahamdi-Nejad who is championing the fight against the corrupt clerics.

Meanwhile Fatemeh Ajorloo, the Karaj representative to the Islamic Majlis, threatened to disclose documents she has on the sale of university entrance exam questions by high ranking officials in the Islamic Republic. Ajorloo who is related to Abbas Palizdar and worked with him on the Judicial Inquiry and Research Commission, made the threats after her house was searched by the Law Enforcement Forces in relation to Palizdar's disclosures.

The Judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, said 11 arrest warrants have been issued against people connected to Palizdar.

Islamic Republic Judge Commits Suicide in Prison

Its hard to keep up with all the news of corruption and immoral behaviour by the Islamic Republic officials these days. On the one hand protests by the Zanjan students have resulted in the removal of the vice chancellor of the university after he was caught red handed sexually soliciting a student girl, and on the other hand Islamic Police Chief Commander Reza Zareii is quietly released after having been caught in a brothel with six prostitutes.

Iranian blogs reported an Islamic Judge by the name of Fallah in the city of Bijar committed suicide in prison. Judge Fallah was arrested a while ago for raping a 13 year old boy along with two other accomplices in a residential house in a drunken orgy.

As we say in Persian, you put salt on things which rot, pity the day that salt itself rots. The rot within the Islamic Republic, which was supposed to have been a utopia of decency and moral behaviour, is so deep it is simply unstoppable.

The Al-Yassin Followers

First time I met Ramin Ahmadi, it was during a conference in London. We were sitting at the back of the room and bored to the point of going to sleep listening to the older generation of Iranian opposition ranting on about the same stuff we had heard over and over before from them. Then the chair introduced Ramin Ahmadi, a professor of internal medicine, a human rights activist who had represented Physicians for Human Rights in Chechnya where he had investigated and documented human rights violations as well his work in East Timour etc...

Just the impressive introduction of Ramin's previous activities was enough to wake us up. The 'organisers' had told Ramin Ahamdi that his presentation will be in English but at the last minute they told him to do it in Persian. Still composed, Ramin Ahmadi, grabbed our attention because he was not just telling us that the Islamic Republic was bad, which we all knew any way, but actually what can be done about it. I have never seen Ramin Ahamdi since but have kept in constant contact with him and he is one of those trusted circle of friends whose opinion I value and often ask for.

Few days ago, I came across an article titled 'Who is scared of the Ale-Yassin' by Ramin Ahmadi on a Persian website. As I have always said, I am not a spiritual person, I had decided at a very young age, years before the 1979 revolution that I will spare myself the burden of organized religion of my elders. Not being a spiritual person, I knew nothing about the Ale-Yassin society other than Yasin was some weird chapter in the Koran, which I had glanced through a few times and then had asked myself why did I waste my time and not do something more practical or worthwhile instead?

Having said all this, I have also come to the conclusion that although many individuals like myself may feel comfortable without the need for spiritual fulfilment, society as a whole needs religion. I believe anything which is force fed to people will be vomited back. Look at the Socialist countries who for decades tried to force their people to become atheist and yet the churches were stronger in Poland and Russia than in Western Europe. Similarly but in reverse, ever since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, the Iranians, particularly the youth, have converted away from Islam on a scale never seen before. There is a youtube clip of a fiery Shiite cleric in Iran which shows him saying, 'Don't worry about converting others into Islam this year, it will be more than enough if you make sure the Shiite youth in Iran have not converted into Zoroastrianism'.

Of course society needs a pure untarnished spiritualism, this is something that the current corrupt, decadent and brutal version of state Islam in Iran can not provide. Thus a society which is placed in a free fall of moral values, looks for new spiritual leaders, new sects and even new religions become an alternative for those who demand something beyond this material world.

Ramin Ahmadi writes about a spiritual group, the Ale-Yasin Society, whose 35 year old leader, Payman Fattahi known to his followers as Master Ilia, was jailed last year in the notorious section 209 of Evin prison. Fattahi suffered 150 days in solitary confinement as well as 104 interrogation sessions, as a result of his tortures, Fattahi suffers from a variety of physical ailments. His brother Ramin Fattahi died in mysterious circumstances in Evin prison and the regime even arrested his pregnant wife. The Islamic Republic now wants Fattahi to recant his activities in front of the camera or face execution.

How is it that a young man and his followers who have no interest in politics, no interest in overthrowing the regime or even offering any political alternative and whose sole pre-occupation is to live a 'purer' and more spiritual life are subjected to such state crackdown and brutality?

'Are youngsters who instead of turning into drugs, alcoholism and prostitution, the very traits which have become instutionalised in Iranian society by the regime itself, have turned to meditation, reciting Rumi's poetry, debates and discussions of self awareness and such like a threat to the Islamic Republic?' Ramin Ahmadi asks in his article and answers:
'Sadly the answer is yes. A society facing a crisis of legitimacy and credibility where its religious leaders are deeply submerged in corruption and immoral behaviour, becomes sensitive towards all new sources of spiritualism which appeal to the public.
The ruling cast blatantly says, if you do not accept me and my interpretation of religion as the only source of the truth, then you are a non-believer and immoral.'

I tend to agree with Ramin here. The Islamic Republic itself is a product of exploiting the faithfuls beliefs, it knows full well the overwhelming power of this phenomena, this is why the punishments handed out to religious dissent, whether it is the Bahaiis, the Christians, the MeK, followers of Ayatollah Shariatmadari or Boroujerdi or the Sufi sects etc. has been so ferocious and so draconian.

Great Qelich on VOA

I hadn't watched VOA Persian for a while, its stupidity and too much irrelevant foreign news while there is so much going on in Iran often makes me annoyed and agitated, but today I got some idle time to myself and while channel hopping through my satellite channels, suddenly I came across Parviz Qelichkhani as the guest on Bijan Farhoody's program.

Seeing the Great Qelich (Qeliche Kabir as we called him then), on the program, rekindled my childhood memories from Iran. A time when I had no interest in politics, instead it was sports and mainly football, wrestling and boxing which were my greatest pass times. Parviz Qelichkhani, the captain of the Iranian national football team was one of my sporting idols whose pictures I often cut out from my weekly issues of Kayhan Varzeshi and cherished them in my collection books of great sporting moments.

How I used to look forward to going along to Amjadieh or Aryamehr stadiums and support our natioanl team, and most of all the excitement and the euphoria of watching Iran v Israel matches in the finals of Asian Nations championships. I had an older distant cousin, himself a talented football player, who always took me along with his mates to those matches. Even to this day its hard to pin point memories which match the exhilarating moments of being amongst a crowd of 100,000 shouting 'bacheh ha motshakerim' - thank you team - when Iran won and the exact opposite feelings of great disappointment from defeats which made me count the days until the next opportunity for national glory in sporting events came along. I learned the power of crowd psychology and the feeling of invincible strength in great numbers in those very days.

It was not until things turned upside down in Iran and politics unwillingly became a part of my life that I learned Qelichkani was a Communist sympathiser, but to me the Great Qelich still remains a football hero and as long as he did not betray our country for his ideology, I was still grateful for all those proud joyous gifts that his legendary free kicks and skills had provided me.

In fact unlike many of the misguided Iranian Communists, the Great Qelich, did not co-operate with the regime and to my knowledge always opposed the take over of Iran by the Ayatollahs.
Watching him on VOA today won my admiration once again for this humble sporting champion.

The Great Qelich mentioned the names of many of our sporting heroes and his colleagues who were executed by the Islamic regime during the massacres of 1981 and 1988. So many talented individuals, assets to our country who were eliminated by the anti-Iran Ayatollahs simply because they did not bow their heads to the new usurpers and remained loyal to our people.

The great Qelich slammed the present day collaborators and traitors in sports like Ali Daiis and Rezazadehs, who go over board to lick the shoes of the corrupt mullahs.

'No one expects you to publicly denounce the regime or go to prison, no one expects you to take part in the protests against the regime, our women, workers, teachers and students are doing all that and they are paying the price but you can at least not get so involved with the regime, you can at least not let the regime exploit you for its own advantages, you must remain loyal to the people or else your fame will be fake and temporary' said the Great Qelich in his interview with Farhoody.

So here we go, 28 years later the Great Qelich is still my football hero, he is Left wing and I am not, but so what? as I always say it would be a boring world if we all thought the same way. So long as he maintains his integrity and practices what he preaches, I will salute him and respect him whatever his ideology.

Perhaps this is a good time to draw a comparison between the past and the present regimes. Despite all the misinformation about the 'brutal dictatorship' of the Shah's regime, the previous regime allowed a Communist sympathiser like Qelichkhani to be the Captain of the national football team, compare this with the current regime which has executed so many of our sportsmen and is hell bent on only allowing the most sycophants of them all to get anywhere near the championship sides.

Mashad Protests on Youtube

Thank heavens for Youtube or we would still be relying on BBC correspondents sitting in their offices waiting for official newsfeed from the Islamic Republic for news about Iran.

See film footages of Mashad protests against the plunder of Iran by the financial mafia of the ruling clerics on you tube by clicking on the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHW7Zh9_HyI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwRQSGzlOJY

Up to 10,000 people were reported to have taken part in the Mashad demo.

Meanwhile around sixty relatives of those arrested in Tehran in demos against the financial corruption of the clerics, gathered outside the courts and demanded the release of their loved ones. Amongst the arrested are Saeed Aryan, 16 years of age and five of his brothers. They were arrested simply because the crowds who were fleeing from club wielding Baseej and plain clothes agents had seeked shelter in their shop which was nearby.

Document that Proves Palizdar was Head of the Commission

Nobody can lie with such audacity as the Shiite clerics in Iran can. If you have read Iran's history of the last two centuries or followed Iran related news in the last 3 decades or like people in Iran have experienced life under the mullahs, you will be left in no doubt as to how much and how blatantly these 'lizards' can lie. It is as if God himself created a breed of evil, lies and deceit which will not only lie in your face but not have an iota of shame either when they are caught out.

Perhaps one day the US State Department and the EU officials will also realise that as we say in Persian, 'to lie for these people is as easy as drinking water', but perhaps I am too optimistic and it will take them several generations.

Shortly after Palizdar's disclosures made the headlines, the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission denied Palizdar had anything to do with the commission. 'He was never anything to do with the commission' they said.

Today, the daily Entekhab printed a report by the government news agency, Mehr, from as far back as 3 years ago, where Abbas Palizdar is quoted several times in the news report as holding the position which the regime has denied ever existed! How could they possibly think they can make such denial when there is so much evidence from their own news agencies alone?

Tehran Friday Prayer leader, Ayatollah Imami Kashani, who was one of the 44 establishment figures mentioned in Palizdar's disclosures, implicitly defended himself by comparing himself to the prophet of Islam and how the prophet himself was often the target of false accusations by the unbelievers.

Meanwhile protests also errupted in Tehran's Mellat Park as well as in Mashad, where crowds chanted slogans against state corruption and demanded Palizdar's freedom.

Palizdar's Father Speaks Out

In an interview with Radio Farda, Abbas Palizdar's father, Safar, said he has no news of where his son is detained nor any news of his well being.

Contrary to the regime's denial that Palizdar was never a member of the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission, Safar Palizdar said 'Not only my son has been working with the commission for a long time, his report had previously been presented to the deputies in Majlis and they were aware of it but no one did anything about it'

Safar Palizdar continued, 'My son volunteered and served in the front line during the war with Iraq when he was only 14 years old. He is a war veteran and cares for this country. He always remembers the blood of the martyrs. He has been next to the martyrs as they died. He had enough and couldn't take it any longer that in this country some can just do as they please. That's why he blew the whistle.'


When he was asked if he is worried about his son, he replied 'How can a father not worry about his son?'

Meanwhile people led by students in Mashad protested against the corrupt ruling financial mafia. Law Enforcement Forces were brutal in their crackdown, and plain clothes agents or what the regime likes to refer to as Unknown Soldiers of the Hidden Imam charged into the crowds arresting those they deemed as the ring leaders. Reports say the resistance by women protesters was impressive and many women were seen fighting the LEF and plain clothes agents.

Photos of Teacher Traning College Students

Photos of Teacher Training College students celeberating their victory.

See more pictures here:
http://www.autnews.eu/archives/1387,03,0009870

Palizdar is Arrested

Abbas Palizdar who made the daring disclosures of corruption by key establishment figures in the Islamic Republic was arrested last night.

Total Victory for Teacher Training Students

All the demands made by the Teacher Training Students were met by the university administration after the students at this college went on hunger strike for 11 days. 120 students had taken part in the hunger strike and 3500 had joined the sit in protest in solidarity with the hunger strikers.

Forty other universities across Iran had threatened to join their hunger strike if the demands made by the Teacher Training College students were not met. Sixteen hunger strikers were taken to hospital after collapsing.

Negotiations between student representatives, the university officials and the university Herasat (university informers) which had been going on since yesterday morning came to a close at 10 pm last night after all the demands made by student representatives were met.

These demands were:

- Resignation of the university deputies
- Written apology by university Herasat (university informers) who had made threats against families of the students
- Maintaining minimum standards of dormitories
- Improvement in canteen food and hygine
- return of the use of central library facilities to students
- No disciplinary action against the protesting students

The Dean of the university had been insistent on bringing at least 8 of the protesting students before the disciplinary committee, but the student representatives remained adamant on all their demands.

There are lessons to be learned here, this total victory was achieved because the students remained united, resolute and did not waver. Other universities came to their support and threatened mass action across all Iranian universities. Their demands were reasonable and achieveable.

See Pictures:

http://www.autnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/trbtmlm112.JPG
http://www.autnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/trbtmlm109.JPG
http://www.autnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/trbtmlm106.JPG

Reactions to Palizdar's Disclosures

Official Islamic Republic dailies and websites have started printing the text of Palizdar's disclosures of massive corruption by the very pillars of the Islamic Republic after the CD version of his film became the top seller in the black market. The dailies however have refrained from printing the names and sufficed by using initials or using dotted lines in brackets instead. Some dailies and websites are disputing his position in the commission, which Palizdar claimed.

The student body in Hamedan which invited him has been suspended by the education ministry. Palizdar himself is standing by everything he said in Hamedan university and in a second speech in Shiraz university. Although there is no film footage of him in Shiraz as yet but partial transcripts are available.

In these transcripts, Palizdar says:
"After my previous speeches, I have been told should I continue with these disclosures, I will be stopped. Believe me that I am not scared for my life but I am scared that they will shut me up before I am able to say all I want to say in most places throughout Iran, so that more people can hear what I have to say. So I will be more cautious in what I will say next."

Palizdar continued:
"The Judiciary itself is the most corrupt institution and we have come to the conclusion that we can not fight corruption with the judiciary. In one instance where an official had broken the law, Hashemi Sharoodi (Head of the Judiciary) wrote him a letter and told him to sort himself out but he didn't and Shahroodi was aware of this. There can only be two explanations, either Shahroodi is incompetent or he himself is involved"

Mohtashemipoor's Attack on Messbah Yazdi

Hojat-ol-Islam Mohtashemipoor, member of the Combatant Clerical Society and the founder of Hezbollah in Lebanon, made a scathing attack on Ayatollah Messbah Yazdi and what he referred to as the "Messbahieh Cult", during a speech in the Grand Hosseineh mosque in Isfahan on the eve of Ayatollah Khomeini's death.

"The Messbahieh cult never even once took part in the front lines during the war, how is it now that they constantly praise the resistance and appear at Baseej bases? Messbah Yazdi never even once had any official position while Imam was alive and he never recognised Messbahieh Cult's way of thinking....You pseudo-pious people! once you saw Imam was buried, you suddenly appeared on the scene again... Are you not the same as those who pretended to be Muslim converts straight after the conquest of Mecca by the prophet?...You who have all this pretentious position and adulation, if it was still during the Shah's time, would you have had all this you have today? Have you forgotten how you were spoken to during the Shah? Don't forget that all you have today is because of Imam Khomeini? So how dare you insult his grandchildren?
...Is this not history repeating itself and pseudo Muslim converts acting against the prophet's own family after the prophet's death?....Imam was after pure Islam and not the Islam of the affluent and the wealthy..."

Mohtashemipour's speech was published in the Daily Entekhab, following which 200 0f Messbah's followers protested in Qom outside the newspaper's offices demanding for the paper to be closed down.

Today the factional fighting within the regime is reaching heights I have never witnessed before. If only there was a credible opposition, at a flick of a finger, this outdated theocracy would have crumbled. As some wise person once told me however, "The Islamic Republic is its worst enemy and the opposition and the media we have are its best friend".

The Plunder of Iran

These disclosures are not made by some disgruntled Iranian exile or dissident, this is a film footage of Abbas Palizdar, a member of the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission in the Islamic Republic, speaking to students at Hamedan university about how Iran's wealth is being plundered on a daily basis by a powerful clerical mafia.

As we say in Persian when someone has had more than enough, 'the knife must have gone beyond his flesh and touched his bones', for him to make these courageous public disclosures and name names when the student audience insist he names the individuals.

This can only be the tip of the iceberg and how at a time when Iranian people could have been living in their most affluent times, the clerical mafia running Iran, is plundering the entire wealth and resources of a rich country for their own benefit, while their lackeys outside Iran continue to fool the European Left and academics that Islamic Republic is some kind of a champion state for the poor masses!

Below are translations of some of what Palizdar is saying in the film in bullet points:

1- One of the clerics came and said he has a disabled son and he wants to build a rehabilitation centre where he can treat his son there. We registered the centre for him. Then he asked for financial support, demanding the rights to Fars marble stone mines, one of the best in the world, and after a while he said this is not enough and asked for another mine in Zanjan. He now has ownership of four mines as an excuse to support his rehabilitation centre. At this point the students demand to know the cleric's name, Palizdar is reluctant first but finally caves in and answers 'Ayatollah Emami Kashani', member of the Guardian Council and one of the four Friday Prayer sermon Imams of Tehran.

2- Another Ayatollah came to the Supreme Leader and said he wants to build a law faculty in Qom for women. He got the permission and asked for the ownership of Dena Tyre making factory for financial backing of the faculty. Nematzadeh said they can have the factory for 126 Billion, the real value was 600 Billion. But they kept writing letters saying they want further discount, at the end a factory which was worth 600 Billion, was sold for 10 Billion. Even then they said we don't have all the money to pay now and will pay 80% of it by installments. It was agreed to but this wasn't enough discount for them either and after all that, they said we don't have the 20% to pay now either, we will pay it after we have sold the factory buildings.
'So as easy as that, the Ayatollah took ownership of the factory and then sold it off on the stock market. '
Again the students demand for Palizdar to name the cleric. Palizdar replies 'Ayatollah Yazdi, the previous head of the judiciary and the present secretary of the Clerical Association of Qom Seminaries. Responsible for the closure of so many publications during Khatami's era.

3- Carrying on with the same Ayatollah Yazdi, Palizdar continues, 'Again Ayatollah Yazdi writes a letter to Foroozesh, the Minister of Industries, saying my son, Hamid, is out of work at the moment. Can you facilitate things so my son can have a part in the export of timber made from Caspian forests. At the time Hamid Yazdi was a director at the judiciary, in other words he wasn't even out of work. Thus he plundered the Caspian forests. Then they went and arrested the local people who had perhaps stored only enough wood for their fire logs, which led to the protests outside the prisons.'

4- Car making factory, Iran Khodro, was forced to give new Persia cars to judiciary judges at half price, in instalments, and most didn't even bother pay their instalments. But this made many more to also want a piece of the cake. For example the Nahjolbalagheh Foundation, came and said why shouldn't we get 500 vehicles with the same facilities. Now who do you think this Nahjolbalaghe Foundation belongs to? It belongs to Nategh Nouri (Supreme Leader's former favourite candidate for presidency, Rafighdoost (Former revolutionary Guards commander and head of the Dispossessed Foundation, Asgaroladi (member of the super wealthy Bazaar Merchant Coalition Society), Hossein Dinparvar and Moezi.

5- Then the Persepolis football club run by Abedini and another Foundation also said we want half price cars. The said Foundation is owned by Hojjat-ol_Islam Fallahain, previous intelligence minister during the extra judicial killings of dissidents like Daryoush and Parvaneh Forouhar, and Ayatollah Alam Al-Hoda, who recently made the remark that 'Women who are not observing the Hejab properly are foot soldiers of America'

6- Twelve mines in Khorrasan province are owned by Ayatollah Vaeze Tabassi, whose own son is involved in what has become known as Al-Mokaseb case. A corruption case which was investigated by the Islamic judiciary for two years and all the accused including Ayatollah Tabassi's son were all acquitted.

7- Then Palizdar mentions the big time smuggler at Payam airport who has over 1100 cases of smuggling goods being investigated by the judiciary. Palizdar continues with frustration 'but we are still unable to arrest him, because he is under the protection of Ayatollah Nateq Nuri.'

8- Palizdar talks about tobacco and cigarette smuggling and how this large scale smuggling has grounded Iran's tobacco industry to a halt and forced thousands of its workers out of employment. Without naming names, Palizdar also talks about the extent of narcotics use in the Islamic Republic, and implicity talks about high ranking clerics also being involved in the distribution of narcotics in the country.

9- Palizdar then talks about two aviation crashes, which led to the deaths of war veterans Dadman and Kazemi. Dadman's revolutionary credentials were impeccable. He had taken part in the Tabriz riots against the Shah, taken part in the US embassy hostage taking, served in the front line against Iraqi invasion, even in the Islamic Republic led Mecca pilgrims protests which led to the Saudis killing 400 protesters as just a few points to mention in Dadman's revolutionary CV.

Palizdar says unequivocally that Dadman's crash was deliberate. He claims there is a 1000 page case held with the judiciary about the crash. (He does not however mention who was behind the crash). Regarding the crash that led to Commander Kazemi's death however, Palizdar said Martyr Kazemi had closed down the Hormoz mines for irregularities and although he says in this case he has no clear evidence, it was after the closure of the mine that his plane crashed. The Hormoz mines are owned by Ayatollah Khazaeli.

During the question time, Palizdar is asked why he has not talked about the corruption by the Rafsnjani clan, is it because he fears the power of Rafsanjanis? Palizdar replies that there is so much abuse of power by Rafsnajanis that he would need an entire meeting dedicated to this subject, but briefly mentions their interests in one third of the Kish island but more notably their interest in an oil company - owned by Rafsanjani's family including his sister who resides in Canada. He then apologises first to the female members of the audience before bringing up sexual exploits of Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi, saying that there is even a film footage of his acts with his female members of the staff available in the judiciary files.

Arzhang Davoodi Enters his 50th Day of Hunger Strike

Tehran Polytechnic news website reports on Arzhang Davoodi's ongoing hunger strike which is now in its 7th week.

Why is Arzhang, a school teacher in his fifties, enduring this hardship? It is the only way left for him to protest against the wrongs which he has suffered, extra-judicial sentencing, confiscations of his private belongings, threats of exile to remote prisons and worst of all, the Islamic authorities will not even issue him with a written statement of his sentence and what he has been condemned to!

Instead of meeting his simple and basic demands, the Evin prison governor's response to Arzhang's hunger strike was to transfer him to Rajayi-Shahr prison where he is now kept with violent common criminals.

How hypocritical of the Islamic Republic which re-named the street, where the British Embassy is located in Tehran, as Bobby Sands Street, after the IRA hunger striker.

Bobby Sands advocated an armed struggle when political campaigning was lawful and possible, he advocated bombing and killing of innocent civilians and passers by, women, children, and the elderly were all legitimate targets for Bobby Sands, and all Arzhang Davoodi wants is to know what he has been sentenced to and remain in a prison near where his family can visit him.

Yet the physical demise of Bobby Sands during his hunger strike made the news on a daily basis, Arzhang Davoodi however continues his protest in ambiguity, while his wife pleads with the world for help.

Shiraz Explosions, Change of Story

Despite the earlier statements by the IR officials that the ordnance display at the Shiraz Mosque was the cause of the explosion that led to the death and injuries of hundreds of people, the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry now claims that the explosion was the work of a monarchist group and they have made several arrests of those involved.

The monarchist group they refer to is in fact nothing to do with Reza Pahlavi. The group calls itself, Kingdom Assembly of Iran, and was led by Manuchehr Fathollahi, aka Forood Fooladvand, yet another one of these TV satellite based Iranian Don Quixote presenters, only this time based in London and not in LA. Fooladvand was delluded with liberating Iran by himself and setting up a new imperial dynasty of his own. He had even bestowed himself with a title, Iranban, the Protecter of Iran. For him Reza Pahlavi was an incompetent Prince and undeserving for the throne of Iran, but since Fooladvand himself wanted to be the new monarch of Iran, the Western media have been confused with the monarchy connection.

Fooladvand stopped his TV programs a few months ago and said he was on his way to Iran to liberate the country by the next Iranian new year! - how many times have we heard that by now? Since then accounts vary as to Fooladvand's whereabouts, some say he was tricked by IRI agents who were pretending to be his followers and kidnapped on the Turkish border, some say he is already dead and some say he embezzled money and simply disappeared.

Shortly after the Shiraz explosion, some of Fooladvand's followers, typical of those who want to pretend they have a vast network of activists inside Iran claimed it was their network who had bombed the mosque, and so it seems a combination of a typical Islamic Republic Intelligence ministry plot aided by the stupidity of an exiled group, is paving the way for 'justification' of a massive crackdown on dissidents in Iran. Already some pro-democracy activists, Iranian Christians and Bahaii leaders have been arrested and the Intelligence Ministry is promising televised interviews of the perpetrators of the Shiraz explosion who will confess to working for world imperialism and Zionism on the State TV.

Although the regime has not named any of those arrested, Abdollah Shahbazi's blog has published the names and photographs of two of those who are due to appear in the televised confessions. Shahbazi, a former Iranian Communist, has close connections with rival sections of the IRI Intelligence Ministry after his collaboration efforts with the regime in the 80s. Now days he refers to himself as a historian.


Shahbazi claims two of those arrested and promised execution by the intelligence ministry are Faramarz Sheikholeslam and his cousin, Mohammad Shahqotbi. They are in fact computer experts and whiz kids. Shahbazi has even published a picture of one of them, Shahqotbi, while sitting next to Shiraz's Friday Prayer Leader's son and fixing his computer.

Those who have followed Iran news for the last 28 years and the majority of the Iranian population will never believe any such manipulated televised confessions under duress.

The truth is that despite the megalomaniac claims by some opposition groups in exile, the Iranian pro-democracy movement is not about bombs and explosions and acts of violence. The world community must remain alert to such plots by the Islamic Republic. When it comes to blowing up ordinary citizens, its the Islamic Republic who has the top expertise in this field.

Khorramshahr, 20 Years On

If the liberation of Khorramshahr, 20 years ago, brought tears of joy and pride for us, pictures of Khorramshahr, 20 years on, bring us tears of sadness and regret.
Worse still when the mayor of Tehran, talks about rebuilding Beirut and forgets that charity should begin from home, its like he puts salt on the wounds of the citizens of Khorramshahr and those whose courage and sacrifices liberated Khorramshahr from Saddam's aggressors.

Credible Opposition is the Islamic Regime's Achilles Heel

What is the regime's Achilles heel or may be I should use the Persian equivalent, what is the Esfandiyar's Eye of the Islamic Republic?

I believe the overwhelming majority of Iranians want change. If the Islamic regime was overthrown tomorrow, there would be the biggest mass street parties the world has ever seen in Iran. Yet the majority of Iranians both inside and outside Iran remain passive observers of the events. While in their hearts they want to see the back of the mullahs, they are still hesitant in actively playing their part. What is the reason? Rather than lecturing those who fall in this category and coming across as lofty and arrogant towards them, or simply keeping within our own circles, those of us who are active in some way or another should genuinely listen to what the silent majority have to say. As someone reminded me many years ago at school, God has given us two ears and only one tongue, we should therefore listen twice as much as we talk.

The two overriding replies I get when I ask this question are:

1- Who do we replace the mullahs with?
2- We can't do anything, its a waste of time. If the mullahs are to be overthrown, the "great powers" will decide and do it, not us.

Perhaps I should do this post in two parts, but in a way the two are interconnected. Let me start with what I have labelled as reply number two. There are good reasons for this, deep rooted in our recent history. Our nation has struggled against rival super powers of the time, the British and the Russians, who wanted to split the country along their own zones of influence. A weak incompetent Qajar dynasty, backed by Shiite clerics whose sole purpose was to keep the population backward and illiterate, ensured that the Iranians as a nation were too weak to decide their own destiny against the British and the Tsarist Russian superpowers of the time.

When against all odds, Iran produced a hero by the name of Reza Shah the Great, and once again Iran was ruled by an Iranian dynasty, we were just about to find our rightful place amongst other nations. In less than two decades, our wounded pride was restored, we made great advances towards modernising our country and perhaps most important of all, our Iranian identity, trampled on by centuries of foreign invaders and non-Iranian rulers, flourished again. But just when we were finding our feet on the ground again and the foundations of a modern secular Iran was being set, the Allied forces invaded Iran and the British, who hated Reza Shah for having cut off their influence in the country, forced his abdication and exile and even tried to restore the Qajar dynasty.

This deep set Iranian conspiracy theory that the super powers decide our future was best captured and told by the great Iranian novelist and satirist, Iraj Pezeshkzad, in his masterpiece of contemporary Persian literature, My Uncle Napoleon. So much so that the phrase 'Uncle Napoleon way of thinking' or 'Uncle Napoleon syndrome' has become a distinct reference in the modern day Persian language.

Yet despite this My Uncle Napoleon Syndrome(MUNS), Iran has produced three major revolutions and upheavals in the last 100 years. One must remember that the MUNS is only prevalent during the periods of defeat. Thus the same people who took part in some of the biggest street protests in 1979 and toppled 2500 years tradition of monarchy in Iran, once they realised what a mistake it was, started to deny their contribution in the revolution and instead claimed it was the British and the Americans who had engineered the Islamic revolution.

Going back to reply number one, 'Who do we replace the mullahs with?'. Nothing scares the regime more than a credible opposition and nothing puts off the silent majority more than a phony opposition. If the 1999 student uprising across 19 Iranian cities shook the foundations of the Islamic Republic, the unfortunate emergence of the LA TV stations and the kind of comical opposition that was beamed to the Iranian people as the alternative to the Islamic Republic stopped the momentum of the new pro-democracy movement from becoming a mass movement and the protests from reaching the critical mass needed for a regime change.

This is why I pointed out some of this phony opposition in my interview with the Front Page magazine. Paper organisations or to be more up to date, web based non-entities who call themselves "Parties" and have more members in their "central committees" than actual supporters through out the world, led by Don Quixote fruit cakes who never fool the Iranian people inside Iran but do manage to fool some well wishing and well meaning outsiders by their preposterous claims of extensive organisational networks inside Iran, what they like to call 'hasteh' :)

The credible opposition will not come about from hotel conferences of old political groups in London and Paris either. As I told one of the organisers of these conferences, if you put a lot of zeros in one room, the output will still be zero. I have been active for 28 years against the theocratic rule in Iran, I have followed Iran related news every day since the start of the 1979 revolution, I have made the effort to travel and meet face to face with people across the spectrum of the Iranian politics and gauge their appeal, effectiveness, IQ and authenticity and whether they have the potential to mobilize the silent majority. I am no academic, but I trust my instincts and my empirical observations. When I was asked about the outcome of these conferences, this is what I said:
'speeches will be made, they will sing their own praises that they have gathered under one roof, they will elect a co-ordinating committee of around 16 people and then it will all fizzle out, because they will never have the initiative to carry any actions. '

Those who asked me were surprised how accurate my predictions were but I was surprised that they expected anything else.

The credible opposition will come from within Iran but not from within the regime. For people will not trust those who are in bed with the clerics. The credible opposition will not be formed overnight in Iran either, it will not be a homogeneous single organisation and it will not immediately and publicly declare its goal as the overthrow of the Islamic regime. It has to win small concessions step by step, gain people's confidence and ensure that the momentum is maintained. Its success will depend on whether it will correctly judge the mood of the people and their readiness and make the right decisions on a case by case basis.

The continuous conflict between the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and the outdated repressive ways of the Islamic Republic makes me confident that this credible opposition will come about.

Meanwhile those of us outside Iran should not present ourselves as the alternative to the current regime but promote every genuine secular and pro-democracy voice inside Iran.
We should be credible, tell the truth as it is, not exaggerate and we should not create Dir-Yassin effects amongst the silent majority.

Making the silent majority active and political should not be made synonymous with becoming a revolutionary immediately and demanding the overthrow of the Islamic regime, it should really be something that deals firstly with the individuals relationship to his or her immediate surrounding.

We should actively solicit the international public opinion and use it as a lever to prevent Western politicians from doing deals with the mullahs and bolster the regime. Having the international support of the people around the world will strengthen us immensely.

The combination of credible effective opposition with international support will once again give confidence to the Iranian people that they are not alone, they can make a difference and they do not have to wait passively for the super powers to decide when this dark regressive period in our history is finally over.

Has the Tehran Mayor Forgotten These Children?

The mind boggles with disbelief, the blood boils with rage, whatever I type can not express my fury and it is impossible to fight back the tears.

Tehran Mayor pledges millions of Dollars to rebuild Lebanon (i.e. Hezbollah) and Islamic Republic officials choose to forget about our own children's plight. These are the faces of Iranian school children who suffered these horrific burns because their school did not have proper safe heaters suitable for a primary school classroom.

A terror machine which started three decades ago by burning more than 400 innocent people in a cinema in Abadan, led by an evil man belonging to the dark ages, but referred to as Iran's Gandhi by the Carter administration, continues to destroy Iran and Iranians.

The Iranian blogger http://floppy98.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html tells the full story.

Go and See Persepolis

I am told Marjan Satrape is a distant relative of mine, not blood related but something like my maternal great aunt's husband's daughter-in-law kind of relative, and our town of Astara is actually mentioned in her story. I have known about Satrape's illustrations but I am ashamed to say that I never got round to buying her books. Ever since her animation has been released, I have been planning to see it and tonight I finally watched the movie along with some friends.

It is simply brilliant. If you want to know about Iran and the story of my generation who left Iran at an early age, don't read any blogs or academic papers, just go and see this fantastic animation movie.

I have noticed this before that those of my generation who had to leave Iran at a young age, have so many common experiences. In the same way I could relate to so many scenes in the Persepolis animation. The last words of her father for example when she leaves Iran, 'Don't ever forget who you are and where you come from' or her insecurity in finding an accommodation she can regard as her home, her frustrations at foreigner's perception of Iran and Iranians, the nostalgia of waking up and seeing the Alborz mountains, the illusions of the older generation who thought the 1979 revolution will make things better, are just a few scenes in the movie which I could so easily relate to.

Unlike me however Marjan returns to Iran just after the massacre of the Iranian political prisoners in 1988. This is during the peak of the repression, and she also experiences studying in Islamic Republic schools and universities. There is a scene in which her RE teacher rambles on about how liberated Iran has become after the Shah and how Iran no longer has any political prisoners. Not able to tolerate such obscene nonsense, she stands up to the teacher and names her own executed relatives and says if there were 300 political prisoners during the Shah now there are 300,000 to the applause of her classmates and the fury of her teacher. We became so fired up by this scene that we too all started clapping and applauding in the cinema and there were more scenes like that.

There are also exceptional one liners. For example as an impressionable young child she hears her elders talk about having Qajar royal blood and being Communists, thinking this is something to be proud of, the young Marjan goes to bed smiling as she closes her eyes, saying "We are Qajar royalty and we are Communists". Iran's main Communist Party at the time, the Tudeh, was in fact founded by a Qajar Prince!

I really recommend every Iranian to gather a few of their non-Iranian friends and take them to see the movie. Perhaps then they will learn what its like to be constantly harassed in your personal life and to have to look over your shoulder all the time, or perhaps they will realise why we hate 'useful idiots' so much.

Has Khatami Forgotten?

I couldn't believe it when BBC reported ex-Islamic Republic president Khatami as having made this statement:
'On Friday Mr Khatami said the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, had not wanted to export the revolution by armed force. '

The news report continues:
"What did the Imam [Khomenei] mean by exporting the revolution?" he asked in a speech on Friday to university students.
"Did he mean that we take up arms, that we blow up places in other nations and we create groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? The Imam was vehemently against this and was confronting it," he said.

Actually as far as I can remember, yes he did, very much so and Khatami himself, who at the time was the Minister of Guidance, chaired one of these meetings!

See the full text and translation of the minutes of the meeting which was leaked to the Times newspaper at the time:

The meeting commenced with the speech of His Eminence, Ayatollah Khatami, the Minister of the Islamic Guidance, who said the following : "In the name of God, The Merciful, the Compassionate."Dear brothers, I wish to welcome you on behalf of the International Islamic Movements Organisation, and to explain in brief why this meeting has been called. On 24th of 'Oribehesht' - (14 May, 1984), I , accompanied by the Head of this movement were received by our beloved leader to whom we presented our progress report. Th Imam, expressed his satisfaction with the behaviour of the leaders of the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and of the Saudi regime. Of Course, he was not pleased either with others who pretend to be leaders of the Islamic nations. After moments of silence which were evidence of his deepfelt anxiety and dissatisfaction, His Eminence in his usual style of firmness concerninig all living matters made certain comments which are as follows :'From the beginning of our revolution, we have had many enemies, but our expectations from Muslims was something else...'based on a plan that has been prepared in almost 200 pages and on which you will be subsequently informed, it has been decided that the strikeforce which at present is composed of a few groups of 10-20 people each, who are currently serving in the Lebanon, should be increased to the size of a brigade. This force, for security reasons, and for the purposes of making sure that legal impediments do not delay its formation, will be formed under the aegis of either the Revolutionary Guards or the Armed Forces. Of course, the decision in this respect will rest with His Eminence, the Leader. At this time, we are concerned with its creation. This force will act independently and will present all its reports directly to the Commander in Chief. Because the carrying out of this plan required the assistance of all revolutinary organs, the matter was presented to His Eminence in that initial meeting, and he accepted the proposal. What has been said has been a brief introduction, and now we will enter the main substance and I shall pass the platform to Brother "Mirhashem", who is responsible for this organisation. .... Brother Mirhashem :"From what was said at the beginning, there was some reference made to the creation of a brigade. For the information of all present, I must say that we have at present a number of dedicated groups who are ready for action and who have, to the outside world become known as suicide groups. These groups have already performed certain actions. But since regional reactionary forces out of fear from the Islamic Revolution and the hard blows of the fighters of Islam, with each passing day under different pretexts are preparing themselves more and more, and this in itself is a big threat for the continuation of the revolution, these groups that we have are by themselves inadequate. Also, the personnel in these groups are committed only because of their beliefs for which they are ready to do anything, but they lack warfare experience. Therefore, the personnel of this brigade must from the point of view of military combat experience be of a very high echelon. If we wished to commence this task from the beginning, that is from the training stages, by the time that we can prepare such people for utilisation at least one year will have elapsed, and this is something that will create an interlude in our activities and will award our enemies more time. Therefore, it has been decided to select dedicated religious and fully committed candidates from all combat 'nahad' organisations so as to prevent any interlude in the continuation of our operational activities. .....

Tabriz for the Persian Gulf

This is the genuine Azarabadegan, the land of Atropates, the protecter of fire, and these are the sons and daughters of Babak, this is the cradle of the Iranian constitutional revolution. For generation after generation, Iran's Azeris have and will protect the territorial integrity of a united Iran. Tens of thousands of Tabrizis join protests to show that despite the ruling clerics lack of enthusiasm in protecting the name of the Persian Gulf and their sell out of our legitimate rights in the Caspian Sea, Azeris will be at the forefront of the Iranian nationalism and represent the aspirations of our people for a union of Iranian plateau and the Iranian people.

The Injustice Against the Three Iranian Students

Their names are Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban and Majid Tavakoli, they have also become known as the 'Polytechnic 3' amongst their student colleagues. They were accused of having insulted Islam and Islamic sacred figures in the student publications, a charge that they immediately and vehemently denied.

In an open letter they immediately stated that the publications were fake and carried out by the University Baseej militia to lay the ground for their arrests and imprisonment.

"...At a time when the slightest criticism of the state's policies can lead to our kidnap and imprisonment, how could we possibly have published such things?"

The parents of the three students also pleaded with the Islamic Republic's Head of Judiciary, Ayatollah Sharoodi, citing 15 methods of torture, their children had been subjected to in order to extract a false confession from them by Islamic intelligence interrogators.

At the end, it was too obvious that the publications were fake and the three students had nothing to do with them. After seven months of constant torture and intimidation, the Islamic courts had to concede that the three students had nothing to do with those publications, yet they still received 22 months (Ehsan Mansouri), 26 months (Ahmad Ghassaban) and 30 months (Majid Tavakoli)!! Why? As any sane person may ask. The Islamic court's reason was that the students had accused the university baseej militia of having published those articles. No further attempt was made to investigate who really was behind printing the insults. Suddenly that was not important.

It is amazing that when a writer, film maker, cartoonist or any private citizen in Europe is deemed to have insulted Islam, the Islamic Republic is at the forefront of the protests which demand to kill the offender, yet for its own political purposes the clerics and their lackeys in Iran are even prepared to make these insults against Islam themselves.

Two Generations in a Picture

A picture speaks a thousand words. This one may speak even more. It shows two generations of Iranians side by side in a Friday prayer. The older generation, which got us in this mess, is shown shouting empty meaningless slogans with the usual enthusiasm and zeal, screaming from the top of their heads, with fists clenched and raised.

The younger generation however is silent and bemused. They are either laughing amongst themselves or looking at the dinosaurs with amusement.

This should be a lesson to those who want to collaborate with the outdated archaic clerical regime. Just like this older generation, the Islamic Republic is on its way out. Whether by sheer change in demographics or by some violent change, its here for just a brief period. No one can stop time or nature.

Baharloo's Latest Clanger on VOA Persian

As if it wasn't bad enough for the VOA Persian's mediocre presenter, Ahamd-Reza Baharloo, to present some one like Hossein Derakhshan (Hossein joon) as an opposition figure and a dissident to millions of baffled viewers in Iran, Baharloo and his incompetent program researcher, Faraj Ardalan, once again didn't do their research properly and confused millions of viewers in Iran by mis-representing one of the most abominable Iranians I have ever come across as some economics expert. One caller from Iran, even referred to Babak Emamain as a Dr! :))

In fact, Babak Emamian does not even have any A-Levels nor any formal education, let alone a PHD in economics, and despite having been in UK since he was 16 years old, still struggles to speak English properly. He is not even an entrepreneur, he is a life insurance salesman working for Zurich Life Insurance! It is so embarrassing to see this loathsome overweight lump of lard in a broken English, telling some distinguished Iranian 'I can ENTEEGRATE you into the British society'

Worse still, is this detestable character's insatiable and unapologetic desires to creep up to whoever is at the top.

I have written before about how at a press conference, this sycophant, claiming to represent the British-Iranian business community! proudly stated "I voted for Ahmadi-Nejad, because his message to the poor touched my heart".

It is such a shame that the US state department continues to pour so much of US Tax payer's hard earned money into this establishment run by total amateurs, who continue to confuse the Iranian population inside Iran. A Television station which has no clues on how to make programs. Talk shows and copy & paste of irrelevant news is the full extent of their program making initiatives. When will the State Department understand the damage they are causing?

Shiraz Explosion, Total Disregard for Life

From the reports I have been reading about the explosion in the Shiraz mosque which led to so many deaths and injuries, it seems the most likely cause was the ordnance display at the mosque which was not made safe for public. It strikes me that when we talk about the total disregard for life by the Islamic Republic rulers, we shouldn't just think about their disregard for life of their enemies, rivals and dissidents etc. Even the lives of their own supporters for them is worth nothing, as it has been demonstrated so many times in the past.

The reaction of the "enlightened reformists" living in London was also interesting. Mrs. Jamileh Kadivar, the wife of Atollah Mohajerani, the former Minister of Guidance during Khatami's presidency, who now lives in the exclusive Chelsea district of London, speculated that the Baha'is were the perpetuaters of the Shiraz explosion!!

Meanwhile Jamileh Kadivar's husband, Ataollah Mohajerani, is actually advertising and selling his book in defence of Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence against Salman Rushdie on his web site. Both have the full protection of Her Majesty's Government.

On the other hand, Safa Einollahi, the plaintiff against Khatami, a victim of torture during Khatami's presidency, is living in hiding after the UK Home Office ruled it is safe for him to return to Iran!

Temporary Marriage Online

When religion and government become one as they have in the Islamic Republic of Iran, so many forbidden matters just simply change name. Interest rates for example, regarded as usury and forbidden in Islam became 'bank charges' and how can anyone think below is anything other than legalised prostitution?

Edict authorises online short-term marriages - AKI

I know who?! Haleh Afshar and Elaheh Rostami will present this as emancipation of women by an anti-Imperialist regime threatened by the US, amongst their "progressive" circles which they circuate around :)

Free Tibet

I swear I had no intention of getting involved with the Free Tibet protesters, I was in fact on my way to the Ideal Home Exhibition in London's Earls Court with my family. My route to the exhibition however took me through Notting Hill Gate, just one location amongst several where the Olympics torch was carried through in London. I am no expert on Tibet, but my gut instincts is that China has no business being there and the Tibetans don't want the Chinese there either. I can not get involved in every cause there is in the world but in any case China is close to the Islamic Republic and protest against the Chinese one party Communist system can not be a bad thing.

As I saw the protesters with their Tibetan flags ahead along with the heavy police presence and slowed traffic, I knew what was going on and tried to quickly explain to the kids about Tibet and China and the Olympics torch. I pulled the window down and started sounding my horn shouting 'Free Tibet, Free Tibet". The kids had got all excited too and were shouting "Three Two Bet!" until I told them how to correctly say Free Tibet. My loud voice quickly attracted the protesters on the other side of the road and they handed us Tibetan flags, which we gladly accepted and started waving them from the car, while waiting for the Traffic to move. I could see a few suspicious grim looking plain clothes Chinese with earphones mingling around and talking into their microphones as if they were reporting the situation to somewhere. One of them was trying to cross the road in front of my car, when I made a particularly loud and sudden sound with my car horn, which made him jump. "Are you a Chinese secret agent?" I asked him! He looked nonplussed and didn't know how to react, while the kids laughed their heads off from the way he jumped and kept repeating the question to each other "Did you see the way he jumped?".

By now the kids had more practice and we were all shouting in unison 'Free Tibet! Free Tibet!' but the kids had made up their own versions to chant too which they were thoroughly enjoying "China Sucks! Tibet Rocks!".

The torch finally came, protected by about 10 Chinese stern looking body guards in blue and white track suits, ringed by English policemen. A further ring of uniformed police was added when the torch was being exchanged from one runner to the other. Its a shame all that snow in the morning had melted away, I think we would have all enjoyed throwing snowballs at the torch.

The traffic finally started moving and I missed the part when a protester grabbed the torch from the TV presenter, Connie Haq, and the ones who tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher.
Further up near the Russian embassy, we saw about a half dozen police surrounding a lone woman protester, who was pinned against the railings. Again we pulled the windows down and started shouting 'Let her go! Let her go!' as the police turned around, the woman managed to clench her hands together above her head and I signalled the horn as sign of solidarity to each other.

So there you go, I don't often get involved with non-Iran related causes, Iran already takes up so much of my free time, but there I was right in middle of cause for justice and it was such good family fun and educational too :))

Its April and its Snowing in London

When we celebrate Nowruz, we mark the end of winter and the beginning of the spring. This year in England it seems we are marking the end of the spring and the beginning of the Winter!

While the February was mild and sunny, one week into April, all is covered under the snow. Still it looks beautiful and serene and I wonder what all this global warming nonsense is about, other than an excuse for further taxes.

Iranian Student Activist Elected as NUS Honorary VP

The NUS (National Union of Students) conference in Blackpool, UK, has elected Anoosheh Azadbar to become the honorary Vice President of the UK's Student Union, in order to show solidarity with Iran's students.

Anoosheh was amongst the many Iranian students who were arrested or kidnapped on 7th December, for trying to organise student protests to mark the Student Day in Iran.

Anoosheh was nominated by students from 28 of UK's universities and colleges. Anoosheh is now the third Iranian pro-democracy activist who has been elected as the honorary Vice President of the NUS. Previous Iranians elected to this post have been Ahmad Batebi and Mansoor Osanlou.

Amongst the past non-Iranian honorary NUS VPs are the likes of Nelson Mandela, Tasleema Nasrin and Yanar Mohammad.

No One Would Buy Mullah Flags!

Undoubtedly amongst the Iranian ex-pats, the magnificent Nowruz parade in New York, is a big source of pride and joy. Sadly I have never been able to attend this event but I always follow the news and reports on the parade with much enthusiasm.

I came across a report on the NY Nowruz Parade yesterday which I thought was worth a post on my blog. An American street peddler, who follows carnivals and parades and sells flags and whistles and so on, was given a large number of Islamic Republic flags to distribute freely amongst the people by an unknown person. The poor American did not know what the significance of that flag was and what the difference with the Sun and Lion flag entailed for Iranians, and so he was surprised that no one would touch the Islamic Republic flags.

Finally someone came and warned him sternly, "If you don't put those flags away, I'll burn them here and now in front of you", which made the American peddler hide the Islamic Republic flags away and suffice in selling his own usual carnival paraphernalia :))

My salutations to the patriotic Iranian ex-pats in New York as ever.

Zimbabwe Elections v Islamic Republic Elections

I don't want to sound pro-Mugabe at all, I am definitely not pro anyone who has remained in power for 28 years. I view any leader who has stayed in power for more than 10 years with great suspicion. However, if like me, your only source of information about Zimbabwe has been the BBC News and the British media, then its very likely that your impression of Mugabe is that of an evil dictatorship which suppresses all forms of dissent with no support amongst the population.

Yet the same media along by some opportunistic or simply naive statesmen and politicians will tell you that there is a democracy in Iran, perhaps not a fully fledged one, but one which is "the best in the region!" I wonder if "the region" includes Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan, Israel, Lebanon and so on.

Few examples to demonstrate my point:
"Iran is far from being a full democracy, but it is a great deal more democratic than almost any country in the Arab world or Central Asia." BBC's John Simpson.

and even worse:
"Islamic Republic is as an advanced form of shining democracy in the region". Lib-Dem MEP, Emma Nicholson, in the European Parliament.

While the BBC always grumbles about being banned from Zimbabwe, the BBC's knight in shining armour, John Simpson, always manages to get a report out about the country in some heroic way:
"The elections were conducted against a backdrop of violence and criticism"
"the whole process has been far from free and fair" John Simpson reporting from Zimbabwe elections.

Now lets put the BBC reporting aside for a minute and remind ourselves with some facts. In the Islamic Republic an unelected body vets the candidates. This vetting process has seen the disqualification of Islamic Republic founders, war veterans, clerics, and even people who have been in the government or the parliament before. In other words the slightest dissent means being banned from standing up as a candidate, no matter how loyal one's past record is.

Even the vetted candidates who win this very restricted process can still get disqualified afterwards!

Despite all this control, the regime still cheats in counting the votes, the Baseej are mobilised to vote several times and even use false ID cards.

On top of all this, even if through all this restricted process and tight control, God forbid the Majles votes for something as apolitical as raising the age of marriage for girls from 9 years old to 12 years old, the Guardian Council vetoes the Majlis approved bill.

Yet it seems that in Zimbabwe, there is no vetting of candidates. Opposition parties can run in the elections, there is a free press, there is freedom of speech and there is a much more independent judiciary than there is in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

So please, bright and intelligent politicians, and unbiased journalists, someone tell this lay man how is it that Mugabe is such an unforgivable dictator and the Islamic Republic is such a shining example of Democracy? Where is the consistency in your reporting?