Was this the Woman Behind Today's Islamic Fundementalism?

Unfortunately I have never had time to read any of AKS Lambton's works about Iran and I was under the impression that she must have passed away some time ago. In fact AKS Lambton died only last month at the age of 96.

Anyone who has read about Iran's recent history, however, would have surely come across Miss Lambton's name. Her detailed knowledge of Iran, written in her numerous research papers, is often admired by those writing about Iran's history in the 20th century.

Her death in July this year, has prompted many Iranians, like Amir Taheri, who knew her personally, to write about her. According to Amir Taheri, AKS Lambton, considered Iranians as either illiterate peasants or a minority of affluent intellectuals with little social conscience or regard for their country. She was some one who looked down on Iranians and claimed that Iranians, were like minors who needed looking after.

Miss. Lambton's official position between 1939-1946 was Britain's press attache in Iran, although this must have been a front for her other secret activities, for Iran only had 4 official newspapers at the time and so the British embassy hardly required a dedicated position for a press attache.

Amir Taheri points out Miss Lambton was the mastermind behind the accusations and the fabrication of lies made by the BBC between 1941-2 about Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, which portrayed him as a corrupt and greedy pro-Nazi monarch as well as instructing the BBC to say that the exiled Shah stole Iran's crown jewels and assets just before he was forced into exile by the British. Later in 1941, when Foroughi, Iran's Prime Minister after Reza Shah, asked Britain for the return of these alleged stolen assets, the British Embassy in Tehran said " These were only necessary propaganda at the time".

Miss Lambton herself a staunch Christian who was awarded the Cross of St. Augustine by the Archbishop of Canterbury for her services to the Church of England and Christianity, saw religion as the best way to combat the rise of Communism. According to Amir Taheri and others, she was the brains behind the formation of political Islam as the most reliable and effective force to stand up to the spread of Communism in the region. In fact Ayatollah Khomeini's first riots against the Shah's land reforms, women's rights to vote and religious minorities having the right to swear on their own holy books etc. erupted two years after Miss Lambton's work on how the British could use political Islam for furthering their interests.

Miss Lambton was in constant contact with the anti-Shah opposition groups giving them guidance throughout her political career. Amongst the many revolutionaries who in 1979,
became the leaders of the Islamic revolution that she was in direct contact with, were Ayatollah Beheshti, Ayatollah Mottahari, Ayatollah Baahonar, Ayatollah Mofatteh and even Khomeini's first appointed Prime Minister, in the post revolutionary provisional government, Mehdi Bazargan.

According to Taheri, the secret documents relating to Miss Lambton's work in Iran will not be declassified for 75 years instead of the customary 30 years for such documents. So perhaps only the next generation will know for sure whether this British agent in Iran was responsible for the rise of the Ayatollahs to power and an ideology which has terrorised the region and beyond ever since.

Fake PHD Certificate of the IRI Interior Minister

It is not just social justice and claims of championing the cause of the dispossessed that are fake in the Islamic Republic.

On the left is the fake PHD certificate of the Islamic Republic's minister of interior, Ali Kordan, from Oxford University, which is like everything else in the government of the clerics, also a fake.




Oxford University has also issued a denial that anyone by the name of Ali Kordan has ever received an honorary doctorate from the university.

Only in the Islamic Republic!

We all heard how the vice chancellor of Zanjan University, Hassan Madadi, was caught on camera, by students of Zanjan university, while abusing his position and trying to sexually assault a student girl who was due to appear before the university disciplinary committee.

A brave female student went against all the threats and intimidations of the so-called disciplinary committee and university authorities and refused to give in to their demands and instead helped gather evidence to prove the corruption and abusive action of the university vice-chancellor Hassan Madadi. The vice chancellor's demands for sex was caught on mobile cameras by the students who had been alerted by the female student and who burst into Madadi's office to save her. Tens of thousands of people saw the mobile phone video posted on YouTube showing students seizing him, turning him over to the authorities and demanding that he be charged. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=01NPJ5McQW4)

The news outraged Zanjan university students and 3,000 took part in protests. A flood of solidarity and support came from other university students. The university authorities, who were in a weak position at the time, tried to end the protests by giving false promises to meet the students’ demand

Any where else in the world, the vice chancellor would have faced the most dire punishments and would have probably lost his job and his university career would have ended for good, but not in the Islamic Republic, which presents itself as the flagship of morality to the unaware admirers of itself.

Any where else in the world, the female student and the other students who stood up to the abuses of the vice chancellor, would have been commended, but this is the Islamic Republic of Iran, where thugs and criminals are in government and the 'useful idiots' around the world can't admire enough the meaningless rhetorics of these 'anti-imperialist' tyrants.

After the demonstrations ended and the university closed for the summer holidays, the Zanjan prosecutor announced that 'exposing a sin is worse than the sin itself!' and the woman student who dared expose this abusive official was herself arrested and accused of having an unlawful affair. The university Vice Chancellor has now been promoted and there is talk of whether the Sigheh, Shiite temporary marriage where a man can marry a woman for as short as an hour, prayer verses were read or not before the sexual demands were made by the chancellor.

Four of the students who took part in videoing the abuse and rescuing the girl, Payam Shakiba, Hassan Joneydi, Arash Rayeji and now Bahram Vahedi have also been arrested.

Similar events in other Islamic Republic universities of Sahand and Kermanshah have also resulted in the arrest of the students instead of the authorities who were abusing their position. This is the Islamic Republic!

I was speaking to a war veteran friend of mine in Iran recently, he was telling me he was going along with his daughter to the university to collect her loan cheque, 'I have to accompany her everywhere, you can not even trust the academics in this regime, we never thought our country would come to this when we were fighting the Iraqis'.

People Fight Back Against Morality Police

Of all the clips which have been posted on youtube, showing how Iranians stand up to the Morality Police in the Islamic Republic, harassing Iranian women, this is my favourite.

See how the young girl fights back and punches the police woman several times, how the crowds gather and jeer the Morality Police and help the girl escape and how the cars press on their horns and make enough noise to make the police back down and panic. Excellent team work.

Iran Students Wearing Ties Risk Not Graduating

When I was at university, I remember I had an Ethiopian friend who had been a school pupil during the Marxist rule in Ethiopia. I once asked him if they were taught about Marxism-Leninism at school during those years. He shook his head and sighed as if I had touched a sore point. He told me with much grief how they had to stay behind every day after normal classes and learn about Marxism-Leninism, and God forbid if one of the students in the class raised his hand to ask a question, the other kids would gang up and beat the crap out of him after the class outside. Reason being that any question asked prolonged the pain and the suffering of having to stay behind and listen to all that nonsense, whereas kids wanted to finish school asap and go to the beach or the cinema and enjoy themselves. Yet for another friend of mine who was a student in Chile, under Pinochet, where Marxist literature was banned, going along to secret "study cells" and learning about such matters, not only was not boring but it was actually a cool thing to do.

The point I am trying to make by giving the examples above is that when any state wants to force feed you with some unwanted ideology, the natural reaction is to regurgitate it and puke it up. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, there are many such examples. The population is so continuously bombarded with empty meaningless slogans like the revolutionary Islam, the dispossessed, joys of martyrdom, the Graceful Supreme Leader, the combatant clergy and the hypocrisy of it all makes them run a mile as soon as they hear these things or such repeated phrases have become the butt of day to day jokes.

Another symbol of defiance to the ruling clerics in Iran is wearing a tie. Ever since the inception of Fedayeen of Islam in 1946, a fundamentalist Shiite terrorist group, which set about killing secular Iranian intellectuals like the great Iranian historian and linguist, Ahmad Kasravi, a tie for Shiite fundamentalists has been a symbol of a cross and Christian domination of Islamic people. I remember reading an article about, Navab Safavi, the founder of this terrorist group and a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini, in the newspapers after the 1979 revolution, and how he would only allow a reporter interview him if he removed his tie first. The way the article described Navab Safavi's insistence at the reporter to remove his tie was as if it was the ultimate act of piety by this single brain cell terrorist.

Hence you never see an Islamic Republic official wear a tie. You will never see an Islamic Republic diplomat, statesman, embassy staff or anyone with an official position wear a tie. Instead they either wear those round collar shirts, or round neck sweaters or button up their shirts all the way to the top. For this reason, wearing a tie, especially on special occasions, for the Iranian youth is a must and a symbol of defiance to the mullahs.

I remember during the making of the Dispatches documentary, Iran Forbidden, I was at the end of my tether, trying to tell the Iranian dissident students, that this documentary will be for the English speaking market and here the students wear T-shirts and jeans. But whatever I said it did not stop them from wearing a suit and a tie for the interviews. Once I was called up to the sound studio and asked to translate a badly recorded scene. A former Iranian student was ringing his friend back in Iran. To my horror and despite my repeated requests, he had put on his best silk shirt, tie, cuff links, white socks , the lot. The sound engineer, who had only seen that scene and didn't know what the documentary was about, asked me if the subject was a second hand used car salesman? and I was resigned to go through the whole spiel of why Iranian youth insist on wearing a tie, repeating some of all I have written above to make him understand. Although I think the sound engineer was just sorry he had asked me the question in the first place.

When some news agencies reported a few days ago that thirty-two Iranian students who showed up to their graduation ceremony with a tie were told their final exams could be annulled as a form of punishment for not having removed their tie, I was inundated with my non-Iranian contacts as to why that may be the case. Hence I thought I write this post, it will now be easier to refer them to this post than to explain to them who the terrorist Navab Safavi was and the roots of the ruling clerics in Iran now every time I am asked the question.

First Reaction of Separatists to the Azarbijan Movement Conference

This blog is mainly to explain the Iran related news and events to the English speaking audience, it is an attempt to combat the Islamic Republic apologists in the cyber space. However on this occasion, I just don't have time to translate word by word, the pathetic email which was sent around by this unknown separatist. I will leave it as a comment as it was originally written. Yes Azeri separatists write in Persian :)))

Basically what this junk mail says is that a group of unidentified and unknown figures, 'enemies of the Azeri people', who do not physically exist! came together to hold the first meeting of the Azarbijan Movement for Democracy and Integrity of Iran, and then lists the names :)) and who was the signatory of this junk mail?? an unknown, unidentified nobody whom we do not even know if he/she is a man or a woman and calls him/her self Baybak with an anonymous email of azeribaybak100007@gmail.com ??!! If anyone knows this vermin please let me know.

Yet this nobody claims the signatories of the Azarbijan Movement who include well known Iranian personalities like Dr. Amoozegar, Ismail Khoii, Professor Keykavoos Afshar, Dr. Parviz Adl, Dr. Zartosht Sotoodeh and all the other well respected signatories are unidentified unknown figures that don't exist :))!!!

How pathetic these coward separatists are!!

The Mossadegh Project or Another Site for IRI Apologists?

I was browsing through one of the CASMII related web sites, Iranians for Peace! and came across this link http://mohammadmossadegh.com/. I thought I find out a little bit about who runs this site and what their aims and objectives are by emailing them and asking them questions. My school teacher's advice 'Beware of people and ideologies who are not keen on being asked questions', as always, being my guideline.

I must say I was not surprised to find out this was yet another pathetic attempt to use Mossadegh's name and what happened more than half a century ago as an excuse to promote the mullahs and silence those voices who highlight the human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic. I wonder what Mossadegh would have said, if he was told 'What we should all be concerned with is to prevent a military attack on Iran by the Allied Forces and we should not be critical of Reza Shah'.

So this is how the email conversation went:

Me: I would like to join your group. Can someone contact me?

Mossadegh Project: Thank you for your interest in our non-profit and independent endeavor, and offer of participation. I can refer you to our Mission Statement, but if you have other ideas or means of assistance we are interested to hear about them. (We are based in the U.S.). Our main goal is to study the events of the Mossadegh era, its relevance to current world affairs, and lessons learned for the future. Highlighting this subject is a way of promoting democracy and sovereignty for Iran.

thanks again
sincerely,
Ebrahim Norouzi

'Our main goal is to study the events of the Mossadegh era, its relevance to current world affairs', so surely there must be some mention of how the present rulers of Iran helped topple Mossadegh I thought and asked the following question in my reply email:

'By the way you don't say anything on your site that Mossadegh was removed with the help of Mullahs and how much the present day rulers of Iran hate the secular Mossadegh. Why is that?'

and their reply was:
'We intend to fully address the role of religious figures in the future.' and continued that Mossadegh's removal was mainly due to foreign intervention, 'It is doubtful that without foreign intervention, the domestic enemies of Mossadegh's government could have succeeded.'

to which I replied:
'I would argue that without the domestic agents, i.e. mullahs and their thugs and hoodlums followings, the coup would not have been possible. Lets not forget the famous thugs and hoodlums who were earnest disciples of Ayatollah Kashani and so forth.

Mossadegh is a hated figure by the present day ruling clerics and many Iranians think the mullahs are puppets of the British. Lift a mullah's beard and you will see the sign, 'Made in Britain' surely you have heard this and when you say you will fully address the betrayal of the religious figures in the future, how far in the future are we talking about?

Just like all those people and ideologies that my maths teacher warned me against, the Mossadegh Project had enough of my questions and decided to call it a day:
'You have already made up your mind about what is more important and we do not wish to continue with your interrogation'

So for those who claim their 'main goal is to study the events of the Mossadegh era' there seems to be an unhealthy reluctance to discuss the role of the ruling Ayatollahs in the downfall of Mossadegh and the vicious annihilation of the followers of Mossadegh, Iranian National Front, after the revolution by the Ayatollahs, and by the way the Nowrouzi brothers who run the site have chosen to live in America. They are Iranian-Americans and 'US Based'.

How do Ordinary Iranians Really Think?

A friend of mine was at a conference in Washington recently. It was hosted by a cross party foundation composed of Republicans and Democrats, politicians and academics. During the session, a female Democrat told him, they have been given some names of Iranian dissidents and would like to know his opinion on these dissidents. Naturally my friend was happy to oblige and so the Democrat member, struggled to pronounce the name as she read her notes, 'Mo-ham-ad Qali? Qalibaf?'. Dumbstruck and taken back at the ignorance of this US Democrat, my friend just raised his eyebrows and asked for the name of the next dissident.
'Ali La-ri- err Lari-jani', she continued. Struggling to hold back his laughter, my friend asked bemused as to who had told her these were Iranian dissidents?

-'Tritta Parsi' was her swift reply and so things became clear to my friend, as it probably has to most readers of this post.

The truth is an organised and well funded body of lobbyists and 'Iranian scholar experts' in numerous think tanks have confused the hell of the US statesmen, whose initial knowledge on Iran was rock bottom zilch in the first place. Yet this deliberate attempt to confuse and mislead is not confined to the Americans about Iran. So-called 'Iran experts' who at best are just hustling for recognition and academic credibility amongst their niche audiences and at worst are direct agents of the Islamic Republic have also been hard at work confusing the European statesmen at what is going on in Iran and how the ordinary Iranian thinks.

Although in Europe, the attempt is much more sophisticated. I doubt, rather I hope, a European statesman would not accept Qalibaf and Larijani, major IRI establishment figures, as Iranian dissidents!

The approach in UK, in my experience, for example, has been something along these lines, a wrong impression fed by half truths:

'The Iranians are extremely suspicious about the British motives. They recall the British role in the overthrow of the nationalist Dr. Mossadegh, blah, blah, blah...' and then the usual conclusion is that if the British government takes up measures against the Islamic Republic, it will rekindle those memories of half a century ago and will rally the nationalist feelings of the Iranian population behind the mullahs, hence appeasement of the mullahs is the best option!

Here is a rough narration of a conversation I had last week with a friend who had just arrived from Iran. Lets call him Mehdi for obvious reasons. This is not however an isolated anecdote, most of the ordinary Iranians I meet who live in Iran tell me similar things and you can see the common trends in their thoughts on politics.

Mehdi : America and England support the mullahs, it is as clear as daylight. We don't have a chance against the mullahs.

Me: Mehdi, how can you say that? look at all the overwhelming evidence, both UK and US would love to see the back of these mullahs, they just don't have many options.

Mehdi: Ok, tell me about the overwhelming evidence

Me: Well lets start with Bush calling Iran an axis of evil.

Mehdi: What? Thats just cheap talk, to fool the public. Cheney's Haliburton was still operating in Iran when all that was being talked.What practical measures has Bush taken to change this regime? If anything Bush has helped them. For example, the Taliban and Saddam were the most immediate problems for the Islamic Republic, America removed both of them and Jack Straw welcomed khatami as a partner in the 'war on terror'. Don't you remember?

Me: Why would UK and US want to support the mullahs Mehdi?

Mehdi: Arabs have so much money in their hands they could buy the West. Somehow this money has to be grabbed from them. Islamic Republic is the bogey man of the region, just like when Saddam was for a while. US and UK make Islamic Republic a dangerous threat to the rich Arab Persian Gulf countries so they can sell them more arms. Look at the recent missile tests, seconds after they were fired, there were massive orders for arms by the rich Arab countries in the region.

Me: What about the capture of the UK sailors?

Mehdi: What about it? First of all it established exactly where the disputed Iranian water territories was and secondly it made Ahmadi-Nejad more of a hero in Muslim countries, thus making their pro-Western governments even more scared into buying arms and equipment from the West.

Me: Mehdi, look at the oil prices soaring, how could UK and US want this tension in the region, look at the effects it is having on the global economy.

Mehdi: Nonsense, Bush was elected by the oil lobby, it is in the interests of those who brought him to power for the oil prices to soar. they are making billions and what money the Arabs are making, the US and the UK are pocketing again by selling them arms.

Me: Look at all the interference in Iraq made by the Islamic Republic. Surely, the US wants Iraq to be stable.

Mehdi: America wants to stay in Iraq so it can sell all the oil at these high prices. If Iraq was stable there would be no reason for the Americans to stay there. So once again the mullahs are doing what they are told to do by the UK and US. Come on you know what we Iranians say about the mullahs, 'lift a mullah's beard and you see Made in Britain'. Who helped the UK and US to overthrow Mossadegh? The mullahs, we all know that, now they have been rewarded for their services.

Mehdi then went into the all familiar territory of how the BBC helped overthrow the Shah and how supportive of the mullahs the BBC is now, and how the BBC is referred to as Ayatollah BBC amongst the Iranians.

I was struggling to convince Mehdi on any front with my counter arguments, so I asked him about sanctions. 'Why would the UK and US impose sanctions against Islamic Republic if they support IRI?'

Mehdi: Its just a show again, these sanctions are useless, when have they ever been imposed against those who are repressing the people? They ban some Iranian scientist from travelling but they let Mortazevi go to Geneva as the head of the Iranian Human Rights delegation, come on Potkin, get real. If they want to finish the Islamic Republic, all they have to do is stop the export of Petrol. It will paralyse the regime, but they will never do it. They want them in power.
Carter brought them in for a reason.

Me: Mehdi, everyone is talking about the threat of war, and how an attack on Iran is imminent and you say Bush is supporting the mullahs?

Mehdi: Ah, we have heard all this for the last God knows how many years, it is all cheap talk, for the last decade we have been hearing in the next six months they will attack, they never will, do you know how many six months it has been? why would they attack their best friend in the region? Tell me something, do you have any idea how much the house prices have gone up in just the last year in Tehran? 100 percent! if people thought an attack was imminent do you not think they would start selling their houses and house prices would be falling instead. No one is doing it, no one in Iran believes this war bullshit.

They say the markets never lie. I really didn't know how to answer Mehdi on this point. If people in Iran thought war was imminent, why would they not sell their houses and move to safer places? Obviously they don't see an attack as an imminent danger and there is no panic about this amongst the population.

I gave up trying to convince Mehdi, so I was just resigned to ask him what his outlook on the future was. To which again Mehdi surprised me, 'Oh these lot will go. People are fed up with them and they have had enough. They have never been as hated as they are now. Iranians like change every 30 years or so. It will take a few years before this feeling of hatred towards the mullahs turns into street riots, but as soon as it does, the British and the Americans will find their next puppets to replace them and do their work.'

This surprised me, I have never known Mehdi to say the mullahs are on their way out until now, but this was also a contradiction to his original opening statement, 'we don't have a chance against the mullahs'. So I pointed out his contradiction, thinking at last I will have the upper hand in this friendly debate.

'Not right now we don't have a chance, but give it time, it is inevitable, everyone hates the mullahs more and more every day', Mehdi replied.

Let me just add Mehdi comes from a religious family background, he voted for the Islamic Republic in the sham referendum held immediately after the revolution. He also volunteered and served in the front line against Saddam's invasion of Iran and voted for Khatami first time round.

Mahabad Protests for the Release of Kurdish Activists

Video of people in Mahabad protesting for the release of Kurdish activists. Pictures of Hana Abdi and Ronak Safar zadeh from the Azarmehr Women's Association and Farzad Kamangar, see my previous post, can be seen carried by the crowds.

Kidnapping of an 11 Year Old

I have never written anything about Fazad Kamangar, the Iranian Kurdish teacher who is due to be executed. This is because there has been much written about his plight in other websites and I have none of my reliable sources in Iran who can give me first hand information about him. The Islamic regime accuses him of having ties with the armed Kurdish separatist groups, but if I jott down how many times these representatives of the clerical regime have blatantly lied, I will never finish.

However when I read about the kidnap and torture of Kamangar's 11 year old nephew, in the website of Human Rights Activists in Iran, I was really shaken. I have a nephew of the same age myself. Islamic Republic has a horrific track record of killing teenagers during the eighties by madmen like Khalkhali and Lajevardi, even pregnant women were executed by this regime in the eighties. One of CIS members who now lives in Germany, spent the first five years of his life growing up in Islamic Republic prisons in the same cell with his mother and other female political prisoners, watching them being taken for interrogations, and then returned bruised, battered and bleeding. Believe me, you need nerves of steel to listen to or read about the accounts of these children whose misfortune was they were born to parents who were political dissidents during the eighties in Iran.

According to the Human Rights Activists in Iran website, Kamangar's 11 year old nephew who had popped out for some shopping errands, was forced into a white car belonging to the IRGC, taken to an unknown place, and beaten while the assailants hurled insults and threats at his family and at Kamangar in particular for several hours. At the end, this 11 year old boy was released 5 Kilometers outside the town at 21:00 hours, bleeding from his eyes and ears. It took him more than one hour to walk back and find his home. Naturally the kid is in shock and extremely frightened. His family have lodged a complaint with the authorities, who have postponed the hearings from witnesses to Saturday. I can not even imagine the rage this family must feel at the moment. Even if Kamangar is connected with a separatist Kurdish group, what on earth does that have to do with his 11 year old nephew?? Is there no limit to the barbarity of these neanderthals?

Of course according to groups like CASMII and now a newly formed group, 'Iranians for Peace', with the same old familiar faces [Haleh Afshar, Elaheh Rostami, Ziba Mir Hosseini and the rest of the usual IRI apologists and lackeys...], we must not talk about these things at the moment, while we face an external threat! The same external threat that we have been told we face constantly and continuously for the last 28 years. If the regime continues to treat people like this, there will come a time when people will even welcome the external threat, treat your people right however and no external threat can ever match the resolve and support of your people.

All dictatorships have always used the 'external threat' excuse for their human rights abuses. Talk to a brain washed North Korean and he or she will tell you that the Socialism led by their Dear Leader, Kim Il Jong, is so desirable and precious that the whole world is plotting against North Korea. Even the Dear Leader's bulging stomach is not because he stuffs himself while his people starve but because he constantly worries about his people!

Its funny, or perhaps revealing, how during the Pahlavis time, 'external threat' was never a consideration by these people who make up these CASMII and 'Iranians for Peace' type of groups. When Reza Shah came to power, Iran was on the brink of being torn to pieces by separatists like the British backed Sheikh Khaza'l in the oil rich Khuzestan and the Russian backed Mirza Kuchak Khan in the North. Reza Shah was forced to abdicate when the Allied forces of Britain and Russia invaded Iran in 1941. The Russian backed separatists even tried to separate Azerbijan from Iran, and during the second Pahlavi's rule, Iran was constantly under threat by the Soviets to the North and Saddam Hussein's Iraq to the West.

Yet the likes of these IRI apologists who make up CASMII and 'Iranians for Peace', they are old enough and most were political activists against the Shah at the time, were never heard saying 'We must not talk about Human Rights abuses, because we face external threats'. These people welcomed external threats, they saw Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the Soviet Union as liberators!
They went out of their way to exaggerate the human rights abuses under the Pahlavis.

Iranian diaspora must not be fooled by their anti-war rhetoric and peace loving gestures. The best way to remove an external threat is to help establish a regime which respects human rights and allows all Iranians to participate in running of Iran. A democratic secular government which promotes citizens on their merits and not on their ties to the ruling clergy is the best defence against any 'external threats'.

Guilty Feelings of a Revolutionary Guard 20 Years Later

During the terror years of the eighties which led to the massacre of the Iranian political prisoners in 1988, there was a disturbing news which further shocked any decent human being.

The leadership of the Left wing groups in Iran were still ploughing through Marx and Lenin's writings and squabling whether the clerics, who were in complete control of the country, represented the petty bourgeoise class, natural allies of the Proleteriat according to Lenin, or a merchant bourgeoise class, blah blah. While their young, even teenage ordinary supporters and sympathisers were being lined up for mass executions, the Left's leadership in Iran considered such intellectual theoretical debates as having top priority, because the correct Marxist-Leninst formulation, in their warped out of touch minds, was important to decide the 'correct' tactics against the regime!

Yet any sane rational person by hearing such shocking news that was coming out of the Islamic Republic prisons would say, what difference does it make? these are nothing but brutal savages.

The horrific news, was that female prisoners who were virgins, were raped before their execution. Apparently according to the Koran, virgin girls will always go to heaven, and by raping them before their execution, one would prevent them from entering the Paradise. Clerics in the prisons would perform the Sighe, temporary shi'ite marriage, ceremony and their 'temporary husbands' could do as they pleased before these young girls were executed in the morning.

Ayatollah Montazeri, who was the original designated successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, as the next Supreme Leader, also mentions in his memoirs, the enormous feeling of guilt he suffers for not having stopped this loathsome conduct in Islamic prisons at the time.

Families of these executed girls also reported, how a prison guard or a revolutionary guard, would bring the tragic devastating news of their daughter's death to their household and have the further audacity of telling them, 'by the way, last night, we were your son-in-law'. Just imagine what these families went through in those moments.

In a Persian weblog, You Killed Iranians but Iran Lives On, the blogger writes about an uncle who is now a Major in the Revolutionary Guards. The uncle's wife is dead and the guilty feelings are catching up with him in his old age, perhaps because he now sees himself in the waiting lounge for the next world. The uncle was stationed in the Shiraz prison at the time, and was amongst a group due to be sent to the war fronts the next day.
After the evening meal and reading the Komayl prayers, the prison governor, told them he had good news, 'You can choose any of the female prisoners due to be executed as your temporary wives for the night.'

Some of them refused to take part in this crime, the blogger's uncle was also tempted to turn away and nearly did, but someone shouted at him, 'Hey, where are you going, you don't want to leave this world without having tried it, do you?' The temptation and his youth, and his uncertain future at the war front finally won over.
According to the blogger's uncle, the young girl said she was sentenced to death, after she had gone along to a Tudeh Party meeting, Iranian pro-Soviet Communist Party. Her name was Leyla. After he spent the night with her, he watched her get executed along with the others. At the time he justified the unsettling experience to himself, by thinking' This is necessary so that Islam can spread'.

Like many other henchmen, the Revolutionary Guard who took part in this inhumane act, is now suffering the after shocks of his barbarity, yet some Tudeh Party affiliates of those days, like Elaheh Rostami, SOAS lecturer, and Haleh Afshar, the People's Peer!, still try and justify the regime and claim women in Islamic Republic are better off than before by quoting meaningless statistics like 'More women are vaccinated now than during the Shah's regime'. With some, perhaps, the guilty conscience will never catch up.

Let Batebi Rest

Since the student uprising in July, 1999, many things have happened in my life that I never thought would happen. Looking back they just seem incredible. For example, when I was following the news of the suppression of the student uprising in Iran, I never thought one day, one of those student leaders, Gholamreza Mohajerani-Nejad will be my guest for two weeks in London. When I was helping to make the documentary, Iran Forbidden, I never thought one day I will meet Fakhravar face to face, and host him here in London. Similarly when I wrote the post on Nazanin Afshin-Jam two years ago, I never thought I will help organise an event for her to speak in the UK parliament. The list can go on like this, but I don't want to deviate from what I am about to write.

After July, 1999, two other young Iranian ex-pat activists and myself in three different parts of the world, started a website which was supposed to concentrate on the new pro-democracy movement in Iran, publish related news and help us to establish contact with those inside Iran.
One day we received a Persian text from an unknown source which read 'The young student whose picture was published on the cover of the Economist, is called Ahmad Batebi, and is sentenced to death' . In fact we misread the name as Bateni - the difference between the letters 'n' and 'b' in Persian is a dot above or below respectively.

Immediately, I contacted the Economist's Foreign Editor at the time, a very pleasant and approachable lady by the name of Barbara Smith. She was devastated at what I told her and said she would check with her sources in Iran. Her sources confirmed the news and in fact Barbara Smith was the one who told us the young man's name is Ahmad Batebi and not Bateni.

Barbara Smith then ran an article highlighting the severe sentences passed by the Islamic court, including the four death sentences in the next issue of the Economist. She also gave us a contact name at Reuters who owned the photograph of Batebi published on the cover of the magazine. I rang Reuters, explained the situation and Reuters kindly wavered their loyalty fee and provided me with the high resolution photograph. This enabled us to make posters and T-shirts of Batebi and publicise his plight.

When Batebi's letter from prison about his treatment reached us, some English friends of mine made a play based on the letter. We staged this play in some UK universities and schools.

I was invited to a UK student conference in East London, organised by Campaign for Free Education, and talked to them about the student movement in Iran from the cultural revolution right up to the July uprising. The students themselves then suggested to nominate Ahmad Batebi for the historic position of honorary vice-president of UK's National Union of Students.
The NUS conference in March 2000, did in fact elect Batebi for this post. On one anniversary of the student uprising, we made a short clip for Azadi TV, where we went to a UK university and asked UK students to express messages of solidarity to Iranian students and hold up Batebi T-shirts while saying 'Azadi Andisheh, Hamishe Hamishe' - 'Freedom of Thought, For Ever, For Ever' The popular slogan of the uprising. The program was a huge success and was beamed almost every day to Iran leading up to the anniversary of the student uprising.

Other Iranian pro-democracy activists in UK and other countries outside Iran also campaigned hard and Batebi with his famous picture holding a bloody T-shirt became the symbol of the new movement. All this we hoped helped to save Batebi from the death sentence.

Today, I received an email from a friend who was familiar with the campaign we had for Batebi at the time. I laughed when she asked if I had some thing to do with his escape. The truth is I had nothing to do with it. I only ever managed to talk to Batebi once in the last 9 years and that was very briefly during one of his prison leaves.

While I was happy to see Batebi finally find safety, I have been uncomfortable about the fact that he ended up in US. Unfortunately Iranian ex-pats in US and their petty rivalries and rumour mongering have often broken down escaped dissidents even more than the Islamic Republic prison authorities have managed. Cell mates who stood together against their interrogators in the Islamic Republic prisons become sworn enemies of each other in US through the unsavoury manipulation of some Iranian ex-pats in US who revel in petty factional rivalries.

I have seen this unfortunate phenomenon too many times. While these dissidents are inside Iran, they are everyone's heroes but when they come out, God forbid if they hold an interview ,for example, with a rival TV presenter. Soon petty personal jealousies will make villains out of them and yesterday's heroes become Islamic Republic 'collaborators' etc. A point which was also raised by Amnesty International's Zahir JanMohammad in the article published in NY Times:
' Mr. Batebi joins an exile community whose rivalries are legendary, many factions would seek to recruit him. '

I hope what happened to previous Iranian dissidents who ended up in US will not happen to Batebi, and I wish Iranian ex-pat groups in US will not get into yet another mud slinging match with each other over who is more suitable to recruit Batebi. I wish to talk and meet with Batebi one day and even have him as my guest in London in the future, but for now I just hope Batebi will get a chance to rest and Iranian ex-pats just help him get the medical attention he needs. I wish, as Batebi himself says in the NY Times, he can go fishing and enjoy life in a country where people are free to live their lives.

Iranian Kurdish Cities on All Out Strike

Cities throughout the Kurdistan province of Iran have been on an all out general strike, commemorating the 19th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Qassemlou, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.

All shops and businesses in Saqiz, Mahabad, Oshnavieh, Bukan, Naghadeh and parts of Oroumieh are all closed down despite severe threats by the Islamic Republic authorities warning businesses that they will lose their permits should they not be open today.

Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, has also asked people to switch their lights off at 10:00 pm local time, in a further act of solidarity and civil disobedience against the Islamic Republic.

Dr. Qassemlou's Czech born wife, Helen Krulich, speaking in fluent Persian, appeared on Tishk TV and also endorsed the general strike and the planned lights out later this evening.

Farewell Nazanin

What an eventful week it was. It seems it was only a few minutes ago when we were waiting in the airport for Nazanin to arrive. Anxiety mixed with excitement, excited that we were seeing Nazanin again and anxious that we would be worthy hosts for Nazanin Afshin-Jam and make a success of this amazing opportunity.

I didn't get time to write about Nazanin's meetings yesterday, and so let me do so now. Nazanin met Stephen Crabb MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, at the House of Commons yesterday morning. In the afternoon, Nazanin met with Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch followed by a meeting with Drewery Dyke from Amnesty International.

Today Nazanin met with representatives of Iranian religious minorities in the morning followed by an interview in the Bush House with the BBC Persian and her last formal meeting in the afternoon was with Maryam Namazi.

So to wrap up the week, we had a farewell dinner in an Iranian restaurant with some of the young Iranian diaspora. In particular I wanted Nazanin to meet young Iranians who are not actively involved in Iran related issues, I wanted Nazanin to show them how they can make a difference but at the same time, I wanted Nazanin to hear their side and find out what prevents these young Iranians from becoming active themselves.

I am waiting for more photos to reach my mail box and share them with you. So those who took the photos please hurry :))

Let me finish the post by mentioning another amazing quality of Nazanin. In the whole week that we were going from one meeting to another and holding one event after another, Nazanin never showed any signs of fatigue or tiredness, she never refused anything we asked her and obliged with every appointment, her enthusiasm and energy never wavered. Going about from one part of London to another, in a week which hardly stopped pouring with rain, we were often concerned that her schedule may be over demanding, but she always replied with her humble smile, 'No its ok'.

Last but not least, I have to mention our colleague Maryam Raiisi, another Iranian girl who worked non-stop throughout this week. Despite all her family commitments, she too never showed any signs of tiredness. The sheer energy of Nazanin and Maryam, has strengthened my long held belief that Iran will be liberated by the collective effort of its women.

Nazanin Parliament Photos

Nazanin Afshin-Jam in the UK Parliament:

Hope to get some time soon to transfer more photos and show them on the blog.

Nazanin's Third Day in London

Nazanin had an interview with More4 TV Channel this morning and then after a quick lunch at the Portcullis House, we made our way to the Foreign Office, where we had a very useful meeting with an Iran Desk officer on Human Rights issues.

Later we went to the House of Lords. It was my first time ever in the House of Lords. While we were waiting in the lobby, one of the peers acknowledged Nazanin and said he was in committee room 14 the day before and was very impressed with the points she had made during the meeting.

We had a quick tour of the House, as we made our way to the Lord's tea room. I even had the chance of standing right in front of the very Throne of the Queen of England, where the Queen sits at the State Opening of Parliament and delivers the Queen's Speech.

Lord Avebury invited us to his office, where we discussed various Iran related issues. More tomorrow I hope.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam in UK Parliament

It was a busy day for Nazanin today. The first engagement was an interview with Bloomberg news followed by a press conference at the Henry Jackson Society offices in Queen Ann's Chambers. Three Iranian media representatives from Radio Farda, Radio Zamaneh and Kayhan Weekly were also present and as usual some of our Iranian media didn't cease to amaze me with their snobby opinionated attitudes. Rather than interviewing Nazanin, you would think they were the ones who were there to be interviewed. Instead of asking questions about why Nazanin was in London and her schedule of events in the coming week, they were advising her about what she should say in the parliament and making speeches of their own . A point which did not go unnoticed by the non-Iranians present in the room either.

The representative of Radio Farda, boasted about being the most popular radio station in Iran etc. When I asked her if Radio Farda will be covering Nazanin's event in the UK parliament later in the afternoon, Radio Farda representative said no unfortunately she can't make it! Neither of the other two Iranian media came to cover the parliament event either. Instead as usual they expected us to write a report and land it on their lap. Radio Zamaneh however did a one to one interview with Nazanin after the press conference.

More than 100 people turned up at the committee room 14 in the House of commons at 5 pm today to hear Nazanin. The meeting was chaired by Graham Stuart MP who introduced Nazanin and myself to the audience. Nazanin started by showing a few slide images of Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution, followed by pictures of public hangings, beatings and other human rights abuses which have taken place in the last three decades in Iran since.

Today also coincided with the student uprising in 1999 which engulfed 19 cities across Iran for six days. Nazanin reminded the audience about some of the victims of the student protests, the bloodshed which followed and the long term prison sentences received by some of the captured protesters. She talked about the persecution of the religious minorities in Iran and the new apostasy bill, the barbaric punishments and the execution of minors, the murder of the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, Zahra Kazemi and other victims. Yet despite all these atrocities and suppression, the civil movement in Iran for democracy and human rights remains alive. Students, the youth, the women and workers of Iran continue their protests and political prisoners like Arzhang Davoodi defy their captors by staging a 70 day hunger strike.

Nazanin stated her position against a military strike on Iran and at the same time she criticised any appeasement of the Islamic Republic by the West, saying the best solution is empowering the civil movement in Iran.

Nazanin finished her speech by expressing her optimism that soon change will come about in Iran and dictatorships will not last for ever.

The first member of the audience to be allowed to ask a question, turned out to be a Press TV employee, the satellite station run by the Islamic Republic from Tehran with studios in London.
Although he did not ask a question, but rather aggressively and in a loud voice stood up and said he did not want to say what his name was and objected to being filmed, he then advised Nazanin that there are people in the Iranian regime who are reasonable and not all should be blamed.

Tomorrow will be another busy day with more meetings which hopefully I will get time to write about.

Pictures of Young Palizdar

Pictures of a young Palizdar and his Janbazan[War Wounded] ID card. Palizdar volunteered for the war front to fight Saddam's war of aggression against Iran at the age of 14, but perhaps his greatest battle against the occupiers of our country lies ahead of him.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam in UK

Nazanin Afshin-Jam arrived in UK today.

It is July and it was pouring down with rain all morning in London, yet everyone in our welcoming group was looking forward to meeting Nazanin. As always it was so Exhilarating to meet her, despite her long flight, she was so full of energy, so enthusiastic about her work and still so down to earth. After we picked up Nazanin from the airport, on the way back to her hotel, the clouds broke up and the sun even started to shine! so symbolic of how she inspires all Iranian pro-democracy and human rights activists.

Nazanin has been invited by the Confederation of Iranian Students in UK and will have a heavy schedule in the days ahead. I will write more about her events in the coming week.

Official Figures on Prostitution in the Islamic Republic

The Islamic revolution in Iran according to Ayatollah Khomeini was supposed to provide the people of Iran with free electricty, water, bus rides, housing and eliminate corruption and prostitution. What lies they all were and how the Iranians were tricked and continue to pay the price! Something I keep reminding the Muslim youth here in UK when I see them duped and fascinated by rhetoric of Muslim radical charlatans.

Here are some official figures about prostitution in the Islamic Republic, published in the daily Sarmayeh on Wednesday:

'Seyyed Kazim Rasoolzadeh Tabatabaii, head of the Tarbiat Modarres University Psychological Group and Head of the Vulnerable Women's Work Group stated, 'In the 80s and 90s, the average age for prostitution was above 30 but now this average is above 15 years old. '

'If previously the main reason for prostitution was to meet their basic needs, now it has changed to meet their secondary needs. Also previously prostitution was mainly amongst single women but research shows that most of the women involved in prostitution are now married women and this trend is increasing fast'

Rasoolzadeh also claimed figure show that 11% of the married women engage in prostitution with their husband's knowledge'

Elaheh Rostami, SOAS lecturer, and proletarian hero of the Socialist Worker's Party, on the other hand believes that the 'The Great people's revolution of 1979 was a huge benefit to the Iranian women who are much better off now than before the revolution.' In particular and in contrast to the above official statistics, Elaheh Rostami's favourite statistics is that more women are now vaccinated than before the revolution :)) Talk about the low standards of British universities which employ such 'useful idiots' as lecturers these days.

Video of Mashad Protests on Youtube

See footage of Mashad Protests on youtube.

The peaceful protest was against the corruption and the stranglehold of the financial mafia on Iran's economy resulting in the deteriorating economic conditions for ordinary people. See how baton wielding guards on motor bikes smash the old man in the crowd on to the ground. It is also interesting to see the sheer hatred of people against the troops and how the crowds jeer the guards and call them bootlickers of the mafia.

Arzhang Ends his Hunger Strike

Arzhang Davoodi finally ended his marathon hunger strike, after his demands were accepted by the prison governors at Rajaii Shahr prison.

Deputy Attorney, Salarkia, also promised Davoodi's wife that Arzhang will be returned to Evin prison if he ends his strike.

Last week some of Iranian ex-political prisoners, in an open letter, pleaded with Arzhang to end his hunger strike.

Does Hana Deserve 5 Years in Prison?

Hana Abdi was arrested by Islamic security officers in the City of Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, Iran, on 4th November, 2007 after she left her grandfather's house. She was charged with taking part in a gathering and colluding to commit a crime against, yes you guessed it, 'NATIONAL SECURITY'. Hana was put through a series of psychological and physical tortures for two months until she was sent to Sanandaj prison, waiting for her sentence.

Last week Hana was finally sentenced to 5 years. Below is a letter by Hana's mother, Maliheh Asghari, to the women of the world:

'I have not just been Hana's mother, I have also been like a friend who has always stood by her side. Hana used to talk to me about women's rights and helping the poor and illiterate women, had become her objective. All the women who know Hana, also know Hana's objectives and her kind nature. Hana used to hold literacy classes for women and with the donations she received she would help the needy ones. After a while she set up the Azarmehr Women's Association, and many women joined up. Hana, her friends and I were always together.

Hana's friend, Ronak, who is also suffering a similar outcome, was always with Hana too. They took their first step by putting together a small library. They would go to the surrounding villages and gather women in schools and mosques and teach them how to read and write. They would also invite lawyers as guests in their meetings and they would explain to the women their rights. They held classes and workshops which taught women about the history of women's struggles and held ceremonies and celebrations on woman's day and mother's days as part of their activities.

Hana was only 21 when she was arrested, but since she has gone, I see older women who were her students, and they say to me, 'since Hana is gone, we feel we have lost our mother'.

I now know that I have only one daughter called Hana, but she has thousands of daughters who are waiting for her.

I have only talked about a minute part of the help Hana offered to the needy women in this letter, but at the end of this letter, I want to ask the women of the world,
Does Hana Deserve 5 Years in Prison?'

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".