What was Jannati Referring to?

Last Friday's sermon in Tehran was read by Ayatollah Jannati, who is also a member of the powerful Guardian Council, probably the most powerful body in Iran. Jannati is a pillar of the establishment and has been in the Guardian Council ever since day one of the revolution, if I remember correctly.

Jannati admonished anyone who criticised Ahmadinejad's government and said the Supreme Leader has banned any destructive attempt at the government. 'It is the holy month of Ramadan too, so hold back your tongues and pens and don't do anything against God's desires'

During the sermon, Jannati warned the faithful that the day to day problems will get worse but the public must be patient, 'for soon the Islamic Republic will posess a power so great that no one will be tempted to attack it.'

Ahmadinejad by Kasra Naji

This is not a detailed biography with ins and outs of Ahmadi-nejad's entire personal life story up to now, if you want to read a biography of Ahmadi-nejad you may have to wait until something like that is written some time in the future. However, if you want to be updated with a factual account of what is going on in Iran now, how the population are manipulated and who runs the Islamic Republic, reading this book is a must!

It is one of the best explanations I have read in English on what Islamic Republic elections are about and those in the West who are under some illusion that the Islamic Republic is a 'flourishing' democracy or a 'shining beacon' in the region, should study this book well. Kasra Naji explains how the high level meetings determine the election results before hand, even after all the candidates have been filtered through by the Guardian Council.
The mysterious 6 million - and still growing in numbers - unexpired birth certificates of the deceased and how they are used to manipulate the outcome in important elections, the instructions to the baseej militia on which candidate is the favourite and what they should do to ensure the favourite wins. How all this vote manipulation ensures that a candidate scoring last in the opinion polls with only 2.8 percent of the vote, can suddenly take most of the votes and become the 'most popular president'! How the IRGC commanders and other bodies even at times, unwittingly acknowledge the role of the Baseej and the Revolutionary Guards in the election results! and yet some "Iran experts" suggest we should take democracy go its path and wait for Iranians to vote for a "reformist" president in the next elections :)

Most Iran news followers may by now know about Ahmadi-nejad's dellusions about representing the Shiite Messiah and his messianic mentors, but perhaps it may be unknown to them the role of philosophers like Ahmad Fardid, a disciple of Nazi linked Martin Heidegger, who have also influenced Ahmadi-nejad's thinking.

Naji presents hard facts to the appeasers and those who think negotiating with the hardliners may bring fruits by giving numerous examples of the outcomes of such moves in the past. Like when Madeleine Albright officially apologised on behalf of the US for its role in the 1952 coup, to the very mullahs who took part in the downfall of Mossadegh, and how such apologetic gestures only resulted in her Islamic Republic counterpart wanting to sue the US now that they had admitted to their role :)) or how Islamic vigilantes attacked a bus full of US academics, keen to open a dialogue with the Islamic Republic, with sticks and stones :))

The tragedy of Ahmadi-nejad's mismanagement of Iran's economy and how all the petro-dollar wealth is wasted and misspent by a president who despises economics and economists, is also explained very clearly by Naji. I wish Naji would also have said how this is very much in line with Ayatollah Khomeini's infamous statement that 'economics belongs to the donkeys'.

And for myself who am not a nuclear expert and have not had time to follow the nuclear issue of the Islamic Republic in much detail, Naji's chapter on Iran's Nuclear Quest was very useful too.

Naji after all is not an exiled opposition, he has worked as a journalist in Iran for many years and is also the husband of BBC's former correspondent in Tehran, Frances Harrison, therefore he has been in an excellent position to understand the complexity and contradictions of the Islamic Republic and who runs Iran today beyond what is presented by the cleric's fancy shop windows to the outside world.

I definitely recommend reading the book to all who want to be updated on Iran.

Shortly after I read Kasra Naji's book, I came across a clip of him with Jon Snow in the frontline club. See:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1381682699&channel=301939273

Watch how the pompous ex-Trot, Jon Snow, a son of a clergyman himself and a university drop out and a beneficiary of nepotism in journalism, tries to sound all knowing but gets some very basic news facts wrong. For example he says Ahmadi-nejad was the only non cleric candidate, Naji reminds him that was not the case. At another point, Jon Snow claims the root of the problem is that the US has never accepted the Islamic Revolution as a fact and come to terms with it, then he goes on about the Europeans and the British who in contrast have come to terms with the Islamic revolution and as he rants on, he realises himself that also hasn't got anyone anywhere!

Most ridiculous Snow statement however is his suggestion that the US should carpet bomb Iran with laptops to overthrow the Iranian government! Hmm, what about the slow speed of the internet, the huge cost, the filtering of the sites etc. all mentioned in Naji's book. Watching the clip I wondered at times if Snow had even read Naji's book?!

Arash is Released

At last, common sense has prevailed and Arash was released, without bail, from the detention centre this evening, pending his appeal hearing for asylum. I am optimistic that his new lawyer will do a better job than his previous one and present all the evidence the way it should be.

I want all those who helped, to rejoice at the news of Arash's release from the detention centre but at the same time lets not get complacent until all is resolved.


Arash asked me to thank all those who helped publicise his plight and hopes to thank you all in person soon. He also asked me to write on his behalf that 'Our friendships should be stronger than our political inclinations'.

Children of Cyrus! United we will be strong! Apathy, envy and infighting will destroy us and bring us humiliation. We did not have to become refugees and be locked up in detention centres before and we will not have to in the near future either. These dark times will come to pass and the era of the turban heads will be but a temporary glitch in the history of our country.

US Embassy in London Shopped Arash to the UK Immigration

Last Monday I made an appointment with the Longstanton detention centre, outside Cambridge, to see Arash Mohajeri-nejad. I was told I could not take any food, drink or any camera devices. I asked Arash what he wanted me to bring and he asked for a book to read and a CD with Iranian patriotic songs to keep up his spirit. I got him the CD he wanted and a hefty book on the history of Iran before Islam.

I don't know why, but on my way to the detention centre, I imagined the security guards to be something like the illiterate Homeland Security officers I have come across in Dulles airport, Washington. I kept repeating to myself on the way to Longstanton, 'I must not lose my cool and come to blows with them'. In fact I was very wrong, the guards at the detention centre are ever so polite and respectful, not just with me but with all the visitors and the detainees too. They asked me for a photo ID and my visit number at the gates, then a quick search before they drove me up this long drive in their vehicle. The detention centre was an old RAF barracks, and I think the visiting place must have been a part of the canteen before. I waited for Arash. All detainees wear a light coloured vest, so that they are distinguished from the visitors and not swap places and escape I suppose.

Arash looked tired but he managed a smile when he saw me, we shook hands and he thanked me for the book and the CD. I asked him how he was treated and he said he got on well with the guards and how kind and considerate they were in treating all the detainees. I spent the first 10 - 15 minutes on some friendly banter and some shared memories just to cheer him up first. When I thought the time was right I asked him about what had happened.

'You know I have been waiting for my asylum application for the last five years. The unreasonable reasons why the Home Office rejected my first application and how my lawyer messed up lodging my appeal in time and failed to submit all the evidence I had given him. Not having a status and being a non-entity for all these years was eating me up. They say one's twenties are the best years of one's life. For me it has been a living hell. I made a rash decision and decided to go along to the US embassy, I thought they would be more sympathetic if I applied for a visa there. After all, my brother is in US and I thought because of his high profile, they would know about him. I explained to the visa officer that I had been active against the Iranian regime before I fled Iran and that I have been active here in the UK too, but it all seemed to go in one ear and come out of the other, he just asked me what my legal status in UK was and I told him. Next he told me to wait while he sorted out some paper work. For a moment I thought this was the end of my hell. When he came back, they escorted me to a certain exit, and outside, the UK authorities were waiting for me and handcuffed me as they identified me with the photo they had.'

I listened with disbelief, and clenched my fists in rage. I had to ask him again 'So the US embassy shopped you to the UK authorities?'
'YES' He confirmed again.
'Are you 100% sure?' I asked him again.
'Potkin, when I came out of the embassy exit, the UK police were waiting outside with a faxed copy of my photo. It was the same photo I had given the US embassy for my application and I did not used that picture anywhere else' Arash told me with absolute confidence.

'Those stupid small minded no good bureaucrats, he probably didnt even know where Iran was' I said with utter disgust. I kind of imagined how Kavoussifar was handed over by the US embassy in Abu Dhabi to the Islamic Republic, only to be publicly hanged once he was back in the Islamic Republic.
'Sounds a bit like what happened to Kavoussifar in Abu Dhabi' I said to Arash.
'I promise you, if I am to be hanged, just like Kavoussifar, I will show no fear and smile just like Kavoussifar did with the rope round his neck'. This time, I think Arash was trying to raise my spirits.

'Arash, why on earth did you not discuss this with me?' I asked him holding my head in my hands.
'I thought in the worst scenario they would reject my application, not shop me to the UK authorities to arrest me and then deport me back to the mullahs. The US is against the mullahs Potkin, no?'
I shook my head and raised my eyebrows with disbelief. Arash is a great kid but obviously naive at times.

It has taken me a week to ponder whether I should write about this. I have asked for advise from those whose judgement I trust. My initial reluctance was because I thought this would demoralise further the Iranian Diaspora from getting involved in Iran related politics. I thought the message to them would be, you have the might of the Islamic Republic against you as well as that of America and UK, therefore you don't have a chance, just get on with your lives and don't get involved. This is in fact what we hear from those who don't get involved, they think they don't have a chance and the Americans and the UK want to maintain this regime. If I revealed the US embassy shopped Arash, it would confirm their suspicions.

At the end and after a week of much consultation, my English friend, Simon, convinced me with some powerful arguments which were as follows:

1 . What they did to Arash they may do to someone else. If these things are not publicly challenged then they dont get changed. Other dissidents in London or elsewhere may make the same mistake with the same consequences. Simply because they do not know what the embassy is likely to do because it is not publicised - the other case you talked about [Kavoussifar] was where somebody had killed a corrupt judge - they will think if they are a peaceful dissident and not involved in violence they wouldnt get the same treatment. Some may even be deported because of this misconception that the US is on their side. The least you should expect from the US embassy is that they do not call the authorities on them if they do not want to help them.

2. What the US embassy did seems to me this. Someone looks up something in a rule book and then follows it. That simple, that brutal. Now does Bush personally know what is in the rule book? Or McCain? (still less likely - I would have thought he would be very annoyed about this) Even Condoleeza Rice might not know - at least that's what she would say if publicly challenged. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because this is done the whole administration the whole political system the whole country is against you. This is negative thinking.

3. I don't see how it would really demoralise the opposition unless it is presented in a very negative way (blaming the whole country/administration etc). The whole world is not against you. Only people with vested interests, people on the regime's gravy train and jobsworth types at embassies and immigration departments and some hypocrite politicians. In reality a very few people who run like rabbits when they are exposed for what they are. That's all. You must stay positive.

So there you go! It was some small minded embassy bureaucrat who had no idea where Iran was or what was happening in Iran that looked up a rule book and shopped an Iranian pro-democracy activist to be deported back to the Islamic Republic! I can't be any more positive than that after a week!

"And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you. The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
George Bush State of the Union Address in 2005.

What bullshit and was there more to this speech that we did not hear, perhaps "When you stand for your own liberty, we will tell our embassies to deport you back to Iran"??

Dispatches - Undercover Mosque

It made my blood boil watching the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Undercover Mosque, tonight. To think that secular pro-democracy activists, like Arash, who stood up to theocracy in Iran are locked up in Britain's detention centres waiting for deportation, while Saudi sponsored preachers of hate like Um-Saleem and others, shown in the documentary, are free to enter this country and spread their gospel of hate and destruction is beyond the comprehension of any sane person.

I am tired now, but watch this space tomorrow when I reveal how the US embassy in London shopped Arash to the UK immigration authorities.

Arash (Abu-Ali) Mohajerani-Nejad in Imminent Threat of Deportation from UK

UK Home Office's inadequate lottery system for accepting asylum seekers, which has let so many Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists into UK, has once again failed a genuine bona fide Iranian secular pro-democracy activist, who has been seeking political asylum in UK.

Arash (Abu-Ali) Mohajerani-Nejad is also the brother of prominent Iranian pro-democracy dissident and student activist, Gholam-reza Mohajerani-nejad, who fled Iran after the 1999 student uprising. Arash was arrested and detained in Charing-Cross police station and can be deported back to the Islamic Republic any moment, where he will face grave consequences for his life and liberty and that of his comrades in Iran.

Below is a VOA(Persian) radio recording of how Arash was attacked by Islamic Republic agents during the Islamic Republic sponsored Al-Quds day [Jerusalem Day] march in London few years ago:
http://daneshjooyan.org/media/830816a.ram

If Arash is deported back to Iran, the message sent by the UK Home Office will be as follows:
While Islamic Republic sponsored supporters are free to march in the streets of London, and pretend they care for the Palestinians, Iranian pro-democracy activists are being deported back to the Ayatollahs, the very sponsors of Hezbollah, Hamas, Moqtada Sadr and other terror organisations!

Please write, fax, phone or email Tony McNulty, Home Office minister who also happens to be the MP for the constituency where Arash lived and politely inform him of the grave mistake the Home Office is making.

25th Aug, 2008 - See important note by Harry Barnes, retired MP himself, on how you can help, in the comments section below.

New contact details for Home Office contacts:

Private Office to The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
* Telephone: 020 7035 0198
* Fax: 020 7035 0900
* Email: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Private Office to The Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP
* Telephone: 020 7035 0201
* Fax: 0870 336 9035
* Email: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Private Office to Liam Byrne MP
* Telephone: 020 7035 0195
* Fax: 0870 336 9034
* Email: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Pictures of Arash:

Friday Prayer Leader on our Sportswomen

This is probably the worst ever Olympics for Iran, only one Bronze so far puts Iran behind Afghanistan in the medals table. But thats not what Ayatollah Alam-ol-Hoda, the Friday prayer leader for Mashad is worried about! His holiness is more worried about a picture of an Iranian female skater he has seen in some magazine. In an interview with Khorasan Daily, which clearly shows the sheer backwardness of the people who are ruling in Iran, the Ayatollah criticises the female Iranian skater's pose as too erotic despite her adherence to the Islamic dress code!

But it was not just the skater and her erotic pose that he was worried about, the Ayatollah also criticised other pictures of Islamic Republic sportswomen. He said he had also seen a picture of another Iranian sportswoman who had won a medal and while her Islamic dress was satisfactory, the picture showed her shaking hands with the man who is awarding her the medal! Allah forbid what a disgrace!

What irritated Alam-ol-hoda most however was a female rower who represented Islamic Republic in some competition, again observing the Islamic dress code for women but then when she was snapped up by a foreign team she disregarded her Islamic cover and competed wearing the customary vest and shorts for rowers.

'On the one hand we tell the world that women can compete in international competitions with appropriate Islamic dress code and on the other hand this woman sends an unethical message against our Islamic values when she joins another team'

Alam-ol-hoda never mentions these women by their names. Ayatollahs avoid saying female names, it may sound too erotic.

Moshayi Resigns

One day after I wrote about Ahmadi-Nejad's in-law and deputy, Rahim Moshayi being in trouble over his remarks about friendship with the people of Israel, Iranian dailies are saying that Moshayi has finally handed in his resignation. Although Moshayi himself has not yet publicly announced his resignation but the report claims that Moshayi resigned this morning after a meeting with president Ahmadi-Nejad.

He denied reports of his resignation afterwards: http://www.alef-1.com/content/view/31188/

Consequences of Claiming Friendship with People of Israel

Ahmadi-Nejad's deputy, Rahim Moshayi, whose daughter is married to Ahmadi-nejad's son, seems to be getting deeper and deeper into trouble after saying 'We are friends with all the people of the world, even the people of America and Israel', in a press conference back in July.

Any where else in the world, such a statement would be interpreted as reasonable and sensible but not in the Islamic Republic establishment!

Two hundred "representatives" of the Islamic Assembly have signed a letter asking Ahamdi-nejad to deal severely with his deputy for his claim of Iran being friends with the people of Israel.
Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi, one of the 'Shiite Sources of Emulation', is the latest of the clerical big guns who is now demanding Moshayii's resignation. He has criticised the Islamic Republic president for having Moshayii next to him during his recent trip to Turkey despite all the calls for his resignation.

Editor of Tehran based daily, Kayhan, and former prison interrogator, Hossein Shariatmadari, also demanded the immediate resignation of Moshayii from the 'popular and elected' president, saying 'Why has the president not acted already against his deputy who refers to the thugs and hoodlums living in Israel as people and calls them our friend?"

But perhaps the most comical of the reactions has been from Fatemeh Rajabi, the wife of Ahmadi-nejad's government spokesman, Gholamhossein Elham:

'There is no excuse or justification for Moshayii's statement. How can he come up with such statement on the eve of our hidden Imam's birthday? Moshayii must know that not only the people of Iran will not approve of his friendship with the people of Israel, but none of the nations of the world will support it either. When Moshayii says the nation of Israel, he must know the word nation is a collectivisation of individuals under a legislation. Do the people of Israel have an iota of legislation?? [ :))) ] What is the difference between the people of Israel and their government? Are they not acting together in their crimes?
.....Rahim Moshayii must know that the Jewish tribes were admonished in Koran, The Jews were the enemy of Islam and Allah's last prophet on earth. ...Rahim Moshayii must know that Imam Khomeini, right from the beginning, attacked Israel as a bunch of Jews. Of course non-Zionist Jews around the world are also colluding with Israel. . '

And this bit is a classic :))
:
'Hence, considering the president's denial of the holocaust, which was like an explosion of light in the darkness of Zionist suppression, and our government's close ties with the wishes of our hidden Imam, which has terrified the lost sect of Bahaiism and also their pro-democracy backers around the world; such statement by the president's deputy is like a stab in the back, and that is if one is being optimistic' :)))))

Fatemeh Rajabi then criticised Moshayii's competence and suitability for his government posts, saying he has no qualifications for any of his positions. Moshayii is also head of Iran's Heritage as well as tourism and handicrafts.

Former Iranian Political Prisoners and their Horrifying Experiences

Iranian political prisoners talk about their horrifying experiences in prison.
An important work in 5 parts below, shocking and heartbreaking:
http://www.iranian.com/main/singlepage/2008/blindfolded-witnesses

The subtitles could be better but nevertheless the clips convey the horrors of what went on in the Islamic Republic prisons in the 80s. As the prisoners describe, the Islamic Republic wanted to destroy all traces of humanity in them.

When you hear about the children in these prisons, then perhaps you can understand why we are so full of hatred towards the apologists and the 'useful idiots' who try to legitimise these neanderthals.

Lessons of the Georgian Conflict to Iran's Separatists

If there is one thing to learn from the recent Russain invasion of Georgia, the carnage, the misery and the large number of civilian lives lost as a result, is that you can not be a small independent nation of a few million, live near the ruthless expansionist Russian bear and not suffer from the misfortunes of this proximity with this forever despotic state.

Don't even think about the "anti-war" groups marching in the streets of Europe in support of your plight, for these active groups only disguise their true agenda under their "anti-war" slogans. Does anyone remember any marches or street protests in Europe when the Chechens got slaughtered by the Russians and when the Chechen towns were flattened?

Similarly don't think about the US or the EU states standing up for you. They will think about their own interests and pros and cons as you would naturally expect them to. The only way to stand up to the brutal expansionist Russia is to remain a strong, united and large nation. Only a Greater Iran will be able to stand up to Russia, our historic enemy. Our historic and cultural ties will bind us together and our differences will enrich us further.

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?'