Khavaran Cemetery Must be Preserved

According to Amnesty International, between 4500 to 10000 Iranian political prisoners were massacred in 1988 over a period of just two months. The relatives of the victims were not allowed to have the bodies of their loved ones or hold a funeral, instead the bodies were taken in meat trucks and dumped in places like Khavaran or what the regime referred to as La'nat-Abad [The Damned Place], a cemetery used for burying non-Muslims.

The mass burial at Khavaran was only accidentally discovered by an Armenian priest who had become curious as to why stray dogs kept digging there for bones.

Although the useful idiots across the West, who are always ready to march in support of terrorists and brutal dictators, thought the massacre was not worthy of a protest, even the successor to Ayatollah Khomeini at the time, Ayatollah Montazeri, could not stay silent and wrote a protest letter, which promptly resulted in his removal from the position of successor to the Supreme Leader.

Now, twenty years later, the Islamic Republic can not tolerate families of those victims who come to Khavaran to console their sorrow. Mothers and fathers, brother and sisters, sons and daughters who just hold pictures of their loved ones and plant trees and flowers to say we have not forgotten our victims. But thats too much for the Islamic Republic authorities, they want to demolish Khavaran altogether.

Imagine, if the Israelis decided to mass execute the Palestinian prisoners they hold, 5000 to 10000 prisoners over two months, then dumped their bodies in meat trucks and buried them somewhere unknown. What would be the international outcry? Somehow the Iranian blood does not stir the same emotions and the pain of Iranian mothers and children does not count for much with these 'progressive peace activists'.

BBC Persian TV

Its nearly a week since BBC Persian TV started its broadcasting. Apparently its the talk of the town in Tehran and everyone is asking 'Did you watch BBC TV last night?' from one another. The truth is that the Islamic Republic state TV is so boring, bland and overtly indoctrinating and evangelist (State Shiite evangelism that is) that any half professional run TV will be different and amusing to watch for the Iranians inside Iran. How long the novelty will last, is another matter however.

My initial reaction to BBC Persian TV broadcasting was that at last VOA Persian will have some level pegging competition other than the state run TV in Iran. At last the VOA Persian program makers and editors will have to stay on their toes and no longer be able to make decisions based on their personal envies and preferences as to who can be invited or otherwise on their nauseating talk shows and interviews.

The Islamic Republic state reaction to BBC Persian TV has been anger and fear along with accusations of espionage and a plot to bring about a velvet revolution, or soft overthrow, as they call it. Sort of thing one would expect from the Iranian government, for they seem to be scared of everything including their own shadow as we say in Persian when we want to describe a paranoid person.

So how has the BBC TV been so far? I haven't had much time to watch the programs but from what I have watched, my first impression was that at least the BBC is making original television programs. I have often said VOA Persian TV is not TV but another radio station. They have no programs other than news and interviews and some irrelevant copy/paste programs from other sources.
BBC on the other hand has some fresh original ideas that can be classed as TV programs and not just news and interviews. As for the 'soft overthrow' that the Iranian regime is worried about, I just fail to see any signs of it. I watched a reconstruction of water boarding torture used in Guantanamo prisons, the devastation of Gaza by the Israelis, more grave news about the financial crisis in US and Britain, and so on. Just the sort of thing the Iranian state TV wants to show to the Iranian public but in a less evangelist way and with better looking presenters, and since the BBC is also hosting the likes of pro-Rafsanjanis liars like Massoud Behnoud, I can safely advise the Iranian government that they should have no worries at all. The UK government on the other hand should have a lot more to fear from PRESS TV and the messages it is sending to the English speaking Muslims, that's for sure!

When the Police Run Away

What do you do when even the police run away? Watch this video:



From what I can work out from the footage, it looks like the militant Islamists chase the British police, from the Haymarket all the way to Green Park. Watch the silly Leftist girl without a scarf, she thinks because she is wearing a bright vest, she is the steward and the Muslim militants will listen to her, little does the useful idiot know that she is just another Kaffir to them.

Soon at this rate, it won't just be the police who will be on the run, those Leftists who went along these marches with the Islamic militants, the spineless politicians who constantly appease them, the academics who host them and glorify them in the UK universities, the journalists who always take up their cause and the churchmen who want Sharia in UK will also be on the run and it will be too late for them to realise what dimwits they have been.

The Human Spirit in Hospital

I was visiting in hospital until the early hours of the morning. There was a Jewish doctor wearing a couple as well as a heavily bearded Muslim doctor on duty in the ward. It struck me how amidst all that calamity and misery you would expect from a hospital ward, how ideal some other things were.

The two doctors got on well with each other and despite their obvious religious affiliations there were no religion related issues. They just pulled their sleeves and helped patients regardless of their race or creed. I won't go as far as the words in John Lennon's song, 'imagine'. I can never imagine a world without a religion. There will always be many people who find comfort in spiritualism and until there is death, there will be religion for some people and many will feel more comfortable with a particular set of customs and life style, but wouldn't it be nice to imagine a world where no one tried to convert another person, or discriminate or hate another person or conquer others because of their religion and there was no hidden agendas other than the pleasant human spirit which let people live their life and choose for themselves for how they want to worship or not worship. Imagine that!

'Death to Peace Lovers'

In a previous post I wrote admiringly about the democracy in Israel which allows Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews to demonstrate peacefully against Israel's current offensive in Gaza and asked the question, imagine what would happen if a demonstration against Hamas took place in Iran? Little did I know that what I should have also asked was imagine if a non-government sanctioned demonstration happened in the Islamic Republic, even if it was against the Israeli offensive!!!

For today 'Mothers of Iran for Peace' gathered in Palestine Square in Tehran at 11:00 am. Their objective was to demonstrate against the Israeli offensive in Gaza and express sympathy with the women and children of Gaza. The gathering however was immediately broken up by the regime's thugs who were shouting 'Allah Akbar, Khamenei Rahbar!' and more revealingly 'Death to Peace Lovers!'. The thugs attacked the women which included Iran's renowned poetess, Simin Behbahani. Clearly demonstrating the Iranian regime can not tolerate any unofficial gathering.

Does that leave any doubt in any sane person's mind what the Hamas and more importantly their financial backer, Islamic Republic of Iran's objective in Gaza is?!!

Useful Idiots, stop being pawns of Hamas and the Iranian regime, understand what the Hamas and Islamic Republic's agenda in Gaza is. You have everything to lose if you don't wake up soon.

Raising 'Awareness'

This weekend London was once a again the scene of Gaza related demonstrations. On Saturday morning, Islamic Republic funded Press TV, almost entirely committed all its airtime to churn out the crowds in UK and Europe to demonstrate for Gaza by continuously showing pictures of dead and injured children. It was pure moral blackmail. The message was clear, if you did not join the demos later outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, you had the blood of the Gaza children on your hands.

It was not just moral blackmail however, former British Intelligence officer, Annie Machon was on Press TV to tell the UK Muslims how hard done they were and how much they were discriminated against, just to get the Muslim blood boiling further.

Curious as to why some British citizens would turn out to support Hamas and how much they know about Hamas, I tried to talk to as many people as I could on the demo route in the short time I had on Saturday. To my first question, 'why are you joining this demo today?', probably 9 out of 10 people I talked to, straight away replied with the cliche answer, 'I want to raise awareness about Gaza!'. Yet when I had a chance to hold a dialogue with them, it soon became apparent that they themselves needed some serious awareness about what is going on in Gaza, what Hamas is all about and the Middle East in general.

None of the people in the demo I spoke to knew anything about Hamas's support for Saddam Hussein for example and that Hamas had declared three days of mourning after the Iraqi dictator was executed. Not one knew about the Iran-Contra affair, when Islamic Republic purchased weapons from Israel or when I asked them about the 'Black September', none of the young ones knew anything about how several thousand Palestinians were killed by the previous Jordanian King. I asked some who were older, why they had not taken to the streets when hundreds of thousands of Chechens were murdered, thousands more had become refugees and their entire cities were flattened into the ground by Putin's air force, and they didn't seem to have an answer, occupation of Chechnya and the massacre of Chechnyan Muslims was Russia's God given right it seemed.

I heard afterwards that some of the demonstrators had then attacked some of the shops and businesses in Kensington, including smashing the windows of a Starbucks Coffee shop, terrifying innocent bystanders and children, I suppose smashing shop windows was presumably to 'raise awareness' too!

Probably 6 out of 10 people I spoke to said their knowledge of Gaza was from watching the news on BBC television alone. Those of us who follow Iran news will know how badly informed BBC news coverage can be and talking of television coverage, I just didn't get to talk to anyone long enough to ask them what they thought about the Hamas TV, Al-Aqsa's porn blooper, when apparently a Hamas TV station technician who was bored with broadcasting the Gaza images on 7th Jan went on a Polish porn channel for 6 minutes before realising that it was all being broadcast live on Al-Aqsa TV :))

See: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24891122-5012895,00.html

Death to Everyone

This is such a classic and it reminds me so much of the illiterate thugs that raided the universities in Iran during the 'cultural revolution'.

In this clip, the mob leader with the tannoy shouting the slogans, warms up the flock with the usual 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America' to begin with but then his zeal takes over his brain cells and he shouts 'Death to Palestine'. Few of the mob twig on and start laughing but the rest simply repeat the leader and shout accordingly 'Death to Palestine'.

Absolute classic :))

The Real Strength of Israel

Israel's strength is not just its air superiority or its sophisticated weaponry or its well trained army, Israel's real strength is its democracy.

This is a picture of Israelis Jews and Israeli Arabs, demonstrating against the Gaza war. This is why we want democracy for Iran, it will make us truly strong.

Be fair, what would happen if a demonstration against Hamas took place in Iran? What would happen to those who took part in the demo?

Imagine if Jews living in an Arab country demonstrated in favour of Israel's actions to stop Hamas rockets. Imagine if a small group of Gaza residents demonstrated against Hamas and asked Hamas to negotiate with Israel, what would happen to them?

Attack on Shirin Ebadi's House

The 61 year old Iranian lawyer and Noble Peace prize winner suffered another attack on her home after her offices were shut down by the Iranian authorities. More than 150 Baseejis demonstrated outside her house accusing her of siding with the Zionists! Demonstrators shouted 'Israel commits crimes, Ebadi Supports Zionists' and sprayed her house with graffiti.

Shirin Ebadi says the police were just watching and not dispersing the demonstrators while they were damaging her house and she is now scared to go back to her house.

It is mind boggling how these organised thugs could accuse her of being a Zionist. As soon as Ebadi won her Noble Peace prize, she described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an unjust war between those with sticks and those with advanced sophisticated weapons. So much so that most Iranian dissidents accused her of taking up the Palestinian cause more than that of the Iranian people. As soon as the current conflict started Ebadi's office condemned the state of Israel.

Neither BBC television nor the Islamic Republic Press TV reported these attacks and intimidations, yet such attacks clearly demonstrate how the Islamic Republic is using the current conflict between Hamas and Israel for its own political gains.

Those 'useful idiots' in the West who have been demonstrating 'in support of Gaza' have no idea how they are being manipulated for the political games of the Iranian regime.

This is Not Our War

Unpredictable things happen in war. What starts as localised conflicts can quickly spread and engulf whole nations for years. How lucky are those nations whose statesmen have their heads screwed on and act appropriately based on the national interests of their people.

While the Israel-Hamas conflict goes on, it worries me that Iran could be drawn into such military confrontation, not based on any national interest but purely for the adventurism of the Islamic Republic leaders to become the heroes of not the Iranian nation but of the Arab world.

The worrying signs are everywhere:

• Some baseejis have given ultimatums to Jordanian and Egyptian diplomats in Iran to either leave or defend Hamas.
• A similar mob have broken into the British embassy ground in Golhak gardens and occupied the grounds, lowered the Britsh flag and hoisted the Palestinian one.
• 'Martyrdom' forms have been handed out to send volunteers from Iran to defend Hamas.
• Brigadier General Baqerzadeh, Head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defence, asked for military intervention in Gaza.

THIS IS NOT OUR WAR! Iranians have no national interest in getting involved in this conflict.
Hamas is no friend of our nation, if you don't believe me just look at this picture of Palestinian delegation protest outside the UN building in Beirut. Hamas official, Osama Hamdan can be seen in front of the picture while another protester is holding up a picture of Saddam Hussein, the enemy of our nation and the dictator responsible for the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of our people, in the back.

Ahmadinejad on Channel 4

I am so pissed off, I am so livid at the incompetency and lunacy of this Western media, I want to get hold of one of these snobby condescending fartbag journalists, editors and media bosses and pulp them to the wall. Channel 4 has invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not for a debate, not for an interview, but to give an "alternative" Christmas message!

Who will they invite next? Kim-il-Jong? Mugabe? This is rubbing salt on the wounds of all those jailed journalists in Iran, this is an insult to the family of murdered photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, this is giving platform to a regime which is persecuting Christian converts in Iran, to a regime which is persecuting religious minorities.

I am tired of all this complacency and deranged madness of the Western media. British people wake up before your media destroys all the privileges you take for granted.

news@channel4.com
viewerenquiries@channel4.co.uk
+44 (0) 845 076 0191
http://www.lukejohnson.org/

The Arab Shoe Thrower

What would have happened if the Arab so called journalist who threw his shoe at President Bush, as he claimed 'for all the mothers and orphans of Iraq?', had thrown his shoe at Saddam Hussein? For Saddam certainly made thousands of mothers mourn for their sons and thousands of Iraqis had become orphans as a result of Saddam's massacres.

If Muntazer al-Zaidi was critical of Bush's policies, as he had a legitimate right to, he could have posed them as questions during the press conference in a civilised manner, something he would have never dared under Saddam.

And it shows how twisted the values of some people are when as a result of throwing his shoe, Muntazer al-Zaidi becomes a hero and a poem on an Islamist website praises him as "a hero with a lion's heart".

After Syria, then led by Hafiz Assad, had invaded and occupied Lebanon, I remember a photograph which showed a Lebanese protester holding a placard which impressed me, it read 'Assad fi Lebanon, Far fi Jolan' - 'Lion in Lebanon - Mouse in the Golan Heights'. That's how I would sum up this new Arab hero, Lion in a press conference, mouse under Saddam.

Recession and Revolution

Nial Ferguson, in his brilliant book, the Ascent of Money, makes an analogy as to the similarity in behaviour of a grazing herd with the human psychology in the stock market. The happily content grazing herd suddenly feel something has changed, something alerts them to stop happily grazing and out of the blue a rush for the farmyard gate by a few becomes a stampede by all the herd. In the stock market, this sudden mood swing triggers a massive sell by the investors and share prices go into free fall. What sets off this sudden mood swing is a complex combination of many variables, some at random and totally unpredictable, not something that I have any expertise in but I can not help but sense the similarities with human psychology during a revolution.

I remember when I was at school in Iran, one of the pupils in my class had grassed another kid for drawing a beard and specs on the Shah's picture which was at the beginning of all our text books. I remember how the teacher was trembling with fear not knowing how to react. That same teacher, a couple of years later, became a major organiser during the revolution and had no fear of sharing her radical views with the class.

The class prefect, whom I remember vividly reading his stomach churning over flattering essay in front of the whole class about the Shah's love for the nation and vice versa became another revolutionary fanatic. When I bumped into him after the revolution and cheekily reminded him about his obsequious essay, first he denied it and when I persisted he admitted that at that time he had not been 'enlightened' by the teachings of Imam Khomeini.

Similarly other kids in the class who had no knowledge nor interest in politics, had overnight removed pictures of their famous football player and pop celebrity heroes on the cover of their text books and ring binders and replaced them with pictures of radical Shiite clerics or Marxist guerrilla fighters.

How does what seems to be a politically apathetic individual, suddenly become so politicised and risks taking part in a movement for change? In my view its confidence. It is the gradual gain in confidence by the masses that suddenly and unpredictably tips the balance.

Until an authoritarian regime is conceived strong and in control, a brave minority may engage in the struggle, but the mainstream masses shrewdly just look on at the impossible odds and decide to get on with their lives without getting involved until something alerts them that the odds have changed, that the regime is no longer as strong as it makes out. Something perceived as important to the psychology of that nation alerts them that an implosion is on the way, fear gives way to confidence, the brave minority exponentially grows in numbers and soon the whole masses get on the band wagon. A behaviour which is similar in its suddenness and unpredictably to a stock market crash because it involves people and numerous complex variables.

Even the absurd wrong predictions shortly before the events are similar. Four months before the Hungarian uprising, the CIA which relied on its information from embassy cocktail parties, concluded "There really is no underground movement in Hungary at all". Few months before the 1979 revolution in Iran, Jimmy Carter described Iran as an island of stability in the middle of a turbulent region. Four months before the collapse of the dot-com bubble, readers of Business Week were told that the stock prices will continue to advance towards higher targets over the next three to five years. Eight days before the Black Thursday which was the onset for the Great Depression, Yale university economics professor Irving Fisher declared the US stock prices will remain on a permanently high plateau.

So in case of Iran, right now what is important for this mass psychology that could tip the balance? What tells the masses that its time to get involved or remain a passive bystander? Well as explained earlier there are many complex variables, one very important one however for the Iranian psychology is 'does the world want to accommodate the regime or will they fully back a mass movement for change?' Right or wrong this is a very important factor for the Iranian man on the street's psychology and his accumulated historical experiences.

For that reason I am against all these suggestions of 'Incentives and engagement and dialogue with the Islamic Republic' currently proposed by many US think tanks and academics to the US President-Elect Obama.
What exactly is the goal of engagement? what levers do they have in negotiations with the Islamic Republic? what makes them think the Ayatollahs in Iran want to join the mainstream countries and change their behaviour? Who will they negotiate with? but apart from all this, any incentive, engagement or talk of accommodating the Iranian regime will send the wrong signal to the Iranian people that for now the regime is here to stay and the ordinary man will think he is better off remaining a passive bystander.

Another important factor for the ordinary man on the street is what is the alternative? You often hear people ask, 'OK this lot go but who will come instead of them?' Its a perfectly valid question for without an alternative there will be no focal point for change. Here I think the alternative will have to come from inside Iran, those outside Iran can only help and support for this alternative to come about. But until the regime remains efficient in its repression it is hard for an alternative to form inside Iran. For that reason the regime must be weakened before an alternative has even taken shape so that an alternative can take shape.

Satellite TV Activities are Good for the Regime - Revolutionary Guards Publication

Sobhe Sadegh, which is the official weekly publication of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary guards, printed an article in this week's publication which quoted the reasons given by the Political Bureau of the RG as to why Persian speaking broadcasting media outside Iran has been beneficial for the regime.

The reasons for their conclusion is as follows:

1) A large part of the allocated budgets for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic has been swallowed up by these media without being able to create a strong movement in Iran in support of US and the West's interests.

2) These media have increased the public's trust in the regime

The article then expands on the above by saying, 'Shallow and superficial programs with mild criticisms which really go no further than reader's comments in our internal publications here in Iran, have convinced the people that there is no viable alternative other than the Islamic Republic in Iran...'

And continues:
'The net result for the Islamic Republic from these media has been in our favour'

Iran's National Student Day

With all the repressive measures recently taken, I was convinced that the student movement in Iran would not be able to commemorate the National Student Day this year, but I was wrong. One day later than the anniversary date, the Iranian students showed that Iran's student movement is still alive:

On Youtube
AFP: Iran students protest amid heavy security
Radio Free: 'Pseudo-Students' And Shenanigans
CBS: Students Rally For Democracy In Iran

IHT: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/07/news/ML-Iran-University-Protest.php

But has anyone seen a coverage from Ayatollah BBC?

Confessions of a Ba'athist Henchman

I always wonder why some people in the West were so keen on finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? All the dead as a result of Saddam's wars, the mass graves, the victims of Halebja and much more, were they not mass destruction? wasn't all that enough for them? Did the masses who were destroyed have to be European or something?
Are not millions of Saddam's victims enough for these people?

Recent confessions by the senior Republican Guard interrogator and Ba'athist henchman, Major Abdulrashid Baten, just demonstrates what an evil regime was overthrown.

'An Iranian POW had lost one of his legs as a result of a land mine explosion, I started interrogating him but he kept resisting, so I started cutting his fingers one by one, after cutting each finger I would burn the severed area with my lighter for two minutes until I cut all his fingers, but he still resisted giving any information. He was very young and his resistance made me even more angry, I even sawed off his leg but he still never gave any information' Major Baten recants.

Abdulrashid confirmed that Saddam personally took part in the execution of at least 450 Iranian POWs and altogether six thousand Iranian POWs were murdered in cold blood.

Do I care if they found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Not really. Am I glad Saddam was overthrown? Absolutely.

The Darling of Iranian Left, Nasser Zarafshan

'As a journalist you seem to have a positive inclination towards Capitalism, are you aware that the 'importers of democracy and human rights' in Iraq have also organised a squadron of deviant American homosexuals whose mission is to rape Iraqi children between 10 and 16 years of age?'

Original text in Persian:
آیا شما به عنوان یک روزنامه نگار که پیدا است نظر مساعدی هم نسبت به نظام سرمایه داری دارید، خبر دارید که این واردکنندگان دموکراسی و حقوق بشر به عراق، اسکادرانی از هموسکسوئل های منحرف امریکایی سازماندهی کرده و آن را با ماموریت تجاوز به کودکان ۱۰ تا ۱۶ ساله عراقی به عراق فرستاده اند؟
Source Link:
http://asre-nou.net/php/view.php?objnr=1222

If you thought the person who made the above statement in an interview is one of Iran's eccentric reactionary mullahs or Ahmadinejad has been making a speech at Columbia university again, then you are mistaken. The statement above is made by Dr. Nasser Zarafshan, the darling of the few Iranian Left that are left! The statement was made in reply to the question 'Since you attribute so many actions by Neocons to Capitalism itself, can it also be said that much of Stalin's actions are attributed to Marxism?'

But Zarafshan has not just been the darling of the Iranian Left, his Leftist Iranian supporters have also managed to convince so many of the Western Leftists, like Laura Rozens and Motherjones type publications, that any Iranian dissident who Zarafshan scolds must be scolded by them too for the sake of the international struggle of the Proletariat!
In this article http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/11/fakhravar.html Laura Rozen refers to Zarafshan as 'one of Iran’s most prominent human rights attorneys' :))
'

Why is Jim Muir Back in Tehran?

I thought we had seen the back of the BBC correspondent, Jim Muir reporting from Tehran. Muir's shabby superficial reports and his constant bolstering of Khatami as a reform champion while ignoring the rest of the Iranian pro-democracy movement and the human rights abuses committed under Khatami was a disaster for the real Iranian pro-democracy and human rights campaigners as well as for the BBC's credibility.

Ayatollah BBC, the term used by Iranians to describe the British Broadcasting Corporation, was further enforced as a result of Muir's constant mild reports and over inflated adulation of Khatami.

Since Jim Muir's departure from Tehran, many were hopeful that there will be more realistic reporting and to some extent there was. Yet only the other day I came across this report on the BBC website: Women Taxi Drivers in Tehran, and as always with such reports, yes you guessed it, the inevitable comparison of Iranian women with Saudi women who are not allowed to drive and giving the Islamic Republic the credit for such acts of women emancipation. As always these silly comparisons are not like for like comparisons of course. Women in Saudi Arabia have never been allowed to drive, yet the women in Iran had many more rights and were far ahead of their counterparts in the region before the 1979 revolution, it is just that at the time such comparisons were never reported and appreciated by the likes of Jim Muir.

At a time when there is almost an undeclared martial law in Tehran, at a time when many student activists have been arrested or forced to go into hiding ahead of the regime's crack down in anticipation of the National Student Day on 7th December, at a time when there has been an unprecedented number of executions in just a few days, when the dissident secular Ayatollah Boroujerdi has been transferred to Yazd prison, when Ayatollah Montazeri's war veteran assistant, Mojtaba Lotfi has been sentenced to four years in prison, when the regime once again stopped the public commemoration of the Forouhars and so much more relevant news, Jim Muir writes about female taxis in Tehran, how pathetic!

Another Embarassing Iranian Millionaire, Farhad Hakimzadeh

I was so embarassed to read in the UK papers today about the Iranian millionaire and the chairman of the Iran Heritage Foundation, Farhad Hakimzadeh, who with the help of a scalpel has managed to cut out numerous pages from 150 books in the British Library. Books that have been part of the British people's collection and heritage for centuries. Damn these uncultured Iranian wealthy illiterate apes who are a constant source of embarrassment to our community. How low can they get?

What Hakimzadeh has done, embodies the worst of the bazaari mentality and the attitude of the very wealthy Iranian ex-pats. Their greed and desire for self interest only, their lack of interest in benefiting the wider community, their disregard for opportunities to share cultural treasures with others. No wonder these Iranian millionaire ex-pats never fund any political activity and no wonder they are always so keen on mingling with their Islamic Republic connections, for they are only ever interested in one thing, self interest and promoting themselves.

I read this article by Peyvand Khorsandi on Farhad Hakimzadeh, a while ago. Only now I understand how well Peyvand described Hakimzadeh and the Iran Heritage Foundation:
a self-appointed arbiter of Iranian culture with little distinction outside the circles of rich illiterates among whom he shines, a Tarzan among apes.

Very well put Peyvand.

Tenth Anniversary of Forouhars

Ten years ago, Iran's secular dissidents, husband and wife, Daryoush and Parvaneh Forouhar were murdered in their home by Islamic Republic intelligence ministry agents. Their daughter Parastoo has returned to Iran every year on the anniversary of their murder to hold commemoration ceremonies for her slained parents.

In the last few years the regime has banned all public commemoration ceremonies and has even tried to restrict the private family gatherings in their house.

Despite all the obstacles and restrictions, this year too, Parastoo has returned to Iran and as she told Deutsche Welle radio, she will continue to commemorate her parents until she is alive. The commemoration ceremony is due to be held this Friday in the Forouhars' home were they were repeatedly stabbed to death.