Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his clashes with the Islamist mullahs are causing another stir in the international film world. His short film “The Accordion” was scheduled last week to open this year’s Venice Film Festival, but the Iranian government would not let him leave the country to attend. Once again he’s grounded.

Imam Mesbah Yazdi, great supporter of Ahmadinejad, makes the claim. For him, sexual and moral deviants like Sakineh should be punished and suppressed. Obeying Ahmadinejad is like obeying God. Pro-reform students are beaten, pro-reform professors are fired, all for being against Iran’s rulers. Journalists are accused of being “mohareb”, enemies of God.

This year’s Al-Quds Day rally, on September 4, took place in central London and protestors marched from Marble Arch to he US Embassy at Grosvenor Square. While marching they had to listen to Iran’s Greens, shouting ‘Shame on You Hezbollah’!

A dreamy university town in the Netherlands known as the birthplace of 17th-century painter Johannes Vermeer has become a major center for Iranian activists abroad.

Akbar Mohammadi was an Iranian student at Tehran University involved in the 18th of Tir crisis, also known as the July 1999 Iran student protests. On July 30, 2006, he died at Evin prison at the age of 37 after being beaten by prison guards, mental torture and a week lasting hunger strike.

Women’s rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, laywer of Dutch-Iranian citizen Zahra Bahrami, goes on trial accused of ‘waging war against God’. Last Saturday she visited Evin prison and was arrested by IRI Security forces.

According to reports of the “Human Rights and Democracy Committee in Iran” over the the last days CNG buses have formed long queues in front of petrol stations due to lack of gas in Iran’s private sector. The lack of gas has forced bus drivers to wait as long as twelve hours before fuel could be purchased.

The death sentence of an Iranian woman has been strongly condemned by all sides of the European Parliament. During an emergency debate on 6 September, MEPs considered the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

While Dutch-Iranian citizen Zahra Bahrami struggles against the death penalty Dutch think thank Clingendael invited Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad, Iranian Vice-Minister of Education. Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad once said: “Exterminate academics who don’t agree with our spiritual leader. Join the protest at September 17 in The Hague!

Terwijl de Iraans-Nederlandse Zahra Bahrami vecht tegen de doodstraf nodigt het Clingendael Instituut Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad, de Iraanse onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken, uit voor een lezing op 17 september 2010. Dit is de minister die ooit zei: ‘Als academici het niet eens zijn met de geestelijke leider, kunnen zij beter worden uitgeroeid’.

Almost 300.000 people have signed the petition against the upcoming execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. She was already scheduled for a mock execution last week. The Vatican is pleading for clemency. Why don’t you add your vote and sign the petition to save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s life?

Authorities in the island state, which serves as a US naval base, made the arrests during weeks of unrest in the run-up to a parliamentary election next month. Officials said activists were members of “a terrorist network with international support” and were planning a campaign of “violence, intimidation and subversion”.

Given his sinister reputation and vociferous contempt for the West, US reporters who interview Hossein Shariatmadari are invariably surprised to find him humble, affable and even “courtly” in person. Surprised because the ultra-radical editor-in-chief of Kayhan, Iran’s most influential pro-regime newspaper, is feared and loathed by many of his compatriots.

According to reports of Human Rights and Democracy Reporters in Iran Shahin Rajabi Mvrkany, a prisoner, died after being brutally tortured in police operations center Ahvaz Karun. Most likely Shahin Rajabi Mvrkany was murdered. His body was bruised, hands and feet were broken and a deep wound in his head was visible.

The period between the 8th and the 13th century is considered to be the ‘Golden Age of Islam’. Scholars present it as a period of major cultural. Meanwhile the backbone of this ‘golden age’, a vast majority of Iranian scientists, writers and artists were persecuted, imprisoned and trialled for heresy. Almost a millenium later: did anything change?

Press News and Tehran Times published an article stating d recently over 100 Dutch businessmen have signed a statement to object to these sanctions. However, the Netherlands-Iranian Business Association (NIBA) expressed only its concern of losing business to foreign competitors. It’s all about the money….

The Iranian ambassador in the Netherlands, Kazem Gharib-Abadi, claims that recently over 100 Dutch businessmen have signed a statement to object to the sanctions against Iran. We shall try to obtain a copy of this list.

Hafez and Sa’adi of Shiraz, who wrote about beauty, wine and their love for mankind, are now turning in their graves at the thought of what is happening to Iran. Wouldn’t you?

Op 27 augustus verzamelde Nederland geld in voor Pakistan. Maar is het geen tijd voor een gezamenlijke actie voor Zahra Bahrami? Deze Iraans-Nederlandse liep mee in een vreedzaam en democratisch protest. Uit vergelding dreigt het Iraanse regime haar op een extreem brute wijze te executeren: door middel van langzame verwurging.

Iranian state television has broadcast a purported confession by Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtian who had faced death by stoning for adultery, a case that has drawn statements of concern by the U.S. administration. She was previously sentenced to 99 lashes.

The high volume of debts of the Iranian government to energy producing companies has led to a serious drop in investment in energy. Over 900.000 workers are about to lose their jobs.

Mariacarmela Ribecco wrote a poem to remember the horrible faith of Du’a Khalil Aswad and remind us that Iran still executes women in this prehistoric manner. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is, amongst others, on the waiting list!

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered refuge to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. Meanwhile her family is still waiting on the final word on her fate.

Mohammad Mostafaei, Sakineh Ashtiani’s laywer, is believed to have gone into hiding after an arrest warrant was issued for him, according to colleagues and activists familiar with the case.

On Friday 30 July 2010, Mina Ahadi, Coordinator of the International Committee against Executions and International Committee against Stoning, is to provide new evidence and information on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case as well as other cases sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

Reza Kahili, the pseudonym of a former CIA Operative who infiltrated the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is predicting the imminent collapse of the theocratic regime in Iran.

Tonya Kaboudvand, daughter of Kurdish human rights activists Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand, spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iranabout her last visit with her father in Evin Prison. “I couldn’t recognize my father during my last visit with him.