Written by Victor Morton for BigHollywood

Jafar Panahi

He is not taking it lying down, either, telling Agence France-Presse in Tehran that the mullahs “have a problem with me personally.”Panahi also told AFP that even though he had been released on bail shortly after Cannes, he had been officially banned from making films and traveling abroad, which just makes the whole country one big jail. “When a filmmaker is not allowed to make films, it is as if his mind was still imprisoned. Maybe he is not locked up in a small cell, but he keeps wandering in a much bigger jail,” he said.

Unlike some political martyrs, though, Panahi is worth celebrating and getting to know on artistic grounds, by conservatives and other Americans, even those who don’t often go to or rent foreign or “art” films. He is no talentless provocateur or a mere stick with which to beat the mullahs (justifiably, do I need to add?) about their rhetorical heads. He has won major prizes at the world’s three most prestigious juried festivals – Berlin, Cannes and Venice. He makes accessible and generally entertaining films about the mullahs’ treatment of women. Perhaps worse yet in the eyes of Ahmadinejad and Co., Panahi portrays ordinary Iranians and even sometimes the regime’s enforcers as just unenthusiastically going along to get along. Through such surface subjects as a child’s desire for a goldfish, some women’s efforts to see a soccer game, and a man’s hopes to prove himself worthy of marrying his love, he makes powerful films about frustration in the face of official corruption and social indifference.

Panahi’s first internationally released feature, 1995’s “The White Balloon,” was made in the vein of several Iranian films at that time – a neorealist-flavored film about children, a “safe” subject that wouldn’t be affected by the mullahs’ stifling content codes. But there’s nothing “childish” about “The White Balloon” and its protagonist’s wish for a goldfish – one of the “big, fat ones.” It uses the classic Aristotelian unities – set in a few blocks’ space on the afternoon before the New Year’s celebration and happening more-or-less in real time — to create a universe that is as both as narrow and as big as a child’s world. It also displays Panahi’s masterful abilities with offscreen space and sound effects — we feel like we know the girl’s father, even though he’s never seen (one of the “work-arounds” many Iranian film-makers use, just as Hollywood directors did under the Hays Code). The family is portrayed in an utterly realistic manner – the parents and children love each other, while getting on one another’s nerves and not for laughs. And the most dreaded fate for a child is your mom learning that you lost a 500-toman note. Panahi the writer also undercuts the girl’s insistence on this fish in the gentlest way possible without violating the girl’s illusion. There are several other excellent Iranian movies in this vein by directors other than Panahi – Majidi’s “Children of Heaven” and Kiarostami’s “Where Is My Friends Home.” Many conservatives say that we want clean movies about kids that take seriously both their innocence and their curiosity, and that Hollywood doesn’t make them any more – well, Iran does.

“Crimson Gold,” made in 2003, starts with its climactic scene — a brutal jewelry store robbery by a big shambling guy named Hossein done in a single riveting shot while the camera hardly moves (except for a subtle zoom) and all the bloody action and disturbing noises pour in from offscreen or spill into the frame, as if by happenstance. Then the film flashes back (think the basic structure of “Sunset Boulevard”) and becomes a deceptively light picaresque social comedy about Hossein’s days and nights of a Tehran pizza delivery man, the people he runs into and especially his best buddy, a talkative little guy named Ali, whose sister Hossein wants to marry – the pair are basically an Iranian Mutt and Jeff. Hossein has to present her with gold jewelry – but his inability to do so is deeply humiliating in a society that is both honor-based (gold symbolizes his manly ability to provide and protect) and centered on Islam (which preaches egalitarianism, at least among Muslim men).

One sequence in particular serves as a metaphor for most of Panahi’s concerns. Tehran’s religious police seal off a block where people in one apartment are having an immoral party (booze, dancing, the mixing of the sexes … those sorts of wickednesses). They plan to arrest the partiers as they leave, so as to get as many as possible without a ruckus. Hossein enters the block unwittingly, trying to deliver pizzas to another apartment in the same building. But now the police arrest Hossein and take his cell phone for fear he’ll alert the partygoers by phone. And they do the same to everyone who wanders into the block, leaving Hossein with nothing to do but politely badger the cops to let him go while they have other things on their mind. And while the arrests pile up, Hossein tries to dispose of his pizzas among the cops and among the other passers-by being held incognito. It’s not subtle and it’s darkly humorous, but if you have a taste for metaphor, this 15- or 20-minute sequence seems prophetic in light of Panahi’s recent travails and the whole crackdown on the Green Movement.

While “Crimson Gold” was about several things other than the regime’s restrictions on women (class humiliation, mostly), that subject has provided Panahi with the premises of his two most internationally praised films — “The Circle” from 2000 and “Offside” from 2006. While the former film won the Golden Lion top prize at Venice, it struck me as didactic and repetitive, following one character to another without their ever really becoming characters we care about. It’s easily my least favorite film of Panahi’s, though I feel constrained to add that this is a minority view among fans of international and art-house cinema. But in “Offside,” which won a Silver Bear at Berlin he took a huge leap forward by presenting a particular group of Iranian womentrying to do a single, specific thing that men take for granted (though obviously it stands for more than itself) — getting into Tehran’s national soccer stadium for a World Cup qualifying game against Bahrain. The simple premise gets developed to the fullest in the course of game time, which you can hear as the women are being detained in a holding pen at the stadium. And like the vice raid in “Crimson Gold,” plausible specifics illustrates how Iranians live with, or don’t live with, or undermine the theocratic regime — the best example being a lengthy sequence in which one of the women has to go to the bathroom. Of course, there are no ladies’ rooms, but the woman insists there be no men in the bathroom, i.e., it be otherwise empty (anyone who’s been to a major sporting event knows how difficult that is). All the while the guard wants to keep the woman’s identity as a woman secret because he’s still bound by the stadium rules (all genius moves by Panahi, in using the Islamist codes to undermine themselves. And let’s say the solution involves a mask).

But the ending is what makes “Offside” a truly great work, and perhaps THIS is the worst thing about Panahi in the eyes of Ahmadinejad and Co. Certainly, from the standpoint of today, it too looks prophetic. Panahi told AFP last week, “I am in love with my country, and despite all its limitations I would never want to live elsewhere.” If there is going to be regime change in Iran, it will have to be made by Iranians, and thus on the grounds of Iranian patriotism, in some or other form. Throughout “Offside,” Panahi has shown the women reacting to the game’s events in the manner of patriotic Iranian supporters, chanting “Iran forever” and singing the same songs the men do. Not only does theocratic repression not stifle national pride, but at the very end, which I won’t spoil, such national pride even offers a space for dissent and undermining such tyranny. And God bless him, here and generally throughout his work, Panahi never pushes that point explicitly, though it’s metaphor-wise as plain as day.

Mesbah Yazdi

Tehran (AsiaNews) – As the world mobilises against the stoning of Sakineh, a 43-year-old woman convicted for adultery and killing her husband, Iranian police continue to threaten and arrest journalists and human rights lawyers. Dozens of university professors are fired and pro-reform students are beaten. The reason is simple. “Democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place” in Islam, said Mesbah Yazdi, who heads Shia Taliban, in a speech reprinted in Rooz, an online Iranian news website.
Speaking before members of paramilitary groups, soldiers and his followers, the cleric said that Iran “is not a place to back down for cultural reasons against people who promote corruption.”

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi is a hardline Iranian Twelver Shi’i cleric and politician who is widely seen as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual advisor. He is also a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for choosing the Supreme Leader, where he heads a minority ultraconservative faction. He has been called “the most conservative” and the most “powerful” and “influential … clerical oligarch” in Iran’s leading center of religious learning, the city of Qom.

Mesbah Yazdi advocates Islamic philosophy and in particular Sadra Mutahillin’s Transcendent School of Philosophy (Hikmat-e Muta`aliya). He believes Iran has strayed from the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution and strongly opposes democratic rule and the Reformist movement in Iran.

In a veiled reference to Sakineh and others, he added, “sexual or moral deviants or promoters of any other kind of corruption must be suppressed.”

Mesbah Yadzi is a member of the Association of Teachers of Qom Theological Centre (Jame Modaresin Hoze Elmie Qom) and a great supporter of Ahmadinejad. In fact, “When the president received the supreme leader’s confirmation, obeying him is like obeying God,” he said.

A similar extremist vision explains recent events in Iran, where dozens of students, followers of pro-reform Ayatollah Dastgheib, who was against to Ahmadinejad’s re-election, were beaten in Shiraz’s Qoba Mosque.

Pro-democracy activists are also concerned about the firing of 40 professors from Tehran University since March. The activists have slammed the professors’ removal, calling it a case of “political cleansing” of the faculties that led the Green Wave movement that came out against the results in last year’s presidential election. Indeed, Science Minister Kamran Daneshjoo said repeatedly that the universities would not tolerate professors who are not “in tune with the Islamic Republic regime.”

For Mesbah Yazdi, anyone who opposes the Islamic Republic of Iran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in fact an “enemy of God” (Mohareb).

Human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari (pictured), who is the editor of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters website, has recently found out what that means. Arrested on 14 July 2009, a month after Ahmadinejad’s re-election, she was released on bail on 23 September of the same year. Re-arrested on 20 December and charged with a “mohareb”, a very serious crime in Iran, she is still waiting to go to a trial, expected very soon.

Badrolssadat Mofidi, secretary general of the Iranian Journalists Association, is another prominent figure accused of being a “mohareb”. He was recently sentenced to six years in prison and five years without the right to work as a journalist.

Al Quds Rally, London

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‘!

Al-Quds (‘Jerusalem’) Day takes place on the final Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan, as a day of solidarity with the people of Palestine in particular, and oppressed people of the world generally (well, if you believe that Hezbollah fights for opressed people that is). There have been rallies in London every year for 28 years.

Part I

Part II

Written by Thomas Erdbrink for the Washington Post

1,000 Iranian students, the majority fresh arrivals from Iran’s best universities, are taking classes such as applied physics and aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and meeting during evenings in cafes that line the city’s canals.

The university hosts one of the largest communities of visiting Iranian scholars in Europe, and many are involved with the Iranian opposition movement.

For many, Delft’s Iranian student community represents the emergence of a new breed of Iranian opposition activists abroad that is more individual, shuns ideology and promotes debate over conflict. Many here say they want an Iran that is connected to the world, but they also support nationalist causes such as Iran’s right to nuclear energy.

“This place has become a think tank on the future of Iran,” said Sohrab, who is pursuing a master’s degree in engineering and arrived here less than a year ago. Like many others here, he said he was rejected by U.S. universities in part because of sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program. Sohrab spoke on the condition that his last name not be used.

The ongoing exodus from Iran of talented students has mushroomed after a harsh government clampdown on universities, following protests that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed election victory in June of last year. Delft was flooded with Iranian graduate students, many of whom participated in protests in Iran.

Born after the 1979 Islamic revolution, these students came with what they say are more pragmatic and realistic perspectives on the future of their country. They are calling for reforms, rather than an overthrow of the system.

“We need to change many things in our country – but we don’t need another terrible revolution,” said Sohrab. “We are a new generation that is looking for answers, instead of forcing solutions upon others.”

Technical University Delft

Using Facebook and phone calls for daily communication with friends and family in Tehran, the Iranian students of Delft are in close contact with their former classmates in Iran and beyond. There is an active Iranian students club, which organizes meetings with exiled dissidents and politicians. Children of Iranian opposition figures study in the city; many have siblings, fiancees or friends who have been arrested in Iran.

The influx of these young activists has spurred conflict with more traditional, ideological opposition groups that have been demanding a regime change in Iran for the past 30 years. The Delft activists’ more gradual approach to change has attracted many European-born Iranian youths, who have grown tired of hearing their parents speak of a revolution that never seems to come.

“I used to avoid other Iranians,” said Nima Emami, a philosophy student who lives in Delft but just finished a year at the New School in New York. Emami preferred his Dutch friends over often bitter and cynical Iranians who fled the country after the 1979 revolution.

“But this new generation of students thinks, dresses and acts like me,” said Emami. “We can’t change Iran overnight – there is no magic solution.”

For European politicians who often deal with Iran, the newly arrived students offer a different perspective on the Islamic Republic, a nation which they are rarely able to visit.

“I prefer to speak with activists, journalists and bloggers who left Iran three months ago. They are more realistic and act more as individuals than in groups compared to those who have been living here for a longer time,” said Marietje Schaake, a Dutch representative to the European Parliament.

Still, others who are active in Iranian opposition movements in Europe distrust the newcomers. “Many of these kids are from wealthy North Tehran. They are close to politicians in Iran who are merely calling for reforms instead of real changes,” said Shahin Nasiri, the spokesperson for an opposition group called Iranian Progressive Youth.

Nasiri, along with a group of likeminded friends who came to the Netherlands in the last decade, said he feels obliged to say what others in Iran can’t say. “There is a lot of potential in Delft, but we think many of the students there are passive,” he said. “They should not allow this regime to get any legitimacy.”

Radicalism is not the solution for Iran, Sohrab and other students in Delft stress. “Such people have lost touch with Iran,” he said while sipping iced tea on a terrace in the center of Delft. “We don’t want to overthrow the system – but we want to be heard by it. That would be a realistic start.”

Akbar Mohammadi

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, Iran’s biggest pro-democracy demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was given a death sentence for his role in the protest -a sentence later reduced to 15 years in prison.

On July 30, 2006, he died at Evin prison at the age of 37. He had been on a hunger strike for more than a week, reportedly protesting the refusal by the authorities to allow him to seek proper medical treatment for life threatening injuries suffered as a result of torture. Mr. Mohammadi’s attorney, Khalil Bahramian, said that according to fellow detainees of his client, he “had been savagely beaten by prison guards in the past few days and that he was carrying the signs of the beatings”.

Mr. Mohammadi’s violent death has caused a major outcry in Iran, where the violation of Human Rights by the Islamic Republic continues to be significant. As of 3 August 2006, Human Rights Watch has called on the Iranian government to allow immediately for an “independent investigation into the suspicious death in prison of student activist Akbar Mohammadi”. This call has been supported by hundreds of leading Iranian personalities and groups.

Background

Akbar Mohammadi was one of the thousands of students arrested in July 1999 after student demonstrations which erupted following the closure of newspapers and one of the periodic clampdowns on freedom of expression that occurred throughout the late 1990s in Iran.

Akbar Mohammadi and other students were sentenced to death in September 1999 following a manifestly unfair trial. He was brutally tortured while in incommunicado detention, denied the right of legal representation and access to family. Following domestic and international outcry, in November 1999 the sentences were commuted to 15 years’ imprisonment.

Akbar Mohammadi

From the day of his arrest, Akbar Mohammadi was routinely tortured. While in the custody of the Ministry of Intelligence, he was allegedly suspended by his arms, and violently beaten. Guards beat him to the edge of consciousness, telling him that all he had to do was blink to accept the charges against him.

The information available strongly indicates that the repeated delays or outright denials of adequate medical care by Iran’s judicial and prison authorities have contributed to his death in custody. At the end of November 2003, for example, judicial authorities permitted his hospitalisation in response to urgent stomach and kidney problems, internal bleeding and possibly a lung infection. Despite medical advice that he be hospitalised for one month, he was returned to Evin Prison one week later.

Between July 2004 and June 2006, Akbar Mohammadi resided at his family home in Amol, northern Iran, where he received medical treatment and wrote a prison memoir. He was re-arrested on 11 June 2006 and returned to Evin prison where, once again, he was denied the right to meet with his family. Following one visit by his lawyer, Akbar Mohammadi was said to be in ill health and suffering from acute abdominal pain. Prison medical staff reportedly advised that he should be removed from prison for medical treatment.

According to sources inside Evin prison, he sought medical care from around 26 July during his hunger strike but he was chastised by medical officials who rejected his request. Between 26 and 29 July, he was reportedly provided unspecified treatment, though an Iranian parliamentary delegation visiting Evin prison was denied permission to visit the section of the prison — possibly the clinic itself — in which he was held.

On or around 29-30 July he was reportedly gagged and bound to a bed while senior officials visited the prison. The Chief Prosecutor for the province of Tehran, Said Mortazavi, and two senior prison officials, along with a prison guard reportedly inspected him on 30 July, during which time he was administered an unspecified ‘medicine’. His condition reportedly worsened in the course of that day and he died on 31 July. Despite the call by his lawyer that his body be examined by an independent team of pathologists, his body was transferred to a coroner on 31 July.

Akbar Mohammadi’s parents arrived at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran on Tuesday 1 August 2006, at 02:30 local time, from a visit outside the country. They were forcibly taken directly from the aircraft to awaiting vehicles and driven directly to their house in Amol, northern Iran. They were denied permission to see the body of their deceased son, as was his brother Manuchehr, who remains in Evin prison. At the time of writing, there are reports that the body of Akbar Mohammadi has been buried.

As Reza Mohajerinejad wrote: “And so to my friend, Akbar Mohammadi, I say, this year and every year, I will remember how you fought. I will remember your bravery, and just as we promised one another all those years ago, I will continue to fight in your name, and in the names of all those who have suffered at the hands of the oppressors of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I will not give up, just as you never gave up.”

Mohammdi family discusses Akbar Mohammadi’s death and the problems caused by Pars TV

Sources: Wikipdia/Amnesty International/Google Video

Nasrin Sotoudeh

Zahra Bahrami was arrested on Ashura, December 27 2009, and has been kept in a solitary cell in cellblock 209 in Evin Prison for more than 4 months and has been denied visitation rights. Zahra Bahrami, 45, was arrested after a violent attack by security forces and was transferred to cellblock 209 in Evin Prison. She faces a possible death sentence.

Zahra Bahrami’s laywer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested and The International Campaign for Human Right in Iran now calls for the immediate release of prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was arrested at Evin prison on 4 September 2010, and for all charges against her to be dropped.

Sotoudeh is a leading human rights lawyer widely respected for her efforts on behalf of juveniles facing the death penalty and for her defense of prisoners of conscience. Sotoudeh, a mother of two, had earlier been charged with threatening national security. Her office and home were searched on 28 August and her assets frozen.

Nasrin Ghanavi, Sotoudeh’s lawyer, told the Campaign that Sotoudeh was summoned to Evin Prison court on charges of “propaganda against the state,” and “collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security.”

Ghanavi accompanied Sotoudeh to the court summon on 4 September but was not permitted to be present during questioning. After her questioning, Sotoudeh was arrested and held in Evin prison.

“This arrest is nothing more than a crude, arbitrary political move to make it more comfortable for the Iranian government to persecute its citizens,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

A few days before her arrest, Sotoudeh told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran how the authorities were creating bogus tax problems for human rights lawyers as a way to provide pretexts for their prosecution.

“I was referred to the taxation bureau and while there I noticed in addition to my name, they are conducting special investigations into thirty human rights lawyers,” she said. Sotoudeh provided Shirin Ebadi’s tax bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars on her Nobel Peace Prize money as an example, noting as well the irony that human rights cases were all represented on a pro bono basis, and none of the lawyers receive any money from the clients they defend in human rights case. ”The accusation machine is continuing to work fast, further limiting the conditions for human rights defense. The ultimate goal is to shut down all defense of human rights,” she added.

As a member of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, Sotoudeh defended victims of child abuse. She has also defended journalist Issa Saharkhiz and human rights activist Parvin Ardalan. Following her attempt to save the life of Arash Ramanipour, who was hung in January 2010 for crimes he had allegedly committed under the age of 18, she went on record to reveal the illegal process of conducting his execution. At that time, she was threatened that if she publicly spoke on the cases she represented, she would be arrested.

She has also opposed the “Family Protection Bill,” legislation under consideration by the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) that would allow men to marry additional wives without the consent of their first wife. The proposed legislation is opposed by many women’s rights activists and others as encouraging polygamy. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supports the bill.

The Iranian government has arrested numerous human rights lawyers, including Mohammed Ali Dadkah, Mohammad Oliayifard, Mohammad Seifzadeh, and most recently, Mohammad Mostafei, who was forced to flee the country during his defense of Sakineh Ashtiani, sentenced to be stoned to death.

Petition:
1) We demand the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and to drop ALL charges against her.

2) Stop the persecution of all Iranian human rights lawyers and adhere to the international human rights laws in which the Iran government is a state party.

3) Allow Nasrin Sotoudeh to continue her work as a human rights attorney uninterrupted and allow her to visit her clients and give her access to her clients files and paperwork as guaranteed by judicial law.

Click here to sign the petition

Since August 12 Tehran has begun to feel “a lot of pressure” on the gasoline front, said Houchang Hassan-Yari, a professor of international relations at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. The government is now curbing from 100 liters to 60 liters (roughly 26.4 gallons to 15.9 gallons) the amount of subsidized gas consumers can buy each month, Hassan-Yari told OilPrice.com earlier.

A large number of private bus drivers of CNG Buses Company were on stike  but were forced to start working again or have been suspended. Their families living in private bus companies are working. The lack of gas has forced bus drivers to wait as long as twelve hours before fuel could be purchased.

درگیری و صفهای طویل اتوبوسهای گاز سوز بدلیل نبود گاز در تهران
بنابه گزارشات رسیده به “فعالین حقوق بشر و دمکراسی در ایران” در طی روزهای گذشته اتوبوسهای گاز سوز شرکت واحد و بخش خصوصی بدلیل نبود گاز در صفهای طویل در مقابل  پمپ بنزین های شرکت واحد به صف ایستاده اند.
از روز شنبه 12 شهریورماه جایگاه های پمپ بنزین گاز که در انحصار  شرکت واحد می باشد از ارائه سوخت گاز به اتوبوسهای گاز سوز  شرکت واحد و بخش خصوص بدلیل نبود گاز خوداری می کنند.تعداد زیادی از رانندگان اتوبوسهای بخش خصوص  رانندگانی هستند که در جریان اعتصابات گسترده شرکت واحد اتوبوس رانی تهران و حومه در سال 84  مجبور به بازخرید  شدند و یا از کار تعلیق شده اند. آنها برای امرار معاش خانواده هایشان در اتوبوسهای شرکتهای خصوصی مشغول بکار هستند.
در طی چند روز گذشته اتوبوسهای بخش خصوص در صفهای طویل که گاها مجبور هستند تا ساعتها  در این صفها به انتظار سوخت باقی بمانند.در حالی که رانندگان روزه دار هستند و در طی این مدت بدون امکان استفاده از سرویسهای بهداشتی و نمازخانه و حتی تا مدتی بعد از افطار بدون افطار کردن به انتظار سوخت باقی می مانند.
بعضی از رانندگان که با اندک سوخت باقی ماند بعد از 12 ساعت انتظار ناچار به ترک جایگاه پمپ بنزین می شوند و بعضی از آنها به علت نداشتن سوخت مجبور به ماندن پشت دربهای ورودی پمپهای گازسوز که در انحصار شرکت واحد است هستند نزدیگ به 36 ساعت به انتظار باقی بمانند.
روز گذشته در منطقۀ 1 اتوبوس رانی بعلت بدرفتاری مسئولین چند مورد درگیری روی داد به به نحوی که با یک عمل بسیار وقیح پلیس راهنمایی در محل حاضر واتوبوسهای شرکت خصوصی ندای به آوران را بعلت انتظار در صف سوخت زنی تهدید به جریمه وتوقیف در پارکینگ پلیس مینمودند تا محل را ترک کنند.
در حال حاضر در پمپ بنزینهای گاز سوز شرایط متشنج می باشد و رانندگانی که فقط با درآمد روزانه قادر به امرار معاش خانواده خود هستند چند روز است که از کار و در آمد باز مانده اند و با توهین وبد رفتارهای و تهدیدات پلیس راهنمایی برای عدم توقف درمقابل پمپ بنزینها و همچنین تهدید به جریمه کردن آنها می کنند تا اتوبوسها جایگاه پمپ بنزین را ترک نمایند.

Ms Ashtiani says she was forced to confess to adultery during questioning. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's fate remains unclear....

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.

The Iranian government has now said she will be hanged. Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake claimed that 388 people were sentenced to death in Iran in 2009.

Italian Eurosceptic MEP Oreste Rossi gave a graphic description of the process of stoning, describing it as “torture before death”. Winding up the debate, Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said that the Commission would not simply “make public statements”. The case has provoked international outcry, with condemnation from across the world.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said he is willing “to do anything” to save her.

Meanwhile the Vatican has indicated that it is prepared to appeal diplomatically to Iran to spare Ms Ashtiani’s life.

A resolution setting out the parliament’s concern over the death penalty will be voted on at the voting session from 11am on 8 September.

Update (oops): Islamic Republic’s Deputy of Higher Education, Bagher Khorramshad, has cancelled his trip to the Netherlands following protests by the Dutch-Iranian community. Source: http://www.zamaaneh.com/enzam/2010/09/iranian-official-cancels.html

Join the protest against Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad’s visit on September 17th in The Hague
15.00, Clingendael 7, The Hague, The Netherlands
Info: pejman@iranpy.net

The Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael”

The Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael” and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran organize a lecture on September 17 in The Hague themed ““Latest developments in the relation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Europe”. The official programme will start at 16.00 hrs. The conference room will be open from 15.30 hrs on. The invitation of Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Education and Research since October 2009, is shameful. He is one of the leaders responsible for the elimination of student leaders from Iranian universities.

News reached TehranReview that the Dutch think thank Clingendael is promoting the Ahmadinejad government. An Iranian academic who lives in exile because of his involvement with the Green Movement sent TehranReview a letter about this, revealing that Clingendael has shamelessly invited some representatives of the Iranian government. Clingendael calls itself “a knowledge institute for international relations. In a constantly changing global environment, Clingendael acts as a think-tank as well as a diplomatic academy in order to identify and analyze emerging political and social developments for the benefit of government and the general public.”

TehranReview published part of the letter that was sent to them by the Iranian academic, who wishes to stay anonymous:

Ahmadinejad’s circle is starving for this sort of show-offs in international arenas

Please take a look at this. This is shameful indeed. I think we all have to try not to let this sort of events take place in Europe. This is not about him on his own personal capacity as a certain Mr Khoramshad. He is invited as the deputy foreign minister for education and research. This flyer is circulated just one day after the Iranian Ministry of science, technology and research publicly and explicitly threatened the university lecturers and students, as well as the universities in general, that if they don’t comply with whatever the leader commands, they will be ruined; if the universities don’t agree with what the leader says, they will be better off being destroyed. These are exactly his very words. Add to this their announced and employed policies of recent months suppressing the academic sphere.

To me inviting officials from Iran by this outstanding organization in Europe and giving them the opportunity of delivering speeches, particularly along with the ambassador, is at odds with the announced policies of the EU regarding democracy and human rights in Iran. Yes, it could reflect those policies if and only if they were invited to critical dialogue. But look at this invitation. Do you see any sign of critical stuff? Instead, it’s replete with the opposite.

You and I well know how Ahmadinejad’s circle is starving for this sort of show-offs in international arenas, particularly in the West, to wash their hands off the crimes they’ve committed and to return back gradually their lost legitimacy worldwide. But what I can’t understand is why Clingendael does need to invite them.”

Join the protest against Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad’s visit on September 17th in The Hague
15.00, Clingendael 7, The Hague, The Netherlands
Info: pejman@iranpy.net

Clingendael, August 31, 2010
Your Excellency, Dear Madam/ Sir,

The Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael” and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran are pleased to invite you to an address which will be presented by the Deputy Foreign Minister for Education and Research of Iran, H.E. Prof. Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad on September 17 at the Clingendael Institute. The lecture is entitled

“Latest developments in the relation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Europe”

Prof. Khoramshad studied Islamic Studies and Political Science at the Imam Sadeq University, as well as Comparative Politics at the Political Studies Institute in Lyon, France. He obtained his PhD in Political Sociology at the University of Lyon 2 in France. Since 1998 he is Associate Professor with the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Allameh Tababi’s University. Prof. Khoramshad is Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Education and Research since October 2009.

If you wish to attend the lecture and the ensuing discussion, you are kindly requested to register by email with the External Affairs Office of the Clingendael Institute, att. Mrs. Carla Veltkamp (email: cveltkamp@clingendael.nl).

The official programme will start at 16.00 hrs. The conference room will be open from 15.30 hrs on. After the lecture refreshments will be served.
We hope to welcome you at the Clingendael Institute on September 17.

H.E. Mr. K. Gharib Abadi Prof. Jaap W. de Zwaan
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic Director
of Iran in the Netherlands the Clingendael Institute

Mrs. Carla Veltkamp
External Affairs Office (tue/wed/thurs)
The Clingendael Institute
Tel: +31 (0)70 3746633
Fax: +31 (0)70 3282002
E-mail: cveltkamp@clingendael.nl
www.clingendael.nl

Het is begrijpelijk dat het Clingendael Instituut hier geen ruchtbaarheid aan geeft. Het Iraanse regime onderdrukt en executeert leden van de oppositie, heeft deze vakkundig monddood gemaakt en vervormt met haar extreme orthodoxe wetgeving de Iraanse samenleving tot een maatschappij van angst en terreur.

Protesteer daarom op 17 september 2010 om 15:00 uur tijdens de lezing bij Clingendael 7 te Den Haag.

Persbericht Iranian Progressive Youth , 1 september 2010

De Iraanse ambassade te Den Haag heeft in samenwerking met Clingendael Instituut voor internationale betrekkingen de heer Mohammad Bagher Khoramshad, de Iraanse onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken voor een lezing uitgenodigd op 17 september 2010 in Den Haag. Khoramshad is belast met het dossier van internationale relaties van het Iraans hoger onderwijs en onderzoek. De titel van deze lezing is “Latest developments in the relation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Europe”. De Iranian Progressive Youth roept Clingendael op om af te zien van deze lezing, waar de academische en diplomatieke aanwezigheid van deze Iraanse hoge functionaris op diplomatieke en mensenrechtelijke gronden onaanvaardbaar is.

Wij vinden deze actie niet alleen onaanvaardbaar omdat het Iraanse ministerie van de Buitenlandse zaken als een onderdeel van het Iraanse regime een prominente rol speelt in het onderdrukken van het Iraanse volk, maar ook omdat de Iraanse minister van Onderwijs en Onderzoek, waar Khoramshad eerst onderminister is geweest, zich recentelijk dreigend heeft uitgelaten richting Iraanse academici en studenten: “Studenten zullen breken als zij de bevelen van de geestelijke leider niet gehoorzamen” en “als academici het niet eens zijn met de geestelijke leider, kunnen zij beter worden uitgeroeid” geven de richtlijn voor onderwijs en onderzoek in Iraanse universiteiten aan.

Khoramshad zet zijn werk op het gebied van onderwijs nu voort onder het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. Het lijkt er sterk op dat Khoramshad nu een internationale public relations functie vervult. Het is dan ook onwaarschijnlijk dat een Iraanse functionaris een onschuldig academische dialoog aan wilt gaan met een Westers onderzoeksinstituut. Op de aanvulling van de Iraanse blacklist van organisaties staat bijvoorbeeld het gehele Yale University en met Clingendael vergelijkbare Hoover Institute, maar ook Human Rights Watch en Hivos.

Naar onze mening is het onacceptabel dat een democratisch Europees instituut, deels gefinancierd door belastinggeld erkenning schenkt aan een totalitair regime, dat zich schuldig maakt aan misdaden tegen de menselijkheid. In het bijzonder speelt de Iraanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken een hoofdrol in grensoverschrijdende destabiliserende activiteiten zoals het steunen van de terroristische organisaties en verdedigt het omstreden Iraanse atoomprogramma.

Om deze redenen kan Iraninan Progressive Youth, een van de belangenorganisaties van de Perzische (Iraanse) gemeenschap in Nederland zich niet verenigen met deze uitnodiging van Clingendael en diens samenwerking met de Iraanse ambassade. IPY roept Clingendael op om alsnog af te zien van het organiseren van deze lezing. Tevens vragen wij de Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken de heer Maxime Verhagen niet instemmend te reageren op de eventuele visumaanvraag van de heer Khoramshad voor zover de wettelijke bepalingen dat toestaan. Voorts vragen wij de aandacht van de Nederlandse volksvertegenwoordigers voor deze actie, aangezien deze actie op gespannen voet staat met het buitenlandse beleid van de Nederlandse staat.

Tot slot kondigen wij een demonstratie aan op 17 september 2010 om 15:00 uur tijdens de lezing bij Clingendael 7 te Den Haag, indien de lezing toch plaats vindt.

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