Quintessential Questions

Q,

superb observations

who cares

Why did they even go there knowingly that there is problem.

Also we should stop the Arab's causes.

We have so much problem in our country

so any symapthy for them NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I know she didn't speak of just herself, David, and that is

 why on the second of the blogs I wrote to which I believe Qumars allude, I posted one of her paintings with the quotation from her handwritten note pinned to the wall of her exhibition in Tehran end '06, beginning with the following line:

 "The paintings in front of you are not wordless images and colours, they are the painful photo realities of our life

and after it in bold posed the question to the readers, and specificallyto  the publisher, 'To whom does this OUR of which Delara speaks refer?"

So I will now close this post with a reposting of the post I put on ther Iranian of the Day thread and also copied to your current May Day blog. And then let us stop talking about Delara here and leave this blog, which uses the Delara campaign as its springboard,, to its own topic--unless Qumars wishes to discuss her or the campaign or my role and actions therein further

__________________________________

 SUBJECT: IT'S ME, DADDY, DELARA,

They just told me they're going to hang me now. Do something. Don't let me die.

That's what she said to her  father when they let her call him right before the hanging. On May Day.

One hundred workers and human rights activists celebrating May Day in solidarity with the workers in Tehran, beaten with batons  and arrested to the tune of the news of the surprise stringing up of Delara Darabi, pin-up girl.

Mayday, mayday! It's me, Daddy. Iran. Do something. Don't let me die!

DON'T LET ME DIE!

Q is right and wrong

he is right that he says that Iranians should have paid attention to the incident Iraq and be more demanding
but where he is wrong is where he tries to compare that with Delaras situation which was a premeditated injustice
and he like the other guy wants to put down where people are making a positive noise and why at Delaras cost, is beyond me!
one does it with osanloo other with iranians in iraq !
they also ignore there were campaigns that brought attention.
The main goal of SCE all along has been to take a cause and make it an example that: yes we can
if we try
ebadi two weeks ago started Stop Child Execution Camaign in Iran.
Karoubi an ayatollah former parliament speaker and presidential candidate asked for end to child executions and Kayhan newspaper called him agent of zionism for saying that
those who killed Delara are trying to kill a movement that has made its way among ordinary people

if you see the attention to the cause today vs just couple of years ago u see the difference
then etemmad paper reported judiciary words and blacked out the eyes. today it talks about the law ' attorneys comments and shows the eyes

it takes a spark and noone knows when and how
but what I knpw is that if only everyone took their good cause.organized and stayed with it... they can move mountains
yes talk is cheap
make a noise for iranians in iraq too but don't put other causes down and blame lack of your own commitment on lack of attention of others
when people see a good thing they respond... the rest is up to you
point at yourself before others

very insightfull words Rose

in those 4 days you grasped more than some never do in a lifetime
very touching
some just don't get it
even Delara didn't say save Me to others except to her parents in last minute of her life
but to us she always said:
save Delaras everywhere

rasht gaza iraq or peking

and that is why her story words and paintings - of a young girl on death row- touched so many worldwide

....some will never get it
never

Dear Qumars,

In reading your blog I find that four of the items you list as "number of.." appear to address specific actions of mine in whole or n part regarding the Delara Darabi campaign on this website. Please let me know if you wish, which ones allude to me specifically and which to myself as part of a larger group of  people.. I understand that the blog is not about Delara but you're using her as a comparison so it is. So since you do allude to my role, if you would like me to elucidate on any of my actions and my motivations for them during or immediately after that  campaign, I will.

In any case, I thought you might find it enlightening that I made my snap decision to participate in the campaign when I stumbled upon a poem of hers about freedom the day her execution was originally announced for in four days' time.

It was the ending of the poem that immediately made me decide to devote those four days to trying to save her life. I had never heard her name before, had no idea there was an international campaign,, did not know she painted, had no idea she'd written any other poems, had no idea she might be innocent, and had never seen a photo and did not know that she was pretty. I decided to do it because I felt her wordss spoke for every single human that is was or ever will be imprisoned, whether in the prison of Rasht or X-ray,, whether on death row or not, guilty or innocent, whether in the prison simply of any repressive country or whether in the prison simply of one's own mind. I felt she must be saved because although she is only one individual life, she sings for us all, and we humans as a species need our singers.  

Freedom!?….Never being entrapped is meaningless!

Oh People! Let us rip the chains of our thoughts

and not be captivated by freedom

for …that itself is our "captive

I several times paraphrased it as I perceive its meaning to apply to this website, to the actions and motivations of its owner, its bloggers and its posters:,

iFreedom is not the freedom to buy and sell freedom for free.

The problem is ...

There are some people who write on this site who have a completely different view of the reality of people in Iran. So they sit in their apartments in Paris or their house with a swimming pool in California and write about who Iranians are and how they should behave. And it drives me absolutely bonkers. 

Whether we like it or not, Iran is a third world country ( 28 people killed in bus crash is an indication) and the majority of Iranians inside Iran are very religious people. It is part of the fabric of that society. I am not talking about the 10/15 million who are more sophisticated and progressive but the people who live in smaller cities and towns and still hold the old beliefs and "values". I assure you a large section of the population was like this during Shah's time and that is why Shah built more mosques than any other ruler in the history of Iran.

It seems that some of our country men are ashamed to be associated with the common man in Iran and some how think that Iran is full of people who are ready to jump out in the streets and get rid of everything Islamic. This could not be further from the truth. As MRX1 points out there plenty of Emamzadehs in Iran to visit and I tell you they are visited a lot by a large section of the population.

So when our innocent contrymen are killed, by Iraqis/Arabs of all nationalities/races, we should sit up and take note and make some kind of a protest. After all it was these same people who fouaght Saddam and stopped his soldiers raping our women and pillaging our country. Had this been a bomb in Tel Aviv and had so many Israelis been killed it would be front page news in most of the press around the world.

Thanks Q for this post. Those people deserve a mention and their families our condolences.

Irandokht

Just look around you among Iranians, go on all the TV channels, LA based or not, go to the threads people make on this web site, where you're not allowed to talk about a case they don't even know much about, because they're "mourning", etc.

You don't see that, you are blind, or also in total denial, like the many rest.

I hope that answers your question!

Parham

Even a moment of silence is called mourning.

Here's the definition of the word for your information:

1: the act of sorrowing

2 a: an outward sign (as black clothes or an armband) of grief for a person's death

2 b: a period of time during which signs of grief are shown

where did the "theatrical technique" that is "not genuine" come from except your own interpretation? 

IRANdokht

Would MRX1 ever say a word about U.S. soldiers in Iraq?

MRX1, I would like to know: do the U.S. invaders of Iraq deserve to be killed too? Or are those soldiers innocent civilians?

It's funny that the same people who are happy to see Iranian Moslems being killed are still shedding crocodile tears over the Savakis and other Pahlavist killers executed during the Revolution. Those Savakis had pure hearts.

Thank you Q

Yes, as someone mentioned bellow it is all in how the news is being packaged ....
i.e. Persians of Africa V.S. the so called true patriots ...
Persians of Africa are always dispensable to save the true ???

The issue I have here...

... is the word "mourning".
Why do we have to "mourn" everything - why can't we just protest or have our minute of silence like regular human beings, instead of expressing our "deepest feeling of outrage" in every theatrical technique for every single thing?
That's what makes it not genuine.
Thank you. Go on!

US & IR out of Iraq

what an irrelevant drawing of a parrarel. ANYthing to distract from crimes of Islamic Regime I guess!

- IR for internal and political reasons should not promote unnecessary travel to a war zone
- IR should not issue travel visa for unnecessary travel to war zone
- IR should not use peoples religious beliefs for political gains of shias in iraq
- US must arrange for immediate and orderly withdraw (not by 2010 or 11)

- if additional security is needed must be filled by UN
this reduces tension. helps stability of Iraq, reduce terrorism, helps US taxpayer money

- long term solution to Iraq is a Federal Republic with 3 self autonomus states with proportional share of oil and gas revenue . something that IR does not want because it wants its (shia control over all Iraq and because IR does not want to recognize rights of Kurds in Iran either

Anonymous Fish

It is good that you are acknowledging this.  You say though that it was not a terrorist attack but a mistake.  In fact it was the case that the USS Vincennes' crew ignored warnings from the ship's advanced anti-aircraft systems. You are right that Bush does not/did not stand for all Americans and I am sure you are sorry for this horrible 'incident'.  However, the US has refused to apologise for this tragic loss of life.  It is not just Bush, it is an attitude of power.

Anyway, this is not about Americans as a whole.  But if Americans do not become aware of these happenings on their behalf, they would never be able to examine their history and make amends.  Good night. 

Don't worry

they will all go to heaven and meet 72 virgins. what kind of an idiot will go to Iraq these days any way? Iran is full of emamzadeh for ahl beyt to worship. folks stay close to home. god willing fabulous IRI will build a new emamzadeh and places to mourn every week.

anon8

if i'm wrong, i'm wrong.  i understood from someone who had some knowledge of this that medals were not awarded for this incident but for others during the time period.  if they were, i'm disgusted.  you don't get medals for accidents which kill innocent people.  period.  i'm just saying that a mistake, a tragic mistake, does not a terrorist make.  and a point to remember is that bush didn't speak for all americans either.  no more so than ahmadinejad does for all iranians... as everyone likes to point out.  what's good for the goose is good for the gander.  bush is and was and always will be a disgusting human being. 

again, please don't think i'm trying to justify this tragedy.  i can't state clearly enough how sorry americans are.  you say when the US is involved, it's always worse than it seems.  well, duh.  wouldn't you say that applies to everyone?  

Anon8

Cherry-picking portions of a post to use the way you choose doesn't fly with me.

In the two caes that you mention, the accuser (being the mollahs) has less credibility than the Israeli government would have in Tehran.

kurush

you're not quite correct. but please don't take this as justification.  i'm just pointing out that as bad as it is, don't make it worse than it was.

In 1996, the United States and Iran reached "an agreement in full and final settlement of all disputes, differences, claims, counterclaims" relating to the incident at the International Court of Justice.[5] As part of the settlement, the United States agreed to pay US$61.8 million in compensation for the Iranians killed.

also.  9/11 was no mistake.  a terrible comparison.

i absolutely agree with you and condemn bush's attitude.  there is no excuse.  none.  also.  as i understand it... and i admit i might be wrong but i think what i found out was that meritorious medals were not issued for this incident but for others.  i do not believe anyone was "rewarded" for this tragic accident.

Q

Q

The finest reaction to the catastrophizing voices on the question of our obligation towards respect for a right to life for all human beings.  Very intelligent medium to convey the message –good for you and thank you!

Commenting on those threads and specially the recent one where ignorant reigns to a level matching worst legal thrillers, with an addition of kindergarten noise as a spice, is obviously futile.  So I found your blog a most welcome and a very apt reaction.

A young life was lost, but a minimum knowledge of law, comparative and Iranian, and of domestic politics of Iranian adjudication is sufficient to warrant a reliable guess that the tragic loss of the life of an accomplice in murder would perhaps have been averted without “the dark sides of virtue.”

VERY WELL PUT Q!!!

it makes the points as well it possibly can. as for Mr. Nouraee who said:

"These people had every right to be stupid and go into to a war zone for whatever reason, despite knowing the risks."

just like stupid teenagers who get involved with murder plots with their boyfriends? or stupid American reporters who go to the Islamic Republic work illegally and buy alcohol?

Stats or Truth?

For example, there are zero blogs on the subject because it's more fashionable to be critical of Israel than it is to comment on this subject here, because there are some who feel that they will "offend" the IR. That shows the rest of us what kind of values they have.

If anyone is expecting the US media to devote any amount of time to this, you're dreaming. News of Obama's dog pissing on the Oval Office rug will come before this.

Unfortunately, we'll probably never know much about any of the dead. That stems from the mindset among the IR that individual lives have no value. The official sentiment is that they died for Islam or something along those lines. The fact that these people have families and friends left behind who are mourning them is swept under the rug. You know their motto:

Martyrdom Sells, While The Rest Can Go To Hell

It's also naive to think that if the US troops leave, the bombings will stop. This is a country overrun with people who completely disregard the rule of law. These bombings take place in areas that are under control of the single greatest military power on Earth. These bombers don't care about life, whether their own or anyone else's.

These people had every right to be stupid and go into to a war zone for whatever reason, despite knowing the risks. And as much as they had that right, it's still sad and tragic that they lost their lives so violently, especially at the hands of criminals who are bent on forwarding their agenda at any expense.

Abamard

Do you remember that we had a brief discussion on this subject some times before. You said that it's a question of imperialism... I think that all the question is about imperialist/colonialist/one way seeing of these cheshm abi-ha over us.

By less corruptions, mass executions and a more fair society, mullahs could have made a strong Iran of our country. Instead they haven't been able to defeat their demons, and did what they claimed they were suffering these 1000 last years before the revolution.

This unfair theocratic regime will leave the stage as all despotic regimes left before it. People will bear the causalities as usual and Iran will find herself at the jail case just as if the society was playing monoploly and that it lost all the years of prosperity that it could have.

Otherwise, I can put a '?' instead of zero in my last comment for the suspense ;)

Q, sorry for deviating the discussion from the subject of your blog. In my view, we humans have a narrow vision and that we can just see things that are in our area of interest. Some of us, see and are hurt when rockets just hit the Israelis soil. Some others are really hurt of the death of Imam Hussein and his 72 followers 700 years before. Some just do care about pets and finally no one cares about human lives in general as perhaps we all are scared of dying one day?

Alright Hajminator

You are correct, I was trying to make a point and you had to ruin it ;)

Dear Q,

Sorry, I didn't check this blog, because the title of it made me think that it is yet another blog devoted to Ms. Darabi. That would have been perfectly fine by me, if it were not another SCE propaganda, making a hero out of a culprit by playing with people's emotions, in particualr a complete disregard to victim's family, and trying to fish out of other people's misery on the both side of this event.

I am angry at the possibility that those dirty tricks might have killed the chance of a young person (even a killer) by antagonizing the victim's family.

Regardless, like Mehrnaz posted, the hypocricy around the case is an added nauseating factor. Thanks fort making that hypocricy clear. But now, you'll be accused of not having sensitivity to a young girl's execution, or a general savage system of capital punishment.

Dear Q, thank you for exposing this hypocrisy

On a thread about Roxana Saberi, I asked someone called Rajab who was correctly concerned about application of justice and the burden of proof being on the accuser, for the second time,  "I would then ask again whether you would extend the same concern about justice and the application of due process to the Iranians arrested and kept in jail and tortured in Iraq, without charge?"  Not surprisingly, i never received a reply.  Similar discussions always end up with name-calling and foul language, as you have shown here.  Equally, the issue of the unfortunate execution of Delara, is now being used by some even portraying her as a "hero", to further a political agenda which has nothing to do with even-handed application of justice and concern for human rights or human lives.  I have not seen a single word of concern and compassion from our non-Iranian self-appointed 'leaders' and 'mentors" either about these criminal murders.  What a shame when someone who claims to care about Iran and who sees himself/herself as Iranian, can so ruthlessly say these innocent pilgrims deserved their fate for being Muslims.  Considering the majority of Iranians are Muslims, this also indicates a delusional state of mind, if not outrightly hostile and racist towards Iranian people. 

Fred: Targeted gibberish

The reason Fred is not bothered by the murder of these Iranians is that many Iranians die in car accidents. The car accidents are the fault of "Islamists". Who is to blame for car accidents in non-Muslim countries or for accidents that occurred in Iran under the Pahlavis? "Islamists", of course. Just ask Fred.

Thank you Q

It's obvious that some the crocodile tears that are shed by mostly the same people here in support of Human rights in Iran is only a charade, and what they are concerned with has nothing to do with human rights or even human lives.

I asked this question many times during the Israeli attack in Gaza: isn't the murder of those innocent children just as bad (at the very least) as hanging a juvenile offendor but in a much bigger scale...  I guess every life is sacred, some more sacred than others.

To those who try to keep track of each blog and take note of participations, please do get a life?! your reasoning is very lame and reminds me of all the bikars on this site jumping up and down every time someone posted about IRI human rights issues, just to divert attention from other victims and made an excuse of it to point finger at others and blame the real human rights supporters...

Thanks for the blog Q

IRANdokht

PS: I am really sorry to see those comments passed the approval system. It's a shame

Abamard,

The number of western countries which would be cool with a Secular Iran doing what she wants : zero.

I hold this statistics from what we saw these last 100 years, where at the beginning the UK was even against that Iran gets an independent sugar industry!

Thank you

Dear Q

Thank you for this blog. My thoughts goes out to the families of all those Iranians that were coldbloodedly murdered in Iraq for no reason.

Flight 655!

For those with short memory span that was the Iranian Airbus shot down by the American warship, USS Vincennes in July 1988. The US Navy admitted that the American cruiser had illegally entered Iran's territorial waters and the Iranina airliner was in Iran's airspace. This US crime caused the death of 299 INNOCENT Iranians of whom 66 were children. The criminal American Captain, William Rogers & his crew received medals, no one went to jail for this obvious crime. The US never admitted guilt, let alone an apology. The US president, Bush, in 1992, in answer to a reporters's question stated: "I do not care what the facts are, I will never apologize for the United States of America."
Nobody called the US a terrorist country either. In response to the Korean airliner shoot-down by the Soviet fighters, Reagan called the Soviets the evil empire, even though the Korean Airliner ahd entered the soviet airspace over a highly classified Soviet military base. The Korean airliner, was piloted by a South Korean military pilot and carried unusual RADAR equipment beyond the need of an ordinary passenger plane,- clearly, eavesdropping on Soviet military on behalf of the US, using its passengers as a shield. Of course, nobody called the US an evil empire after the Iraninan air liner was shot down in cold blood. Why do we turn off our conscience and recollection when America is involved? A whole religion and its entire population of 1.5 billion were demonized after September 2001, and there was mourning and vigil for the victims (quite appropriately of course). After flight 655 was shot down, no condemnation ensued, no mourning for the victims. Do we apply diffrent statndards when the Americans are concerned?