Misc

Heartbreaking to watch...I

Heartbreaking to watch...I will take Masoud's recommendation and email it to everyone I know and post it on my own personal website (thanks for your never-ending series of provocative posts Party Girl)...Those with blood on their hands will one day need to be held accountable! Visual, audio and written records like this all help toward building a case for when that day comes, and it surely will, it's just a matter of when...

Ba Arezu-ye Movafaghiat, Sadegh

these people were the lucky ones!

they survived this murderous regime. Just imagine for evey one of them, there were hundred's if not thousends who never made it! they are buried in marked and unmarked graves and cemeteris all over the country. One of them was my 18 year old friend that I will never forget. Roth in hell khomeini and the rest of you islamo facists that are alive now.

IRAN'S REGIME KILLS!!

ATTENTION ATTENTION TO PEOPLE LIKE MEHDI,

IRAN'S REGIME KILLS PEOPLE FOR FAR LESS OFFENSES, SUCH AS STEALING A BREAD OR YOUNG GIRLS WHO TRIED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM RAPISTS AND SO ON.

I DON'T NEED TO HEAR WHAT TESTIMONIES THESE VIDEOS GIVES, TO KNOW THAT IRAN TORTURES PEOPLE ON DAILY BASIC. IN THE PRISON AND OUTSIDE THE PRISONS. PEOPLE'S LIVES ARE ALWAYS HUNTED, WHETHER IT IS HEJAB OR GUYS SHORT SLEEVES, OR HAIR TOO LONG,OR MAKE UP TOO DARK AND LIST GOES ON...

MEHDI, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO LIVE IN IRAN FOR EVEN ONE MONTH, IT IS HELL OUT THERE AND I FEEL SO SAD THAT OUR PEOPLE HAVE TO SUFFER FOR SUCH SMALL PETTY STUFF.

I PRAY EVERY NIGHT, THAT WHEN I WAKE UP THE NEXT DAY IN THE MORNING, AND OPEN THE CNN NEWS, SAYS ALL THE AKHOUNDS AND ANATRINEJAD ARE DEAD.AMEN.

Well, let's try this again

The esteemed mediators on this site didn't print my last reply to Mehdi so let's try to be a little more polite to this so-called person. Kazemzadeh's response of course is spot on but Mehdi like many people don't seem to read anything; he just knee-jerk reacts, truth be damned. As Kazemzadej mentions, these folks are not members or sympathizers of Mujadeeen Khalgh. It's obvious from their testimonies. No Marxist organization “declared war” on the regime. Anyone with a simple knowledge of the events know that but of course people like Mehdi, whoever they are seem to have zero knowledge of events and absolutely no regard for truth. Kids in their teens were being tried for handing out pamphlets. They opposed the Islamic Republic. People like Mehdi would justify Nazi atrocities too. The majority voted for Hitler too, and the Communists who stood up to them deserved what they got, right? And of course Mehdi and company whine about Abu Ghraib and those terrible Americans who commit atrocities but are dismissive of medieval violence against defenceless teenagers with feeble excuses like "what did they expect" blah, blah, blah. Or they whine about SAVAK. Oh, the Shah was so terrible, SAVAK was so terrible. The atrocities this regime has committed in its prisons make SAVAK look like a bunch of boy scouts. People like Mehdi live in the Western countries and yet don't understand that human rights has to be extended to all people regardless of what they have done otherwise the likes of Pinochet would have been perfectly justified in rounding up their opponents and throw them off airplanes into the ocean.

Of course they would be

Of course they would be tortured!!! What do you expect!!! In any country, third world, oppressed etc. or society when you speak against the country's ideals and beliefs and are caught you will be tortured and worse put to death!!!! This is nothing new! Even during Shah's time many many prisoners were tortured and killed for speaking against the regime. NOTHING NEW! AT LEAST THEY ARE ALIVE!!!!!

Nicely said

Nicely said
"by from NY"....I am beginning to think Mehdi is one of them ,you know "hezbolahi"....and yes they did kill lots of people and still doing it......I don't think anybody can deny the fact that Iran has one of the worst human rights issues in the world. I know there are worse places but I care about Iran. Iran is where all my childhood friends and family live...It is my country.....
PS: although I don't completely approve of what Israel has done but Israel is a modern country and at least it treats its own people like human beings.....

To Mehdi

I totally agree with Mrs Paymaneh Amiri. I do not like MEK. but nothing can justify what Islamic regime has been doing to MEK and other opposion groups members. Islam and Islamic regimes are against humanity and human rights. I spent 4 months in perison
(shiraz adelabad)for supporting a leftish opposion group and after more than 20 years I still have nightmares.
Why do you so care about plestians and hate Isreal?
what Isreal has to do with Iran?
There is many cruel regimes in the world that ignore the very basic rights of people. why you just want justice for plestians.

Honesty can open the door to salvation

I am not saying they deserved it. I am saying this is half truth. It is dishonest. There was never a fight between the regime and the people, really. There were groups who resorted to violence when it was not really justified and they lost their fight. Rajavi tried everything, including shacking up with Saddam and receiving aid from the most despicable elements in the world, such as Israel, in order to gain power. When he and his group completely failed, and especially after the fall of Saddam, there was no possibility of effectively performing militaristic actions, they are now resorting to psychological "lobbying" trying to fool people into believing that they are and have always been 100% innocent people victimized by some monster. This is an attempt to gather support from the US, Israel or some other despicable government and gain power in Iran so that they can bring their version of democracy to Iran (the way it is executed at Camp Ashraf, I guess).

Enough with "feel sorry for me" because I was, oh, tortured. What the crap did you think they would do to you when you aimed your gun at them? Of course in such situations there are also what they call collateral damage. So what? Israel has justified collateral damage and the MEK loves them. So what's the difference?

I don't know of even one person myself who was completely innocent and got killed or tortured. I am sure there were people who got caught in the crossfire but these people in these videos are just dishonest. Their intention is not honorable and they simply hide the truth. The fact is that these people themselves were RELEASED. They did not "survive" the torture or imprisonment. They didn't escape. They were LET GO. Have enough honesty and at least mention that.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has systematically arrested, tortured, and murdered its opposition..." Lies, lies, lies! I never saw such "systematic" killing. I have not even heard of it except from MEK and similar groups. And I know a few of them. They are worse! Most of these people are having personal issues. They can't get a job, they don't fit in the society, they can't find a partner for life and they blame it all on some mythical "regime." These are exact same lies that we were told when Shah was in power. This is exactly how these guys told us we should pick up guns and kick Shah out! Now they are at it again. Right now there is no reason whatsoever one should fight the regime the way these people did and still do.

corrections

Dear Party Girl,

1. Thank you for posting this and other videos. I wished I thanked you when you had posted a cheerful video. Please continue your superb work.

2.

Some posters wrote that these political prisoners were MKO (the correct abbreviation is PMOI). This is completely and obviously false. This documentary is produced by the Association of Iranian Political Prisoners (in Exile). This group has nothing to do with the PMOI (People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran). Members of the AIPPIX are mostly Marxist with some center-left folks. For anyone who knows the basics of Iranian politics, it is 100% crystal clear that the people tortured in this video are NOT supporters of the PMOI and that they are Marxists. The way they dress, the words they use. Even one says that she was charged with Marxism. After the PMOI crossed the border from Iraq in 1988, the fascist regime not only massacred PMOI political prisoners, but also around 1,000 Marxist political prisoners.

3.

It is false to portray the conflict as analogous between CIA and KGB. One may criticize and condemn the ideology of these Marxists and other leftists, by simply looking at them it is obvious that they were very young when they were arrested (in the 15-20s range). They were by and large supporters of Fadaian-Minority, Peykar, several Maoist groups, and several democratic Marxist groups (e.g., Sazeman Vahdat Kommonisti, Etehad Chap, etc). The Marxist-Leninists were not truly aware of the horrible actions of Stalin and Mao. These were kids who wanted social justice and opposed tyranny. They believed that Marxism-Leninism was the answer. They were wrong. The ideological vacuum left due to many factors, including the intellectual shortcomings of Iranian intellectuals, the repression under the Shah, and the global situation of Cold War and the fact that the Shah’s dictatorship was supported by the U.S. drove many of these kids to Marxism-Leninism.  Iran needed more intellectuals like Bertrand Russell and George Orwell.  Unfortunately , what was avaiable was translations of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao instead of democratic socialist works.  By and large, those who have survived the slaughter of the fascist fundamentalist regime are today opposed to dictatorship (including Leninist tyranny).

The fundamentalist regime brutalizing Iranian people is the Middle East’s parallel to the Nazi regime in Germany. Khomeini was a bloodthirsty psychopath who ordered the mass killings, mass rape, mass oppression for those who disagreed with his fascistic totalitarianism. Khomeini’s oppression was not limited to Marxists, or the PMOI; it also included repression of high-ranking clerics such as Ayatollah Uzma Shariatmadari; it included feminists; it included liberal democrats.

There is no moral equivalency between a little 16 or 19 year old who wishes to see social justice and embraces a wrong ideology with a bunch of mass murderers, mass rapists, mass torturers of the fundamentalist regime. Those kids did not torture anyone, rape anyone, murder anyone. They were naive idealists. Had they lived in Stalin’s USSR, many would probably be executed or sent to labor camps.

What the Iranian leftists should do TODAY is to inform the realities of the fascist regime to the progressives where they live (in the US, Europe, etc). At a minimum, a progressive Iranian ought to e-mail these five short videos to her or his progressive friends. The IRI supporters want to deceive the leftists around the world. At a minimum, Iranian leftists should inform their colleagues about the basic facts of the reactionary fascist regime, how it mass executed Iranian Marxists, how it tortured Iranian Marxists, how it raped Iranian female Marxists.

MK

No doubt these were atrocities

committed and perpetrated by the so called Islamic Justice system, which is an oxymoron, as Islam has no jusice defined in its core.  However if these guys were members of the MKO, Mujahadeen terrorist group, then I won't separate their crimes from those thugs of the Islamic leadership.  However they should have been tried by the Western form of a justice system and not that of Islamic one.

Nice Try,

But the translation is correct, they are talking about the Persian calender and the subtitle translated it to Christian calender.

regards,

To: This is false translation

Is this a joke? Maro sare kar gozashti. You don't know how to convert the dates?!!!! Hatman maro sareh kar gozashti.

THIS IS FALSE TRANSLATION.

THIS IS FALSE TRANSLATION. THE PRISONERS ACTUALLY SAYING THEY WERE PRISONED DURING 1960S AND RELEASED 70S BUT THE ENGLISH SUBTITLE ARE 80 AND 90. WATCH AGAIN FROM BEGINNING AND YOU'LL SEE.

Hitler = Khomani

Back in early 1981 (late 1359), I was arrested for 3 days and placed into a prison at Eshrat Abad in Tehran. I was not a political prisoner and that is why I did not stay more than 3 days. The first night of my arrival to a big room that was holding 60 men, I have seen a Pastar was bitting a man. I got between them and told to the Pastar to forgive him and he has done a big mistake. He is sorry for that. Pastar had slowed down, but the boy said that he is right and he is not changing his word. Two more carried him outside and I have heard some one said they took him to Evin. I said Evin is closed for a couple of years and everybody laughed at me.
........
Back in 1357, I have been told that Shah has killed so many at Evin that Besht Zahra is filled up and the country is destroyed. Was Khomani doing much better than Shah?
....
I have lost many of my friends during 1360 and a few years after that. It is very sad for me. The friends whom were sitting behind the same bench are not with us any more. One of them was called "Mohamad Reza Sepas Moghadam". In late 1360, he was handed a RPG7. He took it to Parliment cross the street were the Military university. Before he could attack the Parliment building, he was shot and died. He was a smart guy, and I did not believe he tried to it. Once back in 1976, he told me that the researchers entered all words of Quran into a computer and the computer answered that none of the words could be rewritten or replaced.

After 32 years, I am not sure, if we have such a software to analyize Quran. If was alive today, I would like to ask him the same question.
...

To the Burnt Generation

I'd like to dedicate this song by Yves Montand Les Feuilles Mortes to all the men and women in this video who spoke with their heart and soul. May you find peace in you regardless of what you endured and those you left behind.

Peace

Mehdi

I was too young to have political affiliations when I lived in Iran.  With hindsight, like many other Iranians I am extremely critical of the MEK and Toudeh-ees, and some other political groups active during the revolution and afterwards.  My criticism, however, does not in anyway attempt to discount those individuals, their lost lives, and their tortured souls and bodies.

Not too long ago, I went to a lecture about Tehran's Khavaran Cemetery.  The people who had put the event together were remembering the mass executions of their Toudehee family members. Though there were many references to 'prisoners' and 'executions,' there was no clear and succinct mention of who those others were.  To some people it's best not to mention the members of the MEK, I guess.  The only problem with that behavior, which is only slightly more humane than yours, is that by ridiculing, criticizing, and name calling of MEK leaders and members, or by ommitting their names in the list of those executed and tortured, you close your eyes to a human travesty which has defied belief on every conceivable level for the past 3 decades. 

So, let's see how this works for you, Mehdi.
I don't believe in their ideology.
I hate their political thinking.
I hate Massoud Rajavi.
I don't approve of the MEK or their actions during the Iran-Iraq War.
Therefore...

Members of the MEK weren't tortured?  Yes they were!

They didn't serve full term sentences only to be executed in the middle of the night along with others? Yes they were.

Weren't many of them 17, 18, 19 year old kids who were arrested for selling newspapers, emerging 10 years later as physically broken up and psychologically-scarred human beings, if at all?  Yes they were.

I cannot believe you make people's political points of view a determining factor in whether or not they 'deserved' to be tortured or not, whether their executions were 'just' or not.

Imprisonment and torture of individuals based on their political or religious convictions is a violation of human rights.  It is a violation of everybody's human rights.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has systematically arrested, tortured, and murdered its opposition since its inception.  What part of that fact rings untrue to you?  So, the first groups were Toudeh-ees, Mojaheds, Khalghs, Peykars, Ranjbars, Komeles, or of some other groups.  The second and third and fourth groups were and continue to be writers, journalists, bloggers, university students, and artists.  Which group's torture is 'legal' and 'humane' and 'accepted' to you?

Please be respectful of a human travesty that has undeniably happened, but which will take years to document and record.  This is just the beginning.  Until all these people come out and say their piece, until all those mass graves are discovered and those dead in them are properly identified, until the families of those executed are properly acknowledged and apologized to for years of harassment and abuse, our nation will never be whole again.

Please see the truth and if you have nothing good to say, please keep quiet.  It is the least you can do to pay respect to those fallen Iranians.

یک نفر از

یک نفر از مقامات جمهوری یزیدی قبرس زن و بچه‌اش رو هر روز کتک میزده، بهش میگن سگ مسب نوازش که نمیکنی‌، خرجی که نمیدی، دیگه کتک چرا میزنی؟

میگه اگر اون کار رو هم نکنم از کجا بفهمن  مرد خو نه من  هستم؟

Let's go live in Camp Ashraf under Rajavi's rule

I hear it is a lot better than living under IRI. Who's with me? Anyone?

آی.........جنگل را

آی.........جنگل را بیابان میکنند

دست خون آلوده را در پیش چشم خلق پنهان میکنند

هیچ انسانی‌ به انسانی‌ نمیدارد روا

آنچه این نا مردمان با جان انسان میکنند

وقتی‌ از سلول بیرون میکشندت و اولین سوال همیشه این بود

طبقه بالا یا طبقه پایین؟

طبقه بالا دوربین، ندامت نامه،و بر گشت به سلول.....

طبقه پایین باز جو، کتک، دستبند قپونی، دندون شکستن، خورد کردن وجود و مشاهده فیلم اون‌هایی‌ که نرفتند طبقه بالا 

" Stringent " shame on you Hagi or Hagi zadeh

You IRI agent do not change the subject. Let us stay on our own. Palestinians are being abused by others, we are being sadomized and abuse by our own.
I am trying to stay civil with you. go back to your den, you heart less fenatic.

Simple question!

I SO wonder if we "Iranians" have the same kind of understanding and "sympathetic tone" towards Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails?!

The missing parts of "Blindfolded Witnesses"

The 2 end pieces of this documentary, not posted above, in which they talk about the "Coffin" torture and their vision of a future, may be viewed at
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhfQx5u5Igg
and
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdERRNFcppQ

باید از کینه خالی شویم.

از پارتی گرل عزیز سپاسگزارم برای این ویدئو. من همین الان دیدن این چند ویدئو را تمام کردم. سر کار هستم و به هیچ عنوان قصد گریه کردن نداشتم. فقط جایی که خانم عزیزی (که اسمشان به خاطرم نماند) درباره برادرش حرف زد، نتوانستم خودداری کنم و خلاصه اشکها جاری شد. از میان کامنت هایی که در اینجا خواندم، توجهم به کامنت مهدی جلب شد. به نظر من ایشان خیلی ساده کرده اند قضیه را که ای کاش نمی کردند و روی حرف حسابشان سایه نمی افکندند.
جناب مهدی خان، من کسانی را می شناختم که با همه سلولهایشان خشونت را رد می کردند و به شما اطمینان می دهم آنها نه به عمرشان اسلحه به دست گرفته بودند و نه میانه ای با آن داشتند چه برسد به اینکه مغز کسی را با گلوله متلاشی کنند.
به نظر من برای این درد باید درمانی پیدا شود. این زخم ترمیم نیافته و این عقده گشوده نشده است. ابعاد کشتار 67 هنوز اساسا به خوبی بیان نشده و لازم است که این کار انجام شود. چند سال پیش در سفری به ایران سر خاک سمبلیک برادرم رفتم (بله مهدی خان از جمله افراد ضد خشونت همین برادر بنده بود). چرا سمبلیک؟ برای اینکه نه جسد شکنجه شده او را تحویل دادند و نه زمان مرگ او را اعلام کردند. به گمانم ساعت مچی او تنها چیزی بود که به خانواده بازگردانده شد. پدر و مادرم خود را اینگونه آرام کردند که "چه فرقی می کند، که مزار حتما مزار او باشد" و به همین دلیل خاوران را به عنوان آرامگاه سمبلیک برادرم انتخاب کردند. بله می گفتم، خاوران برای من سمبل بی عدالتی ست. عزیزترینت را می کشند و در گوری مبهم می کنند و نمی گذارند او را عزیز بداری. خاوران جایی ست که نمی توانی به زیبایی خاطرات عزیز از دست رفته ات بیندیشی. در آنجا توهین است. نبود سنگ قبر و ممنوع بودن گل و ( لابد آواز پرنده)، برایت تصویری از پیکر شکنجه شده عزیزت می آفریند. این تصویر بخشی از زندگیت می شود. اصلا می شود یک عکس و می نشیند توی تاقچه اتاقت. البته این صحبت ها مال چندین سال پیش است. الان می خوانم که خاوران اندک اندک از ترس خالی می شود. احتمالا نسل جدید انقلابیون هم نمی توانند تصور کنند که قدیم ها (به فتوای امام) جسد زندانیان قبل از اعدام از خون خالی می شده. آنها اکنون از مورد زهرا کاظمی می شنوند که یا آن را باور نمی کنند و یا استثنا می دانند. بسیاری از این افراد شاید باور نکنند که دختران باکره قبل از اعدام جزو اموال حلال برادران بودند.
ببخشید اگر از بحث خارج شدم. به هر حال برای من متاسفانه ترس و وحشت جزو جدا نشدنی خاوران است.
اما راه حل چیست؟ به نظر من این قصه را باید گفت، آنقدر گفت تا از کینه خالی شویم. یک نسل باید روان درمانی بشود تا از این مرحله بیرون بیاید. مردم ایران نه برای دوران انقلابشان درمان روحی پیدا کردند، نه برای دوران جنگشان، و نه برای این کشتار. این اندوه، بخشی از زندگی هر روزه ما شده است. از خود می پرسیم چرا؟ به نظر من جا دارد که این درباره این "چرا" کار تحقیقی بشود. نه برای اینکه دادگاهی به پا شود و طناب های جدید اعدام به پا شود، برای اینکه یک عقده گشوده شود و درمانی یافت شود.
باید خودمان را از کینه خالی کنیم. آیا با حمل این خشم و این کینه، بخش دوم ماموریت علما را برایشان عملی نکرده ایم؟ هم جسم و روحمان را آزار داده اند و هم باری بر دوشمان گذاشته اند تا نتوانیم از آن خلاص شویم و آنقدر کینه بورزیم تا بمیریم و آنها ککشان نگزد.
برای خالی شدن از کینه، باید درد را بیان کرد. این کار به ویژه با کار تحقیقی بدون جانب گیری عملی ست و با تاریخ شفاهی در همین زمینه. بگذارید هر چه بیشتر گفته شود. بگذارید پدر و مادرهایمان هم بگویند که آنها چه کشیدند. بگذارید کودکان دیروز از انفرادی مادرشان بگویند. بگذارید آنقدر بگوییم تا رها شویم. رها شویم و در این رابطه کار ویدیویی حاضر را بسیار مفید و جالب یافتم.
نمیدانم جلسات اعترافات جنایتکاران رژیم آپارتاید را دیده اید یا نه. صحنه ایست که اسقف توتو چهره در هم می کشد از اندوه، و تاب شنیدن اعترافات شکنجه گر را ندارد. اگر چند نسل زخم دیده در آفریقای جنوبی اینگونه با خود به آشتی در می آید، ما هم باید قادر به این کار باشیم و برای این کار باید گفت. بگذارید آنقدر بگوییم تا عوامل آن جنایت هم به زبان در آیند. تا راهی به گفته آقای مهدی متمدنانه بیابیم و نه "می کشم می کشم آنکه برادرم کشت".
با احترام
فریده

Here is the rest of the film

Part 4
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhfQx5u5Igg

Part5
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdERRNFcppQ

With hope of an understanding society without political prisoners, torture and political executions. VIVA my country, VIVA Iran

WE need to know more

Please lets not judge or blame the victim. Not all the victims were blowing people up. Not everyone was MKO, and if they were, they were not criminals.

Many of my good friends in university , the ones we use to dance and laugh in dormitories, went to be part of different groups and later on even their bodies were not found.

When I think about them, they were just like you and me, at age 18. Idealistic and trying to find ourselves.

It's just someone took them too seriously and got threatened by them and killed them.

WE have to reconcile as a nation to be able to move on.

This was so hard to watch, but thanks Party Girl.

Tahirih 

Lots of Pain needs Time to Soothe.

These testimonies are precious and it is heartbreaking to see these people many being young women held in their youth suffer the unspeakable pain and humiliation.

Such pain will never soothe or at best with time it becomes more tolerable especially the psychological ones.

The mistake is to recuperate these sufferings in the name of an ideology what so ever. One of the reasons the MKO has managed to maintain loyalties to their ideology is that they exploit these sufferings to promote their own ideology very much like some religious sects where they manage to give a true meaning to the lives of those poor souls who have lost faith in life and humanity.

The notion of heroism and treason in such circumstances takes a different significance when one has been through similar cruelties. If a society was truly democratic and justice was applied in full transparency such crimes would never take place or would be denounced if revealed in the press.

People like the Rajavis (husband and wife) appear in the eyes of those who have been tortured as companions in a war against injustice. However the sad thing is that the Rajavis are motivated by feelings of revenge rather than delivering justice.

Many of these victimes deserve compassion and lots of love and understanding to overcome their pain. It is easy to say this when one has not been through the same situation or mistreatments but I am certain that if it was not in the name of their companions back home or family members tortured or executed that most of these people simply want to be respected for who they are and cherish the memory of those who are no more with them.

I think that is really the true significance of "What does not die when we are dead" in the words of the quoted poet.

There is definitively alot of pain in these testimonies. The best we can do is to respect them as individuals and for the price they paid regardless of the reasons ( political activism, terrorism or even as scapegoats for the regime's henchmen). We should remain silent listening to all this suffering without casting a judgment for there is nothing to judge but simply try and lend an ear to their testimonies knowing that there is definitively a price for freedom.

What should nevertheless be noted (and I don't know what political group they belonged to or still may belong too by loyalty )  but that like in most organizations like the MKO of the Fedayeeneh Khalgh but also in an absolute monarchy ( when its the case)  or totalitarian regime that the word "Freedom" and "national independance" are words and a political rhetoric that supersedes or even overlooks the word "democracy" because the latter implies a society which is not bi polar and where no leader can claim absolute obedience.

These poor souls most probably got to learn the true meaning and consenquences of a totalitarian mindset. I am not even certain that they even truly have any real faith in the Rajavis or their organization but they live in pain and its normal to feel at home and in confidence with people who share the ideas for which these people have paid for so dearly but whose leaders are without doubt using the sacrifice of these poor victimes as an extra argument to rally people to their cause but not necessarily by putting an end to the vicious circle of revenge.

I highly recommend the following book in French written with the help of a French journalist which is the biography of a colonel in the Shah's Army and who was also tortured in the prisons of the Islamic Republic:

Nocturne iranien : Mémoires d'exil du colonel Bidgoli Rad, de l'armée de l'air impériale iranienne

There is a passage in this book where he writes a poem: "J'abandonne" where he explains that despite his patriotism and loyalty to the Shah and his country for which he even fought for during the Iran Iraq war unlike many pseudo opposition groups he came to realizing that he had to give up on his past and even bitterness of the years of imprisonment and torture in the Islamic Republics prisons in order to survive and save his family. It is a very optimistic book and written with great sincerity. What made him survive was not his loyalty to the Shah or his own political convictions but his faith in life and the love for his family.

I think its a great lesson and I am sure that good people exist in every social class or group regardless of ideology, religion or race. What counts is humanity and to know that you as an individual have not become like your own torturers: Evil.

May these people find the courage and love to overcome all this pain and rediscover the earthly and human pleasures they are entitled to like every free indivual in a free, just and democratic society. Lets hope the same for our people back home one day who for many continue to suffer in diffent ways so  that future generations will get to appreciate life knowing that democracy and freedom were not obtained overnight or without sacrifice whatever the intentions good, wrong or condemnable.

Democracy is about Tolerance, mutual respect and civil peace. To get there it requires compassion and understanding for those who ask or need it.

I was touched by the testimony of the woman who lost her brother and who also said that when she was in prison she would caress herself like her hair and skin to try and fall asleep and be good to herself. It brought tears to my eyes to see how she was able to find the ressources in her to feel human and not reduced to an animal in such terrible conditions. I hope she has found inner peace and love in her life today.

PLUS JAMAIS CA ! 

VIVE LA DEMOCRATIE ET LES DROITS DE L'HOMME ET DE LA FEMME !

Blindfolded witneses

Mehdi....although I appreciate your perspective on this and realized that I didn't think about it that way....no human deserve what they’ve gone through....and also not all the Mojahedin (at least at the time of revolution) were violent, some of them were simply kids who were excited by the idea...one of my distance cousins were arrested at 15 for just having the tape and was executed at their mass execution ( I don't recall which year was it but it was supposedly the biggest??) they waited till his turned 18.....he never had visitation rights from the minute he was arrested......he was a very funny and bright kid.....The sad thing is these things are still going on largely in Iran. I go to Iran every couple of years and nobody talks about these stuff, just like it is not happening.........

با آرزوی علم و آگاهی روزافزون

این مدارک فوق العاده با ارزش هستند و باید روی تخم چشممون بایگانی بشن! اینهاهمه نشانی انتقام جویی های کثیف برانگیخته از عقده ها، کمبودهاو ظلمهایی هستند که نثل اندر نثل در مملکت ما انجام شده، در سینه ها خفه شده و سینه به سینه گشته تا به اینجا رسیده. تاریخ مملکت ما سرشار از تحقیر و شکنجه است، اما ما چون تاریخ مملکتمون رو نمی دونیم و نمی خونیم خیال می کنیم قدیمها بهتر بوده! و هرچی قدیم تر می ریم پاک تر و منزه تر می شیم!!
همون "حاج آقا" که زندانیهای سابق در این فیلم بهش اشاره می کنند، مثل بقیه "حاج آقاهای" دیگه مملکتمون بچه های آسیب دیده همون جامعه هستند که امروز که به قدرت رسیده اند می خوان از تمام جامعه انتقام بگیرند. اونها از هیچکجای دیگه نیومدند به جز همون مملکت مریض و عقب افتاده... تازمانی که این دردهای عمیق روحی روانی ملی، که زاییده فشارها و تحقیرهای تاریخی ماست علاج نشه، این رویه ادامه پیدا خواهد کرد و اگر این رژیم هم با زور، خشونت و یا دخالت نظامی بیگانه سرنگون بشه ، بعدا باز بچه های اینا میان و می خوان انتقام پدر و مادرهاشون رو از بعدی ها بگیرند... درضمن نباید فراموش کرد که همین مجاهدین، به دشمن ما "صدام حسین" پناه بردند و از داخل خاک عراق به بچه های زبون بسته ما که همگی صادقانه می خواستند از آب و خاک وطنشون دفاع کنند حمله می کردند. خشونت بالاخره خشونته،... و جنگ ، جنگه... قرار نیست توی جنگ به آدم نخودچی کیشمیش بدن! اما همیشه آدم با اون افرادی که درموضع ضعف قرار می گیرند احساس همدردی میکنه. اگه زندان و شکنجه و تحقیر بده، ریشه اش باید از بین بره و تنها راه از بین بردن اون، علم و آگاهیه. تا زمانی که مردم یک مملکت از تاریخ خودش بی اطلاع باشه اون تاریخ ادامه پیدا خواهد کرد. با آرزوی آسایش روح و زنگی پرمعنی برای همه این افرادی که در این فیلم صحبت کردند و با آرزوی آگاهی بیشتر برای بقیه ما...

What I wonder is how many

What I wonder is how many stories these people have that they are ashamed to make public. The stories they told are horrific and what was done to them was inhuman, but they are members of an organization (MEK) who are guilty of inhuman acts during the revolution similar to those they experienced after the revolution. What goes around comes around.

WE ARE ALL MARTYRS

Every Iranian is a victim of the feudal theocracy.