Human Rights

We need a different world

As, at the safety of our living rooms, we witness the story on magnitude of devastation in Haiti unfolds, it is also an opportunity for us to bring this crisis down at our personal level. I see this is as an opportunity to reflect on life, all aspects of it – our family, friends, country, world at large…and the fragility of it. How one can be a help? That is an immediate and constant question that perhaps no matter how we try to bury it behind forgotten minds – it does persist>>>

چوبه‌های دار در راهند

در تظاهرات حکومتی روز 9 دی، شعارهای دستوری حاکمان عمدتا حول اعدام دور می‌زد. از آن پس نیز همه عوامل رژیم، از کیهان شریعتمداری و تارنماهای وابسته به حاکمیت گرفته تا امامان جمعه و نمایندگان ولی فقیه و تا وزیران کشور و اطلاعات و فرماندهان انتظامی و سپاه و رییس قوه قضاییه و دادستانها و نمایندگان مجلس جمهوری اسلامی ایران پیوسته از شدت عمل و قتل و اعدام سریع زندانیان و اسیران و مخالفان حاکمیت سخن می‌گویند. یک آیت الله (حائری شیرازی) با هیجان و تأیید، اعدام‌های سریع نوجوانان در سال ۱۳۶۰ به دست موسوی تبریزی را به یاد بینندگان تلویزیون ایران می‌آورد >>>

Multiplied, not Humiliated

The on-camera martyrdom of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year old philosophy student shot dead during the protests after the fraudulent presidential election in Iran in June, caught the imagination of the world. But the post-election crackdown has two other victims whose fates better capture the radical shift in the country’s political culture. One victim was the protester Taraneh Mousavi, detained, reportedly raped and murdered in prison, and her body burned and discarded. The other is Majid Tavakoli, the student leader arrested on December 8, after a fiery speech denouncing dictatorship during the demonstrations on National Student Day>>>

«پدر حقوق بشر»؟

تا کنون لقب «پدر حقوق بشر ايران» متعلق به کورش بزرگ بود و او را ـ به خاطر تاکيد بر چند اصل مهم مثل آزادی مذهب، لغو برده داری، و آزادی انتخاب مکان زيست و مجری آن شدن ـ با اين عنوان بزرگ می خوانند. اما آيا به راستی چگونه می شود هم به اعلاميه ی تبعيض برانداز حقوق بشر معتقد بود و هم هر کسی را (هر چقدر خوب و مومن) که تا دم رفتن به نهاد ولايت فقيه و قانون اساسی تبعيض آفرين جمهوری اسلامی باور داشت و او را «پدر حقوق بشر» خواند؟>>>

Hamash Delam Migireh

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Let us all be together

At a time when two human rights organizations in Iran --which consist of students-- have been courageous and forthright in taking up the rights of minorities and especially sexual minorities who have been excluded from civil rights protection, the representatives of the Green Movement who are devising the outlines of the new constitution, avoid mentioning the rights of minorities. If we do not pay attention, the first opportunity for correcting the defects of the constitution will lead not to reform but to a future imprisoned by prejudice and exclusion>>>

Forever in our hearts

Last Sunday evening I heard the sad and heartbreaking news about Aydin Salek. Aydin died in the earlier hours of Sunday December 13th, one day short of his 18th birthday. I met Aydin few years ago in one of the community meetings for addressing human rights violations in Iran. Aydin and his mother were introduced as a family that came recently to Southern California. Aydin’s mother an architect by training, working on her PHD and His father, a dentist reunited with them only 4 months ago after finally obtaining exit permit to leave Iran>>>

All eyes on Neda

Neda Agha-Soltan’s death raised questions – obvious ones, such as how even a brutal regime could be so brutal. But others, too – how many of the hundreds of thousands who have watched her last moments did so more than once? Is it voyeurism? At what point does it become entertainment? And given that Ms Agha-Soltan signed no release form, is it right that footage of her death was posted on YouTube in the first place? Is it not enough to know that someone has been killed? Do we have to see it? >>>

Not for sale

When, more than ten years ago, we founded the Alliance for Defense of Human Rights in Iran (ADHRI) in Washington, D.C., after the serial murders of 1998, more than 20 people began attending the meetings. At the beginning, there were constructive discussions. The first event and demonstration in DC took place two decades after the Revolution sponsored by the Alliance. They were both timely and successful in drawing attention to the abuse of human rights in Iran. Until that time, everyone was scared or frightened to talk, let alone organize an event. But soon enough, like many other organizations, ADHR became political; each group trying to push their own agenda>>>

راگو

خودم هم نمی دانم راگو چیست. نه این که نمی دانم، یک چیزهایی شنیده ام. ولی این که دقیقا بدانم، نه. همین قدر می دانم که با شنیدن اسمش زندانی می شوم. همین که به آن فکر می کنم چنین اتفاقی می افتد. یاد زندان هایی می افتم که هرگز نرفته ام. دیوار سلول ها یکی یکی که نه، که با هم می آیند بالا و دور و برم را می گیرند. یک در فلزی هم می آید با یک دریچه ی کوچک که بعضی وقت ها بسته است و بعضی وقت ها فقط چند تا میله ی گرد فلزی دارد و می شود آن طرفش را دید. همین چند سلول روبرویی و مقداری از راهرو پیداست>>>

به امید آن‌ روز

مفتخرم که جایزه حمایت بین‌المللی از حقوق بشر امسال به من تعلق گرفته است. بیش از سی‌ سال از انقلاب و تاسیس جمهوری اسلامی در ایران گذشته است، اما هنوز هم دادگاه‌های انقلاب بکار خود ادامه داده و با صدور احکام اعدام و زندان‌های طویل المدت، سعی‌ در ارعاب آزادی خواهان دارند. بیش از سی‌ سال از تأسیس جمهوری اسلامی در ایران گذشته است اما هنوز مجازات‌هائی چون سنگسار، قطع دست دزد، به صلیب کشیدن، اعدام مجرمین کمتر از ۱۸ سال در قوانین ایران وجود دارد>>>