Human Rights

What next?

If, as seems likely, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK, PMOI) is de-proscribed in the UK, this ought to be good news for the group's 3,300 members in Iraq. I reported on the situation there back in February and concluded that since the Iraqi Government is adamant that the MKO be expelled from the country as a foreign terrorist entity, the only practical solution was for a western government (most probably the UK) to de-proscribe the group so that the members currently trapped in Camp Ashraf could gain safe refuge there. I am looking to see whether the MKO's western backers will now push for this solution>>>

شب همبستگی

عصر روز جمعه، مراسم شب همبستگی با زندانيان و دانشجويان سياسی، در پی فراخوان «ايرج جنتی عطايی»، ترانه‌سرای نامدار ايران، در مرکز آموزشی کارگران سوئد ABF در استکهلم برگزار شد. به همت کانون نويسندگان ايران در تبعيد، اين برنامه علاوه بر استکهلم، ديروز و امروز در دو شهر ديگر سوئد، گوتنبرگ و مالمو نيز برگزار شد. >>>

سی و پنچ گلوله

شهریور شصت و شش از زندان آزاد شدم . سی و پنچ نفر تیرباران شدند . در کنار اسکله ی سنگی زیر باران قدم زدم . هوای تازه و نم نم باران مرا زنده کرد از هر چه میرایی . قدم زدم . صدای تیر خلاصی در ذهنم راه رفت .باران خیسم کرد .روی سنگ بزرگ ایستادم تا موج آب مرا با خود ببرد .مزه ی شور دریا ، شیرینی رها شدنم را حرام کرد . به سی و پنج تیر ، فکر کردم که فضای صبحگاه ، بارانی محوطه ی اعدام را پر کرد .هر گلوله قیمتی داشت . >>>

این زیرزمین تیره و تار

گفته میشود که یکی از فوائد زندگی در مغرب زمین همین است که شهروندانش، به نسبت ما شرفی ها، کاری به کار هم ندارند، ولی این پرسش پیش می آید: تا چه حد باید به امور دیگری بی تفاوت باشیم؟ چطور یک نفر از اهالی شهر آمشتتن اطریش به این مرد مشکوک نشده بود؟ آن هم در مدت قریب یک ربع قرن و در حالیکه گزارش میشود که در طبقات فوقانی مستأجرانی زندگی میکرده اند که متوجه بازدید عجیب و پی درپی یوزف فزیتزل به زیرزمین ممنوعه شده بودند بدون آنکه پی دلیل برآیند. حتی یکی از این مستأجرین که به مدت 12 سال ساکن ساختمان بوده است مکالمه ای را به یاد دارد که فرینزل از منزلش به عنوان خانه ای یاد میکند که روزی در تاریخ ثبت خواهد شد !ولی افسوس که هیج یک از این نشانه ها شک از اطرافیان را بطور جدی برنمی انگیزد. >>>

Camp Ashraf

When the regime of Saddam Hussein came to an end, 3,800 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation were bombarded, captured and disarmed by US Special Forces in Iraq and confined to Camp Ashraf. Five years on the American military must be given full credit for the excellent job it has performed in containing the MKO in Iraq and keeping the people secure. Dealing with a dangerous, destructive cult is not an easy task. It is widely acknowledged that the American forces are perhaps the only ones who could do this, particularly in the violent and chaotic conditions of Iraq. But the situation has now developed to the point at which urgent action must be taken to deal with the group>>>

Do Politicians Dream of Electric Sheep?

Okay, I like the Dutch as much as the next person, or actually I like them more than most people I know. I like their language, despite all the “ch” sounds (that is KH, a hard, laryngeal sound not dissimilar to one cleaning one’s throat), I like their country, and I like their penchant for the provocative and the controversial. Recently, I dragged my girlfriend through the streets of Amsterdam during a five hour stop-over in Schipol on my way from Athens to Los Angeles. She hated it, and it was cold, and all the stores were closed (we got there at 9am), but I loved it. I even want to live there, if possible, but apparently I will not be really welcome, looking at the way Mr. Wilders is warning his fellow Netherlanders. Why?>>>

Hate vs Hate

A new film entitled Fitna, the Arabic word for ‘dissension’, by Geert Wilders, a rightwing Dutch parliamentarian, shouldn't be suppressed and should be made widely available for all to see. Not because it has anything valuable or insightful to offer in the debates and discussions surrounding Islam, modernity or the convulsions wracking much of the Middle East. Quite the contrary, it must be seen so that it can be openly criticized and shown up for the insipid propaganda video it is. To suppress the film in the name of political correctness has been a gross miscalculation, which has only gone to underscore the seductive mystery its creators have cleverly cultivated>>>

نوروز در زندان

در راهروی بند سفره‌ای سراسری چیده شده بود و در دو طرف آن بچه‌ها نشسته بودند. در چندین نقطه از سالن، سفره‌های هفت‌سین پهن شده بودند. اسدالله و چند نفر دیگر از حواریونش! همگی با لُنگ کراوات زده و در طول بند رژه می‌رفتند و به شوخی کردن با این و آن پرداخته و به جشن و پای‌کوبی و شعرخوانی می‌پرداختند. یک نفر نیز اسدالله را همراهی می‌کرد که از او به نام” آقای فتو” نام می‌‌برد و با اشاره‌ی اسدالله از افراد مختلف با دوربین ساختگی‌ای که درست کرده بود، عکس می‌گرفت و تحویل آنان می‌داد. عکس‌ها چیزی جز نقاشی‌های ساده و ابتدایی بیش نبودند. مثلاً عکسی که ظاهراً از تواب‌‌ها می‌گرفت و به دست‌شان می‌داد، کره‌خری بود که چهار دست و پایش را هوا کرده بود. سیگارهایی ساختگی نیز به وسیله‌ی کاغذ، با استادی تمام درست شده بود که به لحاظ شکل ظاهری بسیار شبیه به سیگارهای واقعی می‌نمودند و در میان سفره‌ی هفت‌سین بند گذاشته شده بود>>>

What should we talk about?

The human rights situation in Iran is getting drastically worse. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report that executions in Iran - including instances of stoning - have sharply increased under in the last few years. In addition, using the Bush administration's Iran Democracy Fund as a pretext, Iranian authorities have clamped down on Iran's civil society with thousands of arrests. As Washington’s foreign policy elite is concluding that negotiations with Tehran lie in America’s strategic interest, it is also important to recognize that it lies in the US’s long-term interest to make any improvements in relations with Iran contingent upon Tehran’s adherence to the UN human rights deceleration.>>>

Transsexuals in Iran

If you are a Jewish Iranian, living in the U.S. from the age of 6, it is very likely you don't like Ahmadinejad. So of course you would like to show how you hate him and how he is such a liar and how evil the entire government he represents is, in any way you can. So you decide to attack one of the only positive angles Iran has been reported: Sex-change. And why not connect it to Ahmadinejad's speech in your city's university, Columbia, where he said in Iran homosexuality doesn't exist the same way it does in the U.S. (We all know the united Republican>>>

Wholesale attack

My predicament: which one of the numerous half-truths and falsehoods packed in the brief speech should I address? Should I remind the audience that Coptic Christians of Egypt practice honor killing just as their Muslim neighbors? Would I have to reiterate the fact that genital mutilation predates both Islam and Christianity and, while not sanctioned by either religion, persists as a vestige of the earlier animistic practices? Would it be better to state that the nemesis of civility, tolerance and human rights is not religion as such, but the "illusion" of a literal reading of the scriptures that creates dangerous fundamentalists in every religion, with lurid dreams and plans of fiery holocausts to usher in the end of the world? >>>

Running out of time

When talking about torture and whether the practice could be morally justified the most common scenario that is offered is the example of the “ticking time bomb.” As the example goes, a number of bombs have been planted in a few populous areas. The authorities have the bomber in custody. They are certain about the facts that the bombs have been planted, the person in custody knows where the locations are, they have limited time before the bombs go off, and there is no possible way to find the locations of the bombs other than torturing him. The question now is whether in such circumstances, where the lives of thousands or (in the case of nuclear bombs) millions of people are in immanent danger torture could be a morally justified method for stopping this catastrophe?>>>