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Canada to boycott Iran speech

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Canada to boycott Iran speech

 

Toronto Sun – When Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes the podium to address the United Nations General Assembly Thursday afternoon, Canada’s seat will be empty, QMI Agency has learned, a sign of the Harper government’s deep disapproval of the Iranian regime.

“We are refusing to give Ahmedinejad an audience. He does not deserve one,” said a senior government official.

In previous years, Canada, the U.S., Australia and some other Western democracies have been present for the beginning of Ahmadinejad’s annual speech here, but then they make a show of walking out en masse as soon as he begins what inevitably becomes an anti-Semitic, anti-West rant.

Last year, Canadian and American diplomats lasted a few minutes and left when Ahmadinejad began trotting out the theory that the U.S. government and not radical Islamic terrorists were responsible for 9/11.

Two years ago, then foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon did the same thing.

And, though the current minister, John Baird, will be at the United Nations Thursday, Baird will find something else to do when Ahmadinejad takes podium, likely shortly after noon.

“Canada made a powerful statement by walking out on Iran’s hate-filled speech two years ago. We will make another powerful statement tomorrow. Our chair will sit empty,” the official said.

Canada believes Iran poses a major threat to regional security, notably by refusing to recognize Israel’s right to exist and actively supporting international terrorism groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

 

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Religious Activists Barred From Leaving Iran

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Religious Activists Barred From Leaving Iran

 

RFE/RL  Iranian authorities have imposed a travel ban on several prominent religious activists, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Paris-based religious activist Morteza Kazemian told RFE/RL on September 19 that Mohammad Maleki, Habibollah Peyman, Mohammad Bastenegar, Mohammad Mohammadi Ardehali, Saeed Madani, and Alireza Rajaee have been notified by the prosecutor’s office at Tehran’s Evin prison that they may not leave the country.

Rajaee is currently being held in Ward 350 at Evin prison.

Kazemian said the activists are among 15 who were arrested in 2000 and held in solitary confinement for months before a revolutionary court decided to file cases against them.

One of the 15, Ezatollah Sahabi, spent 15 months in solitary confinement and a prison hospital and Peyman was kept in solitary confinement for about a year before an investigation into their cases was opened.

Of the 15, Sahabi and Hoda Saber have since died.

Sahabi, who was the head of the National-Religious Coalition, died on May 31 at the age of 81. His daughter, Haleh, who was a women’s rights activist, died from a heart attack after a scuffle with security forces at his funeral the following day.

Saber, a religious activist and journalist, died in Evin prison on June 12 after a 10-day hunger strike to protest Haleh Sahabi’s death.

 

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Women’s Rights Activist Fereshteh Shirazi Held Incommunicado

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Women’s Rights Activist Fereshteh Shirazi Held Incommunicado

 

Fereshteh Shirazi, women’s rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, has been denied face-to-face prison visits and telephone contact with her family only a week after her arrest.

Fereshteh Shirazi was arrested on September 3rd, after being summoned to the Amol Ministry of Intelligence. So far there has been no information made available on her charges or the reason behind her arrest.

In September 2009, the women’s rights activist was repeatedly summoned to the Amol Ministry of Intelligence and interrogated. Her house was also inspected by security agents.

Last Friday, Elham Mohseni, Fereshteh Shirazi’s 17-year-old daughter was arrested along with five other people for engaging in a playful water fight in a park in Amol. They were released on a total of [approximately] $10 thousand [USD] bail (10 million tomans) after spending one night in detention at the police detention center and two days in the Amol Central prison.

 

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Social Activists Beaten in Tabriz Prison

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Social Activists Beaten in Tabriz Prison

 

HRANA News Agency – A number of social activists have been beaten and battered by Iranian security forces in Tabriz Prison. These individuals were arrested in recent weeks following demonstrations to save Lake Urmia.

According to a report by Daneshjoo News, 110 activists have been arrested following protests against Iranian government policies towards Lake Urmia. These detainees are in poor physical condition and have been transferred to the quarantine ward of Tabriz Prison due to lack of space in detention centers. Latest reports indicate that a number of social activists have been beaten and battered by security forces in prison.Those beaten are activists who were arrested on August 24, 2011 in Tabriz while they broke their fast during Ramadan with an evening meal called Iftar.

Currently, 110 social activists are kept behind bars in the quarantine ward of Tabriz Prison under substandard, inhuman conditions.

Ghader Norouzi, Vahid Ali Mardai and Farzad Mahdavi have been severely injured during these beatings, and concerns have been raised about their wellbeing. In response to a complaint filed by these social activists against security agents responsible for the beatings, all three of them have been transferred to the Intelligence Agency’s detention center where no news of them may be obtained.

Ghader Norouzi, Vahid Ali Mardai and Farzad Mahdavi together with 26 other social activists from Azerbaijan were arrested on August 24, 2011 in Tabriz during an Iftar gathering.

 

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Intelligence Agents in Evin Raided Ward 350

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Intelligence Agents in Evin Raided Ward 350

 

HRANA News Agency – Last week, a large number of intelligence agents in Evin Prison unexpectedly raided political prisoners’ Ward 350. During this raid, intelligence agents searched and damaged inmates’ personal belongings. Ward 350 in Evin Prison currently houses more than 160 political prisoners.

According to a report by Kaleme News, prison cells in Ward 350 measure approximately 98 feet and each house 16-20 prisoners. Fifteen intelligence agents raided these prison cells last week and violently searched through personal effects of prisoners and basic supplies needed for daily life.

When visiting with their families, political prisoners reported that during this raid, their clothing and bedding were thrown out of the ward and searched thoroughly such that three days afterwards, inmates were still cleaning up the mayhem, destruction and confusion caused by this attack. Books were taken off the shelves or from underneath beds, were thrown in the middle of cells or into corridors and torn. These books were sent to prisoners gradually during the last two years at their families’ expenses. Some of the books were language training manuals or course materials used by imprisoned students.

Three weeks ago, it was reported that prison officials had permitted political prisoners to have a DVD player in their ward. Non political prisoners including those in Ward 7 and 8 have had a DVD player for years and have been able to watch movies purchased from the prison shop. During the most recent raid, intelligence agents seized the DVD player from Ward 350.

 

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Journalist Nazila Fathi Talks Fleeing Iran, Human Rights and Life in Exile

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Journalist Nazila Fathi Talks Fleeing Iran, Human Rights and Life in Exile

 

‘When I noticed the surveillance team outside our home,’ Nazila says, ‘I decided to leave.’

When journalist Nazila Fathi’s house came under surveillance in 2009, she knew it was time to leave Iran. Nazila was one of the last reporters on the ground during the massive protests following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial victory. Today she is living in exile in the U.S.

Recently, Nazila spoke to TakePart about the current human rights situation there and how she made the difficult decision to leave Iran.

TakePart: When did you know you had to leave Iran?

Nazila: I left three days after I noticed about 16 people outside my home. I had tickets for a vacation I had planned a long time ago, but I was planning to stay in Iran because I was practically one of the last reporters on the ground. When I noticed the surveillance team outside our home, I decided to leave.

I received a phone call once from a guy I knew who was sympathetically warning me not to go out. He said that I had been identified and there were snipers that would shoot.

TakePart: Was it difficult for you to leave your life in Iran and the stories you had been working on for The New York Times?

Nazila: When I decided to leave, I had no idea I wouldn’t be able to go back. I thought I would leave for a few weeks and then I would go back. I hadn’t thought that the crackdown would continue and that more and more people would leave the country.

Even after I left, even when I postponed my return for a month, I thought eventually I’ll go back. It wasn’t until about three to four months afterwards that some of my friends who were arrested and released started telling me what they were told in prison. I learned after I left that there was an arrest warrant for me, and my friends said they were told our house was the center for plotting a revolution. So gradually, I was convinced I couldn’t go back.

TakePart: When did you feel that the line between reporting and your everyday life had been crossed?

Nazila: It was a dangerous time for everybody. I felt threatened as much as the protesters did. There was shooting, tear gas, violence. I mean it could happen to anyone. A lot of journalists were hurt, one photographer was stabbed and clearly reporters were targets because they were all warned not to be there. I received a phone call once from a guy I knew who was sympathetically warning me not to go out. He said that I had been identified and there were snipers that would shoot.

TakePart: Did you think when you started covering the election that it would turn into protests of this magnitude?

Nazila: No, none of us did. It was one of those things that spontaneously grew into such massive protests. Even two weeks before the election, I never thought people would come out in such an overwhelming force.

What’s happening in the prisons is catastrophic. People who were jailed for no reason two years ago are still in prison.

TakePart: How is life for you now in the States? 

Nazila: It’s a hard life because you have to start all over again. I have a family, I have two children, I had a home and now I’m homeless. I’m going to be in Boston until the end of April and then I don’t know where I’m going to go. It’s difficult. It’s sort of up in the air and I think it’s going to take a while. I’m giving myself some time before I can have a home again.

TakePart: Is anyone reporting from Iran now and if so, is it still as unsafe to report from there as it was two years ago?

Nazila: It’s become very bad. There are only two prominent foreign reporters left in the country and when you look at the flow of stories that are coming out of Iran, they are very limited. They work under huge pressure. They’re movements are monitored, they’re constantly warned about what they’re doing and as a result, you don’t see many stories. When I talk to even Iranian reporters who work for Iran in publications, they say it’s never been that bad. I mean, just as an example, to use the term “Green Movement” is a crime and the paper can get shut down.

TakePart: What do you feel the international community can do to offer some support?

Nazila: Put pressure on the Iranian government over the violation of human rights. What’s happening in the prisons is catastrophic. People who were jailed for no reason two years ago are still in prison.

TakePart:  What do you hope to see happen over the next 10 years in Iran?

Nazila: In 10 years time, I hope Iran will be a more democratic country.  I have a hard time believing that all the potential for reform and all the talent there can be suppressed for a long time. It’s too ambitious to think that there would be a democracy in 10 years, but at least I hope it will be more democratic than now.

 

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IAIJ Open Letter to US Media

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IAIJ Open Letter to US Media

 

International Association of Iranian Journalists  in an open letter to American journalists demanded  them to ask  Ahmadinejad(Why are Iranian journalists in prison and banned from writing?)

Here is this letter:

Editors, reporters, journalists and writers in the United States,

The International Association of Iranian Journalists (IAIJ) calls for help in freeing your Iranian colleagues.

Dear Fellow Journalists,

As you are aware, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , after the controversial and disputed presidential elections is again on his way to the United States.

Like previous years and visits, this illegal president of the Islamic Republic will meet members of the American media and like in the past will claim that Iran is the freest country in the world.  He will again deny that there are human rights violations, censorship of the media, and suppression of freedoms in Iran.

As journalists, we would like to inform you once again that Iran is the largest prison for journalists in the world.  Today, there are

some 18 Iranian journalists behind prison bars. In the most recent attack on journalists, a woman web-blogger received 50 flogging lashes as punishment for criticizing Ahmadinejad’s policies.  This journalist and blogger was flogged simply because she was doing what all her journalistic colleagues are supposed to do around the world: reporting news and life around her.

The judiciary-security apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran has arrested these journalists, reporters, bloggers and writers and, after repeated tortures and confinements to solitary cells, has sentenced them to long prison terms and/or banned them from using their pens altogether.

Banning professionals from media activities is a new policy of the judiciary officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has expanded over the last 2 years. The ban imposed on Ahmad Zeidabadi to engage in media activities for life, on Jhila Bani-Yaghoob for 30 years, on Badrol Sadat Mofidi for 5 years and on Massoud Lavasani for 10 years are only a few examples of such sentences passed against Iranian journalists.

Iranian journalists currently face the most dreadful conditions in Iranian prisons. They are even denied the rights that other prisoners enjoy for which they have resorted to hunger strikes on

numerous times.  Hoda Saber, a journalist and human rights activist, was the latest victim of such persecution who resorted to a hunger strike in.  Unfortunately he lost that battle and her life because of disregard for his calls by prison officials.

Dear Fellow Journalists,

Please ask  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this question:

 -Why are these journalists in prison?

We earnestly call on you to unanimously ask him to free your fellow journalists in Iran from prison.

 

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Another Iranian Lashed Over Political Activism

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Another Iranian Lashed Over Political Activism

 

By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

An Iranian political activist member of a group called “Iran’s Democratic Party” has received 30 lashes after being convicted of charges that are often brought against dissidents, including acting against national security.

The Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners has posted photos of Faraji’s welt-covered back after the sentence was carried out.

Faraji reportedly has also been given a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine.

Unlike the lashing sentence that was carried out last week against a female doctoral student of sociology that received lots of attention and condemnation, Faraji’s sentence has gone largely unnoticed.

Iran has ordered that a number of rights activists and workers be lashed in recent years, although in at least some cases those sentences were suspended.

In 2008, at least four workers who had took part in May Day celebrations and called for greater rights were lashed for “disrupting public order and participating in an unauthorized gathering.”

 

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Faranak Farid’s health continues to deteriorate in prison

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Faranak Farid’s health continues to deteriorate in prison

 

Following the severe beating Faranak Farid endured from security agents, the cultural activist and poet from Tabriz is still experiencing difficulties with hearing in her left ear, according to HRANA.  Considering the limitations at the prison’s medical facility and the lack of pharmaceuticals, concerns have raised that she may lose her hearing.

One of her cell mates has told the Fair Family Law organization: “On the first day of her detention Faranak Farid was beaten several times by security agents to the point that her health has deteriorated and emergency medical care had to be called in. She was connected to an IV for several hours.”

On September 3rd, Faranak Farid was arrested in Tabriz while shopping. She is the only woman that remains imprisoned for protesting the drying of Lake Orumiyeh. Amnesty International has issued an urgent action for Faranak Farid due to the seriousness of her physical condition.

 

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IRGC: Ahmadinejad is a Simpleton and Oblivious

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IRGC: Ahmadinejad is a Simpleton and Oblivious

 

Nazanin Kamdar

The new cultural-social deputy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent denial of the existence of “a cultural war” as “naïve and stemming from ignorance.” He added, “Ignorance is not limited to the head of the administration: many people during the 2009 sedition suffered from it as well.” Sedition is the term the Iranian state uses for the protests against the rigged 2009 presidential elections that returned Ahmadinejad to the presidency.

A week after Google warned Iranian Internet providers and users that one of its Gmail digital certificates had been stolen and spoke of an undisclosed number of Gmail email accounts that had been hacked, which some Iranian media claimed was the work of the Revolutionary Guards’ (IRGC) Cyber Army, Hamid-Reza Moghadamfar, a member of the IRGC who until recently was managing editor of Fars news agency, asserted, after the ceremony that introduced him as the new “cultural-social deputy” of the IRGC the force’s support for the Cyber Army, that the force would be “honored” if the unknown hackers officially joined the IRGC.

According to a report by security-services-affiliated Fars news agency, speaking at the end of his presentation ceremony, Moghadamfar who during the post-2009 election turmoil was in charge of Fars, in addition to defending the IRGC’s intrusion into the realm of private life of citizens, also labeled chief executive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rejection of the existence of a “cultural war” in the country as “naïve.”

“The IRGC’s organization does not have a unit called the cyber army or force, but in practice there are millions of Basijis who are active in tens of self-generated cyber army activities confronting the enemy. If one day the IRGC organizes a cyber army, we shall be honored to announce this publicly,” Moghadamfar said. “Inside the IRGC, there are millions of Basij (i.e., voluntarily) individuals who are committed, and if they feel that the country is under any threat, they will confront it. If Basijis today feel that they is a cyber war against their country, they will find their way into it and will form tens of cyber armies, which has happened today, and of which the IRGC is proud,” he said, confirming the approval of such activities by the force.

Rejecting Ahmadinejad’s denial of the existence of a cultural war waged against Iran, Moghadamfar said even Canada and France agreed there was one going on. “It is very naive for us not to believe in that there is a cyber and cultural war. Its denial is a sign of ignorance which bars confronting it consciously, weakening the Islamic front and making the revolution vulnerable. The Basiji adolescents of this country have clearly understood the cyber war domain, so how could officials deny the cultural war,” he said.

Moghadamfar further said, “The shortcoming is not just in the head of the administration but during the 2009 sedition too many were inflicted with it. Generally, the government’s efforts regarding cultural issues are not satisfactory and the expectations of the government in this regard have not been met, and so more is expected of them.”

It should be noted that the IRGC had until now not praised hackers openly and with such words as “proud.”

The IRGC Cyber Army began its work along with the public protests to the 2009 presidential election results. It initially attacked Twitter, then websites belonging to the Green Movement, and finally Radio Zamaneh and Amir Kabir University’s newsletter. Many of those arrested in connection with the post-election protests also said that much of their personal information had been provided to their interrogators by elements of this force.

This very site publicly announced that Iran had the highest access to sexual sites during Ashoora religious day commemorations which resulted in the IRGC to disassociate itself from the cyber army.

 

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