If the Walls could speak

Sina Parimard

The untold stories of Iran are taking place within the walls of its prisons. The "benevolent" and "just"(mehrvarz) IRI, just postponed the execution of a minor, Sina Piramard for only 10 days.

Amir Yaquobai
Another young male activist, Amir Yaghoub-Ali, is transferred to the 209 wing of the notorious Evin Prison (the Iranian Gulag) simply because the Judge in his case thinks as a 'male', he should not be supporting women's movement. When his sister asks the judge what is his crime and if talking to people and asking them to sign a petition for women's right is considered illegal, the judge has this to say:

“Being Legal or Illegal is not the issue. The issue for me is the reason of doing this. He is man, so WHY he is active in these women’s issues? He has to study and nothing more”.

Section 209 of notorious Evin prison (the IR's gulag) is also hosting another young student activist, Abolfazl Jahandar, who was arrested last year and he went on a hunger strike today to protest his wretched conditions in prison.

The regime's agents broke up a sit-in marking last week's anniversary of the mass student protest that started on July 9, 1999. Loyal to the IRI tradition, the police responded to the demonstrations by breaking into a university dormitory and storming the offices of a pro-democracy student group, killing one person and injuring 20.

A day earlier, Iran's judiciary confirmed that a man, Jafar Kiani, convicted of adultery has been stoned to death in the province of Qazvin, Takistan. And stoning of his wife, mother of 3 kids, Mokarrameh is looming.

Next, we find out about Khaled Hardani and his family, members of Iran's Arab minority, who was charged with "Battling God" and an execution date was set for July 4. Nothing has been heard from him since.

Whistle blower, Nasser Khirolahi, an Iranian civil servant, has also been tortured repeatedly while being denied representation. His crime was attempting to unveil corruption he observed while working as a civil servant in the mayor's office in the city of Isfahan. He was forced to resign and a short time later was arrested by local intelligence agents. Mr. Khirolahi — who has been observing a hunger strike for more than three weeks — was transferred from the regular political-prisoner section of jail to an area where murderers and other violent offenders are incarcerated. Although his four-year sentence is nearly over, he was told last week that he will not leave the prison alive.

Then we have the shameless propaganda piece of theatrical production of coerced confessions of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center aired on state-run TV. Mrs. Esfandiari was arrested alongside three other Iranian Americans: Parnaz Azima, a U.S.-Iranian journalist who traveled to Iran to visit her family; Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant to the World Bank and the Open Society Institute; and Ali Shakeri, a businessman and a political activist who had been working with the Centre for Citizen Peace Building at the University of California. All of these people have been incarcerated and prevented from leaving.


Then we have the U.S. State Department announcing its readiness to talk to the corrupt government of the mullahs and Senator Lantos ready to fly to Iran to meet not his counterparts but just anyone in Iran wishing 'positive and normal relations' with the martyr-raising Islamist government.

The world, which seems to only be concerned with centrifuges, apparently isn’t watching. A country brazen enough to kidnap, torture and slaughter its own people and recklessly and irrationally choose a provocational foreign policy threatening not just one but two countries (Israel and Bahrain) is unlikely to be a real partner for any new world order.

h/t to Plateau of Iran